Spring Break in Lofoten

Spring break has come and gone, and now it's back to the books.... well for a week that is. I went on a "Girls Road Trip" with 3 other girls to an island chain called Lofoten in Northern Norway. We had big plans, but unfortunately Mother Earth wasn't going to be so nice. We took camping gear, snow shoes, and all of our warm gear to spend some time up in the mountains. We had beautiful weather for most of the 14 hour trip north. We stopped off at the Arctic Circle for awhile to take some goofy pictures and to enjoy what was going to be our last glimpse of the sun for awhile. We first heard about "the storm" that was on it's way while waiting for a ferry. The winds picked up. The rain came. And the ferry started rockin'.

Although we brought camping stuff with us, we opted for a cabin for the week. Otherwise, we would have had a wet, cold and miserable week. The first night we slept at a random campground along the way and then continued making our way south. We ended up setting up a little 'base camp' at a camp ground just outside the quaint town of Kabelvåg. We had originally planned to stay in the simplest of cabins that Norway has to offer: one room, a pair of bunk beds, and a hot plate. All of these were closed though because the common bath facilities had been shut down for the winter. So we scored a wonderful deal and got a cabin that slept 8, had a kitchen and bath, and a TV with German MTV. We couldn't beat that deal or location so we stayed for 3 nights. We toured the islands by car and unfortunately couldn't do much more. It rained/snowed sideways for 4 days. It was way too dangerous to venture above sea level because the avalanche risk was high and the weather was trecherous. I have never ever seen such a persistent storm that was totally unwilling to give up.

Since it was Easter week, everything was closed. We couldn't even find an open place to get some coffee. We stopped at many of the small towns to have a look around, but there wasn't too much else to do. Every time we got a break from the wind and rain (usually only about 10-15 minutes) we would pull over and take in what we could. One day we made it south to the town of Reine, which is one of the most famous towns. Visibility was limited to about 200 ft, so we couldn't see the magnificent mountains that were rising around us.

There were some crazy surfers, though, enjoying the waves that came with the storm. Norwegians are hardcore. That fact was confirmed many times that week. Although this probably sounds like a rather depressing week, it really wasn't. It was so nice to get out of Trondheim and spend some quality time with wonderful people. We had tons of time to just sit around, talk, read and play cards. We also had fun watching all the stupid shows on MTV like Next, True Life, Sweet Sixteen, and Flava. Talk about mindless entertainment.

The drive back was long. We left a day early because some other friends took 2 days to get back with the bad roads. This storm hit the entire west coast of Norway. Traditionally Norwegians spend Easter in the mountains on ski tours because the weather is usually wonderful. Hundreds of people got trapped in the mountains and had to hang out in cabins waiting for the storm to pass. The Norwegian Highway system is non-existent by American standards. A highway or 'interstate' just means that it's a continuously paved road. These roads are just barely wide enough for two cars to pass, and passing semis leads to white knuckles. The roads are windy and aren't normally stripped. When these roads get covered in snow and ice, it's slow going. It took about 20 hours to complete the 500 mile journey home, averaging about 40mph the entire way. The snow returned about 10pm and led to some more white-knuckle driving for a couple hours. Icy roads with 30ft of visibility is not fun. But Norwegians are hardcore and we were still being passed. Sometimes they're a little too intense though, and this leads to flipped campers and double trailer milk trucks.

Easter Sunday was spend mostly sleeping since we didn't get home until after 4am. Then we met with some friends to share some dinner and wine on the roof and then completed our girls week with a classic "chick flick."

Of course the weather got better as soon as we got home. About 8 of us went skiing, snowboarding, and paragliding at a nearby ski area. I snowboarded for most of the day, but eventually switched to skiing out of shear frustration. I like boarding and I'm finally getting better, but I hate T-bar lifts. They're hard enough for boarders in general, let alone beginners. At least with chair lifts if you fall getting off you're still at the top. I kept falling off part way up, and then I'd have to hike over to get back on the trail. I found myself in waist-deep snow and logging areas many times. The weather was beautiful though and it was nice to get out an do something.

Well it's back to the books. I've a week to do two weeks of homework because I decided to take some 'vacation' time and travel with a friend. Our plan is to link up trains and ferries to hop from Stockholm (Sweden) to Helsinki (Finland) to Tallinn (Estonia) and back again.

Take Care!

Sunrise: 6:05am
Sunset: 8:36pm