Pining For The Fjords

The day after finishing the hike it was Lauren's 30th birthday. She wanted to go see a fjord, so we headed across the Norwegian border to Narvik, where we stopped for a spot of lunch and to acquire a cable. The Aygo's stereo is pretty basic, but one feature it does have is an auxilliary socket, enabling us to play music off our iPods while driving. Then we headed south into a nearby fjord, where we spent the day roaming around stunning scenery in awesome weather. That night we went to a restaurant in Narvik which had been recommended to Lauren. I had reindeer - it was excellent. Reindeer is a common meat up here, cheaper than stuff like beef and lamb which mostly has to be shipped in. Right at the end of the day, Mike somehow managed to put a nasty gash in his leg while climbing over one of those metal road-edge barrier things. This gave me my first ever opportunity to drive on the right hand side of the road, something Mike has been doing for months. The difficulty of piloting a manual left hand drive car on the right side of the road was exacerbated by the unfamiliarity of the car and the fact that I hadn't driven at all for two months, and I was off to a shaky start. The first right turn I attempted, instinct took over and I wound up on the left side of the road. Also, I kept hitting the windscreen wipers when trying to use the indicator, because they're on opposite sides of the wheel to normal. We did make it back to the hostel in Abisko, however, and I've gotten used to the road rules now. I don't like the car much. It's geared strangely, with first gear responsible for everything up to around 30kph, then second taking you up to 50kph and third all the way to 75kph or so. I have no idea what fifth gear is even for, since the car seems to top out at like 130. That brings me to the lack of power. The thing feels like it's powered by a hairdryer motor, and what power it does have is delivered only at a rev count of at least 3000 and preferably 3500. So if you change up and the revs drop to 2000, flooring it results only in the car emitting a low moan, like a cow in pain. At least it's fuel efficient, which is important when driving in a country where petrol costs about three times what it does in Australia.

The next day the girls caught the train back to Stockholm and Mike and I began our Norske trip. First stop was Tromsø, a northern university town built mostly on a big island, sort of like a kiddy version of Manhattan. (If you're wondering how to pronounce that o letter, it's sort of like the "u" in "gun", with a bit more length in it. Also, you roll the r's. So sort of like "Trrromsuuh".) It was here that we went to our first Norwegian bar. I've already alluded to the high prices in Norway; it's one of the most expensive countries in the world, much worse than the already expensive Sweden. Apparently it's because of the oil reserves - since they can basically dig money out of the ground, there's a big inflationary effect. A (metric) pint in a bar here will cost you somewhere in the neighbourhood of $A 13. Even for seasoned money wasters like myself, some of the prices are pretty jaw dropping.

In Tromsø we hiked up a mountain close to the town and got some pretty nice views. The rest of the time we spent planning the remainder of our trip. We decided to head to Lofoten for like 4 nights, then south to Trondheim and then across back to Stockholm to return the car. From Tromsø we headed south down a stunning scenic route recommended by a tourist guide. We stopped for some mini-hikes and suchlike and so, despite an early start, didn't make Lofoten in a day. We therefore booked a room at a guesthouse in Sortland, which was just the home of an old couple. The room was an incredibly cheap 250 NKR (~$A 50) and slept both of us, and the breakfast (65 NKR, ~$A 12) was completely insane. It covered a full large size table. There were rolls, bread, scrambled eggs, different types of cold meats, herring, some other unidentifiable fish thing, yoghurt, fruit, strawberries from their own garden, coffee, tea, orange juice, etc etc etc etc. Everything you can possibly imagine. After eating well there, we continued to Lofoten. I'm writing this on our last night here at a very cozy hostel in Stamsund. We've lazed around a lot, but also managed a hike to the tallest mountain on this island (about 730 vertical metres hiked) and a brief, embarrassingly incompetent stint in one of the free rowboats the hostel hires. Tomorrow we head south towards Trondheim, but will probably have to stop for a night again, most likely somewhere in Mosjøen.