Tante Aslaug turned 86 aboard the ferry, Trollfjord, today. We stopped in Hammerfest this afternoon where she took a sightseeing trip around the city and at dinner tonight one of her granddaughters that used to work on this ship, had flowers delivered to our dinner table. The whole dinner staff came and sang the traditional Norwegian birthday song to her and she got an extra large serving of marzipan cake for dessert. She was overwhelmed with all the attention. It will be a birthday she won’t soon forget.
We had incredibly sunny weather today and even warm temperatures on the top deck when there wasn’t a cross breeze. I’m sure everyone enjoyed a little snooze in the sunshine today as it was nearly intoxicating.
I’ve been torn between wanting to be outside in the sunshine and wanting to be inside watching the “minute by minute” coverage of another Hurtigruten boat that’s going on the same route we are on, just a few days behind us. Today they were in Aalesund and up in the Geiranger fjord. The coverage of their voyage is addicting as they have 24 cameras on the ferry and they are zooming in on everything they pass. Of course the locals have gone nuts for this so many smaller boats are shadowing the ferry and people that live along the shore are waving flags and holding up signs. Every port where they arrive has been greeting them with marching bands and huge crowds (except Aalesund). It’s absolutely 100% coverage with no commercial breaks. I think it’s going to be 163 hours of nonstop filming to cover the trip from Bergen to Kirkenes. We will be meeting that ferry tomorrow evening so I just made a HI KALEB sign to hold up, in case they zoom in on our ship, too. Everyone on board is talking about it and the newspapers say that half of Norway is watching it. They are so proud of their coastal ferry system, with good reason.
I wasn’t able to get ahold of Kaleb all day as his phone battery was dead. Finally, at midnight he called us when we were walking around the town of Tromsø. He was just fine but had some stories to tell me when we get home. He’s glad there is only two days left of school, I think.
Tromsø was alive with all kinds of drunks in the middle of the night. The sun was still shining brightly so it was a unique experience walking the streets at that hour. We passed by one hotel where a bunch of people were out on the balcony and they started singing to us. We stood there and listened for a long while as they found it pretty entertaining to have an audience. I think previously they were just singing to the wind.
We also got off the boat today at noon in Hammerfest, the city that boasts it’s the world’s most northern city – even higher than outer Sibera. It wasn’t a particularly cute town but it had a lot more going for it than Kirkenes. Unfortunately, the streets were all ripped up as they are setting down new cobblestone, so walking the streets wasn’t terribly pleasant. Hammerfest got hit the hardest during the war and every single building and house was destroyed so what it was like when Kory’s parents met there, will never be known. Their engagement/wedding rings that I wear around my neck on a necklace were purchased in that town in 1939. I couldn’t even find a jeweler today. And we asked if there were any antique or thrift stores and one guy said there used to be but no one wanted to buy anything second hand, so it shut down. I guess there wouldn’t be that much cool old stuff anyway if everything burned sixty years ago. It’s a growing town, and it shows, with many large condo complexes popping up along the waterfront. It has over 51 nationalities living in that town of only 10,000 people. Just off shore on a small island is a natural gas processing plant. They take the gas up from under the sea, freeze it down to 160 degrees Celsius and it reduces the size by over 600 times. They put it on container ships and ship it to Spain and America. Norway doesn’t even use it themselves but they sure employ a lot of people because of it.
Tonight, our ferry stopped in the middle of nowhere and a small fishing boat came right up next to it to deliver fresh shrimp from the sea. Everyone enjoyed a feast out on the top deck. This certainly isn’t a cruise ship, but the nice little extra touches they provide keep it from being terribly boring. I still would rather be home, however.
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