Traveling along the snow and the ice of the Nordland’s winter….when the sun never raises the horizon.

Landing to the Nordland

It’s already 8 months passed away since this trip happened and I’ve not yet had a single moment of time to recollect my memories about this wonderful holiday spent looking for the northern lights and the killer whales in the North of Norway at the begin of 2012.

Today we have 38°C in Italy and the humidity is so high that neither the sea wind can help feel fresher. It is a bit strange to remind the magic landscapes covered by snow when temperature around me is so hot, but perhaps if I can go deep into my travel memories, I won’t feel so hot.

The first time I saw the northern lights it has been few years ago during a holiday spent in Tromso (in the north Norge, the Norwegian Lapland) made in 2008. I immediately felt completely enchanted by the magic of this phenomenon. I had always wishes to see it in person and already expected something amazing, but what I saw has been even better, something breathtaking!

At that time I was used to travel with a compact 6 mpixel camera that always delivered great pictures (even if I’m not such a good photograph). But this time it unexpectedly betrayed me! I took hundreds of photo to the northern lights, but any of them showed a single glimpse of lights…all black!

Of course it wasn’t my camera’s fault. It worked well for whet it could, but taking a photo of a little light in the dark of the sky is a difficult task it was not able to accomplish.

So, this new year I decided to take my revenge and went to Norway with the target to hunt northern lights and killer whales with a new friend: a nice Canon 600D (that I bought as Christmas present for myself) with a 16-35mm f /2.8 lens borrowed from a person that I love so much, my dad!

I know, f/2.8 lens won’t probably catch the small light of a northern light, but I couldn’t afford anything better and on the other side I really relied on a pinch of fortune.

My travel destination were the Lofoten islands and the Nordland, both of them placed above the polar circle line, where at that time of the year the sun never rise the horizon.

To be honest I was expecting to spend the whole holiday in a completely dark day, but I’ve been glad to find out that during few hours a day there is light enough to clearly see everything, just the sun never appears but it lights the sky anyway (more or less from h 10, 00 to 14, 30 in this week of the year). This allowed me to appreciate the amazing landscape and take few good photos (unfortunately the strong wind ruined most of them).

My adventure starts when my flights is landing to Oslo Torp airport and I get surprised to find out that Christmas in Norway is really a serious matter: US people are considered crazy for the amount of Christmas decoration they use in their house, but Norway’s people are not that far. There were much more lights on the houses, their roof and whatever could be covered by lights that lights in the streets!

To reach Oslo from Torp there is a bus that leave every time a flight lands and the trip is about 1,30h long.

Shame the bus that was supposed to leave for my flight’s passengers was already full and we had to wait 1, 00 for the next one!

In Oslo I overnight in a dormitory at Anker hostel (www.ankerhostel.no) where I usually go when in Oslo as it is very close to the train and bus station and is probably the cheapest accommodation in the city (though for my standards still quite expensive).

 

The first years I went there it was a very nice brand new place, quite clean and with lot of facilities (ensued dormitories with lot of spare room, little kitchenette fully furbished, a locked cabinet for each bed where leaving value things, free wifi and at the ground floor a nice restaurant where having breakfast or order a meal when you’re too tired to go out). Unfortunately with times this nice place is getting worse. The aisles terribly stinks, mattresses and pillows are covered with dirty spots and dormitories are scarcely cleaned, so the I wouldn’t have been surprised to spot bed bugs walking around my bed at night.

As bed lines and towels are not included in the price, I’m glad to take mine from home. At least I can sleep on something clean that will end in the washing machine at 90°C as soon as I come back home.

Near the hostel desk are few advices that alert gust to take care their belongings as in the area there are lot of pickpockets thieves. Most of the dormitories have a little kitchenette facility, which is great in a Country where everything is so expensive! Shame that if you want to use it, you need to buy pan and pots, dishes, glasses, etc as its cabinets are completely empty making this great facility completely useless unless you don’t accept to pay 100 NOK (about 14,00€) to borrow the cooking equipment.

The next morning I have my flight to Bodo from Oslo Gardermoen airport that I reached by train. It leaves the central station every 15 minutes and it is very quick as it arrives in only 19 min. Of course there is also a cheaper bus that leaves the bus station quite often but it is slower and as my flight was in the early morning and the security check are now become very accurate  I preferred to pay a bit more but arrive quickly at the airport. The train ticket one way costs 170 NOK (about 24, 00 €) and no discount for a return ticket. It is better to purchase the ticket at the automatic ticket machine as at the ticket counter they charge you 30 Nok fees. The ticket must be validated before getting the train.

Flying on top of nordland during the day is an experience that worth sitting on the window side.

Mountains chain covered by snow and spotted by beautiful lakes that reflect the blue sky, fiords and pink sun light reflected on the snow. Despite of the tick glass of the plane I took beautiful photos.

Arrived in Bodo, I run to the sixth office where I rented a car (a Citroen A1) before they close down to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

When I go out of the airport to take the rented car I experience a moment of panic: there were 15cm of iced snow on the street and my car didn’t have wheel chain. How I’m I supposed to drive with this conditions??? I looked at to other cars and noticed none of them was wearing snow chains on their wheels so I recovered a bit and tried to turn the engine on and….the car was moving regularly as if no iced snow was on the street!!!

Next stop supermarket!

As in Norway prices are so high compared to the one of the rest of Europe and as being holiday all the restaurants are going to be closed in the next days, I thought that buying food and cooking myself (hoping the next hostels have a full set to cook) could be a good way to save some money.

The supermarket I visited everything was so expensive, fruit and vegetable so poor (salad, tomatoes, carrots and apples), and the biggest area was the one dedicated to the pre-cooked meals. As a good Italian would do I just purchased a box of pasta (of course Barilla), tomato sauce, milk, cereal for the breakfast, marmalade, olive oil, mineral water, a couples of already sliced cheese, 1 already sliced bread, 1 box of Frankfurt sausages, mustard, yogurt ad a couples of pre-cooked boxes just to taste them. Total amount of my shopping 200, 00€!!!!!

The night spent in Bodo was the New Years Eve. I passed the night at Bodo Vandrerhjem Hostel (www.hihostels.no/vandrerhjem/bodo-vandrerhjem/ ), a very nice and cleaned hostel placed inside the train station and in front of the pier where the ferry to the Lofoten leaves.

Rooms there are tiny, but cleaned and the sheets are included in the price. The hostel’s facilities include a nice and super accessorized kitchen. Most of the rooms are ensuite and have a satellite TV. Prices are obviously quite expensive to be a hostel, but it is the cheapest solution in Bodo. They also have ensuite doubles room for couples don’t want to renounce to their privacy.

During winter holiday time the hostel is literally run by its guests and to check in and checkout it is necessary to contact a guy on its mobile and with time he will arrive to help you. Except for this thing I really enjoyed my night in this hostel as there was an international environment and a big park space just in front of it.

When I checked in I asked the guy if they organized any party in the night to celebrate the new year or if he could suggest any place where to dinner and celebrate it, but he answered me that in Norway prices are so expensive that Norwegian people (at least the ones in the North of the Country) prefers to have dinner and celebrate at home and just few of them will go to the pub after dinner to wait for the midnight. So, all the restaurant would have been closed at h 16, 00 and the town will look like a ghost city.

Fine! As I didn’t eat all day long I decided to go for a kebab and coke (that cost me about 20, 00€) and have a look at the city.   

Except for the docks area, the city is a whole residential area with lot of houses and little buildings filled with Christmas decorations. Every windows, fence and gutter pipe was perfectly decorates with candles and lights. I think that even if the Northern Light had appeared I wouldn’t have noticed it with so many lights!

At 3 p.m. it was already night and I was starting to get bored, so I took my camera and get in my car to explore the surrounds with the hope to see the northern lights as the sky was completely clear. I drove along the E80 direction to Loding, but after a while I had to stop and turn around as it started to snow and there was a strong wind, especially along the coast, that would not allow me to recognize anymore the iced street from the side. Coming back I stopped in a little village (or probably it was a suburb of Bodo) where I met a beautiful torchlight walk. All the inhabitants were walking, skiing or riding a sledge along the main street with a beautiful torchlight in their hands. When the torchlight arrived at its destination, fireworks started to color the sky with beautiful colors and designs. Since that moment, all the other villages and town started to launch their fireworks as well, so that, as I was on the coast side, it looked to me like if I was at home in Sicily at midnight of the 15^th August when all the villages along the cost and in the mainland start to launch fireworks competing for the most beautiful ones. At that point just a question come out in my mind: why is everybody launching fireworks at 5 in the afternoon??? In the end the firework went on for all the evening till midnight.

Torchlight walk neaby Bodo

At about h 22, 00 the hostel was completely desert. A couple of French was looking like me a nice place where to spend the night and was quite upset everything was closed.

In the end I went to the first pub open. Of course the place was empty except for the 2 waitress, the owner and about 6-7 guys. Getting new friend has been quite easy. Norwegian people are very friendly and open and chatting with them has been very pleasant and interesting. Of course at midnight we all went out in the street to celebrate and look at the fireworks.

As Italian tradition wants at h 2,30 I was back in the hostel to cook “cotechino e lenticchie” (a huge sausage and lentils) that I brought with me from Italy together with few ingredients that make it a flavored and rich dish. Never leave the New Year day pass without eating this dish or you will be unlucky all the year. Delicious!!!

The next day I wake up at h 9, 00 despite outside it is still night. Time for breakfast (included in the price of the bed with the formula “open the fridge and get what you like most”) and eventually dusk arrives.

The ferry to the Lofoten islands was leaving at h 15,30 and as in Bodo everything was closed and in any case there is not that much to visit I decided to drive up to the Salstraumen, a big whirlpool that take place not far from Bodo.

Unfortunately I couldn’t see it as the whirlpool depends on the tides and I missed it, but the landscape around is amazing and worth a visit.

If anybody want to see the whirlpool and can spend in the area few days can check at the timetable (www.bodo.kommune.no/nor/om-bodo-kommune/sentraladministrasjonen/servicekontoret/tourist-information-bodo/ ).  I’ve not checked it as I didn’t have any other chance to visit the place in the next few days and had to spend some time before the ferry departure, so I just drove there and checked on my own.

I’ve read on the net it is also possible to dive along the whirlpool, but honestly despite I’m a diver, I wouldn’t enjoy it that much…anyway there are diving that organize it, just check on the tourist office website.

As it is a touristic place in the nearby it is possible to find nice camping places and hotel. During summer you can walk along hiking path or barbequeueing in well equipped areas. If Norway wasn’t so expensive I would really love to come back again in summer.

A good place where to look at the whirlpool is on the top of the bridge that passes exactly over it.  Mind the wind speed advice at the begin of the bridge as if it is too strong walking up there becomes quite dangerous. I hadn’t notice it and when I arrived at ¾ of it I had to grip the handrail as strongly as I could and come back dawn otherwise wind would have bought me away.

The wirpool's area

Just outside Bodo, along the road that brings to the whirlpool there is a nice shop that sells stones with a restaurant attached (www.bertnesgeosenter.no ). If you like this kind of things it is a nice place to visit.

The ferry to the Lofoten islands left from Bodo’s pier directed to Moskenes on time despite it is one of that ferries where cars and truck can get on. It is possible to buy the ticket on board and costs 604 Nok (83, 00 €) for a small car and 168 Nok (23, 00€) each person (timetables are available just in Norwegian www.torghatten-nord.no/english/default.aspx ).

The journey lasts about 4 hours and, despite the ferry is quite big and stable, big waves can be felt anyway. I suggest you to take a tablet before leaving if you are used to get sick.

Who, as me, is lucky enough not to feel seek on the boats; can take advantage of the ferry’s restaurant that serves both snacks and hamburger and traditional Norwegian dishes. The menu is available only in Norwegian language but the waiter, if there is not much queue will be glad to explain them for you and then bring your order directly at your seat when it is ready.

This is what I ordered and that is a traditional dish of the area…shame I forgot the name!

Once landed in Moskenes I drove about 5 km to go to Å i Lofoten, last village of the Lofoten where I had booked a bunk bed in the hostel connected to the stockfish museum.

The owners, Elin and Steinar, are marvelous person, very kind and helpful. They helped me via email to organize my trip to the Lofoten islands and what was the ferry timetable (at first I wanted to drive from Oslo up to Bodo).

Stenair speaks a perfect Italian and when I arrived, despite they were on holiday at the Canary islands, he called me on my phone to check everything was fine with the ferry and to inform me that as the hostel was full he opened one of his Rorburer (the typical fisherman’s house that usually in winter are closed) just for me at the same price of the hostel. Staying at their place had been great, the Rorburer so beautiful and comfy gave directly on the sea and I had to share it with a couple of French just one night during all the week I spent there.

If one day I will be able to afford again a trip to the Lofoten islands (thing that I hope) I will definitely stay again at this place: www.lofotenferie.com , email: aa-hamna@online.no

About the Lofoten islands, I have to advise the Christmas time is considered low season there and most of the B&B and guest houses and restaurants are closed and the owners are all on holiday (most  of them at the Canary islands!). Finding a budget accommodation or just a restaurant for dinner is a quite hard target in this period of the year. Plus, the very little places that remain open have very expensive prices. I suggest looking for an accommodation where it is possible to use the kitchen.

Lofoten’s supermarkets are all open during the day (except on banks day), so it is possible to buy food and cook it at home.

During my stay in the islands I hoped to do some nice hike with my snowshoes but the light hours are very little, path are not signed and the weather changes so quickly that would make it a dangerous thing. In the end I spend the days driving and shooting photos to the beautiful and dramatic landscapes.

Every corner of each island hides a surprise and every side street worth to be covered. The landscapes are amazing!

 

Many times while driving I met beautiful and huge eagles and stopping to look them hunting is breathtaking.

 

Eagles hunting




 

 

 

So as it has been breathtaking, for different reasons, meeting a couple of guys that, despite of the snow and the temperature were surfing on the beach!!!

Surfing in January at the Lofoten Islands

In this season most of the shops are closed. I met just one open and I would have spent there all my salary if they had accepted credit card payment.

It was a homemade knit works shop. The owner said me they are a charitable shop. Women of the islands make all these knit works and then they are sold here. Sweaters, gloves of every different kind, bags, scarves, hats, socks and blankets all homemade are sold here. Lovely! I think the shop is placed along the E10 before Leknes, but I’m not sure as I stopped there just because it was the only light I met during a snowstorm.

As many people know the temperature at the Lofoten Island, tanks to the Mexican gulf flow, is never too low and even during winter time it never goes down 5-6°C, so it is not necessary to dress up as if you are at the North Pole. Nevertheless there is always a strong wind that blows, so I suggest wearing jacket, hat and gloves wind resistant.

Unfortunately all the time spent at the islands has been cloudy and I didn’t see the Northern lights.

Coming back to the Nordland I spent 2 nights at the Nordnes Camp & Bygdesenter that is placed closet o the town of Saltdal, along the E6 (www.nordnescamp.no ). The campsite is huge and placed in a beautiful natural scenery. Staying there in summer must be amazing: woods and nature is all around it.

When I arrived I was surprised to find out there were lot of people living in tents or caravan despite it was January and outside temperature was -10°C. How the hell they do????

Of course I couldn’t survive at that temperature and booked a comfortable and warm cabin. When I booked on the net this cabin for 350 Nok (about 48, 00€ per night, the cheapest accommodation of all my holiday in Norway!) on the website www.booking.com , there was no indication if the toilet was inbuilt. So I decided to contact the camping and they confirmed my suspects: the toilet was in a close cabin outside of the building. I panicked! I was already imagining me crossing the path that connected my cabin with the toilet one wearing my robe, with wet hair surrounded by snow and with a temperature of -15°C!!! I couldn’t do that ever!!!!

Luckily the owner must have had pity of someone that coming from a Mediterranean Country was not used to the snow and ice, so he wrote me saying he had changed my booking with a cabin bathroom ensuite at the same price of the one I had booked. When I read the email I wanted to kiss him!!!

The cabin was very nice, well heated and very comfortable except for one thing: hot water was missing!!!! There was a boiler, but the tank was tiny and for the time the water reached the toiled it was already iced. Unfortunately I noticed it just after entering the shower so I put up with it and then run to warm myself near the radiator. Other negative thing of my cabinet was that the water pipe was broken and after the shower the bathroom was completely flooded.  To celebrate the success of my boldface proof (having shower with iced water) I decided to eat at the camping restaurant that is a very charming place that serves quite good food.

There I met a crazy guy that moved there from Oslo just to see often the northern lights and fish Salmons in the Saltdal River. Of course he lives his life day by day and shoved me all the photos he took to the salmons he fished and of the northern light. Ehi, stop a moment! How is it that he got to shot nice photos of the northern lights with a mobile and my compact camera gave me completely black photos?!?

The next day I woke up at the dusk…or better, I woke up in the middle of the night as the dusk won’t be visible there before few weeks. I dove all the way up to Tysfjord Turistsenter where it is possible to participate to a day on the rubber boat looking for killer whales that in January come there to eat herrings.

Before getting on the rubber boat they give you a thermal suit that avoid to humidity and wind to pass and I have to admit it works. Shame my boots were not as warmer as I thought when I bought it as at the end of the day my feet were nearly frozen! I suggest using warming bags to put inside the gloves and between shoes and socks as feet and hands are the parts that will feel mostly the cold.

The rubber boat trip costs 1050 Nok (about 144, 00€) and lasts about 4 hours. Unfortunately we didn’t meet the killer whales but just a couple of big beautiful eagles hunting near our boat. A magic experience made even better by the beautiful pink light of the polar night and by the dramatic landscape of the norvegian fiords.

Tysfjord Turistsenter (www.tysfjord-Turistsenter.no ) is places along the E6 direction Narvik, 6km South of Bognes and 220km from Bodo, in the village of Storjord. The center includes a hotel with sauna and every comfort. The organize day trip on the boat looking for whales and killer whales all the yearlong and it is also possible to snorkel with whales when they meet them paying a bit more (in case they won’t meet the whales money won’t be refund



The rubber boat used to look for killer whales

Eagle fishing close to our rubber boat

 

I spent my last night at the Norden camp outside in the cold as the sky was eventually clear and it was my last chance to see the Northern Lights. In the end I’ve just seen a falling star, but the sky was so beautiful and full of stars that it has been great anyway to stay there admiring it.

The next day I drove to Bodo, flight to Oslo and spend half day there walking around the city center, looking at the shops that were all open despite it was bank holiday. Then I took the bus and my Ryanair flight to Italy.

I have to admit that this has been the most expensive holiday I’ve ever done. With flights, accommodations, car, petrol, food and rubber boat excursion I paid about 1.900,00 € for one week. Unfortunately Norway is becoming too much expensive (in 2008 I travelled to Tromso for one week and paid about 800, 00€) so I hardly will be able to afford a new trip to this beautiful Country that instead worth to be visited more deeply.