First Snow!

This morning it started snowing for the first time this year. I just wanted to go out to get our breakfast and then had to get out my hat that I got in Norway. I mean it wasn't really snow, more slush, but I reckon that's quite normal here in Hamburg.

 

Anyways, now I am going to go grocery shopping for the weekend. A. is still not better, we went to the doctor yesterday again, since A's condition didn't change since this sickness started on Sunday evening. Let's hope she gets better soon!

~M~

Like in the Good Old Times!

Yesterday in the evening I had a visitor. L., who I met during my internship in Oslo and who is a graduate from the very same university I am studying at right now, visited me. She is home in Germany for one week and since this is close to Bad Honnef she wanted to meet up!

When she arrived we still went to the shops to get some food and then started preparing dinner. It was funny; we had been doing this a couple of times before in Oslo and always got good results, meaning delicious food. This time we cooked pasta with a spinach-cream sauce and stir fried chicken, which is quite simple, but tastes very good. I made this dish just recently with A. in Aachen.

We were sitting the whole evening until 1 o'clock, eating, talking and drinking - a bit of - wine (just a bit, since L. still had to drive home). We talked about this and that and it was like "back in the days" in Oslo. I really enjoyed the evening and was happy to see L. again; she even brought me a present from Norway!

~M~

71°10'21''N

The next morning I got up early! After having seen the Northern Lights the night before the second objective of my trip, visiting the North Cape, was up for that day!

I woke up that morning in a cold cabin. The ship I was traveling on is from 1956 and insulation materials as well as heating systems were not so advanced back in the day. Additionally I had an outside cabin, whose outside "wall" had the freezing waters of the North Atlantic on the other side.

Anyways, I dressed quickly and made my way up to the breakfast room, which was nearly empty. Just two or three people were sitting quietly infront of their coffee and buns, looking out onto the snowy shores of Northern Norway. I investigated the buffet and after a couple of minutes I decided for some basic things like cheese, cold cut and some jam. I was still too drowsy to be brave enough to try all the Norwegian breakfast specialties like rotten fish and so on.

I was sitting alone by the window enjoying the view and the warm air coming out of the heating vents. After all it had been a very cold night in my cabin. I was sitting long at the table and was drinking the horrible instant coffee nevertheless. I just needed to warm up again and since there was no proper alternative I settled with this colored water!

As I said, the room was nearly empty and the people not so talkative. The evening before I hadn't been talking to the people neither; I had been outside most of the time and had just come to the ship. I was still looking for my way around the ship and was looking for "my" place to sit during the day. Most of the other passengers were in their 60s or 70s and had been on the ship for nine or ten days already. They knew each other and had more topics to talk about.

After some time however, one older lady came over and asked me if I could help her with her digital camera. The day night before, when the Northern Lights were up, she had been pressing some buttons on her camera, changed all the settings and wasn't able to reset it. She addressed me in English, but from her accent I realized that she was German-speaking and so I answered to her in our mother tongue.

It turned out, that she was from Switzerland and that she had been on the ship since Bergen and was also going to the North Cape. She invited me over to the other table, where there were more Germans and Swiss. I was resetting her camera and she was really grateful about it and promised not to change the settings again.

Soon the ship arrived in Honningsvåg, the closest port of call of the Hurtigrute to the North Cape. All passengers, who were going on the North Cape Excursion were dressed in warm and windproof clothing and were waiting by the door to disembark.

At the dock the bus that was supposed to bring us to the North Cape was already waiting and since it was something like -25°C in Honningsvåg we all hurried to get in. The excursion guide was from Switzerland and since most of the people were German-speaking she was doing the guiding in both English and German. On the way she was telling about the area and about the history of the North Cape!

At one intersection the plow was already waiting for us; The street up to the North Cape is closed during the winter and is just opened for the bus of Hurtigruten. The bus has to drive behind the plow, which is clearing the streets from the snowdrifts.

We were going through a barren landscape without any trees, everything was covered in snow and the wind was really strong. The snow was flying and it looked totally surreal, I knew I was in the Arctic and it totally felt like it as well! The ride was pretty eventless otherwise; we were going for about 40 minutes over this road and then suddenly at the end of a small hill there it was: The North Cape!

We got out of the bus and the wind was nearly blowing us off our feet. While the rest of the group walk straight into the Nordkapphallen, I walked around the building and went to the North Cape Plateau with the world famous Globe! I was enjoying the few minutes alone at this hostile place; the wind was blowing merciless and the temperatures were far below zero!

I walked around the area and enjoyed the loneliness of this place. I had warm clothes on and so I didnt mind the coldness nor the wind. I walked over to the Children of the World Monument and then after some time into the Nordkapphallen.

It was weird to be in there since it is designed to welcome the thousands of visitors coming every day during summer; now it was deserted and seemed totally over-sized and mispositioned. I walked around the visitor center and watched the 15 minute long movie about the four seasons at the North Cape. I went to the North Cape chapel and the bar, which was closed however.

After a while walking around it was time to go back. I went upstairs again and to the bus, which brought us back to Honningsvåg where we reembarked the M/S Nordstjernen.

After all the North Cape is just a barren and quite boring piece of rock some 307m over the vast emptiness of the Arctic Ocean. However, somehow it is magical; It is officially - not factually - the northernmost point of the European continent, it is one of these famous "ends of the world" and it is simply a place that exhilarates the senses. It is hard to explain, but now I can totally understand the appeal that emanates from this place!

~M~

To the North Cape!

The evening on the ship was pretty eventless. I walked around to get to know the ship and to find all the facilities. The nice thing was, that I had booked an inside cabin without shower and toilet. However, since the ship was nearly empty and just few people needed cabins I had been given an outside cabin with a complete bath! Although it was an outside cabin I had no view. The window was closed and when I asked about it one of the crew members explained, that it was because of the heavy seas in the North that can destroy the glass!

In the evening I was walking around the ship again. It was nice to be on one of the old ships of Hurtigruten where you can really go everywhere; I was walking around the different decks and also to the working areas, meaning the areas where the load is and where the ropes are. I really felt like Tin-tin, who for some reason is always on a ship during most of his stories.

Later I sitting in the salon, was looking out, was reading and listing to music, when the tour leader came to me and told me that this evening the captain would tell something about stockfish and would also let us taste some. Since I anyways didn't had anything else to do I decided to go there.

When the group gathered I realized, that these were basically all passengers on board. I was happy to be on such a small ship and have such a personal treatment. The captain was explaining a lot about the production and history of stockfish and in the end he let us taste some. This wasnt so easy, since the stockfish naturally is quite hard. He was hitting it with a hammer and was hitting and hitting until it was in small pieces and we could eat it!

After this presentation, which had been held on the flag deck of the ship I was quite cold, no wonder when being nearly 500km into the Arctic Circle already. So I went inside to warm up again. I was again sitting in the salon, waiting; The main purpose of my trip to the North was besides the North Cape also to see Northern Lights. The last time I had been in a region where Northern Lights could have occurred was in January; I was with my two flatmates and friends in Finnish Lapland. We were there for nearly a week but had a cloudy sky the whole time and hence didnt see the Northern Lights. This time I really wanted to see them!

So I was sitting and waiting. I had told the reception of the ship, that they could wake me up at any time of the night in case they would come up. I, however, wasnt tired, was way too excited and couldnt sit quietly not to mention sleeping. The whole evening I was putting on my clothes, going outside until I was freezing, going back inside, taking off my clothes and waiting to get warm again. Then the circle started all over again. I was walking around on deck, since I didnt know which direction to look and also to keep warm.

This was going on and on. I was sitting, waiting, walking, putting on clothes, taking them off again, playing around with my camera and so on. Then suddenly at around 12.15 in the night out of nothing, without a sound, without a warning they were there!

Clouds of grey and green were hanging in the sky. First really soft and more like a cloud illuminated by the full moon and then more and more, glowing stronger and stronger in green. Appearing soundless, some staying for some minutes, some vanishing within seconds; some moving fast and hectic over the black sky and some just hanging there not moving at all.

I was just sitting and watching. I was unable to move, it was simply one of the most beautiful things I had seen in my life so far. So majestic and impressive. Just a wonder of nature, which is hard to describe; something everybody has to experience himself! I had tears in my eyes and was just staring into the sky in amazement!

I stayed outside for I dont know how long. The colors got stronger and weaker, the intensity was changing all the time. I had been putting my camera onto the tripod and just pressed the release button every time the camera made a noise. I couldnt take my eyes of the sky and didnt even feel the cold!

After, as I said, I dont know how long. The Northern Lights stopped as quickly as they appeared and I waited for some time more, hoping they would come back. As they didnt I realized, that I was freezing and went inside. I went to my cabin, had a hot shower and went happily to bed! One of the things I had come for was fulfilled, the next thing was planned for the next day and so I fell asleep with a smile on my face!

~M~

Office Christmas Party!

On Friday we had our office Christmas Party, which was a lot of fun. Everybody was supposed to bring some food so that we would have a big and diverse buffet to eat from. The theme of the Christmas party – no good party without a proper theme – was “red”, which meant, that, like on St. Patrick’s day with green, everybody had to wear at least a small item, that was red.

This had cause trouble before for me, since I don’t wear red. It doesn’t really suit me and the only red t-shirts I have I use for sleeping or sports. Also the only reddish tie I have is in Germany already and just wearing red boxers… well I don’t know if this would have been accepted. So I was on the quest the days before for a red tie. There were actually a lot of ties available also in all kinds of reddish, but no “Christmas red”.

Eventually I found one red tie, which was kind of ok and kind of affordable. Everything I had found before had been really expensive and just not worth the money.

Anyways, we all were dressed up and started to eat at around 1 o’clock. The buffet was diverse and the table was nicely decorated including the presents that we had bought for each other. The game was that everybody had drawn a name from a hat and had to buy a present for this person. Then you were supposed to write a sentence or some adjectives about this person, so that everybody would have to guess for whom that present was. “Simple” you might think, this is exactly what I did as well!

However, it seemed to be more complicated than it sounds. Some people forgot to write a sentence at all, some wrote about themselves, so that the person, who got the present would have to guess from whom that present was and one person wrote about the person for whom the present was and thought, that additionally the present should represent the giving-person. It was a total mess and our colleague S. who had organized everything was totally disappointed!

Anyways, we all got our presents and were laughing tears at all the sentences, poems and even songs from and for the people in the office. We had great fun and actually this total mess about, who understood the instructions how, was the funniest part about it! As a gift I got from F., who is extremely funny and was the one who did the instructions least, a very nice sentence about myself and a picture of my boss! He is known for giving funny presents and so it was perfect, that I was the last one to receive my present, since this was really the peak of laughter!

The party went on and on and we had good talks and a lot of fun. Nobody got drunk, there was no drama between two drunk girls for no apparent reason and nobody fell asleep in the office and got their face painted with a mustache. I really don’t know how I came up with these examples, it’s not like something like this happened; we are all a happy big family, who likes to have loads of fun!

~M~