A few hours late to Narvik

Sunday, August 12


We arrive in Narvik at about 5:00 pm, about 4 hours late due to that huge mishap. The hostel, which is also a hotel is really nice, but we were pretty bummed out... until we started walking around.


Turns out Narvik isn't half bad. It's half the size of Kiruna and there's a lot more to do/see




Like walk down to the harbour and hang out.





There's a lot of just scenery coming up, sorry.




The water was sooo still. Great news for me as this is where we were talking the ferry to Svolvær.


Tracks.


The old post office.


Oh yeah, in the winter, you can ski.


HAHAH in case you weren't sure what kind of store it was.


Norweigans don't hold their babies, which are all named Bjorn, by the way.


ART


We climbed this hill on the other edge of town and interrupted some people clearly trying to have a romantic moment.


It was pretty romantic.


Then we started walking back down to the water. See the ski pistes?




Her shirt says "Elbkind" which means Child of the Elbe, a river in Germany. Confused the Germans when she spoke to me in her perfect English.


Local house... did you notice yet how there isn't anyone on the streets anywhere?

Monday, August 13
After breakfast and junk, we headed to harbourfront again.


We went there to get our Hurtigruten bookings rebooked, since apparently their headquarters are in Narvik!


So we walked into the office, but their booking is mostly internet and phone, so everyone was surprised to see us wander in off the street...but they rebooked everything, including the ferry we'd missed the night before, for free! That square building in the back is headquarters.


Oh good, the water is still!


There was a mall with a grocery store, so we went to check it out, as we had some time to kill.


SLED PARKING!!! hahaha Norway! (there was a bike parking sign a few metres down, this was for real!)


Man, this is amazing! By the way, we had to climb those stairs when we got there, as the bus station is at the bottom of the mall.

3:00 pm rolled around and we hopped on the "fast boat" to Svolvær, which is already on the Lofoten Islands.


here's a map



Look how fast we're going!


Oh yeah Norway. The boat was full of random people. There was a group of Italian guys, clearly ill prepared for some rugged camping. One guy saw that Ina was reading the new Harry Potter, I actually heard him sing "Haaarrrryyy Poooottttteeerrr" in this thick Italian accent. Hilarious. A while into the ride, I fell asleep and woke up to him talking to her about it. He was really into it.


This is the most beautiful 3 hours of my life.


It was also pretty windy. (Remember I only have my pics from this part, until Ina mails them from Portugal, I guess)


AHH!!!






The water is so incredibly still!


Umm... we're still in the arctic circle?




Svolvær!! Transfer point.


We killed about an hour here.



Then our Hurtigruten arrived. (just say Hurtigruten, hahaha Norweigan!) They're supposed to be these really fancy cruise ships that go along the Norweigan coast. Ours was kind of old.

MS Lyngen. You check in and they give you a swipe card that you need in order to leave the ferry.


Top deck. The lawn chairs had blankets on them and stuff. It was cool.






One more hour til Stamsund! On the map, it's really close to Leknes.


That's a freakin' postcard.


Wow.


Sunsets!


Hahahaha....ewwww.

This is as we arrived to the port in Stamsund...what turned out to be the best part of the trip, as we'd hoped.

April was Ridiculous.

April was a pretty busy month for me, so busy that it started March 31..

Saturday, March 31/Sunday, April 1
Ann's birthday! woo.
It started with a completely non-vegetarian bbq, as in the salad wasn't even vegetarian. Then we went to this English pub for drinks. Having just recovered from Last Lecture, I wasn't too keen on drinking, but ah well.


This is Ann kicking two boy's asses at an Irish Car bomb. Yeah Ann. Another reason I love Ann.

After that we went to Downtown Kathy Brown's where I wasn't too into it. It's a retro bar full of people who don't release it's music of the past. I left with the first ride I could get and came home to get a text from Nelson asking me where I was! Dude, we gotta plan better.

Monday, April 2: Passover
Rachel and I were stranded in London for Passover, ok well I went home for the second night, and decided that we should do something. We'd been contemplating this since we met pretty much and it finally was time. After class, we met up and went to the only store we knew that would have some kosher food, it had little to offer us.

We went back to my place to get some extra supplies and then to Fried's place to get cooking.

Step one, put everything on the counter.


Matzah balls!


Fried being ultra cool while chopping potatoes.

Then I threw out the surprise:

Max Steel was joining us for dinner. Him and Rachel got along famously.


Rachel was in love with Max Steel.


You can see why.


Pre-ovened potatoes.


Secret Passover brownies.


Eventually I finished making the 'zo balls.


"Oh my God it's Passover!!!! YES!"


The bottom says: "The Matzohs with the taste"


ahahah. Jews.


Artsy Matzo ball soup.


The dinner settings.


Dreamy.


Fried's friend was without Passover dinner, so we fed him via broadband.


Yummy soup! As I said on facebook, I look super Jewish here.


Main course...oh yeah and Rachel touching herself.


Dessert. Yes.

Saturday, April 7
Wanting to have a break from life and school, Karen and Rachel and I decided that it was time for a night out. There was still snow on the ground and exams ahead, but hey, we needed a drink.

Karen came over to my place, where we got ready and headed over to Fried's. We drank there, I drank more than the others since they kept pouring more and more various things into my innocent orange juice. Yum. So I was much less than sober.

We ended up going to 29 Park.


We met up/ran into Umber there.


Then we went to dance.


How drunk are we?

What we failed to realise was that the guy to girl ratio at 29 is about 5:1, so we started to get swarmed.


Number 1.


Rach's first. We'd had enough of them shortly thereafter and steathily got out.


HAHA best. pic. ever.




ahah Rach.


Number 2. This guy wouldn't leave us alone... eventually we got rid of him, only to have him return with friends. It was hilarious for Rach and Karen, because they wouldn't come bail me out. I guess I just looked trashed and slutty.


so loved.


Trashed and sweaty.


Jam out. The whole time Karen was ruining people's photos.


Probably the only group of normal people there.


Karen feels bad about this one... I don't know why she would.

Thursday, April 12


Last dinner with roommates Amy and Jenna...we've been living together since 2004. It's an end of a short, short era.