We arrived in Oslo by an overnight ferry; great value for money since you get travel and a bed for the night for one price. We would be flying out of Oslo later that afternoon, so we decided to walk around semi-aimlessly and get a feel for the city. Oslo was wet and slippery! There was a fine rain coming down the whole time we were there. To be fair, nothing really stood out in Oslo, but it was a really nice place. I'd consider living there one day. It's another place I'd like to take Lain.
We stopped by the Google office for lunch, which was really good, before heading up to the airport for our flight to Tromsø. I think that Tromsø was the part of the trip that I was looking forward to the most. It is over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, would be experiencing Polar Night while we were there (sun doesn't rise the whole time we are there), and it also happens to be one of the best places on earth to see the Northern Lights!
We were there for two nights. The first was spent driving miles and miles, from island to island to catch a glimpse of the lights. Nothing. But the moon was bright and so we were able to get a feel for how the northern part of Norway looked. Lots of mountains and fjords. We got back around 2 or 3 in the morning and got some sleep.
The next day was such an adventure that we didn't even try and see the lights again. We drove for a couple of hours until we arrived in Lapland, northern Finland. There is a national park right across the border, with mountains and lakes that were covered in snow. Six miles away from where we parked, Norway, Sweden, and Finland met at one point. As we were getting our snow pants on and gearing ourselves up for a hike, two Swedish guys (the only people we saw all day) got back to their car. They told us how the snow was a meter deep and the trail markers were buried in snow. They turned back after a few miles. They also reminded us that it was going to be pitch black very soon.
We weren't super prepared (in fact, we were hardly prepared at all), so we thought we'd head out and hike a mile or so, just to say we'd done it. The guys were right, the snow was deep. It was cold, -8 celsius, but hiking through the snow felt good. We felt pretty adventurous and really excited that we were out in the middle of nowhere in Lapland, and so we decided we would just go for it.
One of the crazy things was that Google Maps worked up there. Even though our phones were on airplane mode, we could still see exactly where we were when we zoomed in. I think if this wasn't the case, we might not have made it to where we were trying to go. The hike took about 8 hours or so, and we covered 15 miles.
We did the majority of it on the frozen lake, since it was so much quicker to walk there than through the deep snow on the mountains or through the trees lower down. As we walked, we would sometimes hear the ice, and navigate away from anywhere that we thought might be dangerous. At one point, we both heard the ice groan and crack quite badly, so we jumped back on to the land. We mostly stayed pretty close to the edge. If we fell through there, we'd get a leg wet, but we would be ok, but there were times when I thought that if one of us went through the ice completely, we would be in serious trouble. On the way back, we crossed the lake from Sweden to Finland, and we weren't close to the edge at all. That was one of the times I thought we could get into serious trouble. We were hours from the car, in the middle of nowhere, with no way to contact anyone.
Looking back, it was a pretty crazy hike! It was fun, but pretty brutal. I hadn't had a proper nights sleep in a while, and so my body was struggling on the way back. I'd stumble around for a while, then my body would give up and I'd fall over, get back up again, and stumble on. The last few miles were tough, we were on the mountainside going through trees because the ice didn't sound good.
We weren't super prepared (in fact, we were hardly prepared at all), so we thought we'd head out and hike a mile or so, just to say we'd done it. The guys were right, the snow was deep. It was cold, -8 celsius, but hiking through the snow felt good. We felt pretty adventurous and really excited that we were out in the middle of nowhere in Lapland, and so we decided we would just go for it.
One of the crazy things was that Google Maps worked up there. Even though our phones were on airplane mode, we could still see exactly where we were when we zoomed in. I think if this wasn't the case, we might not have made it to where we were trying to go. The hike took about 8 hours or so, and we covered 15 miles.
We did the majority of it on the frozen lake, since it was so much quicker to walk there than through the deep snow on the mountains or through the trees lower down. As we walked, we would sometimes hear the ice, and navigate away from anywhere that we thought might be dangerous. At one point, we both heard the ice groan and crack quite badly, so we jumped back on to the land. We mostly stayed pretty close to the edge. If we fell through there, we'd get a leg wet, but we would be ok, but there were times when I thought that if one of us went through the ice completely, we would be in serious trouble. On the way back, we crossed the lake from Sweden to Finland, and we weren't close to the edge at all. That was one of the times I thought we could get into serious trouble. We were hours from the car, in the middle of nowhere, with no way to contact anyone.
Looking back, it was a pretty crazy hike! It was fun, but pretty brutal. I hadn't had a proper nights sleep in a while, and so my body was struggling on the way back. I'd stumble around for a while, then my body would give up and I'd fall over, get back up again, and stumble on. The last few miles were tough, we were on the mountainside going through trees because the ice didn't sound good.
