Trondheim, Norway
Sunday, March 2, 2008
The original plan was to drive the whole way to the Nordkapp with Tim (the northern most point in Europe, and in the Arctic cirle) but did Tim decided that he was alrady cold enough and didnt want to go another 1500 miles north and after some very slow going on the way in the snow we decided not to drive. This worked out well as I didnt have much time until my Russian visa started and Tim wanted to but the car, so Tim got the ferry home from Bergen to Newcastle and I was left to find a way to continue. Gettijg the train meant back tracking to Oslo and even that wouldnt get me the whole way there so I went to the port and was told that there was a boat leaving in a couple of hours, managed to get a good last minute price and a cabin. The boat went the whole way up the coast, past the arctic circle, this was because due to the Golf stream the water stayed warm enough all year round to prevent the fjords that lead to the ports from freezing. When I turned up to board the boat I was expecting an old steamer boat with me sleeping in the engine room or something...
Far from it, the boat (MS Finnmarken) was a luxury cruiser constucted in 2002, had 8 decks, wieghts 16,000 tonnes.. wait for it and had a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, gymnasium and a salsa club!
Not bad for a backpacker!!
