One of the first questions people ask when they’ve heard I’ve been to Norway is “Why there?” Honestly, I don’t have a good answer…but why not there? After failing to see the Northern Lights in Iceland, I figured this would be a good opportunity to try again (spoiler alert: I failed to see them yet again on this trip). Norwegian also has cheap flights to Oslo so that was another added incentive. So after coaxing my sister Shevonne and a couple of our friends Jessica and Candra to join the adventure, we set forth over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend.
I usually HATE getting to the airport early but good thing we gave ourselves plenty of time to check-in and get through security because both lines were equally long at the Norwegian terminal at JFK. Once we finally got through, it was practically time to board. Since I usually give my fellow passengers a once over before I get on the plane, I proceeded with my typical routine and saw a man that immediately raised my spidey senses. Think Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean…but even dirtier and more unkempt (if that is even possible). Of course, he sat right across from our group on the airplane…just our luck. At first, it was pretty funny…he asked to borrow a charger for his 1980s Nokia cell phone; then he wanted to borrow a pair of headphones from me; and then he tried to make a phone call leaning over my seat to get closer to the window for better reception while the plane was taking off in the air. Needless to say, I was thoroughly entertained before I drifted off to sleep…only to be awoken by Frank (yup, we found out his name) complaining about his TV not working, popping two sets of pills, asking for a meal (even though he didn’t pre-pay for it), and then when the drinks cart came by, he stole an entire bottle of wine off of it (I really can’t make this stuff up even if I tried). He even fake punched one of the flight attendants. When we finally made it to Oslo, everyone on the plane was relieved…and Frank was sent to the holding center.
After all of that excitement, we were ready to get our trip started. Since we only had a limited time in Oslo (less than 24 hours), we decided it would be quicker and cheaper (since there was 4 of us) to take a taxi to the hotel…big mistake. The cab ride ended up being about 40 minutes long and costing us about $140US! Needless to say, that was the first and last time we took a cab in Oslo (tip: do NOT take a taxi in Oslo…always use public transportation!). After checking in to the Thon Hotel Opera which was centrally located in the city center, we put down our luggage and wasted no time exploring the city. Since it was winter, a lot of the museums closed at 1pm so we had to make a decision between the Munch museum and the Viking ship museum…we decided on the Viking museum since some of the more famous Munch paintings that we wanted to see weren’t at the museum. After grabbing some “nibbles” at the hotel bar (seriously, they were called nibbles on the menu), we were off and running.
Armed with our map of the city and Oslo pass (highly recommended since it offers free entry to a ton of tourist attractions as well as free bus/train throughout the city), we were off. Our first stop was the Viking ship museum which took about 30 minutes by bus from our hotel.
After spending about 45 minutes there (you really don’t need any more time there than that), we headed to the Vigeland Sculpture Park (world’s largest sculpture park made by a single artist) which featured really interesting (and bizarre) sculptures.
The plan after that was to go tobogganing at Frognerseteren (which is an old Olympic site) but seeing as there was no snow on the ground, we decided against it. Instead we did a quick change and headed to the waterfront to Onda Sea where we had dinner. After one bite, we understood why the restaurant was so highly rated…everything was delicious and the service was beyond top notch. I had the creamy fish soup to start followed by the arctic char and some sort of specialty drink with aquavit (I couldn’t come to Norway and not try the aquavit!).
By the way, in the 6 or so times we got on a bus today, no one ever checked our pass to ensure it was actually valid (they are WAY too trusting in Norway!).
After learning our lesson from the expensive cab ride, we opted for the Flytoget train to the airport (way cheaper and got us there in half the time). We had a 9:30am flight to Kirkenes but interestingly, after we checked ourselves and bags at the kiosk at the domestic terminal, no one ever checked our IDs (scary but true).
After safely landing in Kirkenes, we took a taxi to the Thon Hotel where we were to be picked up for our transfer to the Snowhotel. First though, we had a quick lunch while we waited. I had the king crab pizza and a Solo amidst a nice snowy backdrop.
Shortly after, our driver to the Snowhotel arrived and it was a short, ten-minute ride to the Snowhotel. After checking into the Snowhotel, we had our first activity…snowshoeing! It was actually a lot of fun and pretty easy at first…until we started getting to the deeper snow and up the steeper hills…that is when we really felt it! Our guide served us some “hot juice” (of course, I’m thinking a hot caprisun since I didn’t see where she would’ve kept anything hot but out of nowhere she pulled out a thermos and some cups and poured us this really tasty berry tea which we all drank gratefully) and then we began our trek back to the hotel.
Continuing our cold weather adventure, we then went to visit the reindeers.
After a quick tour of the Snowhotel to see the different rooms and get our welcome crowberry juice shot, we went to the lavuu for the reception where we roasted reindeer sausages and received our cabin assignments.
After we put our luggage in storage (you can’t keep it with you in the ice room or you would wake up to a very frozen suitcase!), it was dinner time where we ate reindeer and arctic char and had some kind of berry soup for dessert (everything was delicious, yet again).
We also received a quick demonstration from one of the guides on how to get into the sleeping bag (first put on wool socks, then wrap yourself in a sheet, then put on your bank robber looking black balaclava before jumping into the warm, sleeping bag and keep your coat underneath the sleeping bag so it doesn’t get cold during the night). We also were told a million times to make sure we use the bathroom before we got tucked into bed.
We headed to the ice bar after dinner for a couple of vodka shots in ice glasses and then resigned for the night.
While it was cold in the ice room (27 degrees Farenheit…yup, below freezing!), it was actually really warm in the sleeping bag to the point where I felt incredibly hot. Although we were surrounded by blocks of ice in a room that was 0 degrees, it was incredibly comfortable. I woke up around midnight to check on the Northern Lights but sadly, it was snowing and cloudy outside so no sighting. While I was up, I used the opportunity to go to the bathroom and then got back into the sleeping bag…of course, I had to use the bathroom two minutes later (clearly I was regretting those vodka shots at this point) but I was not getting out of that thing until it was time to wake up!
After taking a shower and eating a light breakfast the next day, we took a brief nap (for some reason, we were all still quite tired!) until it was time for our husky sledding. We were all super excited…and so were the dogs! It was really bumpy but so exhilarating…the one thing they don’t tell you is that when it first starts, because the dogs are so excited, they are constantly using the bathroom as they are running. Imagine excrement flying at your face while you sit helplessly in a sled with no way to stop…luckily, none hit us in the face for which I am eternally grateful!
After the husky sledding, it was time to check out of the Snowhotel and head back to the Thon Hotel for the transfer to our next activity. Barents Safari picked us up for the king crab fishing…but it was definitely not what we expected. I thought we would be cutting into the ice and pulling up the crabs from there but the guides literally just pulled up a cage from over a hill so that was a little disappointing.
While those were being cooked, we snowmobiled across the frozen fjord. A lot of the ice was already melting (and this was the middle of winter) since the temperatures have been warmer than typical (damn you global warming!) which made it very hard to drive through on the snowmobile since it was slushy. However, we ended up making it back in one piece despite a couple of scary moments being stuck in the melting snow.
Next up was our king crab feast in a lavuu (think teepee). Our guides set out our crab feast before us and we immediately dug in…no drawn butter or fancy herbs was needed. It was just that good and fresh. We literally stuffed our faces until we couldn’t lift our arms anymore.
We were then offered “dessert” in the form of dried reindeer heart…tasted a bit like beef jerky so I stopped after the first one.
Since both the Thon and Scandic hotels were fully booked when we were ready to book our lodging, we ended up staying at the Sollia Guesthouse which was 2 miles from the Russian border. We heard there were three different time zones close to where we were (one each for Finland, Norway, and Russia) and then we experienced it…the time on our iPhones literally jumped around several times from Russian time back to Norwegian time. Since we had no idea what time it really was, we set about five different alarms to make sure we didn’t miss our transfer in the morning! (side note: I stayed up a bit that night to see if I would be able to catch the Northern Lights but again, it was too cloudy, so it was another failed attempt).
In the morning, we were awoken by frantic banging on our door from Shev and Jess who thought it was two hours later than it actually was because their phones were picking up the Russian time. They almost had a heart attack because they thought we had been kidnapped! (Tip: if you are staying near the Finnish or Russian border, keep an eye on the time fluctuations on your phone!). Needless to say, Candra and I had a good laugh because the frightened looks on their faces was just priceless (they on the other hand were PISSED!). We had time for a quick breakfast before our transfer back home (no “Franks” on our flight this time around!). My first “cold” trip was definitely all types of cold at times but overall, would definitely do it again in a heartbeat (with an appearance from the Northern Lights hopefully next time!).
Toya's Travels 
2 Comments