Day 15 - Tales from the Arctic Circle

Hi-de-hi!

We have been happy campers since the last post.

We travelled by ferry from Bodø to moskenes after our night train, and on the ferry we saw killer whales!! Waheee! No photos I'm afraid, bit I will upload a video of them when I get home.
Cold on deck, but sunny, and we were glad of the fresh air.

After setting up camp, we ventured off to find coffee and cake, and went to a baroque concert in the evening.

The next day we took a trip to Bunes beach via Reine to watch the midnight sun. Saw lots of fish heads in Reine, and made some friends who came with us on our overnight adventure.
It was pretty special and we slept rough like tramps on the beach ( and under the jetty when it rained a little)... Never will we ever do this again.
But we had some great local girls that brought us freshly made cupcakes and hot chocolate in the evening and in the morning too. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH GIRLS. Come visit us in England please. <3

We also went for a swim in the sea( cold) but sunbathed to dry off. Amazingly warm!

We also saw some more killer whales. Woooo!!


A very brightonian cafe in the morning cheered us up, and we took the day off from adcentures.

After our sleepy day we went to Å, and ate some whalesteak. No biggie.

Met some cool bicycle boys last night and sat up talking with vodka and kirsch ... Which didn't help our 4.30 am start this morning. Thank goodness it wasn't dark too. We are now on the train to Trondheim, where we are meeting some lovely couch surfers who we are staying with tonight!

Love you all!

Day 10- So much to post!!!

Oh wow, so much has happened since we last had WiFi.

Currently sitting on a night train from Trondheim...so I have a moment.

On Monday, we went on a road trip with Anne, Dina, and Peter to the cabin at Røros. Peter drove us the 6 plus hour journey, and the poor man must have been driven crazy as me and soph attempted to learn Norwegian.








The house was truly beautiful!






And the view... We could see all the way to Sweden.




Tuesday:

We went to Olavs mines and went 50 meters under the ground, which might not seem like much, but imagine this; the trust in 300 year old tunnels, the fact that it is a constant 5 degrees, and that huge pumps evacuate a minimum of 20 liters of water an hour... It doesn't really paint enough of a picture of the amazing experience. We had fun.










Then we came out of the mines, blinking into the sun, and went to have apple cake with Dina in the beautiful UNESCO world heritage site that is the town of Røros.







The rest of the week was just sop and I, and has been full of reading, dinners, walks, water and larks.

Our big walk consisted of 3 and a half hours of being lost, but having a jolly good time exploring and trying our best to track some elk. Tragically, the 'moose fur' that we were following for so long, turned out to be a strange, thin, brown, lychen.












( Doing my Dad's pose, very shortly before I fell in. What a fool)

I managed to swim out to an island. Admittedly, a very close island. But still.



Our taxi driver to the station this morning has the wonderful first name of Stig. No joke. We can forever say that not only did we meet the Stig, but we were driven by him. Plus he had a cracking moustache, as seen in my very cheeky, sneaky picture:


But for now, we are on a night train, it's midnight, it's only just about becoming twilight, and the night pack we have been given ( blanket, mask, earplugs, pillow) has excited us a lot.

I'll let you know more about our cracking adventures soon.

Day One - The Architourists

After our little shopping trip, we went for lunch with Alf, from Dark Architects, and his daughter. Sop and I had beautiful salads and fish, and the post-lunch tour around the studios was fantastic. I want to work in a practice like theirs.

My word will have to suffice for how amazing the practice is. I didn't want to be that weirdo who takes photos constantly...

Then we all went by car to visit the real life built versions of the models in the studio. Mind blowing. The cantilevered white building in particular was so overwhelming, in a way that i've only felt a few times before.

Aaaaand then onto the Oslo Opera building, of course.

After an iced coffee break we went back to the house to nap before an exhibition this evening, which we unfortunately missed due to exhaustion. Sad and tired girly.

Had dinner, and had a stroll around the park with the 'man kicking baby' statue in it. Thought this would help me fall asleep, but alas, check out the last photos for how light it is now (2200 local time).

Blackout blinds are great. Sorry for the sideways pics- no option to change it on my phone.

Abi out.