Up North (roundtrip to Lofotens)
After 1. year in Oslo Uni my friend and me decided to have a tour up north till the end of the earth
it was time of film photos, my attempt to recover them is here: Norway
We had no money and little idea how to get there, so we started from buying a train tickets to the last train station up there - Bodo, and hitchhike the rest of the way. And we did. It wasn't easy as not many people those days were familiar with the concept of hitchhiking so we spent long hours on the roads.
But we reach our goal - Nordcap, and got back safely (well, apart from being swept by horrible storm and almost eaten by mosquitos).
And many years later - I did, and that's how it went:
1. Munchausen
Yes, the famous baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Münchhausen, the very one. No, in his fantastic stories about his military service in Russia he was not getting anywhere close to Lofotens, but me driving from Prague to Norway - I needed to stop somewhere on the way, and almost half way to the ferry is baron's hometown of Apelern - it was chosen as a first stop. The baron fascinated me from my childhood: cartoons of his adventures were my favorite, then it was a movie I still love to watch again and again: That Munchhausen - another way of telling his story.
Small town of Apelern keeps its fachwerk houses and slow way of good living. The castle of Munchausen family is still inhabited - by the family, it is possible to look around but not to get inside.
Not sure how does Münchhausen family doing nowadays, in their castle few buildings were rented out to some lawyers and doctors, the mausoleum stays overgrown and hardly anyone comes here it seems.
We stay at the camp just outside of the town because doggo need to walk regularly,
2. Evil Ferry & Oslo
Next day we started early to catch ferry from Denmark to Norway, but find out that our camp has a ramp - and it was closed. We call frantically to every phone number we could find and finally manage to woke up some people who lift it up at 4.30 am - thanks again sleepy people, we manage to catch the ferry! There we got the full portion of Scandinavian weather: wind, rain and gray-gray sky. As well there was a portion of modern Scandinavian culture: we were kicked out to the open deck with the dog as "it might make some passengers uncomfortable to travel with the dog inside", although few years ago on our trip to Stavanger by the same ferry no such rule existed. I guess there are more "uncomfortable passengers" in Scandinavia now who demand tolerance in bigger spoons. I wonder how late it will be when people will realise that tolerance has its limits and will spring back when pushed too far.
Cold and wet we arrived to Larvik and drove to Oslo, where we get to the Ekeberg camp, not knowing it is in the middle of modern art park. There we were greeted by our dear friends from Uni' times - now with kids almost the same age as we were when we met heh...
They are responsible for our cultural enlightenment - they took us for a walk among "the art". Some of it was amazing and some way too artistic for my liking, all the same am glad we saw it.
night was cold but we survived - it was a start.
3. Direction: Jotunheim
Summer started and so our journey up north. On the way to Alesund we needed to cross the land of the giants - Jotunheim. Norwegian roads are smooth and well marked so it is hardly possible to miss a turn, besides the speed limit here goes as high as 90 km/h and no further, try to get lost in such conditions LOL.
But the scenery is amazing indeed and we were thankful for slow drive - you can see the nature and stop to admire countless waterfalls and beautiful valleys on the way.
In some villages along the route old stavkirkas are still standing and in use: Vågå
In about 6hours drive we were at the Krossbu hut - our stop in the middle of Jotunheim
They don't really have seasons over here and even our usual shorter periods of time as day and night are not exactly known, the sun was up most of the time and it will be for half a year, glistening on the summer' snow, the night comes in winter and stays for half a year - dark and endless
Some roads are "working" only in colder time of the year, we were perfectly cut from the world - not completely to freak out, but enough to pretend we are lost in the wild.
With us were lost small crowd of tourists and some locals who hate the idea of living without skiing - here they do it 24/7 (literally, the sun is up so why would you stop)
4. Lom
Town of Lom or Fossbergom in about 1 hour drive was the nearest place with grocery shops and other civilization wonders we could not cut off from our lives.
Huge bonus was - of course - the nature all around the road and around the town too. Jotunheim might be harsh and dangerous but is breathtaking not only in literal sense when you fall down from the icy cliff but when you stay safely admiring this part of the earth.
The town name actually is Fossbergom ("waterfall at the cliff" or something), Lom ("the valley" or "meadow") is the municipality (area around it). Poetic names have an appropriately romantic stavchurch here from 12 century:
Now they have fish - the thing which does not move anything but - what is somehow become more important - does not offend anyone. Well I for one was offended by winning of fish over national pride.
Anyways, if you do not interact with people the land seems untouched by modern ideology and still consists of beautiful villages of traditional timber houses and grass roofs, slow thinking cows slow chewing
and mountains are always majestic disregarding of people existence - I like that
Here in the deep dark moody wells live Nøkken - they don't like people either although often take their shape to lure people into deep frozen waters. Sometimes they take shape of the horse to attract greedy folk who wants to get wild horse for free, but they all end up in the depth of cold lakes anyways.
Every valley in Jotunheim has own legends, own songs and famous hunters. Norway was Christianized in medieval times, but here old believes lay deep, they don't demand blind faith, quite contrary - most of the legends here dare you to prove them wrong (and yes, when you do - new legends will tale the tale as yet another stupid person try and fail).
Here lives huldra - the beauty with a twist. If you get to her territory or make lots of noise or misbehave somehow she will come looking for you. Of course many men fall in love and blindly follow her not seeing her tail weird legs, they get married and lost forever in the mountains. The only way to break the spell is to cut her dress with steel knife, the stone dweller hates metals and will let you go.
Edvard Grieg was travelling these lands and got here the inspiration for his music, thanks to him many local songs were written down and we can hear them today, like this lullaby for example:
Surely we can find explanations for the origins of every folktale and historical influences catalogued in boring dusty studies at the Uni library shelves where noone can find them (because noone is looking), but in Terry Pratchett words: "It doesn’t stop being magic just because you know how it works.” and yes - every stone in Jotunheim have a magical story, would be great to hear them all, but our road called and we moved west to the coast
5. Ålesund
The road was as stunning as before
Again mountains and lakes made us stop every now and then and make pictures to keep at least a glance of their splendor with us.
We saw our first moose of this trip, it was watching us from the woods. I remember seeing the very first moose in my life up close in Norway: it was on the street of Oslo near Holmenkollen hotel. I was at the metro station gaping at it, there was noone at the station that morning and only one elderly man was walking up the street, he saw the moose and continue to walk as if nothing happens. The moose was walking exactly the same way - as if nothing unusual going on in his life either, and went to the nearest forest. Second time I saw moose in Norway was from the car window as well - but it stayed on the road and did not move for about 20min. It was winter, freezing cold, heaps of snow everywhere and friend of mine at the wheel told me we will stay there until the animal moves away because you cannot do anything else, especially if you don't want to have your car destroyed.
Gradually snow mountains changed for green ones and we got to the coast to Ålesund. We had a house with a view:
After getting a bit of rest after 5h drive we went for a walk and were greeted by rainbow:
The town is indeed beautiful, although to call it the most beautiful town in Norway is - in my opinion - a stretch, to get to that title they would need to destroy Bergen and Stavanger (and probably couple of more places too). The town was burned not so long ago (1904) and restored with help of Kaiser Wilhelm II, so now it has one style look:
& obligatory viking ship:
We spent here couple of days walking around, enjoying sun and sea, watching monstrous tourist hives coming and flooding little town with bored vacationers, mostly retired people, who hardly new where they are
Being curios I found out that cruise ship capacity might by cca 5000 people + cca 2000 crew and Alesund population is about 50k, so imagine just one ship is a 14% of population increase in one day - every fucking day. I think it's too much
some Slovak billionaire btw - yes, we are very curious and know how to find out staff LOL!
Still there are places where tourists rarely come - although they are made specifically for the ones who wants to know about the place: skanzen
and ship museum (my favorite places in any town):
There is also a very quiet place in the town while standing almost in the centre surrounded by yachts: small red lighthouse, which you can rent:
apparently inhabitants are easy to scare
One last look for the Alesund and we move on, up north
6. Trøndelag drive
Our next stop before ferry to islands was at Bjøra Camping on Nååmesje river - nice place with friendly camp owner, somewhere in the middle of ̶n̶o̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶ Trøndelag. Need to praise Norwegian roads again: they are smooth and comfortable, you do not need to stop to pay the road fee - they will surprise you later by post :( the fee is high but totally worth it.
To cut through fjords instead of driving all the way around you definitely need ferries and unlike big ones these local boats do not freak out with dogs (yet... ) Most of the ferries are included in that road fee which will get you bankrupt later.
And then you are again on the road, admiring bridge engineering and road makers of this land
Landscape gets weird sometimes like this blasted mountain near Molde, like WTF has happened here???
(well, actually this is Blåskjerdingen mountain and it looks so dramatic "laser blasted" only from the road, the ridge was left like this by glacier - no, not because of global warming, or if you wish - yes, but the one happened millennia before - such shape apparently is very common and called "cirque" in geology. What I found fascinating is that there are no legends about this unusual shape, and what's more: at the top of the mountain there are 3 big stones with round holes - and somehow no info either, not a myth, not a story. People here must be lacking any imagination)
From high mountains it lows down all the way to the sea and become a perfect mirror sometimes, then again mountains rise sky high
It was 9h drive from Alesund to the camp, we had a night to get rest and continue up for another 7h to the ferry. The sun wasn't moving anymore so we had to put blanket on the window because curtains were not enough to block the light.
7. Arctic Circle and Maelstrom
Starting early next day we saw nature getting more arctic: lower trees, colder winds and snow patches. And then - these fellas:
walking all by themselves, no Santa in sight. Villages disappear as well and even farms become more sporadic, seeing a dwelling started to be an event on the road as rare as seeing a moose or elks
and then - everything vanished, we were left with landscape only. So glad the road was still there
At the Arctic circle there is Arctic Circle centre - tourist joy and still working post office from where you can send a postcard with arctic circle address.
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During WW2 not far from here was concentration camps with mostly Yugoslavians and Soviet prisoners, they built the road and kept it clean, you can see the monument near the centre still standing. Later refugees from Yugoslavian war (the last one so far) were placed there - well, the camps buildings were restored and brought up to modern standards but still... way too practical approach I'd say.
The tide water gets to the Saltstraumen fjord and meet there the tidal water from before, they create the whirlpools which fascinated E.A.Poe so much he wrote a whole novel about it:
thanks to which tourists are disappointed by the real thing
On my first trip here we had to wait for about 2hours for whirlpool to start, now we come right in time
ones who says you can watch running water forever did not mean Scandinavian waters for sure: however exciting the maelstrom was the cold and wet got you running back to the warm house or in our case - the car.
we get to the Bodo ferry terminal to find out the ferry timetable is a mess and noone at the terminal available to explain anything or inform at least if there are still places available. The terminal building was closed and cars were queuing in front of it. Two people sitting in the security room (why you have security in a locked empty terminal though?) told me that if we will not get to the boat we should wait for another one (or really? never would've guessed myself) but they had no idea if there will be any place. Yes - the high tech country where you can pay by watch at the store and get invoice for road fees by email has no way to find out if the boat a few km away has/no space for a car. There is a possibility to buy tickets online of course - they were sold out any time we looked and we find out this is because they sell only half tickets online, the rest are for the cars queuing irl. The boats' capacity was not listed online either so counting cars in front of you will give you no idea if you get to the ferry or not. The next one would be coming late at night meaning we might get to Lofotens after midnight or so. Luckily this was not the only option to get there - driving more up north was another ferry (and in case if that one will fail - more north was a bridge to the nearest island. It would get us further away from our booked cottage and at the end we will arrive at the same time after midnight so kinda pointless + we were already tired driving). Fortunately we catch the ferry at Bognes up north and get to the islands in normal time.
7 Lofoten
One of the magic features of the islands is wherever you stay you've got a view:
and at any weather it will be stunning:
We did not have any particular goal on the islands, the plan was to see what's around and enjoy the nature. Lofoten is perfect for such things: you can barely move but see the islands in storms and sunshine in one day - and the landscape would be different every minute, changed by weather. When you go hiking or on a boat trip - same thing will happen: it is enough to turn over the corner and the same island become totally different sight - still astonishing. It is very difficult to describe, you need to come and see or at lest look at the pictures:
It was June but cold of course - we are up north behind arctic circle, whole time we were there it was about +5 - +15, rains from time to time, sunshine and clear sky for a while and clouds and winds every now and then. As Norwegians rightly say there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothing. We knew that and were properly equipped. Actually, having lived in Norway has made me indifferent to the weather wherever I go—one of the country’s “free gifts,” as they say in marketing: something you get “free” if you pay for it. In my case, the price was agreeing to be cold or wet every time I go out, because otherwise I’d have to stay in forever.
Some Norwegian' habits did not change with time: it's shops' open hours. Even in Oslo - the biggest city - groceries simply are not available after 20.00, in smaller towns and here in Lofoten - as far as I saw - after 18.00. Nothing is open on weekends or holidays - however long holidays might be. I remember that pre- Christmas and Easter rush when everyone knew the stores will be closed for more than a week. In my first year my Norwegian friend warned me about that in advance, so I did my shopping, unlike my dorm neighbor from Kenia. He was bewildered before Xmas and thought some awful catastrophe is coming because everyone been literally sweeping the shelves clean. And yes - during Xmas we had to feed our unlucky African friend 'cos he run out of food in couple of days. No fastfood or restaurants are open at these times either, years later when I worked for oil company with Norwegians branches I was the only one not surprised that our gas stations' shops made more money than oil rigs - 'cos these are the only places open 24/7 in Norway where you can get at least some food and drink. And yeah - knowing all that we - heh - did manage to miss open hours one day and had to reduce our diet to this candy we got from souvenir store, which we wanted to give our friends back in Prague but hunger ruled that out
There is - of course there is - the Viking museum in Lofotens: near Borg town they reconstructed house from Medieval times and couple of ships, their official site: Lofotr
Despite the original way of living in Medieval times, today dogs are not allowed inside the houses where people lived together with cattle, dogs and cats, lice and fleas etc. Well - so much for authenticity you guys. Do not think my dog missed the museum that much and I was there many years ago - again, I guess nothing has changed a lot as medieval times are far behind and no groundbreaking discoveries were made during these years. We had a nice walk outside and looked at ships - me once again, the dog - first time here.
We said "hi" to the farm animals of Lofotr
they didn't answer
and we went to see more of the rocky islands where people still live close with the cattle if you believe Swedish jokes
9. Beaches of Lofotens
Always was jealous of people living next to the beach, even those who cannot "use" it properly, like here - or so I thought, but hey and lo! - they actually do. Yes, they swim there. Yes it was cold (+9C). Yes, the water was even colder.
We watch some birds and few more humans and went to our cottage
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made a number of pictures on the way - the views were great for postcards, if you do not mention the location and temperature - they can go for a perfect seaside holiday greetings, right?
Almost Caribbean... if not for the grass roofs of Nordic houses
oh well, and snow - snow might give you a clue as well
apart from that - you will never know
10. The code of cod
Lofoten (and Norwegian) main source of livelihood always been fish, mainly cod and salmon, and this is still true. There are fish farms all around
and fields of dry fish in every village
Cod heads are cut off and dried separately, and at this moment they (mostly kids for some reason) cut off the lower jaw muscle - huge delicatessen of the place. Usually it is fried with potatoes and best time to get it is January-April, so we didn't get any unfortunately.
Lofoten' life is all about fish, and there is even dry fish throw competition - on a country scale no less. The championship finale happens in Oslo yearly and they train for it whole year around. Luckily we were not in any dry fish throwing accident but those things happen
We heard about terrible mishap during one of the stockfish throwing trainings: the fish was thrown so hard it broke a window and on rebound destroyed the castle! It was kids bouncy castle, still this dreadful event was reported in local news - peak of Lofoten chaos!
There are big producers, local businesses and people drying fish for themselves at their homes
Cod is everywhere
11. Red houses
Another iconic feature of Lofotens are red houses and we saw them plenty,
we lived in one too:
Most of the houses on islands are red
in villages
or lonely farms
even churches are red
evil tongues say they paint houses with the fish blood - this is jealous nonsense of course. The red paint was cheapest and the most common => easily affordable paint to keep wooden house from weather - that is why colour is widespread in Scandinavia, here in Lofotens they add fish oil to make houses endure the harsh salty winds of the sea.
Later more expensive white become available and you could tell the wealthier house by the colour. People here keep traditional red paint although today they can decorate it in whatever shade of anything.
Some of the houses originally were not for living - they were rorbuer "working house" where fishermen kept their staff and stay there in fishing season, now most of them are refurbished to be holiday' cottages. Usually they had pier or some kind of dock in front - that is why many are on wooden beams: boats could be safely tied to the house at low or high tide.
and of course there is a drakkar at every house:
if you missed them - that means they were raiding some unlucky neighbors.
12. Rocks and Mountains
Few days are not enough to see the islands beauty or catch the majesty of mountains. I made few pictures - just a snap of the moment, to get a full picture you need to spend here couple of years. Here is what I saw:
just a glimpse of these wonders:
There are 7 big islands in Lofoten, but if you wish to count all of them - there would be more than 80, I could not find any final number. Maybe people here are just lazy and gave up count after 80, or maybe it's because some islands are flooding and reappearing with tide.
Locals even have legends about mystic Utrøst island of Lofoten, where unusual fruits grow in plenty, lots of fat sheep are grazing on greenest meadows and people are friendly and generous: they gave travelers great dinners and insist on taking more food with them when leaving. Bad thing people could not remember the location of Utrøst after and once been there could never find it again.
On the islands which do not disappear people placed all kinds of creatures too: trolls, dwarfs, "turf people" and nøkker (water spirits of a kind) - the land is overpopulated with them and do not forget the ghosts and dead people walking - if you believe every story the islands are packed like a bus in rush hour. No wonder for some rocks there are more than one legend, especially the one from each tourist brochure: Svolværgeita of Vågan:
Some say these are old Norse gods Frøy & Gerd, some say it is a troll-girl turned to stone by sun with her hat ribbons flailing, and some insist it is a goat somehow. As you might suspect, all these stories are told by tourist guides - the folk with fantasy without borders or any kind of principles.
13. The roads
Lofoten island connected by bridges and tunnels and once again I praise Norwegian roads and roadworkers. You can move freely over the wild nature of Lofoten to each even the smallest island. And there are walking trails for hikers and cyclists paths too.
I wish every roadworker - from ones projecting roads to the ones who actually build them with their hands - all of them should go see how it is done here in Lofotens, only after that they should get their diplomas and licenses, maybe it will help to get the normal roads everywhere.
And our road dragged us back already...
we were swallowed once again by the ferry boat
Lofotens wave their stony hands in the clouds
and add themselves to our memory
14. Niðaróss The capital of real Norway
We got back on the "continent" and crossed the arctic circle again
and drove by a bit different road this time, stopping by Norway' former capital: Trondheim. Some Norwegians (mostly the ones who live here) still consider it the capital of "the real Norway" and keep calling it by old name: Nidaros.
Rain was pouring down with all Scandinavian weight that night but in the morning the sun was shining as if no rain could ever exist. Our walk around the town was interrupted by reality check: we've got an SMS that emergency sirens will be tested and oh boy didn't they test them:
The famous cathedral was closed for reconstruction so we got to the next Trondheim' prominent sightseen: the old bridge
there supposed to be nokken under the bridge playing fiddle but I guess that was his day off and we were not dragged by river to the sea lost in his music. Oh, maybe next time
The town history is worth to learn, lots of sagas took place in Nidaros and its area, it is home of many writers who placed their novels here too.
We continue our drive down south with short stop at Mjøsa camp
we've got to the ferry to Denmark. Hirtshals met us on the other side of Europe with the most beautiful sunset
and many unlucky stars washed away
We walked around sandy beaches of Hirtshals, its lighthouse in the dunes and bunkers of past wars
getting as much of fresh sea air as we could because before us was the last leg of the journey, far from see but closer to home:
15. Wiernigerode & That Münchhausen
Little town Wernigerode somehow stack in Medieval time - it stayed there through rest of the history until today. No wars or changes of regimes and countries bothered it much, old fachwerkhouses with woodcuts lining the streets, castle looming above and people living their lives with no hurry.
we came on Friday night when everything was closed already and were disappointed with this part of Germany - there was no place to get beer on Friday night, not in shops, not in pubs, it was about 21.00 and we were utterly beerless. We come to the house where we stayed: good old wooden structure, looked old as most of the houses here, the old floors were crooked and walls thick, lots of old photos on the walls and gobelin over dining table
Fortunately next day presented Germany in its senses, with beer, sausages and orderly organised excursions. We stopped here on purpose - the movie (one of my very favorite) That Munchhausen
was filmed here. Old streets on which Munchhausen walked are still the same, same is the old townhall and the castle.
The castle never belong to the Munchhausen family but as a movie location it was perfect. As the whole lil town
It was nice just to walk mindlessly on cobble streets, see cars and horse carriages passing by, look at the details of the old houses and occasionally stop by for a beer or two.
Road back home was uneventful, Prague met us with customary traffic jams but we get through.
En omvei kan være den korteste veien hjem.
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