24 Oct – 1, 540 Miles to Go

Sure enough the sun broke over the Kirkenes hill shortly before 10am. It likely rose around 8:30, however took and hour and a half to breach the hill’s crest, and it is only a hill, no mountain. The sun today never got above a thumb’s distance from the horizon. At noon, I extended my arm, put my lower thumb knuckle at the horizon, and the top of my thumb blocked the sun. That was high noon (~2 inches from the horizon). It took 3 hours to get there, and took another 3 hours to dip below by 3:30pm. It made for one long happy hour, errr… sunset of a day.

Chilling is a fitting term for the temperature. After being here in the country for a month, my body can get the celcius temperature correct within 1-2 degrees. Today, it never got above freezing. It was very cold, and the morning walk around town did more than just wake us up. After an hour and a half of being exposed to the elements, our legs were stiffening up. It was time to return to our hotel for check-out and bus pick-up to the dock.

We had observed the Polarlys ship’s arrival in the bay and had done some research on-line, so we were aware it was a medium-sized cruise ship (capacity is 737 people). We also knew that this is the ship’s “off season” so we were curious to how many passengers would be on the ship. Now here is the kicker, Jamie & I are 4% of the passengers on-board… there are a whopping 44 other cabin passengers! We can really just pick any lounge/bar area and have the place to ourselves. We have done some laps around the ship’s deck (you can imagine my energy bundle explosions need attention) and we don’t pass a single person for the entire 20 minute walk. Amazing!

During summer and winter months the ship is packed. There are lines everywhere and the lounge seats are taken, not to mention passengers pay full price. The only reason we could afford this trip was for USA residents traveling this time of the year, two people cruise for the price of one. The deal was truly confirmed today when calculating the advertised lunch and dinner prices. Since the cruise doubles as a water taxi between ports, there are temporary passengers that will pay for meals. When summing up the price of lunch + dinner for the two of us for the 5-6 days we’re on the boat, that cost is more than our total trip. So, that’s the economic news.

Lunch was buffet style featuring catfish (though there were plenty of other goodies to chose from). We dined with a couple from Vardo whom had just returned from a week in Bejing. They were temporary passengers that had flown into the Kirkenes airport and were getting off at the next stop. She was head of VIP & Sponsoring for the professional snowball fights. I’m dead serious. There are rules that parallel capture the flag or paintball. They have annual tournaments against the Russians (by the way, we saw Russian land today) that involve beer and they have had games against Korea that involved Sake. It is quite a serious sport as the snowballs are machine made and seem to resemble small ice cannon balls that can provide great injury to it’s target… you. She had gotten a bloody head when a “snow ball” hit her helmet, causing her helmet to puncture her forehead. The amusing part of these injuries is that it’s so cold out and the adrenaline is pumping, that victims can’t always tell (or feel) when there’s been a hit. They hoped we could peak some interest in California, I’m not sure the Lake Tahoe residents are beefy enough though. Anyways, when we have a faster internet connection, I’ll check out her website. In the meantime, you can check it out here .

One of the most interesting facts of the day, special thanks to the luncheon couple, relate to the dozens of large fishing vessels. They proudly displayed a single Norwegian flag on the main mast, followed by a few Russian flags decorating the stern. Apparently they are impounded Russian ships. The Russians have not paid their taxes or dues, so Norway impounds the large boats. The Russians don’t have the money to right the situation, so they just live on these rusty vessels on the waterfront in Kirkenes. We did see two Russians in the morning (they were in stereotypical Russian hats… a fur bomber hat or a black beret). On the side, the Russians “own” the King Crabs in the sea. From my understanding, the Norwegians are only permitted to haul out so many. King Crab was part of the lunch and Jamie confirmed the tastiness of their long legs.

This afternoon the cruise provided a short documentary on Vardo, the next port. It was a major (although illegal at the time) trading port between Northern Norwegians and Russians. Russians needed food and Norwegians needed flour and wood (there are absolutely no trees up here… it’s barren). The black market traded salty fish for bark and flour. The trading benefited both cultures tremendously, so until the King of Denmark/Norway permitted the trading in the 1700s, it was illegal but necessary for survival.

Tonight we are crossing our fingers to see the light show. The ship has seen the Northern Lights for the past two evenings, so is a decent chance. The Northern lights were my main site-seeing goal for coming up to Northern Norway. We have no other plans for the evening, but do have our books and the on-board library to tire our eyes.

On a side note, even cooler than the ship’s actual location website (on the previous entry), is the Polarlys ship’s webcam Ahoy mates!