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- 13 feb 2024 22:00
- ☁️ -7 °C
- Hoogte: 20 m
- NoorwegenTroms FylkeTromsøTromsø Harbour69°38’56” N 18°57’8” E
Day 1 - Team Assembly
13 februari, Noorwegen ⋅ ☁️ -7 °C
Our departure is at the other end of the day. A night time flight to Johannesburg was civilised, a 04:45 alarm clock for Norway, less so. On the plus side, we’re in the pub before 07:00. Vicks and I have some breakfast and a couple of wines/ciders, and wait for our colleagues to arrive. Ant’s train was cancelled, so he’s in a bit of a rush to get to Gatwick, but he, Jiggs, Tris and Liz all make it to the pub a little after 08:00. Our flight is a little delayed as a result, it transpires, of very low temperatures in Oslo overnight, requiring substantial amounts of de-icing before its departure to Gatwick. Boarding is a little hectic. It’s been a while since I flew on a low-cost carrier flight, and I’d forgotten about the political games passengers play over space in the overhead lockers.
The flight to Oslo is largely uneventful. Couple of wines to grease the skids, and Vicki manages a little nap. Landing into a snowy Oslo airport is a cool experience. As we start to descend, we can see the peaks of snowy mountains poking through the clouds. We realise we’re pretty damn low to the ground, and still can’t see any evidence of an actual city nearby. It’s only as we’re literally about to touch wheels down that we can see much in the way of Oslo itself. We’re transferring to another flight to Tromso, about 1,000 miles to the North, and well inside the Arctic Circle. We approach a security check, and I’m told that the bottle of duty-free Bourbon I’m carrying is going to be confiscated because the dozy retail assistant at Gatwick neglected to put my receipt inside the bag before sealing it. FUMING. Happily, there’s a duty-free store at Oslo Airport, so I grab another bottle of exactly the same Bourbon. Alcohol in Norway is taxed incredibly heavily - as it is across most of Scandinavia. Prices at our destination resort in Lyngen are likely to be financially crippling - hence some Bourbon for the room, to do some pre-loading.
As we approach Tromso, we can see the frosty looking fjords around the city. We can see the Lyngen Alps to the North East of the town. Both look beyond cold. We check into our hotel. Our room is small, but happily, we’re not planning to spend much time in it. We head out for a beer, and to meet up with the team - who are staying in a hotel round the corner from us. We have a smallish glass of Prosecco - which sets us back £13 per glass. We find our colleagues, and head to a well reviewed pizza joint. Full. We head to an Indian place. Full. We head to a grill-house. Full. It’s Tuesday night in the Arctic Circle, and everywhere appears to be booked. There is a substantial risk of Vicki getting hangry, and I’m not far behind her. The team continue on in search of somewhere to eat, but Vicks and I bail to Burger King, and have the most critically urgent Whopper of our lives. Wandering back towards our hotel, we both nearly have ass-over-tits moments. There’s snow everywhere, but some randomly placed bits of ice that are lethal. Vicki decides it’s time for some sleep. She only slept about 4 hours last night, bless her. I leave her to it, and grab a beer in the hotel’s bar. By the time I’m back upstairs around 22:00, Vicks is sparko.Meer informatie