Stopped long enough for a couple of cars to get on.

I wasn’t sure if we’d be allowed out but I overheard someone else asking and it turned out we were 🙂

Turf offered a square just about within reach, so I headed off..

..got the square..

..and made it back within the 20 minute window 😇

---

Batsfjord harbour isn’t super exciting.. there are builders merchants and car parks and a row of little boats..

..but they have pretty yellow and orange poppies 🙂

I wasn’t sure if we’d be allowed out but I overheard someone else asking and it turned out we were 🙂

Turf offered a square just about within reach, so I headed off..

..got the square..

..and made it back within the 20 minute window 😇

---

Batsfjord harbour isn’t super exciting.. there are builders merchants and car parks and a row of little boats..

..but they have pretty yellow and orange poppies 🙂

I wasn’t sure if we’d be allowed out but I overheard someone else asking and it turned out we were 🙂

Turf offered a square just about within reach, so I headed off..

..got the square..

..and made it back within the 20 minute window 😇

---

Batsfjord harbour isn’t super exciting.. there are builders merchants and car parks and a row of little boats..

..but they have pretty yellow and orange poppies 🙂

Phew!

So much for going shopping.

I got involved in long-distance filter cleaning and now I’m cold and tired and hungry. I found the rest of the bread in my bag as I was emptying it to go to the shop, so I’m going to eat that and forget about going shopping tonight. I’ll go tomorrow on the way to the boat.

Might be a good night to get lots of sleep, since I won’t get much if any on the boat.

🙂

I got off the bus in the rain and headed for a sign that I assumed meant ‘hotel’ in Norwegian or Finnish but which turned out to be a garage/shop/cafe with a funny name.

Sleeping in a garage shop didn’t really appeal, so I abandoned that idea and found a dry doorway to stand and reorganise my things and put on my coat.

I’d read some reviews online before I fell asleep, and the ‘cheap’ hotels all sounded terrible. I don’t know what standards people have, but if no one has anything good to say it gives you a bad impression..

The expensive hotels had much better reviews, but also much higher prices.

I pulled up the booking.com app on my phone to see if I’d missed any on the map.

Almost at the bottom of the [admittedly short] list, there was indeed a place I hadn’t seen listed on the map. A private host, offering an apartment for about the same price as the ‘cheap’ hotels. It was the furthest away, but reasonably close to the harbour. I booked it and set off.

I looked into the cafe to see if they had a toilet, which they didn’t, and hoped I’d make it to the house, 20 minutes walk away.

On the way I stopped to take pictures anyway.. because Jess and because it was sunny and might decide to rain again later.

And then there were hills and curvy roads…and then none of the houses had numbers.

Yay.

I asked someone in a car and she first said she didn’t know which was Nr. 5, and then after driving a bit further she remembered, or figured out, that we were looking at the backs of the houses and the official fronts are on the other side, via a different road. I walked round the house and she helpfully pulled up and pointed out the clearly visible 5 (“See? That’s house Nr. 5”) before driving off.

Gee thanks.

…

No one answered the door when I knocked. There was no answer when I phoned either. Shortly afterwards I got a text to say they couldn’t talk right now. Like the automatic ones you can choose when the phone rings.

I sat and waited. And waited. And waited. And then I went back to the side door and checked the pictures of the apartment door in the advert. There were only pictures of the inside, but the door handle and the windows matched. The door wasn’t locked so I called inside.. no answer.

By this point I was about to explode, so I took my shoes off and went to find a toilet.

Took getting mad at the lack of toilet roll (always carry tissues ;p) to find they’d put the roll on a shelf instead of the holder.

Then I went back outside and sat on their porch for an hour.

I text to say I was here, I checked the booking app to see if I was missing anything…

..and then I gave up and brought my stuff inside.

It looks like someone else was here and no one’s been to clear up in between. It’s not exactly dirty, but it’s not the way you expect rooms to be when you first arrive.

---

I’ve been here for an hour or so and no one from the house has arrived or written or phoned. I need to go shopping, so I’m going to take the key from the table and lock my things inside and find something to eat for dinner 🙂

I even have an oven 🙂

And a monkey for company……….

---

Later

The bus stopped for 20 minutes next to a silversmith workshop.

They had some cool pieces, like these broches..

..but nothing that said, ‘welcome to this crazy world, you beautiful nephew!’ So I left without buying anything.

Maybe I should have got him something ridiculous so that in 10 years or so he can point at it and say, “look what my crazy aunt bought for me when she heard I was born..” and people can tell him that’s what crazy aunts are for…

😅

..all change drivers!

Much more sensible than swapping all the passengers and all their luggage.

Not that it mattes on this bus, there’s only a couple of passengers on it anyway.

Great bus ride with a poker fanatic 🙂

I was the only passenger on the bus for most of the way to Lakselv, so I sat at the front and talked (/ listened) to the driver talk about poker, among other things.

He plays online and wins places in tournaments in other countries. I asked if he wins back the travel costs, “I see it as a hobby.. If I have a good holiday and have the chance to play, I don’t need to win. Winning is a bonus”.

He told me how to play various hands, but I’d pretty much forgotten before he’d finished telling me 🙈

My main takeaway is that you need a strategy for every kind of situation.. and you need to decide on potential strategies in advance instead of in the moment. (‘If x happens, I will do A. If y happens I will do B’)

That might be a good way of dealing with life in general too…. i.e. If I catch bus X I will go to Place A. If I miss bus X I will do Thing B instead… 🙂

Fascinating guy 🙂

It wasn’t all poker tho:

Karasjok used to get to -50°C in winter 🥶 but recently it’s only reached around -30° (“it doesn’t even get to -40 anymore”). Apparently it’s such a dry cold, and there’s no wind, so -50° doesn’t feel as cold as -20° does on the coast. You don’t need many extra clothes, you just need to make sure all your skin is covered. I’m willing to believe him in theory.. not sure I need to try it out tho. Lakselv is ~60 km away and on the coast, and can on any given day be upto 20° warmer than Karasjok in winter and 15° colder in summer. Makes sense, but is still pretty crazy..

“You’re easy to understand, and you don’t speak so fast…..but it’s hard to know where you come from because you don’t have an accent”

Norwegians know English towns based on 3 leagues of football. That seems quite intense.. When he was at school, kids watched the football games and chose their favourite players and teams.. now, parents and godparents give their kids football clothes and trikots for their Christening presents so they have almost no choice. 😂

The county is probably going to change the bus company soon (next year) so they’ll get better busses 🙂 maybe even electric. I didn’t think the bus was terrible but he said there are busses when you don’t notice how bumpy the roads are 🙂 That probably makes a huge difference if you’re driving all day.

As a side note: current electric cars can’t pull caravans 🙃

So cool 🙂

There are huts and chalets and wigwams 🙂

And hot showers 🙂

And cool people to share a house/chalet with.

And the reception sold me a Norwegian strength moskito roller….so hopefully that’ll help on the islands (and in Sweden 🙂 )

I got off the bus in Karasjok and askec the busdriver if the bus back to Lakselv would go from the same place in the morning. He assured me it would, and that he would be driving it. He was a bit confused as to why I was in Karasjok at all tho.

Legitimate question really.. I doubt many people go for hour each way diversions..

One of the other passengers heard us talking and asked me if I wanted a lift to the campsite.

Wheee 🙂 such cool people 🙂

Get to Kirkenes (by bus)

Boat from Kirkenes to Hammerfest

Explore and sleep in Hammerfest

Boat to Risoyhamn

Explore and sleep in Risoyhamn

Boat to Bodo

Trains from Bodo to Stockholm

Pick up bike

Sleep in Stockholm (at bike lady’s house?)

Start cycling

I’m back on Bus 62 towards Alta.

I don’t really want to go back to Alta, but this is pretty much the only tourist bus off the island, and I can always get off before Alta.

(The question is where..)

The worst thing about walking in the fog is that you don’t see anything

The best thing about walking in the fog is that you don’t see anything, and can focus on just walking [fast].

The best thing about clear skies is that you can see everything.

The worst thing about clear skies is that you can see everything, and want to stop to look at it…and or take pictures of it…and it takes forever to get anywhere.

---

Yesterday’s walk was considerably less pleasant than today’s.. but also considerably faster… 😂🙃

“It’s horrible here, I think I’ll stay” must be a phrase reserved for very tired campers 😂

---

Outside it’s windy, really really windy… like hold-onto-the-ground-so-you-don’t-blow-away windy, and probably around 10°C, so a lot warmer than last night, but not exactly cosy. In my tent it’s comparatively warm, in my sleeping bag it’s great 🙂 So great in fact, that getting out is a terrible idea 🙃

Except that all the other good stuff (toilets and showers and water refills and boat rides and such) lies on the other side of getting up and out (and packed up).

What a predicament 🥺

At least it’s not raining tho 🙂

Just read this:

‘Life should be good, not easy. There is a famous Latin expression. Luctor et Emergo. It means “I struggle and emerge” or “wrestle with and overcome.” The gods, Seneca writes, “want us to be as good, as virtuous as possible, so assign to us a fortune that will make us struggle.” Without struggle, he says, “no one will know what you were capable of, not even yourself.” ‘

Ryan Holiday, email from today

Yay?

Maybe 🙂

I am capable of trudging and of accepting lifts 🙂

I’d forgotten about this until my alarm rang 🤦‍♀️

I have an English date with a student on Wednesday evenings, and today is Wednesday… so we had our Skype lesson from the cafe 😅

Wonders of modern technology 🙂

And maybe good that I wasn’t on a train/bus/car/whatever.

You got a fast car?
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is better*

Tracy Chapman, Fast car

* “Almost any place less wetter” would probably suit me fine..

---

I had a plan.. and then I ruined it.

I was going to accept the rain and the bleugh weather and sit in the cafe until it dried off, and work on the behind-the-scenes part of the blog, and catch up on posting pictures.

I almost did, too.

I packed everything I needed into the waterproofest bag and headed to the cafe….

…where I met a super interesting old cyclist from Belgium who’d cycled here from Tarifa. In two months. Crazy guy, but super interesting conversation. He’d cycled across Africa and South America and all over the place. He was fed up of the fog and the rain and had packed up early so he could head to Alta on the bus. When he asked if I really wanted to spend another night and the best part of 2 days in my tent and the cafe it sounded like a pretty dire choice. Getting the bus to Hönningsvag or the mainland (or anywhere really) sounded much more appealing.

So I went off to pack my tent. In the rain.I

And I was too slow.

I was fighting a wet tent into a bag as the bus went past.

~5 minutes later I was ready to go.

But the bus was gone.

The only bus.

(There’s only one public/non-tour bus off the Island a day).

Yay.

So I found some socks and went back to the cafe. With all my stuff.

I’m still drying off but I think it’s time to stand at the edge of the car park and hope someone will take me to somewhere south of The North.

I don’t really care where. Except I do have a lot of criteria/requests.. near a bus stop where busses actually stop, near food, near somewhere I can sleep that doesn’t cost 200€/night.

Could be fun…….

And I still haven’t done my blog stuff.

And one of the things the Cycling Guy said, while he was debating (with himself) about getting a boat from Hönningsvag instead of busses to Alta and beyond was:

“No. I decided to go to Alta so I’ll go to Alta. Sometimes it’s good to stick to stick your plan.”

Indeed.

It would seem that sometimes it is 🙂

(Leaving on tomorrow’s bus would have meant either not seeing Hönningsvag or losing another day, because the boat and bus towards Kirkenes leave in the mornings…

But at least my tent being up meant having somewhere free to sleep 🙃🙈)

Wanna see what the forecast says?

Here you go:

Last night’s forecast was great too:

And I don’t care what the weatherman is saying
Because the last time that I saw him he was on his knees, he was praying
And the preachers and the scientists got soaked just the same
And we wondered if we’d ever get dry again

– Frank Turner, Next Storm

---

On the other hand.. I consider myself super lucky to have my tent and not this guy’s..

At least I can sit up in mine 😂

I appear to still be here 🙂 and I still have a tent 🙂

I also appear to have a moat 😂

Got some of ‘my’ mountains back too 🙂

---

I’d better get dressed and see how the rest of world looks.

Don’t want to tho. It’s still raining, though not as hard, and it’s way colder than yesterday.

I think this would be a good time to have one of those nearly floor-length puffy coats that look like a sleeping bag.

Maybe in a waterproof version.

🤔

Or maybe I just need a toilet in my tent…..

Wind, rain, cold..

If my tent and sleeping bag weren’t so amazing I’d be worried about blowing away or freezing.

As it is, I ‘just’ have to be patient and wait it out.

Yay!

🙂

“Great weather!” I peered out of my tent as my new neighbour was putting up his tent.

“Yeah.. it’s my personal raincloud………..”

Not a lot you can say to that really.

(Except that he’s welcome to keep it to himself in future.. or pitch further away from my tent… 😜)

“People who travel without making pollution have free access to places like this”

I have to sleep, but here’s a photo or three 🙂

---

---

It's a great day to be alive!
I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes ;p
[There's some hard times in the neighbourhood,
but] why can't every day be just this good?!

- Traviss Tritt

Kind of

Nearly there!

(To Hönningsvag. Farther to Nordkapp)

We seem to have lost the road.

They’re making a new one tho 🙂

I think, with hindsight, that this ticket would have been valid for yesterday’s journey too… *sigh*

---

“Does this Bus go to Honingsvag?”

“Yes”

“Brilliant. Can I use the summer ticket?”

“The what?”

“The summer ticket..”

“Never heard of it..”

---

Turns out the counties are in charge of bus routes and fares and timetabling.. the bus companies are just there to drive the busses. During the pandemic, everyone entered through the middle and back doors of the busses and no one checked any bus tickets, and while everything was chaotic anyway the people in charge decided to change ALL the things. This is the first summer in a while where things are relatively normal, but no one really knows what all the changes are. It was a fascinating and remarkaby good-tempered rant.

At the end of it, I showed her the website with my ticket and she said she wasn’t going to complain about me using it, so I bought it.

That certainly wasn’t one to miss 🙂

If nothing else, I don’t know where you’dd otherwise be served smoked/steamed reindeer heart….

---

It was like someone had got a handful of people together from all different places and cultures, and brainstormed breakfast foods, and then made ALL the suggestions reality. I can’t think of anything they were missing 😲🙃

One lane.

Just when I assumed there must be traffic lights or something, two cars came towards us.

Eek.

The squished over to their side and we squeezed as far as we could to our side, and then it was business as usual.

Until the next cars came along.

Madness.

Also. The walls were all lumpy, like they were still digging it 🙈

I hope that’s not Norsk for Tsunami ahead

This morning I was wondering why I hadn’t fallen for Norway the same way I’d fallen for Sweden.

Right about now, I’m falling 🥰

The sunshiny moments might be worth all the grey..

Maybe.

Jury’s still out on that one.

None of my photos can do the place justice when it’s sunny. Especially not with all the reflections and knees and window blinds in the way.

But.

It’s really really beautiful here.

I love it.

🥰

When the sun’s out.

😜

Nothing like unconditional love 😅😂

So shiny!

Really and truely.

Not much, and not for long.. but there were actual rays of actual sunshine..

..and it was glorious 🙂 (if a little shortlived.. 30 seconds or so)

Not giving up hope of ever seeing a sunny Fjord.

Choosing seats isn’t my strongest point 🙈

---

I got on the bus and went straight for the front seat.

Again.

And then I rapidly realised why it was still empty.

Again.

Yay.

I wonder why they needed to add the blinds so low on the first window..

🤔

..and why I don’t see these things before I sit down..

🤔🤔🤔

A small crowd got off at Nordkjosbotn. Then we all got our luggage out of one bus and onto the next. Finally everyone gets on the secnd bus. Everybody except one guy. He stays outside, rummaging in a bag, presumably trying to find his cigarettes.

The busdriver: if you are going to smoke, you must be quick. We leave directly.

I think he just about had time to light it and put it out..

🙂

Then someone did it for me 🙂

---

This is nice too 🙂 Means I can’t get the wrong bus from the multitudes at the station 🙂

Really..

We’ll follow Mr. Spoen… 🙃😜

Can you see what I see???

Wohl wie brandneu nur voller 🙂

The E6 is the main road we’re on. The stop is some kind of junction..