Day 46 – 49: Leaping South

It’s been a while. I’ll do this post and the next ones a bit differently since my way of travelling has changed as well. So maybe let’s begin with that.

Some of you might know that I originally had planned to cycle back down south through Norway. I have made the decision to not do that and cycle Norway another time. At first glance that probably seems like a disappointment, a waste of an opportunity but my reasonings and motives are quite thorough and well thought out. In fact it’s a decision that weighed on my mind for quite a bit, being torn between different needs and the scale of the decision. After all, you don’t get the chance to cycle down Norway every day. But after the long time on the road alone I’ve come to realize that I long for some social interaction, or specifically, I long for a friend a bit of “home”. Due to Covid and Finland not being to most touristy country I didn’t meet a lot of people on the road. In addition the weather in northern Norway is really just awful without a change in sight currently. Having been absolutely battered and pushed past my limits during the last days on the road it seemed like misery was what would await me if I went back onto the road. If I was fresh and not already quite expended, I probably would be able to put up with it better but it really just seemed like not a lot of fun. Furthermore almost my whole family will be on holidays in Switzerland at a place I adore during the later half of August. I don’t know when the next time would be that everyone can come together like that and knowing that in my new mental state I’ll be able to enjoy the presence of all of them in full for the first time, it’s something I really just don’t want to miss. Last, my budget got thrown totally off by my need to turn to hotels due to the weather and I’d have to live extremely tight to get through Norway.

What I’ve seen from Norway by the time I made the decision to postpone the Norway part of my adventure, was truly breathtaking and amazing. It further reinforced my desire to cycle this wonderful country. But add up all the reasonings above, I am sure that doing it another time is the right way to go about it. After all, I want to give Norway the attention, love and time it deserves and I think I will be able to enjoy it way more when fresh and the circumstances are different. I’d rather be patient than waste away what will be a stunning adventure because I’m forcing myself to do it when I’m not in the place to do so.

So what does that mean? It means I’ll be taking buses and trains back down south to Kristiansand where a good friend of mine is living and I’ll be spending some needed and awesome social time. On the way down I’ll stop by some cities that I’ll take a day to explore before moving on. Tromsø, Bodø Trondheim and Oslo. After Kristiansand, I’ll be heading to Denmark and will most likely take the train to Kolding to visit Jascha and Frida and spend some time there before taking the last train back home. So now that you are up to speed with my plans, I’ll take you along the first days of public transport. Please excuse the sometimes bad quality of the photos, in the bus I can only use my phone to take pictures.

Tromsø

After that wonderful day at the Nordkapp it was an early alarm the next day so I could catch the bus from Honningsvåg to Alta where I’d transfer to another bus to Tromsø. The whole thing got me a bit nervous as you can never be quite sure if your bicycle will fit into the bus with all the other luggage and how much of a beating my beautiful love will have to endure. It turned out to be an absolute non-issue though. Everything went smoothly and before I knew it I arrived in Tromsø in the evening. The ride there was extremely scenic with the fjords painting that typical Norwegian landscape. Truly breathtaking and getting me very excited for my cycling trip up there one day. Due to the terrible weather though a lot of times you couldn’t see anything and in addition to that I also dozed off quite frequently, no matter how hard I tried to stay awake to take in the scenery. Good thing I’ll be coming back and explore everything thoroughly.

Once I arrived and got my things stowed in the hostel I felt a fresh spark of energy and decided to head to a cable car not far away that would take me up a fjell with a wonderful view over the city and it’s surroundings. Thank you very much Kuma for recommding me that! It was a good decision as the weather wasn’t too bad right then and it looked to be worse the next day. It made for a really lovely and relaxed round off to a long day of travelling. Even if the weather was pretty bad up there and the view mostly obscured by fog, there were some short openings to take a couple of pictures and take it all in. I have to say the area is really gorgeous and I would love to go for a hike there some day when the weather is a bit better. Oh and whilst walking to the cable car I came by the famous Ishavskatedralen – the Arctic Cathedral – what an amazing building!

The next day was designated to exploring Tromsø and doing some fun activities. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t friendly so my time strolling around was a bit shorter than I had hopen. Non the less I got to pick up on that typical northern cozy feel in the city and it’s friendly, cute vibe. Since there is an university I’m really wondering what living and studying here would be like.

I went to visit the Polaria, an aquarium and museum about Arctic sea life. Whilst not being very large and the information provided being limited it still made for an interesting time. The main attraction definitely were the seals though! Such cute, funny and apparently really intelligent animals! To stimulate them they train them and surprise them all the time with new games which made for a very adorable and entertaining show. They clapped their flippers, made jumps, did things with balls and so on. As always the visit also left you with a somber note again as water pollution and climate change were obviously quite a big topic in there. I’m sounding like a broken record by now, but we’ve got to do so much better.

Afterwards I went to visit a small hidden shop that got all sorts of amazing, slightly, nerdy stuff. Comics, trading cards, all sorts of fantasy related things and merchandise and… Well honestly there was just everything and I’m sure you’d discover new stuff every time you’d visit. It was such a cute and wonderful place.

I went back to the hostel, did some reading and then joined some others in the kitchen. That evening was one of the most precious ones on the trip. After such a long time alone, the lively conversation, story-telling, joking and exchanging of experiences and knowledge was the most wonderful soul food. Time flew by and I was just full of that warm feeling you get when spending time with wonderful people. Everyone there had such interesting stories and experiences to tell and Guido the polyglot, who was about to move to Svalbard captured us all with his knowledge about that far off, exotic place and his thoughts on what will await him there working as a hotel receptionist. Really really good times!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Bodø

After that amazing evening it was already time for the next bus the next morning. I would have twelve hours of bus ahead of me and with it also the worry if everything will go smoothly. But it did. For most of the time I unfortunately didn’t see anything of the scenery as the fog and rain were so dense you couldn’t see past a meter. If you did get a glimpse of the surroundings though, it was breathtaking every single time. This country really is just incredible.

The highlight of the day was definitely my encounter with Erik (forgive me if it’s written with a c) though. I saw him sit next to me on the bus from Tromsø to Narvik already but it was when he helped me load my bicycle onto the bus to Bodø that we got talking. He’s from Kenia, having spent time in London studying and now continuing said studies in Norway. He knew Basel due to football which really kick started our conversation. We talked about travelling, his studies, football, the world and the absolute highlight was when he told me that he lived in Kristiansand. What are the chances? Now I’m heading there already having plans to meet two people. I have to say these encounters with other people the last days have really been somewhat of a bonfire for my soul and I cherish them quite a bit.

At half past ten in the evening I finally arrived in Bodø and to my despair found out that the train to Trondheim I had planned to take the next day was now fully booked. Knowing my budget I really didn’t want to spend one more night here at the hotel so the first thing I did this morning was to head for the train station to talk to someone from the train service. The station was unmanned though. After some thinking I decided to buy a ticket for the night train leaving at 09:10p.m. this evening since that saves me a night at the hotel and should be a fun experience anyway. At half past 7 tomorrow I should arrive in Trondheim where I’ll explore the city and then take the train to Oslo the next day. But for now I just called the customer service of the train service asking them to reserve a seat for me as well as buy a bicycle ticket from them. It’s a bit complicated as I bought a 3 trips InterRail ticket and the app from the train operator here only allows me to buy a bicycle ticket together with a ticket for me. So I guess I’ll be calling them a bunch the next days.

After having organised my journey to Trondheim and being quite happy about the outcome I went back to the hotel to store my stuff until the evening and asked for a good activity to do here for the mean time. I was recommended a hike which I went to but had to turn back from due to the weather. Now I’m sitting in the hotel lobby writing this, waiting for time to pass and my train ride.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•