A Fit Of Peaks
Woo and many would add Hoo. Flipping North I tell you. Way up in the Arctic Circle. It’s glorious gorgeous and soooooo friendly! It’s even Arctic Pride now in Tromsø the most Northern City on Earth! Fave place after Bergen I’d say. Done 3 bars even an 1877 microbrewery and another which is one of the most relaxed mini-chain of bars on this planet called No Stress where people are chatty, play cards and scrabble, and drink beers and cocktails in a pretty smiley way. Mind you, back home at The Bridge & The Clapham North they still smile at me (in pity probably). Thanks folks.
Tromsø then. They were eating supper at 15.15 here today…it’s so dark and very Christmassy too….but really really lovely in its own way. Olde Worlde if you like. Whereas in June they have daylight all day huh. Go Figure… couple of little chats about Trump with some of the local tourists, but hey who cares? At the moment…. I just keep saying rather patheticahippily: STOP THE KILLING.
That’s my Ben Elton politico mo Dear Reader.
Meantime it’s onwards and upwards to my furthest North I Will Ever Visit….The North Cape….
“When you look to the left hand side, and then look to the right hand side, you will see there is not too much to see….”
Thank you Lili. Our tour guide on the coach was telling us a lot about the North Cape journey. Also, reindeer. There are mo reindeer on the island. There are also no fish at present. They fish a lot but in Summer and leave the StockFish to hang and dry for up to 4 months. Not codswallop I promise you.
Then we reach the North Cape, or “The Northernmost Coach Park mit Giftenshoppen” in the Arctic. After a relaxing beer and two failed attempts at getting to stand next to the metal globe thing, I decide to head back to the bus which gusts from side to side with the Force 98 Gale. Apparently 300,000 people visited here last year, and only four got blown away. I didn’t want to be that statistic so my beautiful iPhone 16 Pro Max did its job including recording some wind sounds (not from my stomach I might add)….
Next and Final Stopp: Kirkenes.
Today is Day 10 and we’ve arrived at the end of the World. Well it’s Russia 5 km away just on the other side of the Kiwi Cafe and Lego Shop (seriously), and we’re half way through this voyage…this is also when we refuel. These ecological ships are powered by batteries and Natural Gas (LNG) so there is a helpful announcement suggesting nobody smokes during refuelling….
This “town” or “dumpp” has a cafe a LEGO shopp (as previously indicated) and apparently over the hill an Ice Hotel. Despite avoiding the latter, I’m turning blue. Back to The Havila Castor my home for 7 more days.
After defrosting, I’m back on board hoping for some more Aurora and a little less Porcini Cappuccino (mushroom soup on offer daily so far)…..
Time for Codd Philosophy Time.
As I supp my cafe crème with Pain au chocolat (“elevensies” as Auntie Freda used to call it) I ponder on life at the middle of the end of the north of the World on our hi tech vessel fully WiFied up, and writing this nonsense on my flashy phone looking out at sea to one side and basically a warehousy dumpp the other…main moral of all this paragrafff? Best appreciate what ya got like mad, and try not to make the same mistakes again…in my case keep playing piano and composing until I dropp (or you Dear Reader, keep doing what you love doing and can do, and realise how lucky we can be)….the fact that my hearing is bad means that maybe finally I’ll reach the heights of Ron Van Beethoven, Ludvig’s Younger Bro… on which note, until next time: di di di DAAAAAH. Di Di Di DAAAAAAAH….
POST SCRIPT! We have hit a very very very bad storm! The worst I’ve ever been in……
….aaaaaaaah! 18.53 thur 14 November 2024!
What happened nextt?????
