The Land of the Midnight Sun

Tromso, Norway - June 15, 2023 - 1 a.m.

A total of 23 people gathered in Helsinki on June 10 for an tour of large portions of Northern Europe (at least in Finland and Norway). They were asked what they were hoping to see in the coming two weeks. While the capital cities of the two countries are excellent destinations, and the other portions of the trip promised to unveil many scenic attractions, a theme quickly developed in the answers. Almost everyone, it seemed, wanted to see what life was like north of the Arctic Circle - especially in mid-June.

Me too. My burning if facetious question was whether you could see the line that marks the point where sunlight can be viewed for 24 hours a day during parts of the summer, and for zero hours a day during the middle of January. After all, it's always marked on a globe or map. Was the line dotted or solid? How did all of this work when you were on the ocean? It wasn't the main reason for going, of course, but it was part of the package that helped us pick this trip as a destination more than three years ago ... before the pandemic and war in Ukraine delayed it.

If nothing else, we found out the answers to those questions. As the photo of a gas station located right on the line shows, sometimes the answer was, um, surprising. 

We also discovered there was plenty to see throughout the region over the course of two weeks during our tour from Grand Circle. Tromso was one of those places, an attractive city which is something of the gateway to Northern Norway. We got off the boat at midnight, and viewed a fully illuminated municipality that featured 20-somethings squinting as they came out of bars. That object in the sky was so bright that I had to use a building to block out its rays when I took a photo shortly before I returned to the boat. It came out unexpectedly well, he said with a small lack of modesty. So it leads off this essay.

Writing a blog has become a way for me to become engaged in a trip. I take a variety of notes about the experiences, and ask companion travelers for their observations. This piece therefore becomes a collection of general observations of the trip, often containing short entries. Then I see what photographs I have, and figure out what exactly I saw on the trip - it takes some digging, especially in foreign countries with different languages. From there, I write entries ... after entries ... after entries. I usually receive some pleasant surprises and read some great stories. 

So let's get going. And bring your sunglasses.

The elephant in the room

One of the first things I do at those initial meetings of tour groups is to size up the room. In this case, it became rather clear rather quickly that I was the youngest person in the group. 

Grand Circle, the travel company running this show, has a reputation for attracting older tourists.  Now ... let's get one point straight from the start. Most people in such situations are quite nice to others. They bond pretty quickly in searching out common ground for conversation. I'd like to think that tourists are interesting, curious people. You find people you like, and lean on them for company.

But ... I'd be lying if I said the age issue didn't come up as a subject for thought at times. There are differences in such groups in such areas as health, mobility and mental acuity. That means that it's not easy to balance such items as the pace of walking tours. If you'll pardon the stereotype, questions about locations and schedules often do have to be answered more than once.

In other words, a little patience is often needed. Luckily, the person who needed it the most - Carlos, our program director - had a huge supply of it. Besides, how many groups are there in which I feel confident I could win a 5-kilometer race if one took place?

Old city, new perspective

Here's the full trip schedule.

We had been to Helsinki once before, stopping of for a day of sightseeing from a big ocean liner. In this case, we flew into the capital of Finland, stayed at a hotel right on the waterfront, and spent a couple of full days often walking around the city streets. This trip was better.

The waterfront was a particularly vibrant area, with a market of food and other goods located right on the docks. A Ferris wheel - does every European city have one? - added to the atmosphere. 

In other words, Helsinki was even better seeing it this way. There is no better way to learn about a city than to walk its streets.

* The airport in Helsinki had something in common with Frankfurt's, our stop on the way over. They both had smoking lounges. You might as well have put a sign on the door saying, "Abandon all hope, all who breathe here." Meanwhile, Helsinki's rest rooms had sound effects - birds chirping.

* If you are wondering, practically everyone in Finland's tourist areas speaks English. (The same is true in Norway.) That offers a little comfort for those who have taken a look at what Finland's language looks like - with its long words that will send a novice screaming into the night. We heard from a teacher who said Finnish is relatively easy to learn, since every sound is represented by a letter without ambiguity. You just put the sounds together, one at a time, and you are speaking Finnish. For those trying to learn about the spellings of rough and buff or straight and mate, this could offer relief.

A joke about Covid-19

Not too many masks were seen in most of Finland, as the people are quite spread out in that part of the world. Mix that fact with the Finns' reputation for independence, and you come up with this one-liner: 

When Finns were told in the middle of the pandemic that they had to keep six feet away from others, they all had the same reaction: "Why so close?"

Way up North

I had heard of Lapland before this trip, but didn't know a heck of a lot about it. I wasn't even sure where the boundaries were in terms of nations. It turns out that Lapland is a specific region in Finland, something like a state in America. It does not spill over into Sweden, Norway or Russia, at least politically. 

And if you like trees and lakes, this is your kind of place. The trees are more or less endless, which translates into a lot of wooden buildings. The types of trees change a bit when going north. But Lapland is not filled with natural resources in contrast to some other remote locations - think Alaska. It can be filled with mosquitos, but luckily the season for them hadn't started when we arrived. The trees grow smaller with each mile that is traveled north; there isn't enough soil to support deep roots.

* This is a great part of the world to see the advantages of modern technology, especially for the children. There isn't much of an infrastructure up there. However, cell towers have sprung up like, well, trees in recent years, and the internet can bring all sorts of information into remote locations. That means the people of Lapland are just as connected to others as anyone else. 

Therefore, kids can do what kids do - send endless text messages, stream videos, watch movies, etc. I'm sure there is more to do for them in Helsinki, but the improvement in the quality of life in the past 30 years has been enormous.

* One theme often comes up about Lapland and its history: World War II. You might remember that the Soviets invaded Finland at the start of the war. Then Germany broke its alliance with the Soviets and took it over. It wasn't easy to pick a side in the battle between Hitler and Stalin. When the Nazi empire started to collapse, the German simply destroyed everything in sight upon leaving.

* There weren't a great number of billboards on the roadsides of Lapland. One did catch my eye, though: Sariskela Bowling. Anyone who considers this territory a cultural wasteland will have to answer to me.   

On the border

The border between the United States and Canada has been called the longest unprotected border between two nations in the world. Heck, compared to Norway and Finland, the North American nations are in the midst of a tense political standoff. 

On the road we took north from Finland, there was a sign - period. OK, Norway had a border station down the road, but we didn't have to stop to say hello on the way in. 

Unless you are a student of geography, you might not realize that residents of Finland have to go through Norway to reach the Arctic Ocean. Finland used to have a water port, but Uncle Joe Stalin of the Soviet Union claimed that land as a "reward" for winning World War II. Since Norway is in a different time zone, 10 o'clock became 9 o'clock just by crossing the bridge that marked the line. It's unusual to change your watch while going north.

All aboard

When we finished a long bus trip north to Kirkenes in Norway, I had hopes of traveling the eight miles from the city limits east to at least see the Russian border. Because that's what geography nerds too. There's a statue of a Soviet solider on the Norway side of line, representing something of a thank-you for liberating them from the Nazis. Yes, it was a complicated time. Alas, the statue was a bit of a walk from downtown, and we had to get on the boat. Our traveling vehicle was part cruise ship, part ferry - which is an odd combination. 

Once upon a time, ferries served as something of a lifeline for supplies in small towns all along Norway's rugged coast line. That tradition still continues today. Our boat goes from Bergen to Kirkenes and back, stopping as many as 36 times along the way to deliver and pick up goods. But the MS Nordlys (Norwegian for Northern Lights, naturally) also carries more than 500 tourists on the journey, which takes a bit less than six days one way. In the summer, visitors enjoy the Midnight Sun; they switch to looking at the Northern Lights in winter. One of the drawbacks of cruises like this is that we didn't stop at any of the typically quaint Norwegian villages that are in all the travel books. Those places are simply too small to handle a ship of that size. We also only had one detour to visit a fjord, but at least someone picked a fabulous one with drop-dead scenery to visit.

This isn't quite a luxury cruise. The rooms are really small; I couldn't turn around easily in the shower. If anyone wants to remake the Marx Brothers' movie, "A Night at the Opera," I know where they can film the stateroom scene. There are no casinos, shows or movies; even the television choices are rather limited. The ship company did offer excursions along the way, although they were on the pricey side. (Our tour company included a few such trips as part of its itinerary.)

Better were the lectures of an hour or less on a variety of subjects. One of the speakers, Sondre, was not only smart - he just finished grad school - but he was drop-dead funny. You try that in your second- or third-best language. (The crew has to speak English and German, because that's what the customers speak.) The kid is going places, even if there's not much call for a hilarious expert on environmental sciences.

* One part of the boat's routine won't be forgotten for a while. Each passenger has an identity card, and must swipe in when leaving or boarding the boat. So when everyone leaves the boat at the same time upon arrival at a city, they hear an endless computer-generated chorus of "Goodbye ... goodbye ... goodbye." It changes to "Welcome ... welcome ... welcome" upon returning.

* The boat did provide an unexpected attraction one night. We were told to look out the port side about 10 o'clock because dolphins had been spotted. When we did so, we saw not a few of the creatures, but about 100 of them. They were jumping out of the water in almost ballet-like fashion as they headed in the opposite direction. Magnificent. 

* While I appreciate the ship company's dedication to cleanliness, perhaps it shouldn't have been extended to the idea of cleaning our room's window at 4 a.m. on back-to-back nights. 

* The stats for the boat on the trip: cars carried - 24, eggs consumed - 5,900, kilograms of bacon eaten - 85.

A rivalry

Norway and Sweden have something of an interesting relationship. They have a lot in common, but the hard feelings from Sweden's "ownership" of Norwegian territory before Norway became independent more than 100 years ago hasn't been forgotten. So they treat each other like high school rivals, and make jokes about each other. Here are examples:

From Norway: "What was the Swede doing on the floor of a supermarket? Looking for low prices."

From Sweden: A lumberjack from Sweden runs into a man with the same profession from Norway out in the woods. The Norwegian has an ax, and complains that his job is very difficult. The Swede has a chain saw, and offers it to the Norwegian to use for a day in a gesture of kindness. The next day, the two men reunite. "How did it go?" asks the Swede. "Not well. It was worse than the ax," replies the Norwegian. The Swede asks for the chain saw, and starts it up. The Norwegian looks startled and says, "What is that noise?"

Islands, islands, everywhere

The boat ride along Norway's cost was smooth for the most part. The country has something like 239,000 islands, although the exact number depends on what size of the land mass actually counts. As you'd expect the tourism departments of the world's nations love to pick a definition that benefits their ranking. Foreigners don't realize how many islands are on the Norwegian coastline. That means that quite often the ship could move through channels without worrying about ocean swells. 

The exception came on the first night, when we started to work our way around the northern tip of the country. The seas featured five-foot waves, and steady steps were in short supply. Opinions of the passengers seemed to be split between whether the rocking put them right to sleep like a baby or if it made them nauseous enough to stay awake. I was in the first category.

* An initial disappointment came in Hammerfest, the northernmost city (defined as 10,000+ people) in the world. I had been reading about the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society for some time while waiting to actually take the trip. Hammerfest has been a trading post for quite a while, and it's celebrated with the tongue-in-cheek group. People who join the Society receive a letter of welcome from the Mayor, a membership card, and a pin. The catch is that you have to apply for membership in person by going to the office. There are no exceptions; even Elvis Presley was turned down because he had never been to the city.

The fates were not on my side when it came to joining. The rough waters had slowed the boat down, and the trip was behind schedule. That cut the amount of time in the Hammerfest port. Then came the news that the construction was taking place on the port near downtown, so we'd have to dock about a mile away. Add that up, and there wasn't time to get to center of the city and join the Society. 

Bummer. It's not like I'll ever be back there. I did post on Facebook a photo of me in Hammerfest, proving I set foot in the place. And what do you know? Months later, they sent me a note saying I was welcome to join. I must figure out how to frame my membership certificate.

* Since it takes some time to cruise down a nation's coastline, the changes come gradually. In this case, the islands of Norway located nearest to the North Pole are generally rocky without much vegetation. Then, several hours later, the Lofoten Islands come into view in an explosion of green.

This also applies to commercial operations. In other words, this 7-Eleven store in Tronso is either the first or the last such store on the coast line - depending on the direction. It's also true for McDonalds and Burger King, or so I was told.

For research purposes, I visited one 7-Eleven store and did not see a Big Gulp in sight. However, Slurpees turned up there and in other such stores under different names throughout Norway.

Crime does not pay

On the way back from the Edvard Grieg Museum near Bergen, a member of our group discovered she had forgotten to turn in the device used for the audio tour of the complex. The bus driver agreed to take it and give it back in his next trip that way, which was very nice of him.

But I couldn't let the matter rest at that point. I quickly pointed out that a prison was located between Bergen and the Museum, and that was the usual destination for such criminals. That quickly led to a rash of jokes from others in the coming days. "How much was bail?" "Babyface, did you break out of stir already?" "Good thing you had a get-out-of-jail free card."

I'm not sure she ever saw the humor of it all. Oh well. 

Random Musings

* We spent a lot of time on airplanes and in airports getting to and from Nordic country. Several questions popped up along the way. Wouldn't it be better and faster if airlines let the people in the back of the plane board first? When exactly did it become difficult to buy a newspaper at an airport, a natural audience if there ever was one? And do the planners of the Frankfurt airport really think that two stalls per rest room was an appropriate number for a major transportation hub?

* We had a five-hour wait to get on the plane from Newark to Frankfort. That's a long time, particularly in an airport. Someone gave me the idea to check out the airport lounge that United has there. It's a much better place to wait, and they have day passes. There's no perfect answer in those situations, but this is a pretty good one ... and you can pick up such passes on eBay. (They aren't assigned to a particular person.)

* The fine for speeding in Finland is determined not by the kilometers per hour driven, but by the income and means of the driver.  In one case, a driver earned a $129,000 fine for going a bit too fast. You'd have to think Bill Gates would be wise to hire a driver before his next business trip to Helsinki. 

Speaking of driving, Norway must be the only country I've ever visited that had traffic circles within tunnels. Seems like that's some extra digging. Happily there were no such roundabouts in the world's longest tunnel - 24.5 kilometers between Bergen and Oslo. That translates to more than 15.2 miles of darkness. Blue lights are used every so often to keep drivers awake in that span.

* The major grocery store in Finland is called the K Store. Supposedly, the name of the individual stores in the chain used to be keyed to how big it was. So, in the small cities, visitors went to the K Store. But the mid-range towns had KK Stores, and the bigger cities - you're ahead of me on this - had KKK Stores. Can't imagine what Americans thought when they saw those in their first visit to the country. 

* There's a common joke in Buffalo at this time of the year: "There are two seasons here: winter and construction season." Permission is hereby granted to the residents of Finland and Norway to use it. We passed some massive projects along the way, and there wasn't much time to get them done. At least in June nothing stops construction at night because of a lack of light. 

* The weather was warmer and drier than expected on this trip (mostly 50s and 60s, with some 70s), which was fine with everyone. I wore a hat and gloves once at the top of Norway, and could have used a short-sleeved shirt for a day or two in the southern cities. The only time it really rained is during a four-hour bus ride that ended in Oslo.

* I went searching for an ATM in a supermarket in Ivalo, Finland, one afternoon. The store didn't have one, but it did have a video terminal for gambling. In other words, I could have picked up some food and placed a bet on the Vegas-Florida game in the Stanley Cup finals. Speaking of hockey, I tried to drop the names of two ex-Sabres, Christian Ruuttu and Hannu Virta, when I had the chance. They went back to Finland to coach after their playing days were over. No one knew them.

* Many of the buildings in this part of the world have snow fences and ladders on the roof. The snow tends to hang around for a while once it arrives, so such measures help those who try to clean it.

* In a few places in Norway, men and women shared the WC (water closet). There was a common area for handwashing, etc., with separate stalls with doors for other business. It did equalize the lines quite nicely.   

* An obligatory small world story: We were in line in the Newark Airport on our way home, straightening out some paperwork at the United counter. We struck up a conversation with the couple behind us, who had driven up from the Philadelphia area. It came up that the man, Mike, was a retired sportswriter. I said I was in the same classification. Mike had worked for about four decades in the newspaper business, and one of his coworkers was Josh Barnett, the current sports editor of The Buffalo News. In fact, the two men had just attended a reunion of the staff in Philadelphia.

You see, there's always a Buffalo angle to any story.

An actual conversation

Program director Carlos: "My 16-year-old son knows everything about World War II. He just loves learning about it. We don't even know where that level of interest came from."

Me: "Yes, he told us at dinner last week that when he turns 18, he plans to invade Poland."

Carlos: "Well, it's good for a young man to have goals." 

Closing shot

Oslo, Norway - June 23, 2023 - 3:15 a.m.

The camera lightens the image somewhat; it probably wasn't bright enough to read outside. But sunrise wasn't far away. 

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)