The View of Ramberg from Nubben

Kabelvåg: An Unexpected Detour

Sunday morning started out great. Got up, had breakfast, broke down camp and walked to the bus station to make our way to Ramberg. An hour later, while still at the bus stop, we realized that Ramberg might not be in the cards for the day. We got a local to translate the fine print in the bus schedule, only to find out that Sunday was a national holiday and no busses would be running that day...anywhere. Time for plan C: Kabelvåg.

We started walking down the main island road to figure out where we'd be spending the night. After a two hour walk, we found Kabelvåg, a motor home mecca. Luckily, we managed to squeeze our tent in by the beach and had a fantastic view (see pic). The day was unusually hot, and with our slightly sunburnt faces, we decided to relax at camp and not explore the town. We called it a night and decided to get up the next morning and try the bus for Ramberg again.

Lofoten Islands - Svolvær

Friday is what we like to call a "travel day." Starting the morning in Stockholm, we bussed to the airport, flew to Oslo, then to Evenes Airport. Missing the last bus to Svolvær, we headed east to Narvik, where we wandered around the city to multiple hotels before finally finding one that was both open and staffed. Oh, and staffed it was. Words can't even begin to describe how much of a character the old man was.

After a good night's sleep under the midnight sun, we headed downstairs for a traditional Norwegian breakfast, complete with smoked salmon and herring, pickled herring, eggs and meatballs. Next it was back to the bus, heading southwest to Svolvær. For the entire 4 hour bus ride, it was nothing but beautiful seascapes and mountains jutting straight out of the water. We arrived in Svolvær at 1:40 and rushed to the tourist office before they closed at 2. From there, we rushed to three different sporting goods stores for fuel, maps, and a replacement waterproof shell, which Chris accidentally left in Narvik. But we won't talk about that anymore.

With gear in hand, we started the hot (yes, that's right, hot) walk to the campsite. While we are in the Arctic Circle and there is snow on most of the peaks around us, it was nearly 80 F today! We are pretty sure this is unusual, but who knows?

Within seconds, the tent was set up and the stove had water boiling for a quick lunch of pad Thai (yeah, we eat well while camping). We spent some time planning the rest of our days in Lofoten, then headed out for a dinner hike. A short ascending trail led us to the perfect spot to set down our packs and make lasagna for dinner. Our view was spectacular (see blog pic).

Tomorrow we head to Ramberg to check out the white sandy beaches and dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean.

Stockholm Day 2

After a hard night's sleep, we woke up Thursday morning excited to explore Stockholm. We had breakfast on the hotel balcony and chatted with some tourists from Vancouver. The weather for the day was unusually perfect, at least according to the locals. The hotel manager suggested we visit the Vasa Museum, and so we set off to see what it was all about.

The Vasa Museum depicts the famous Vasa Viking ship that sunk in the Baltic Sea in 1628 just minutes into its maiden voyage. The ship was retrieved from the sea floor in the 1960s and went through several decades of restoration before being put on display for the public to see in 1990. For one museum being dedicated solely to a war ship that never even fought, it was fascinating to learn its history (see pic below).

After nearly 2 hours at the museum, we were ready for lunch. Just down the street we were able to get an outside table and sample some traditional Swedish dishes. Fried herring and Swedish meatballs...and not the ones you get from IKEA (see pic below).

Since we were able to see most of the sites by foot, we decided to end our day in the city by taking a touristy boat tour through the 14 islands that make up Stockholm. The two hour cruise offered unique views of many of the city sights, while giving our legs a rest before backpacking.

After ice cream in the park, we headed back to our hotel to make dinner and get ready for the Arctic Circle. And now for some quick stats pertaining to our trip so far...

# of modes of transportation: 9 (car, airplane, bus, subway, train, ferry, feet, bike, boat)

# of cities visited: 3

# of nights camped: 2

# of crossword puzzles completed: 33 and counting...

# of other Americans encountered: 0

# estimated miles walked: 25

Because our next destination takes us to a remote location, we do not know when we will be able to send updates again, but expect our next update to talk about our time spent on the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway.

Swedish Meatballs

Vasa Museum

Akkurat, the Best Beer Bar in Stockholm

To finish our night off, we went to Akkurat, arguably one of the best beer bars in the world. Their vintage list was expansive and they have beers brewed or blended specially for them, as well as other bar exclusives, which is why we were there. We started off with a nice sour, Cantillon Loerik, to wake up the taste buds from their post-dinner snooze. This gueuze was brewed in 1996 and is known to produce a number of flat bottles, but ours was carbonated perfectly. After sipping this for a while, we moved on to an Akkurat exclusive: Narke Stormaktsporter Cognac (see picture). Like the Kaggen! we had in Helsinki, this imperial stout was barrel aged, though this version was a cognac barrel. Brewed in 2010 for Akkurat's anniversary, the beer was fantastic and the only possible complaint may be that it's still a bit young and needs time. To finish up the night, the bartender fed us samples of some nice, light Swedish pale ales, which would easily stand up to any American version. A great end to the first day in Stockholm, but now it's time to rest up for the busy day tomorrow.

Day 1 in Stockholm

Our ferry arrived in Stockholm at about 3:30 and much of the afternoon was spent wandering Stockholm on the way to our hotel, which is basically a 9-room B&B in the city. After dropping our things off, we headed to southern Stockholm to Sodermalm for dinner. We went to Kvarnen, which is a classic Swedish beer hall, per the recommendation of a friend. Though the meatballs were tempting we ultimately went with Salmon and pytta i panna, which is like roast beef hash for dinner. Next, we walked off dinner while taking some photos around Sodermalm on our way to our post-dinner drinks at Akkurat, which we'll mention in the next post. We packed in a lot today, but tomorrow should be even more adventurous.

The Aland Islands

Managing to wake up in time for our 5:45 train to Turku on Monday, we headed to the west coast of Helsinki to catch a "short" ferry to the Aland islands. Six hours later, we arrived in Mariehamn. After setting up our tent near the beach, we took a stroll through "downtown" and grabbed a reindeer burger as a late lunch. We picked up food at the market for dinner and then walked through the woods back to our campsite. A quick pasta dinner and we were asleep by 8:30 pm.

Ten hours later, we awoke to a quick but vicious thunderstorm. After the rain cleared up and the sun came out, we decided to rent bikes and ride around the island. We planned a picnic lunch and rode through the countryside before stopping to eat on the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon on our bikes, stopping only to read the map and get some ice cream. We went back to camp and put on our "Sunday best." We rode back to town for dinner at Niska's Pizzeria where we had dinner on the waterfront, which would've been perfect for sunset except that the sun was still high above at 8pm. To cap off the evening, we went to a high lookout point before returning to camp. Because it was still light out, we played cards until about 1am before calling it a night (er, day?). This morning, we woke up, packed up, hiked to the port and hopped on a ferry to Stockholm.

Helsinki - Olutravintola Pikkulintu

Later Sunday was the first time on this trip that we got to geek out on beer. After a short metro ride to outer Helsinki, we stopped at arguably the best "strip mall" bar in the world: Olutravintola Pikkulintu. We started with the Cantillon Pikkulintu Viskilambic, a lambic aged in a bourbon barrel of which Cantillon blended only 192 bottles especially for this bar. This was exceptional, unique, and worth flying to Helsinki for. Next up was a triple IPA brewed for Pikkulintu by Shaun Hill of Grassroots, the same Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead fame. Finally, we were lucky enough to try a bottle of 2005 Narke Kaggen! stormaktsporter. This little bottle had subtle, perfect hints of oxidization and we're glad we got to try it at this age. The bartender was fantastic and we would've stayed all night if the budget and time allowed, but dinner beckoned.

We headed back on the metro to just north of city center, to an area where most of the Finns hang out. Based on a recommendation from the city tourist office, we found a little hole-in-the-wall Ukrainian restaurant. The stroganoff was great and their specialty, meat-stuffed dumplings with currants, was exceptional. Overall, a fantastic day for our taste buds.

Next up are the Aland Islands and not sure when we'll be able to post again, but expect an update some time Wednesday.