Stokmarnes, Norway
Monday, September 17, 2007
Got off the bus in this fairly unappealing little town, in order to get the huge Hurtigrute cruise boat southwards down the fjords. Passed the hours in this nice pub/restaurant near the wharf and as soon as we walked in with our huge backpacks, we were accosted by this crazy old (drunk) fisherman! He was actually quite nice and cheerful (in a mad way), and began telling us stories of his backpacking days in Melbourne and working in the mines across the Swedish border etc. His accent and drunk spluttering was a bit hard to understand, and he tried to explain his name with the english translation and said that most people pronounce it wrong and it comes out as "something bad that lurks in the shadows"!!! he said kids used to call him the troll man!! crazy and weird but he was kind hearted and wished us well on our travels about 500 times and walked us down to where the big cruise ship would dock as we didnt know where to go.
Got aboard the Hurtigrute for the 3 hour cruise down the fjords, making a detour to go through the Trollfjord which is a really narrow deadend fjord that the ship only just fits into. Was absolutely freezing and rainy (well we did stand outside almost the whole time) but well worth it!
