Off to a slow start this morning. I was so happy sleeping in that I had a hard time waking up. Our AirBnB has a small kitchen and Dawn started to make breakfast while I searched around the room trying to find where I misplaced my consciousness.
After breakfast we head out on road with the plan to visit Svolvaer, which is one of the bigger towns on the island and then make up the rest of the plan. Svolvaer has a tourist info stop and we figure we should consult them before coming up with any more definite plans.
After breakfast we head out on road with the plan to visit Svolvaer, which is one of the bigger towns on the island and then make up the rest of the plan. Svolvaer has a tourist info stop and we figure we should consult them before coming up with any more definite plans.
We get some idea for things we could do while we’re here and decide to drive north and do a loop by taking the E10 to Fv82 to Fv888 which loops back to the E10 (those are all road designations here). This basically loops around a decent sized chunk of Austvagoya (the island we’re on).
Since I’m doing all of the driving Dawn has got the better part of the deal this trip. Driving is difficult, in part because of all the breathtaking scenery that I want to see, and also in part because the roads are tiny and windy and have other traffic (like buses and semi’s from time-to-time). The E10 is one of the main routes that connects all of the larger towns, so it sees most of the traffic. Things improved once we got onto the smaller roads because we hardly saw anyone else.
In fact, today delivered the moment that I hoped this part of our vacation would deliver. There was a moment where Dawn and I were just surrounded by devastating, jaw-dropping beauty, while slowly cruising down a little road without having seen another person for 15 minutes. We hopped out of the car and looked around… and we were in our own personal paradise. So nice.
At one point during the trip Dawn asked me a question that had occurred to me earlier in the day, what do people form this part of the world think when they go on vacation? By comparison, there are lots of parts of the world that are going to be unimpressive and boring. Are they unimpressed with everyone else's bland geography?
We got back to Henningsvaer while it was still light out, but most of the stores were already starting to close. From our stop at the tourist info Dawn learned that Henningsvaer was holding an international arts festival. We accidently stumbled into it while looking for a piece of graffiti that had been recently covered up (the islands have some street art by a guy named Pøbel, more on him tomorrow).
We got back to Henningsvaer while it was still light out, but most of the stores were already starting to close. From our stop at the tourist info Dawn learned that Henningsvaer was holding an international arts festival. We accidently stumbled into it while looking for a piece of graffiti that had been recently covered up (the islands have some street art by a guy named Pøbel, more on him tomorrow).
I’m conflicted by the festival. On one hand it’s very impressive. They have managed to get access to a bunch of buildings that are either not being used, or in the middle of construction, and have outfitted them with all manner of projectors and AV equipment. Each installation displays the work of some artist…. And the whole thing is free. On the other hand, I’m having trouble connecting with any of the works and I am not really appreciating them. So I find the festival to be technically and logistically impressive, but the works don’t resonate with me.
After checking out some art and taking a walk around town we head to dinner at Fiskekrogen which is a seafood restaurant located a short walk from our room. I made a chump mistake while ordering dinner, but I couldn’t help myself. I’ve noticed that most of the restaurants around here have seafood options, and then that one dish for the picky eater in the party. That one dish is usually a burger, but at this restaurant it was fish and chips. I couldn’t help myself though, because I really do love fish and chips, and ordered it instead of something more exciting. When Dawn’s dish arrived I knew I really made a mistake. Although, the fish and chips were very good, I know I should have tried something more adventurous.
After it got dark we went out and saw our first taste of the northern lights. It was faint, but we could definitely make our a green streak across the sky. We tried again a bit later and didn’t see anything.
(Editor's note: we messed up here too. Evidently the northern lights were amazing this night if we had just hung out and waited for them.)
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