Northern Europe: Norway - Walkabout in Oslo

Getting to Oslo from Tromsø

We took a flight from Tromsø to Oslo. Oslo Airport is super convenient. We took Flytoget's trains to and fro Oslo Airport and one way ticket cost NOK 210. 

The accommodation we booked was close to Oslo Central Station, so we didn't use any other means of transport within Oslo itself. With our limited time in Oslo, we managed to just walkaround the city centre nearby and food were from supermarket and one from MAX burger because we missed it in Sweden. 

Akershus Fortress

The fortress was originally built at the end of the 13th century as a medieval royal castle with a seat for the king's representatives, the fortress today functions as Norway's national arena. Throughout its more than 700-year history, Akershus Fortress has survived several sieges, but has never been taken by force by a hostile, foreign army. Entrance to the fortress is free of charge. 

From Akershus Fortress we crossed passed The Storting (Norwegian Parliament) Karl Johans gate. 

Karl Johans gate is the main street of the city of Oslo. The street was named in honor of King Charles III John, who was also King of Sweden as Charles XIV John. We walked down Karl Johans gate by the National Theatre, all the way to the Royal Palace. 

Munch

This is an art museum dedicated to the life and works of Norwegian Artist Edvard Munch. We didn't enter. If we do, the only painting I want to see is The Scream. 

Oslo Opera House

Of course the Oslo Opera House is the home of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the national opera house in Norway. However, the difference is that one of the thing to do here is to walk on its roof. The roof of the building angles to ground level, creating a large plaza that invites pedestrians to walk up and enjoy the panoramic views of Oslo. 

Pardon my blur photo

Side note: Have you ever had matcha mochi brownies?

Northern Europe: Norway - Tromsø in 2 days

Polar Night in Tromsø
In school, I learnt the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In Tromsø I learnt - Polar Night Season. Polar Night Season happens every year in Tromsø and begins on November 27th and lasts until January 15th. However, due to the high mountain ranges around the city, it actually gets dark beginning November 21st until about January 21st. During this time, the sun does not rise at all. There is a subtle twilight light from about 9am to 2pm, but otherwise, the city is dark.

Fjord excursion

As we have been lucky enough to catch the northern lights prior to arriving in Tromsø, we didn't sign up for any more tours to aurora hunting. The one other thing we wanted to see in Tromsø are the fjords. As our fjord excursion to Narvik was cancelled, we signed up one in Tromsø. I think this is also a famous excursion among visitors to Tromsø because when we looked up the tours a day before, quite a few companies were already booked out on the days we would be in Tromsø. We booked via the Visit Tromsø website based on offering versus price. 

The guide/driver drove us passed Tromsøya, Kvaløya and then stopped at Kaldfjord. We also stopped by briefly at Straumen gård (near Straumsbukta) to see an old farm preserved as museum. Along the drive, we were told if we spotted any roaming wildlife, we could let her know and she could stop by the road side. We spotted reindeers!

Lunch was served at Sommarøy where the guide brought out sandwiches, cookies and made us a warm drink. We also had stops at Kattfjordeidet and Ersfjordbotn for views. 

Fjellheisen cable car

We missed the cable car in Narvik so we made it up in Tromsø. We took a public bus to get there but according to google maps, we got down at Novasenteret which needed us to walk 12 minutes uphill. From what we observed, there seems to be another stop nearer to the base of the cable car though I am not sure if the bus we took will stop there. It wasn't far but it was quite a steep uphill walk which was made complicated by the icy path. We were holding on to whatever we can to avoid slipping down. It was hard but we were rewarded with beautiful sky colours. 

Tromsø offers great city lights from above. There is a indoor cafe at the top which were full house but we got lucky that a couple were leaving and let us have their seats. I wanted waffle with brown cheese to begin with, we reckoned we should give reindeer meat a try and the couple who offered us their seats recommended the passionfruit cheesecake so that was how we ended up with 3 different dishes. 

From left, clockwise: Reindeer stew, passionfruit chesecake, traditional Norwegian waffle with jam and brown cheese.

Tromsø Arctic Cathedral

After getting off the cable car, we walked back to the city centre, partly also because we didn't have internet connection to pre-paid our bus fares. 

Tromsdalen Church, also known as Ishavskatedralen (The Arctic Cathedral) was quite hard to be missed. The main entrance on the western side is surrounded by a large glass facade. We didn't enter but just took some photos from the outside before we crossed the bridge to the other side. 

Downtown Tromsø

After returning from our fjord excusion, we had some time so we walked around Downtown Tromsø. 

Tromso Public Library

Ølhallen

One of the recommended place to visit by our fjord excursion guide was this Mack's brewpub and the brewery guided tour. It is one of the the largest tap selection in Europe serving Norwegian quality beers. This brewery is also the northernmost brewery in the world. We didn't make it to the guided tour but we did find time to have a drink at the pub. The only word I know is Øl is beer. 

Christmas beer & blackcurrent cider

Suvi

Our fjord excursion guide recommended some eating places, the ones I remembered are Mathallen, 

Indie & Co and Suvi. There was one that we initially wanted to go to try reindeer meat but because we were going to have an early dinner, they were not yet open for dinner service. I can't seem to remember the name of the restaurant now unfortunately. We did, however, had reindeer stew the next day at the Fjellstua Restaurant, at the top of the Fjellheisen. 

We went to Suvi. Usually I am not a big fan of restaurants that sells various cuisines type but this was after all in Tromsø where seafood were abundant. I was skeptical but the sushi and sashimi were superb. 

Cost - NOK 508

I woke up randomly in the middle of the night the 3 nights we were in Tromsø to see if there was any chance to spot the northern lights but no luck. I think the lights were spotted in Tromsø the duration we were there though, just not where we were located. 

Side note: Why is game update on microsoft so slow :(

Northern Europe: Arctic Circle train from Abisko to Narvik

The only activity we booked successfully in Abisko with the guesthouse was a tour to Narvik and we planned to commute to Tromso from there instead of returning to Abisko. The booking was successful but the day before the trip we were told that it would be cancelled due to weather condition. According to the guesthouse staff, there would be road closure due to heavy wind so we were refunded. We were, however, told by the staff that commuting by train should not be an issue. This time, we learned and pre-booked our train tickets (SEK 280) on the Swedish train app. So Arctic Circle train happened. 

The Arctic Circle Train is the scenic railway that runs through Swedish Lapland to the Narvik fjord in Norway. This legendary night train departs from Stockholm and crosses Sweden to Kiruna, a town in the heart of Lapland, famous for its iron ore mine, the largest in the world. From Kiruna, the Arctic Circle train goes to Abisko. We would've got on this part of the Arctic Circle train if we managed to get a ticket in Kiruna. Anyways, we were onboard from Abisko to Narvik, a port town in Norway. It felt like looking at black and white water colour paintings from the train. 

The train ride was only about 1 hour 30 minutes, and sis went and got us coffee from the cafeteria. Train ride, breathtaking sceneries and coffee - great things in life.

We arrived in Narvik around 12:35pm. Our initial plan was to spend a couple of hours in Narvik before taking a later bus which would bring us to Tromsø before 8pm. It was a Sunday on our travel day and most of the shops in Norway were closed. We figured we may have enough time to get to the Narvik Cable Car, there are lockers to store bags in the train station but from memory it needed coins which was one of the reason we didn't leave it before decided not to linger in Narvik. 

It was super windy on the day of our travel and we didn't want to risk of bus cancellation so we decided to just take the next available bus at 1:10pm to Tromsø. This round of bus commute takes more than 4 hours and the bus was almost full, so not the most comfortable travel. We paid for tickets on the bus to the driver, NOK 976. It is said that it is cheaper if you pre-buy a ticket. Another rookie mistake of not having enough snacks, we shared a last muesli bar till reaching Tromsø at 5:30pm. 

On arriving in Tromsø, we found out that buses within the city does not take payment by credit card in the bus itself. We were cashless, the driver was willing to wait for us to download the Troms Billett to pay for the ticket but our sim card is in sis's phone which was flat. It would take us to long to navigate around this so we got off the bus to avoid holding it up. We walked to the nearest bright shop, dropped our bags and started our activities of swapping sim card, downloading the app, setting up payment and buying bus tickets. Information on bus tickets and fares are here. Another thing to note is that, buses in Tromsø would only stop if you flagged it down, else they don't. 

 

Side note: Where should I go for a long weekend...

Northern Europe: Sweden - Short walks in Abisko in winter

Abisko is a small town in the Lapland region of northern Sweden. Abisko village is around the train station "Abisko Östra" and we stayed in Abisko Guesthouse which is a short walk away from this station as well. There is another train station - Abisko Turiststation about 2 kilometres west. There's a fairly large and well equipped hotel/hostel, STF Abisko Turiststation near this station. 

I read that Abisko has a reputation of offering some of the best conditions in the world for northern lights watching where unique climate of the area keep the skies almost clear. I'm not sure how true this is but we did see the northern lights 2 out of 4 nights we were there. To be fair, we were tired out the evening we arrived and it was snowing. On our last night, we woke up and checked the live camera at Aurora Sky Station and there were no lights seen so we continued sleeping. I can't remember but there prob were some lights during the night. For some unknown reasons, we were perpetually sleeping and has been sleeping a lot during the trip. 

We stayed for 4 nights but arrived in the evening and departed early to Narvik on the fourth day so effectively we had 3 days 4 nights. Most people would participate in some activities like dog sledding, ice fishing, snowshoe hike, visit the sami or reindeer, ice hotel, hiking and aurora hunting at night. 

We obviously didn't learn from the train episode and didn't pre-book the dog sledding activity that we wanted to do. When we wanted to make a reservation, the next available date was after our departure. The place that offers dog sledding in Abisko also runs a hostel which isn't far from where we stayed, so we made an effort to walk over if there were any last minute slot but unfortunately none. We did walks around Abisko during our stay though, and meals preparation. There is a supermarket near the hostel to get food supply. 

Abisko National Park

We walked to Abisko National Park and did part of the shorter walks but the main reason was we wanted to see the frozen waterfalls. The frozen waterfalls are at the Abisko Canyon, quite close to the start of the trails. It is part of the Canyon Trail (which is about 30 mins - 1 hour). The trail is marked on signs as a yellow hexagon with two black dots. The path takes you along the outer rim of the Abiskojakka Canyon (Abisko Canyon). There were people doing ice climbing here when we were there. My camera battery was flat after a couple of photographs here. I took some with my phone but hands went numb fairly quickly as I had to take off the gloves to use the phone. 

I don't know which turn we took but we ended up part of the Shore Trail (green hexagons with 6 white dots) so we walked to see Lake Torneträsk. 

Lake Torneträsk Pier

Not something listed down as any part of itinerary but this lake is about 10 minutes walk from the hostel and slightly away from any lightings. We waited for the northern lights for awhile here on our third night in Abisko. Northern lights made an appearance but not too obvious. 

On our third day, sis pointed to a random place on the map and we walked there. 

Side note: I must have issues recognising shapes,, if not, how else mirror cube is so hard

Northern Europe: Sweden - An overnight stay in Kiruna

By the time we arrived in Kiruna, it was evening time. Our plan was to get to Abisko so we didn't plan to do much in Kiruna. During planning, we found that there are 2 trains and 2 buses a day from Kiruna to Abisko, once in the morning and the other before 3pm. So we have some time to walkabout if take the later train. 

That - was the plan. What happened was we decided to just go to Abisko in the morning, got a cab to bring us to the train station. We arrived to an empty station. There is no ticket sales at Kiruna station. We sat down inside the station, downloaded the SJ train app and tried to buy train tickets before the train arrived... and there were no tickets available for the day. I managed to call the customer service and went as far as asking if we can buy tickets if we are willing to stand all the way to Abisko. I think I gave the poor staff a shock because there was a long pause till I asked, "not possible?". 

Next plan was to get take a bus to Abisko. We found out after our failed train plan was - there is no bus service in winter. No train, no bus and our last hope was to contact our accommodation in Abisko for a shuttle. After a few tries, leaving messages on the booking app and phone messages, we managed to get through to the guesthouse and got ourselves a seat on the shuttle later in the day. 

Since we have checked out, we thought will run another errand, to check on the mobile service we got. We got a Telenor sim card when we were in Stockholm, despite being told that free EU roaming is included, we found out that there is no service when we were in Finland so was worried that it only worked in Sweden. We randomly got on a bus and asked to get off when we saw a shopping centre thinking that there would be a mobile shop that we can ask for help but none found. 

From outside of our hostel

We ended up spending most of our time in the tourist information center in Kiruna as the shuttle will pick us up from there. Though we did see the Kiruna Church on our bus ride. The other place we went was a burger joint near the tourist info center. All we have seen in Kiruna was the hostel we stayed in, the train station, a random shopping centre, tourist information centre, bus stops, bus rides and a burger joint - a very unlike travel itinerary. 

Empes special - Hamburger with cheese, bacon, cucumber mayonnaise, onion and mash, SEK 80

This was around noon, outside of Empes burger

Side note: I haven't had a burger for awhile...

Northern Europe: From Rovaniemi to Kiruna via Pello

It was a travelling day for us. We requested the hotel front desk to organise a cab to bring us to the Rovaniemi bus station as public bus service hasn't start yet then, €30.10. The plan was to take the 10am bus to Pello, Finland (€22 per person), walked over to Pello, Sweden and continue on another bus ride (SEK 358 per person) to Kiruna. The stop on Pello (Finland) is Pellon Kirkko and the stop over at Sweden side is Pellohallen. 

Please remember that there is an hour difference between Sweden and Finland, with Finland an hour ahead. 

This is the Rovaniemi bus station that we went to get us to Pello, Finland. The 'platforms' were out in the open. There were 2 staffs in the station but they don't sell tickets, appears to be manning some parcels counters. 

So we were on the look out for our bus, once a bus pulled into 'platform' 2, we walked out to the bus. Payment was to the bus driver via credit card. We told the bus driver that we wanted to cross over to Sweden at Pello and if he could let us know when to get off. He very kindly told us that he would drop us off at the bridge. We were the only 3 passengers in the bus, all the way from Rovaniemi to Pello.

View was great along the way but it was raining so not great for photos. 

We were dropped off at the bridge and we walked over to Pellonhallen - which is a supermarket. 

We arrived in Pello, Finland at about 11:30am (Finland time) and our nex bus wasn't till 12:45pm (Sweden time). The bus stop in Sweden side is across the road from a supermarket (ICA Pellohallen), and this is very important because there is a cafe area. We bought some food from the fridge and they heated it up for us, there were also coffee/tea on sale. It was a machine coffee but hot beverage in a heated supermarket in a small town when one is waiting for a bus is a luxury. Also there is a public toilet around the corner of the supermarket. 

We initially stood outside the supermarket while waiting for the bus when it was close to the bus arrival time because it was warmer. The supermarket staffs were super kind and one of them came out to let us know that we needed to stand at the bus stop, else the bus will not stop. 

See that sign on the left? That's the bus stop

By the time we arrived in Kiruna, it was evening at around 4:35pm. We stayed a night in Kiruna as there is no more transport to get to Abisko where we wanted to get to. 

Side note: It felt like the winter views were black and white painting.