Norwegian Road Trip

The Natives invited us to tag along with them on their summer vacation this year. They are both from the north so we decided to meet in Tromsø for a three-day music festival (Buktafestivalen) and then go from there.

The weather on the entire vacation was gorgeous. This photo was taken around midnight and if you look closely you can see a few members of the band Opeth hanging out on a bench outside of a hotel.

The venue for the music festival is a little bay on the southern tip of the island. This was the main stage.

The terrain around the bay is fairly rugged.

The second-largest stage was pretty close to the water (there were 3 stages in total). The little tent to the left of the stage was selling whale burgers.

This was the backstage area for the bands. Several people went swimming.

Northern Norway has a long history of producing stockfish. There was a kiosk at the concert that was stocked with free fish. You simply chose a piece of fish, beat it with the supplied hammer to make it easier to pull apart, and then ate it like it was jerky.

Tørrfisk is delicious. It was fun watching people standing around while picking the meat off of large pieces of cod. A few pieces were inevitably thrown on stage, much to the confusion of the foreign bands.

There were several bands that we were interested in seeing (Opeth, Dropkick Murphys, The War On Drugs, Kåre And The Cavemen) but we made sure to get spots in the front row for Mastodon.

A couple of other friends from work were also in town for the festival. In total there were more than 10 people that we were hanging out with; It was surreal to recognize so many people at a concert above the Arctic Circle.

We needed to take a ferry during the drive from  Tromsø to Senja. It was a Sunday so we ended up having a few hours to kill while waiting in line. Thankfully, the surrounding area was fun to explore on foot.

Senja is amazing. This is one of the first things we saw after driving through a long tunnel.

The sun was always visible but it did get low enough to cast dramatic showers over the rugged mountains.

The Devil's Teeth in Senja.

After driving through Senja we arrived at Håvard's parents' house. They have a beautiful house at the bottom of a mountain in Finnsnes. The house was full of family and we were treated like part of the tribe.

We also spent 6 hours hiking the 8 km from Håvard's backyard to the top of Kistefjell. Although the weather was perfect, we weren't adequately prepared for the biting insects.

This little creek runs down the hill past the house that Håvard grew up in.

The water that runs off of Kistefjell is a drinking water source for Finnsnes. Even in the middle of a particularly warm summer there are still large patches of snow that are slowly melting to form hundreds of little waterfalls everywhere.

The view from the top of Kistefjell towards Senja.

The view from the top of Kistefjell away from Senja.

The little specks at the bottom of this photograph taste delicious. We spotted them while we were walking around the top of Kistefjell.

After leaving Finnsnes we drove south to AL's grandma's cabin in Offersøy.

This view is how AL knows she is almost in Offersøy.

We rode a ferry on our way out of town and got a little closer to the mountains that are in the previous photo.

I spent a fair amount of time taking photos of this beach and eventually ran out of angles so I had to start adding props.

The background looks like it was green-screened.

This little beach was about a quarter of a mile from the cabin. We walked there with a fishing pole but there were no fish. We did get to say 'hello' to a herd of cattle and starfish, however.

The Natives find this photo totally unremarkable: "It's just a fishing boat."

The main road that runs past Offersøy was in very bad shape at one point. Some town folk decided to start naming the bumps in the road and erecting signs. Eventually, the signs were collected and placed in a turnout as a museum.

Just a cow hanging out on the beach.

We thought about going swimming on one of the beaches in the distance but the weather didn't cooperate (it had been 77 degrees the previous day).

AL's uncle let us use the little orange boat on the left. Håvard drove us around the fjord for a couple of hours and whenever he stopped we threw some hooks in the water.

Becca caught this 16lb cod with a pole.

I caught this 11lb cod on the first try by literally dropping a lure into the water, allowing it to sink to the bottom, and then pulling it back into the boat. Fishing up north feels like cheating.

For every fish Becca and I caught, AL caught two.

We really enjoyed hanging out with AL's grandma. She treated us very well and even took care of the fish that we caught on the second boat trip.

This basically sums up the nightlife in Offersøy.

These are called Geitrams and they are my favorite part of Norway in the summer time.

While staying in Offersøy we decided to take a day trip to Lofoten.

The viewpoint at Austnesfjord is breathtaking. We had to visit it twice, however, because the first time it was overflowing with German tourists.

The last time we visited Svolvær was during the winter on the boat to Kirkenes; the mountain in this photo looked a little different then.

These racks in Henningsvær are used for drying fish. The entire coast line outside of the city is full of them.

Lofoten is a major destination for tourists because it's possible to hitchhike everywhere and it's legal to camp pretty much anywhere.

On a sunny, summer day it can be difficult to differentiate between Norway and Hawaii.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at grandma's cabin but we eventually needed to head down to AL's parents' house in Mo I Rana for a couple of nights. Al's parents taught us what Ptarmigan tastes like and fed us the best trout we'd ever eaten.

We also took a trip to visit (and touch!) one of the arms of Svartisen, a very large glacier. We were so impressed by the glacier that we visited Marmorslottet the next day to see the effect that glacial runoff can have on rock.

The glacier feeds into a large and very cold lake.

Walking on the glacier is prohibited this year. I'm not sure why but these car-sized boulders that had fallen could be a clue.

Glaciers are surprisingly heterogeneous upon close inspection.

This tunnel was large enough to explore on foot but I decided not to after a chunk of ice fell on my shoulder while taking this picture.

Marmorslottet (The Marble Castle) is a giant section of marble that has been shaped by glacial runoff.

The blue water compliments the light-colored marble perfectly.

We eventually returned to Trondheim in time for me to finish my last two days at work. It was an incredible trip and we've committed ourselves to matching its magnitude when the Natives come to America for a visit.

Seagull eggs

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned to The Natives that we were curious about eating seagull eggs. AL's northern connections delighted us once again last weekend when she delivered six gorgeous eggs and a recipe: "Kok i 15 minutter. Loff, godt smør, Mack øl."

The recipe is simple: white bread, good butter, seagull eggs, salt, pepper, and Mack beer.

Norwegians are very fond of open sandwiches (smørbrød) and boiled eggs are a very common topping. Mack beer is brewed way up north in Tromsø. Seems legit.

Two egg halves cover a single piece of bread nicely.

The eggs themselves are 1.5 to 2 times bigger than a large chicken egg. The shells are thin and adorably speckled. There isn't anything particularly interesting about the white stuff but the yolk has a noticeable caviar flavor.

Seagulls are obnoxious; This is what revenge looks like.

I can certainly appreciate why they are prepared so simply. I'm not a fan of Norwegian food but this is exactly the kind of stuff that they get right.

Thanks to AL's family we get to scratch one more item off of the Norwegian-wildlife-that-we-would-like-to-eat list!

Keiko's gravrøys

The Natives recently asked us if there was anything we really wanted to do in Norway but had not done yet. The first answer that came to mind was visiting Keiko's burial mound.

Anyone that was in school in Oregon in the mid-nineties remembers raising money to build a rehabilitation tank for Keiko at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Most of us had the opportunity to visit Keiko on field trips (during one of my field trips there was a photographer on-site supporting this product).

After Keiko died he was buried on the shore of the fjord where he had been living. He was a local celebrity so the local school children honored him by building a cairn on top of his grave.

The reason we hadn't visited Keiko yet was because his fjord is in the middle of nowhere and is only accessible by car. The Natives offered to take us on a roadtrip so we hit the road before they could change their minds.

This is the view from an arbitrary parking lot about an hour from Trondheim. Not pictured: cute little seabirds with orange straws for noses that sound like squeaky toys.

I left the safety of the parking lot to get closer to the pink flowers. At one point in time I upset a flock of seagulls and was very relieved when they didn't attack me.

The same location as the preceding photo but looking in the opposite direction.

Becca's geocache-sense was tingling when she saw this large, old tree near the road. She climbed up and took a look around.

Keiko's burial mound attracted thousands of visitors per year for several years after his death.

To get to the beach you have to park your car next to the road and then walk down a hill through a lush meadow. Pretty much everything that is worth seeing in Norway requires some sort of a hike.

The vegetation in the meadow seemed to grow unnaturally large. Pro tip: if you want to grow award-winning squash bury a whale in your garden.

This barn is located about 100m from Keiko's burial mound.

Taknes Fjord seems like a nice place to die.

Most of the stones have artwork or personal messages written on them.

We had a great day and we were happy to see that Keiko was able to spend time in such a beautiful place.