Another day – another post

So the day started by us at least waking up and not having died of hypothermia in the night, so things were looking up. Some of the brave (insane) decided to go for a swim, the rest remained dirty and smelly as usual. Packed up with the usual hassle and fuss, unpacked and repacked (getting used to this by now) and away we went, no coffee……a minor crisis.

Drove to the ferry and a plan actually worked, the ferry turned up within 10 minutes and we were away- Due to our normal form of chaos everyone wandered in different directions, bought some coffee, regretted it immediately, was obviously some of the worst coffee in Norway, possibly even in Scandinavia, admit the bread roll was actually quite good though. Short trip only about 30 minutes and we were back on the road.
And on the positive side we forgot, could not actually pay for the ferry, which definately helps out budget.

Drove a long way through some countryside with trees, non-elks, snow, more snow, and some mountains and got to Alta, where there was a normal discussion regarding hunger, food, immediate need for something. Drove around the town, found a syrian food place in a carpark, looked actually quite good, but no, nothing for us as sold out, the boss was unhappy, saying so many people today, nothing left, actually gave us some fish spring rolls (Syrian?) which were delicious, and made us regret even more that it was sold out. So then of course to the next garage, where at least we finally got a decent coffee, and a surprisingly high quality hotdog. Bought a new cable to connect our phones to the radio, and the previous one has a loose connection, which meant no music for a bit, and the added difficulty of driving why trying to move the cable into the exact position where it worked. Tried the radio, which was an experience, not in a good way, its possible that Norwegian radios are the best in the world, but not speaking norwegian this somehow got lost.

So toilet breaks and coffee later, it was back on the road again, more driving, and then more driving, changed drivers a few times, didn’t help everyone tired today. Drove through the same sort of end of the world (moon, if there was snow) landscape and finally arrived at the massive tourist trap known as the North Cape. The Norwegians are obviously preparing for when their oil runs out by finding alternative ways of making money, very successfully too one has to say, entry of 270 kr per person, the carpark jammed solid, and it was a big carpark, full of buses, full of pensioners too. Personally got out to smoke, wandered a bit up the road, waited for the Team, who then having only paid for three people, meant we could have a coffee, in the disastrous dump that has been built there. There is a museum, something about Thailand (don’t know?), a restaurant you could not use, as was closed due to a public function, a piano for fuck’s sake, which actually got played with your usual hotel lobby shite, luckily, it seemed to be the end of his working day so he left, which was positive. A souvenir shop (of course), and a coffee bar, oh and a cinema showing panoramic something films. Wandered outside onto the gravel and down to the stunning sculpture of a globe, managed to push a bus load of pensioners out of the way and get a quick photo, before the next bus turned up, (next bus contained a choir, who obviously then all stood next to the globe and sung Christmas songs (was in Norwegian so I may be wrong there).

Decided to leave, having taken as much excitement as we could for the day, now about 21:30, so time to work out where to sleep for the night, a certain lack of enthusiasm regarding camping again, even noting that the snow means the tent pegs will go in easier were not convincing. Spoke to another team, the ones who had given us gin and vodka, and discovered two things, one, that one of the team members had spent the day after the party being sick a lot, which slowed down their driving as they kept having to let him out, and two that there was a youth hostel not that far away. Drove to where we thought the hostel was, to find out we were wrong, drove to a hotel to ask if they knew where the hostel was (they didn’t) contacted the other team again to find out where we should go, and wow….found it and they have space. Yay! Now in a 4 bunk room (actually 6 but we are only using 4), it’s warm, we could use the kitchen, it’s dark, they have curtains, everyone knackered and pleased.

Anyway now 2:30, still light outside, and time for bed, tomorrow it’s off to Finland, to see what fun we can have there.

PS. Forgot to mention, for some reason we do not have a map of north Norway, so have spent the last two days navigating with an ADAC Scandinavia map, which is possibly not the most detailed, luckily there are not that many roads to choose from up here.