Day 7: OMG...is it?.....Finally!!!

We found the Northern Lights!  We found the Northern Lights!!

Those buggers were very well hidden and they took their own sweet time in making an appearance, but we finally saw them!!

It was just as well as otherwise the day would have been a bit of a wash-out.  We discovered that post-NYE hangovers and ferry boats in stormy seas do not mix terribly well.  The winds were incredibly strong all day - at one point, at about 12.5 on the Beaufort scale which was rather alarmingly described as "hurricane".  Our route today took us to the North Cape, the northernmost point in Europe, and we'd booked another off-boat excursion to see the cool iron globe that marks the North Cape point - unfortunately, due to the bad weather, the roads leading up to the cape were closed, so they had to cancel the outing.  We still docked at Honnigsvag port, but there was very little to do there, other than visit one tiny gift shop that was open (and consequently jammed with ferry passengers in search of something to do!).  The weather was so bad and the winds so strong, we actually skipped a couple of stops as it was not safe to dock.  I guess if you were a passenger wanting to get off there, you'd be bang out of luck!

Anyway, we were passing time in one of the lounges, me blogging and Matt watching YouTube videos of this British chap building a BB-8.  It was around 7pm and was, of course, pitch black so again we were fighting the good fight to try and stay awake.  I'd decided it was obviously Gift Shop Day, so headed off to the little shop onboard the ship to have a poke around.  I had just reached the store, a couple of decks down, when finally the announcement came over the ship's loudspeaker system that we had all been waiting days for!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to inform you that we have some Northern Light activity.  Please take care when going on deck to view them - it is very windy and slippery outside"

Well, you should have seen the pandemonium that ensued!!  The whole boat let out a whoop of delight and people were actually running to get to their cabins to put on their outdoor gear (myself included) and to head out onto deck.  Old slow people were scattered to the sides of the corridors like human pin-balls in the rush as everyone felt the urgency to get out there as soon as possible.  You never know how long the lights will last for – maybe just a minute or two or maybe an hour.  

Of course, I had left all my stuff with ManpanionTM including my computer and iPhone, but I figured that he would head straight down to our cabin too to get dressed before heading up on deck – wrong!  ManpanionTM was even more excitable than I was and had scampered out on deck without stopping to put on a coat, hat, gloves or basically anything sensible and warm!  I headed up there in my best Michelin-man puffy pants and Canada Goose coat – and it was still fooking cold because of the wind, whipping the waves up from the sea and flinging them into your face!  

I couldn’t see the lights initially, so instead just headed over to where everyone else seemed to be congregating and found myself a little spot right on the railings that was a bit sheltered and would make sure I had an unobstructed view.  After a couple of minutes, my eyes adjusted and I could finally start to make them out!  Looking up into the sky, there was a spot that first of all just looked a bit brighter than the surrounding area and then, as you watched it more, it started to morph and change and expand.  Yep – those were definitely the Northern Lights!!  WHOOOO HOO!!!  After watching them for about a half hour and failing spectacularly to capture them on my iPhone, ManpanionTM found me and gallantly offered to go and get my proper camera and tripod from our cabin so I could have a better shot at taking some pics.   My efforts are below – I don’t think I’m going to win any photography prizes but at least we have photographic evidence we finally found them – and don’t have to come home with our tails between our legs!!

We stayed on deck for just under an hour until our digits had frozen to the point of potential snappage injury, so decided we’d “done” the lights enough and should head on inside.  It turned out to be a good decision – a few minutes after we’d returned to the cabin and were thawing out, another announcement came over the speaker system, requesting that everyone on deck now please come in, due to the high winds and heavy seas that were expected to get even worse.  By this time, it was time for dinner anyway so Matt and I headed down to the dining room where it soon became very apparent how rolling and wobbly the sea had become.  It was impossible to walk in a straight line as the boat listed from side to side and, as dinner was a self-serve buffet style that night, it made for some entertaining near-misses as people staggered to and from the buffet!  The route we were taking was also partly responsible, as we were apparently going through a channel where I guess two sea currents met, so along with the high winds, things were very choppy indeed!  But, as we made it through the passage, things started to calm down a bit so, by the end of dinner, the ship seemed to be back fully upright and we figured we probably wouldn’t have to peg it for the lifeboats after all.  Mumsie – I think you probably would have been dead by this stage.

So that was New Year’s Day.  Some disappointments but, by the end of the day, mission accomplished!  Tonight is our final night on board ship – tomorrow, we reach our final destination of Kirkenes – the northernmost town in Europe, where we disembark and start the final part of our adventure – the snow hotel!!  Ice-tastic!!!

Day 6: Celebrating NYE in style in Tromso!

Arty farty sunrise shot

It's New Year's Eve!   Today we continue further north into the Arctic Circle, passing the towns of Harstad, Finnsnes and then docking in the town of Tromso mid-afternoon, where we would celebrate the arrival of 2016!

Fully settled into our onboard routine life now, we got up for breakfast and then headed on deck again to watch the sunrise, as much as it was.  We are now so far North that the sun doesn’t even make it over the horizon any more!  It gets a bit lighter, but not much – and that’s about it!  It was pretty enough - not as spectacular as the first day, but still stunning in its wild beauty.  It was also very very windy - and so very cold!!  We didn't stay outside for very long cos it was freezing, so after a quarter hour or so we came back inside - and then went back to bed!  

Today I think has been the day with the least amount of light since the start of our trip - not sure if that was the reason why but both of us really struggled to stay awake today.  So why fight it?  We both crashed back out again, only waking up in time for lunch.  

We awoke to find that we were parked up (moored, i guess) in a town called Finnsnes - it was a very pretty town with long bridge connecting it to the neighboring islands.  Its just bonkers all these little towns sprinkled along the Arctic coastline - you wonder what on earth people do here (fish, I guess) and how on earth they cope with this months-long lack of sunlight.  It feels so isolated and remote - does it feel really lonely to live here?  I guess its no different, really, from living in a tiny cabin in the backwoods of Vermont or something, but I think its the ruggedness of the snow-covered peaks that makes it seem so much more desolate.

Anyway, we got up for lunch (similar buffet deal again) and I tried to blog for a bit afterwards but could not wake up so went back to bed again.  By the time we woke up again this time round at 5ish, we'd chugged further up the coast and had docked into Tromso, where we were to ring in the New Year.   We had booked an excursion to the Arctic Cathedral later on that night at 10pm, for a midnight New Year's concert and dinner wasn't until 8.30pm, so we had a few hours to play with.  We managed to summon up the energy to get all layered up and head out into Tromso, described in my Lonely Planet guidebook as "a town that likes to party".  

Umm....right.  Again, because of the holidays and the fact it was also NYE, everything was shut!  No obvious signs of partying anywhere!  We had wandered over to the Mack Brewery in hope they were still open and offering tours, but alas no - we were about 2hrs too late! (damn that unstoppable desire to sleep!).  We popped into a couple of grocery stores to try and find the Mack Pilsner that Matt wanted to try - but we were out of luck.  The town itself, though, was attractive, with romantic heart-shaped lights strung between the light posts, decorating the street in a festive, if slightly melancholy, way.  After wandering around for a bit, just enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs and being on a solid surface that didn't rock from side to side, we started to head back to the ship.  We rounded a corner - and there it was!  A bar that was open!!  And with people inside!!!  Whoo hoo!!!

And so that's how we happened to spend a couple of very pleasant hours in a little dive bar called Bar 24 in the town of Tromso on New Year's Eve, sitting outside under a heat lamp, supping Mack Pilsner and sauvignon blanc, and contentedly people watching.  We had obviously stumbled across a place were the locals went to drink - one table across from us was full of particularly interesting characters, including this Fisherman's Friend lookalike with a kick-ass beard and spiky hair do.  Him and his mates were sitting drinking and smoking - and then, without warning, pulled out a violin (from where, I don't know) and played for 2 minutes, before putting it away again and carrying on drinking his beer!  In a nice touch, the lady behind the bar gave us a couple of free beer glasses when we asked her if we could buy a couple - they are great little souvenirs as they have a map of Norway on them with a little red dot to mark where we were.  

It really was the perfect way to pre-celebrate New Year's Eve before the festivities on the boat later. The first, I hope, of many more NYEs together.

We left the bar around 8pm, nicely warmed up, and were back on the boat for special New Year’s eve dinner – including reindeer which was delicious!  (sorry Rudolph!).  The end bit of dinner was a bit rushed as we had to get on the bus to take us to the concert at 10pm.  We thought it was in the church we'd passed earlier, so were a bit relaxed in heading out - we disembarked at 10.10pm, assuming we'd just walk back over but then discovered we actually did have to get on the bus - and it was waiting for the last people to board (including us!).  There was an old lady shuffling carefully across the ice to get on the bus too, so we made sure to hop on just before her, so we wouldn't get irritated stares from everyone thinking they had been waiting for 10mins just for us!

The Arctic Cathedral in Tromso 

The Arctic Cathedral was about a 10min bus ride away.  It was a beautiful, striking building - my pics were a bit rubbish, so here are a couple I pinched from the Interweb.  The concert itself was absolutely amazing - it was a mixture of traditional carols and Christmas songs and the purity and beauty of the music was beyond description.  Matt and I were both blown away by how moving the songs were, so within the first song, we were both blubbing like complete babies!!  That continued for the next hour so, by the time the concert was finished, we were both complete red-eyed messes and feeling very soppy!

Fortunately, it was then time to get back on the bus for some raucous festivities, so we headed back and got back on the ship at about ten minutes before midnight.  Everyone was converged on the 9th deck where we had a brilliant vista of the town below and surrounding arctic landscape.  We were greeted on deck with a free glass of bubbles and - within the next 5 mins - fireworks started going off everywhere around us!!  It was so much fun  - we did the countdown to New Year and some more fireworks started to go off, but the whole world seemed to be celebrating by that time already, so it seemed a little academic by that stage!!  But it was a wonderful moment to remember, celebrating New Year with the ManlypanionTM that I love standing out on the top deck of the MS Midnatsol, in the depths of Norway, watching fireworks and sipping bubbly.  I can't think of a better way to close out what's been a kick-ass 2015 and to start 2016!

After the fireworks had finally subsided, we continued to party our asses off and went to the bar afterward where we shared a couple drinks with our dining table companions who’d just come back from a husky trip.  THEY'D SEEN THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, DAMMIT!!!   We still haven’t seen them yet and time is starting to run out! Still got a couple of days but come on, Norway - don't let us down!!!  We sat and chatted for a bit until our table got crashed by this super-weird guy who just pulled up a chair and sat down with us.  Matt made me say hello to him in a spirit of friendliness - and he then kind of latched on in a creepy way.  He'd ask me a question in English, I'd then reply and he'd then answer in some other language.  It was very strange.  Our table companions were shooting both Matt and I little panicked glances to say "get rid of this guy!" and, in the end, we decided it was easier (and probably safer) to just get up and retire for the night.

So we headed back to our spacious cabin, where ManpanionTM played Baby M for a bit and we worked on a few more songs for our (soon to be world famous) band.  Fortunately our room is a bit apart from our closest neighbor so the Brit in me felt comfortable that we weren't disturbing anyone.  We finally rolled into bed at 4am after a damned spectacular evening – I think its safe to say that we're probably gonna be a little tired tomorrow!  HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I'm not really sure what to say about this picture.
So many wrong things come to mind....

The pretty - and very cold looking - town of Finnsnes

The local dock in Finnsnes

If I'm honest, I'm not even sure if this picture is
the right way up....

And there you have it.  Everything you need to know about what it
means to be up in this part of the world in winter - where the
sunrise/sunset part of the weather just has a strike through it!!

Squeezing a massive ferry through a tiny bridge!

It was a rather nerve-wrackingly tight fit - but
I guess they might have done this once or twice
before...

I just loved the rather understated English quality
to this promotional flyer for Tromso - not
"TROMSO ROCKS" or "I LOVE TROMSO" but
more a "You know, Tromso - its OK - I like it"!!

Tree in Tromso - the most light we'd seen in days

Romantic street lights in Tromso main street

D.Mouse and Oscar P.Lion hiding from the polar bear

Because who doesn't love a Polyfig Ass troll, right?

Finally!!  Beer nirvana achieved!!

D.Mouse and Oscar P.Lion getting their NYE
party on.....

And....after.  These guys just can't seem to
hold their drinks....

Fabulously authentically bearded and weirded locals in the bar
in Tromso.  Could teach the wannabe hipsters in Wicker
Park a thing or two!!

Happy New Year from the MS Midnatsol!!

NYE dinner on board the ship.  Starting with caviar and blinis

Followed by unpleasant brown soup

Absolutely DELICIOUS reindeer - sorry Rudolph!

CHEEEEEESE!

Inside the cathedral for the concert

It was probably the most moving and beautiful concert
either of us have ever been to.  Totally unexpected and
caught us both off guard - hence the embarrassingly
copious waterworks!

Day 5: Crossing the Arctic Circle one ice cube at a time!

Tiny, crappy pic of the Arctic globe as we crossed
over

First night on board ship and we (or rather, I) discovered that life on deck can be rather noisy!  Now, as you probably know by now, my trusty ManpanionTM loves to sleep - I discovered last night that his Special Set of Sleep Skills now extends to being able to happily snooze through a gazillion ton ferry dropping anchor and docking at 4am in the morning at Port Arse-end of Nowhere.  I'm not sure whether to be mildly irritated or just super impressed.

Anyway, so my day started very early, and I spent an hour or so playing Cookie Jam (level 572 - whoo hoo!) before I finally gave it up and got up around 6am.  I got dressed as quietly as I could as I didn't want to wake ManpanionTM - although, thinking about it more rationally once the caffeine kicked in, I probably could have slammed the wardrobe doors and made as much noise as I liked given his heroic

My first (probably not last) glass of Arctic Circle
champagne!  Huzzah me!  Way to cross!!

So, as it happened, it wasn't planned but i just happened to be awake, dressed and shuffling about the ship at 7.15am when we actually formally crossed into the Arctic Circle!  The occasion and location was marked by a lighted globe on a little island, so you could see exactly when you crossed over.  I tried to take pics with my iPhone (had left my camera in the room) but they were all a bit crap, so sorry about that.  Also, as luck would have it, it was also tradition to celebrate the crossing with a glass of champagne - so that's what I did.  And it was delicious.  It was a bit of a shame that ManpanionTM wasn't with me to share the moment but I made sure to savor the champs for the both of us, so at least one of us was awake for it!

Assorted mystery meats for breakfast.
Your guess is as good as mine - and I was there.

By this stage it was about 7.30am so I decided to go for breakfast, seeing as I'd been up for ages!!  Breakfast was another buffet style affair - it was pretty basic - lots of meats of various stages of identifiableness, eggs, beans, toast and the little weird sausages that you only ever eat when you are away on vacation, having hotel buffet breakfasts.  But there was enough to eat and after a lovely cup of tea, I meandered back to the room where I finally poked ManpanionTM into awakeness and showered while he went and got breakfast.

After breakfast, we put on some warm layers and headed out on deck where we got to enjoy an absolutely stunning sunrise at around 10am.  I won't do it justice trying to describe it, as it was more to just be experienced, but it was simply beautiful.  The Arctic wilderness is just breathtaking.  As we were on deck, the ship's announcer (who is a study in wonderfully tired and exasperated sounding announcements - in 4 languages!) said that it was time for the Crossing the Arctic Circle ceremony.

Spectacular, stunning sunrise

We were too busy enjoying the stunning scenery to pay attention to the crush of people that had formed just in the foyer of deck 9, so we decided to ignore it and focus on the once-in-a-lifetime scenery that we were experiencing instead.  After about half an hour, though, the throng of people had ebbed away, so we wandered over to see what the fuss had all been about.  We could see several crew members with large ice buckets and a tray full of a local apple schnapps.  We could also see that the deck directly in front of them was curiously littered with ice cubes.  Interesting.

What soon became apparent was that the "initiation ceremony" consisted of a little mini-version of the ice bucket challenge - to signify crossing the Arctic, one of the crew took a big ladle full of icy cold water and ice cubes and dumped them down the back of the neck of a (un)willing victim!  In return, the initiate was handed a little shot glass full of apple schapps as a reward!  As I felt I'd already done my duty and observed the real crossing at 7.15am this morning, I decided that it really was up to Matt to take one for the team and to do his duty for both of us.

It was pretty damn funny.  Here's the video:

What a sweetheart.  I do love that man.

After a quick pit stop back in the room (shedding ice cubes out of his ass the whole time he walked back from deck!), a nice restorative cup of tea was in order.  Given our unique and fun location, you were also able to buy postcards that would then have an Arctic circle stamp and postmark, so we did that, ready to send home for bragging rights at a later date.  Today also was laundry day for us on the MS Midnatsol, so we found the laundry room and got our stinky smalls washed and clean.

We decided that had been quite a lot of activity so it was time to rest and recuperate with a snooze.  So back to bed we went, setting our alarm to wake us up just in time for lunch at 1.30pm!  Like yesterday, lunch was buffet style with pre-assigned seating - again, the food was OK - with enough to choose from so you didnt go hungry.

We'd actually docked just before lunch and so were in the town of Borne for a few hours.  We decided it would be good to get off the ship for just a few moments, so we headed out just after 2pm to walk into town.  By this stage, it was almost pitch black again (at 2pm!) and the ship was leaving at 3.30pm so we only had time for a very quick walk out and back.  Again, the town was almost completely deserted with no shops open and pretty much no-one about.  The sidewalks and road were slick with thick thick ice, so you had to be incredibly careful not to slip and fall.  We were bundled up well against the elements - just as well as the wind was bitingly cold, but we were still warm and toasty in our Canada Goose coats and rabbit fur hats.

I was a bit nervous about missing the ferry, so we only walked out for about 15mins before turning round and heading back in again, so we were safely back on board well before 3pm.  There was nothing to see anyway, so we weren't missing much.  ManpanionTM wasn't feeling too great, so we decided it was time for another nap, so both of us crashed out again til about 5pm.  I know it sounds really pathetic - but its so difficult to stay awake and have any energy at all in this darkness!  The sun only just lifted itself above the horizon today for the briefest of moments, before dipping back down, so it never gets to be full daylight.  Its hard to explain unless you've experienced it but its very draining.

Its also very very dry on board.  Both of us were feeling like dehydrated husk versions of ourselves, so we reminded ourselves to try and drink more water.   My eyes, in particular, felt very dry or as I put it - "like two big scratchy balls in my face".  As my ManpanionTM peed himself laughing, I realized my choice of words probably hadn't been the best.  Ah well.

Dinner was again at 8.30pm and, after dinner, we headed back to the room for an early night (it had been a busy day) but were interrupted from our potential slumber by a cabin announcement that we were about to pass through some beautiful scenery at 10pm, followed then by fishcakes and potatoes on deck 9!  Well, OK then!  I'm not one to pass up free scoff and a pretty view.  So off we trotted back up on deck - as it was dark we initially saw bugger all but, as our big scratchy balls acclimatized, we could start to make out the shapes of these incredibly dramatic mountains and cliffs rising up on either side of us.  I'm not entirely sure which fjord we were passing through, but it really was beautiful and makes me think about coming back in sometime in the future during the summer, so we can see more of this gorgeous scenery I'm just getting the scantest impressions of right now.

After about a half hour of looking at the imposing, impressive view and eating fishcakes and storing potatoes in pockets, we decided to call it a night and finally retire for our final sleep of the day.  It had been a fun day on board - alas, no Northern lights again just yet, but we still have a few days left, so not all is yet lost!!!  Keep your fingers crossed for us, blogwatchers!!

Tomorrow, its New Years Eve!!  Yippee!!!!

Docked up in the port of Borne.  Fooking chilly and so
so much ice!

"Cold?  What cold?"
Matt finds his only special way to keep warm
(he's the one on the left, btw)

Interestingly weird graffiti in town.

D,Mouse and Oscar P.Lion enjoying a little
onshore leave

Interesting ferry boat art of what must be a petri
dish full of the communicable hand-borne diseases
you can get if you don't use the handskum (hilariously
Norwegian translation for hand sanitizer!) provided

Tonight's dinner menu

Laundry day on the MS Midnatsol and I'm getting
full value out of my ManpanionTM