And so to the end of the line… Kirkenes, just 15km short of the Russian border is where the ship turns round. It appears that most passengers are indeed staying on the boat and heading straight back south again, to fill in the blanks missed in the middle of the night on the northern leg. The Lofoten Islands await a daylight passage, and a visit to Trondheim the old capital. But for me that will have to wait, as I have, possibly a little rashly, decided to stay two days in Kirkenes and take a different boat back south. Mind you this is my view from my hotel window so its not all bad.
Almost 6 full days at sea and I am suddenly aware of the sway in my balance as I spend some time on land again. Small price to pay for not feeling seasick even once. Hope the return journey is as forgiving.
When I say “possibly a little rashly”, I have pretty much explored Kirkenes town by lunch time on my first day. However there is writing to do, walks to take, and a range of cafes to try. And laundry to get done (you know how light I pack - I ran out of clean clothes yesterday!), although at Norwegian prices it might be cheaper to buy new ones!
The proximity and debt to Russia is demonstrated by road signs in the Cyrillic alphabet, a memorial to the Soviet liberation, and the presence of a Russian Consulate. I thought photographing the consulate might be a little risky, so you will have to take my word for it! But I risked the bear motif on a flag pole just outside. I've avoided the gulag so far.
Kirkenes was one of the hardest hit towns in Norway during the second world war. It received over 300 bombing raids and only 13 houses remained standing when the Russian Red Army liberated it in October 1944, about 6 months before the rest of Norway was freed. Germany had used the city as a base for its attempt to occupy Murmansk in an effort to intercept an Allies supply line to the Eastern front.
As I sit in a cafe in Kirkenes, I am reasonably sure I am the only non-local, listening to background babble in a language that is completely incomprehensible to me, but loving the sense of being far from home, though relieved to be warm and dry. A place that does, to the outsider, have a real sense of being at the extremity of the world. I think the nearest major city is actually Murmansk in Russia, which is only a couple of hundred kilometres away. That is a place that is synonymous with cold and almost permanent winter. Yeah, 2 days will be more than enough for me here! And I will have no excuse for avoiding the hotel gym.
