It was a very peaceful night last night and we were all extremely excited about the northern lights.
We finally talked about my wet socks as I took them off the rack and started wearing them and getting ready to go outside. My friend was concerned but I only brought those thin ones with me so I couldn’t do much. I could wear 2 pairs though.
We checked out.
The owner was a lady. She came out of her house. As she was walking on the snow, her thin shirt was waving in the wind. It looked so light. It was apparently one of the garments from her spring collection. I looked at myself: I was wearing 2 pairs of socks and a down jacket and two woollen hats….
All of us couldn’t stop admiring her.
My friend’s husband said to me excitedly after we checked out, ‘you know what? It was -2 degrees Celsius when we were standing outside watching the northern lights last night.’
No wonder I had cold feet. LOL!
We headed towards Nordkapp.
We checked into the hostel which was only less than an hour drive to Nordkapp. Once we got out of our car, we could feel the freezing cold weather. My friend and I asked the receptionist about the road trip up to Nordkapp. The receptionist said, ‘it could probably be closed because of the poor weather condition but you can still try.’ She sounded pessimistic. After a quick discussion among the three of us, we decided to try. ‘After all, we are already here’, said my friend’s husband.
The hostel that we stayed at was not as empty as the previous ones. I saw some other people but they were probably working in the fish market or for the fishermen. They dressed like those workers. I remember hearing them excitedly saying, ‘sushi sushi sushi’ as they marched to the communal kitchen holding some big fish in their hands. That was funny.
The next day, we started our journey.
The weather was quite good, at first. However, as we went further and further north, the weather started to change. It started to rain and it became so foggy that none of us could see the road nor the red poles along the roadside.
Her husband kept driving, very slowly. On our right, it was a mountain. On our left was a cliff. The road was winding. There were also cars coming on the other side occasionally.
Usually, my friend sitting beside her husband in the car would be the GPS, when necessary (back then, we used paper maps) and sitting at the back, I just relaxed. But at that very moment, none of us dared to speak in the car.
We held our breaths.
I literally couldn’t hear anyone of us breathing.
It was as quiet as all the other places we had stayed at in Norway so far. It was a very tense moment and actually, thrilling.
We all concentrated on the road and each turn of the road and the headlights from the other cars coming towards us on the other way. It felt like hours in our car.
We were also worried too – how long would it last?
Our car then went into a tunnel and drove for a short while.
Once our car left the tunnel, we saw a very different view. It was so clear that my friend’s husband exclaimed, ‘my goodness! What a huge difference! It was only a few seconds!’ I googled the tunnel just now. Some said it was quite a long one but compared to our experience in the fog, it felt like nothing.
It is true that our weather on Earth is very unpredictable. Never underestimate nature. But we humans tend to think we are the conqueror of this world when in fact, we are just renting some space on Earth.
We weren’t allowed to drive all the way up to Nordkapp but there was a shuttle bus that took all the people up there. Not only that, it also came with a humourous tour guide. 😀 According to the tour guide, the water in Norway was so rich in minerals that it was bad for the teeth. As for the weather, she said, ‘Thanks to Russia, they give us this weather.’ LOL!!!! 😀 In fact, when I google the weather in Norway now, I find that she was right.
When the shuttle bus arrived at the northernmost part of Norway, it stopped. We got off. The weather was so good. It was very sunny. We were so fortunate, we thought.
We went indoors and found a chapel.
As we left the indoor area, we took some photos of the cliff and the sea. Then we witnessed the changing weather.
The rain started to come.
Apparently, it wasn’t going to be just a few drops.
We dashed into the souvenir shop as the heavy rain chased after us.
My friend and I instinctively protected our cameras with our thick jackets.
We couldn’t stay outside anymore and we needed to catch the shuttle bus back down so we left. I think we only stayed up there for a couple of hours.
As we went back down to the ground, the clouds and rain followed us.
That night, we had nice dinner cooked by me. LOL!! No, it wasn’t sushi. LOL! My friend probably didn’t have any confidence in me so she had been cooking all the time but I insisted I’d help that night. It turned out it was a delicious one. Al dente spaghetti. 😊 I do know how to cook. 😀
We still had some other activities on our checklist. We would make sure they would be all checked in the next few days. 😊
So, stay tuned. 😊
3 – 4 April, 2009
P.S. If you like this post or you have been inspired by my previous posts, feel free to buy me a drink by scanning the QR code below. 😊 Thank you.
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