To Kirkenes and Nord Norge
In this episode, we make it to the start of our bicycle adventure!
Here’s the TLDR:
- we ate a bunch and bought stuff in Oslo
- we went to Kirkenes, waaaaaay up north
shopping shopping shopping
Today we had to buy things, so we jumped on the tram and quested all over town.
Somehow, malls look the same everywhere.
Heidi bought a sim card/phone plan with MyCall - solid deal for travel, with free voice and SMS to the states, and reasonable data rates. I’ve been having a great experience using my US Google Fi plan over here, so decided to stick with that so my number stays active. There’s a chance they’ll shut it down on me if I use it for too long here, but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.
DNT Hytte Key - achievement unlocked!
We stopped at the Norwegian hiking organization (DNT)’s shop in search of maps, had a great conversation, and found a set of 5 road maps that will give us enough details to backstop us in case of cell signal loss. While there, I joined the DNT for a year, which got us an access key for all the DNT huts. They’re affordably priced and sited in some cool places, so hopefully we’ll be able to make good use of that key.
The Domkirke is a standard-issue imposing church on the outside,
but the ceiling mural may be the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.
Absolutely unique and not to be missed,
but I didn’t take a photo so you’ll have to visit yourself.
Finally, the book store! And oh what a book store it was. We bought a couple of classic (or should-be-classic) Norwegian-author children’s books, with generous help from the staff. We’ll try to learn en litt bit mer Norsk from them if we ever have the energy after riding all day. The book store’s “cafe” was more like a library lounge, but super comfortable, naturally lit, and with some kind of coffee contraption. It was there that we planned our next move.
The book store “cafe” at Norli. What a spot to plan a walk!
Sentralen att. #2
After canceling dinner at Sentralen on night two, we decided to give it another shot tonight. The walk over was short and sweet, with a brief interruption to ogle one possible future for electric vehicles.
A concept Electric Vehicle from Nio in the Oslo showroom.
And I though gullwing Teslas were a lot…
The restaurant had an upscale feel, upper mid-tier price tag, decent if very formal service, and interesting if unspectacular food. Heidi and I have both relaxed our normal “veg unless we hunted it” food regime while traveling here, and dinner notably included a very tasty bone marrow dish. Heidi wound up with a plate of kinda weird lamb, with lots of butter and either citrus or passionfruit notes in the herby sauce. The exact fruit is still a matter of some debate. It was great to get out and celebrate our trip properly, and I’m very glad we made it to Sentralen on the second attempt.
After this, it looks like I’m going to have to try cooking marrow some time.
Botanical gardens and walk along Motzfedtgate
After dinner, we took a walk out to the botanical gardens, which I’m super excited to spend more time in if we make it back to the city. We learned that Eastern North America’s skunk cabbage is rapidly expanding its range here, and glanced at the “Viking garden”, which collects plants important to early local populations. Mostly, we spent our walk like lost tourists, searching for the bathroom. I did the public a service and added a pin for the garden’s WC to google maps. May no one ever work so hard to find it again!
On the walk over, we rambled through a street carnival (complete with rides), a super neat north/east African neighborhood I’d be interested in exploring, and eventually past the barcode district, named for it’s skyline of black and white high-rise buildings. I did a terrible job of taking photos, so you’ll have to bear with a shot of the city center.
After the gardens (is the title of my next novel)
When we first arrived here, we had a heck of a time arranging bicycle storage, and finally wound up taking our bikes (in a tiny shuttle) to the B&B where we would spend our last night in Oslo. It was time for the reunion. We took the miraculous Flytoget train back to the airport, met Camilla who was dancing on the side of the road, chatted on the shuttle ride back to Gardermoen B&B, and headed up.
Heidi was feeling much better today, but still recovering from the sick. She took a hot shower and got ready for bed, while I went out into the night searching for history. I saw an ancient stone monument with purported mystical powers (Vigsteinen, which somebody stood up between 500BC and 500 CE). Then I tried to find a burial mound in the woods across the street, and scared the heck out of myself wandering around in the perpetual dusk, so I ran full-tilt back to the hotel and arrived breathing heavily and all sweated out. Go to bed, ridiculous human.
To Kirkenes (pr. Sheer-kenes)
Can you spot the bike boxes? It’s like “Where’s Waldo?” but boring.
Luggage into shuttle, get on a plane, get off a plane. It was about this time when I started worrying about whether I brought warm enough gear for the trip. It was time for us to re-build our bikes, and we certainly couldn’t do it out on the curb in the wind.
Norway’s so different - the airport staff couldn’t have cared less what we were doing in their lobby, and in the couple hours it took us to unpack, set up shop, re-assemble, pack our bags, and head out for a test ride, exactly one guy came over to say hi. In US, it would be everybody staring and saying something.
I got super bad wobbles, checked the headest preload, and my headset’s star nut started to slip. Uh-oh. Fortunately, a star nut is mostly just responsible for bearing adjustment, so I set the preload as well as I could, tightened down the stem bolts and headed to town. Tomorrow, we’ll try to find a bike shop.
Ready to roll!
The landscape
It’s still winter here, in mid-May. There’s snow on the ground, ice over most of the lakes, and the trees (birches and maybe some willows) are leafless and brown.
Fortunately, the town of Kirkenes doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The playscapes are jovial, the slides inexplicably dangerous and terrifying,
and there are adorable crab things everywhere.
New Friends
- The desk clerk at the Scandic Kirkenes, who called us crazy Americans, told us of the legendary Lars Monson, and was super over-the-top helpful always. Thank you!
- Nox sweet licorice - like starburst but grown up just a little.
- Two kooky kids who spent their evening throwing soccer balls at buildings and mostly missing the windows. They decided to join us briefly for dinner.
