The road, the road... :))

Day six

Another one of those really nice days on the road. We've almost made it up to Alta and have about a day and a half to get to the top. Alta sounds pretty close. It means the high one in Latin...
      Today there were no dreadful incidents and the speed limit was lifted for about 10pm/h, thus almost 100. It makes a difference, believe me, and we also took a ferry to cross a narrow otherwise impossible to circumnavigate by land. It wasn't expensive at all, somewhere around 15 euro for the lot, and quite pleasant. I am growing very fond of things that are cold, bright and smell of the sea. The sun certainly makes sense of a lot of things. 
      We stopped in a small, almost empty camp and decided to erect a tent just by the sea. We would have built a campfire, too, we gathered the drifted, but we were too sleepy and it was too windy. It is now around half past ten and the sun is still up. I made pasta over a gas stove, finally, and washed the dishes in the sea. People come here, like one lady with a large lazy dog, to fish their dinner - quite literally. The boys are asleep by now, after an hour of watching Broadski storyline on Bones. 
        We are getting a lot better at pitching the tent and making dinner there's slot less fuss. In the morning I make everyone brush their teeth or even shower and break up the camp and head on... This being our honeymoon, the General and I have occasional quickies when we send out the kid to play at the shore or something... He keeps insisting on trying to swim in the sea, failing to comprehend this is the Arctic ocean and he would probably end up looking like the squirrel from Ice Age. People who come to fish, come in their parkas.
       I am still reading them Gosta Berling in the car, but on my own I am reading about Norse history and lore. I think, if we decide to return via Finland, I will arrange a route to take us through the Moomindol. :D

I can't sleep yet, so I'm going to poke small shiny stones that have algae growing out of them... Perhaps I would try to keep one in a jar, but then again, I doubt I would find sufficient replacement for Barky in something that get all the pleasure out of something wet, cold and salty :p

Day seven...

Jup, certainly the least comfortable night EVER. We are SO fucking spoiled, the city brats, haha. Ow,boohoo, we slept on a hard ground without blow-up mattresses, ow, boohoo, it was nippy outside and the seagulls were SO noisy! For the love of all that's pancake-like, and we call ourselves adventurers! If Snufkin should hear me now, he would throw me off a fjord! :)))) but yeah, it was ridiculously difficult to sleep. It doesn't get dark at all anymore and the seagulls are real pests. It's rock hard ground on the shore and it was damn cold. And yet it's over now, the sun is shining, it's warmth for my old bones, I took a nice shower and will make a nice brunch. And the new day on the road will begin :D

Intermezzo: hihi, there now exists a short movie documenting how General took a dip in the Arctic sea :D if I manage, I will post it ASAP... :D

...
Easiest thing in the world to see is how Tolkien got his inspiration for Hobbiton in Norway - all you have to do is drive around for two days and small, heavenly peaceful villages with houses practically in the grounds and tress and grass over the roofs are a-plenty. And also why the Vikings would deems and fear these parts like they would fear the Gods: on a pretty day, this is a wonderful land to drive through, but on a difficult winters day, elements rule supreme.

We are starting to run out of the map....

Evening
So... In this land, where the summer sun shines eternal (if at all), we have almost, almost reached the end of earth. Over hills and valleys, tundra and taiga, through swamps and elk herds, around lots, and by that I mean LOTS of fjords, we are finally at the gates of Nordkapp... If it were a mountain, this would be the base camp. Best way to describe it would be, hm, well, foggy, and JesusFuckMaryJosefandJohnonastick cold. We drove though regions today showing 25 degrees of Celsius, too hot for shorts and sandals even and then we arrived here through some very intestine tunnels and it just... dived. The democracy once again voted for the accommodations to surrender to cabins, warm and cushy, so we can watch movies, write postcards and draft blog entries like people and less like souls condemned :p