Norway with Hurtigruten // Day 8 // Getting close to the Russian border

WHALE SIGHTING?

There was no midnight sun yesterday, but something much funnier happened, so I had to add a supplement to Day 7 ;-).

During breakfast today, the captain announced that there was a whale swimming to the left of our ship. Luckily, our MS Polarlys didn't tip over because almost all of the passengers immediately rushed to the left side and eagerly looked out the windows or from the railing. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything!

RUSSIAN BORDER EXPERIENCE

Shortly afterwards, we had another exciting experience waiting for us in the harbor of Kirkenes. Kirkenes is the northernmost port of Hurtigruten and is located in the very north of Norway, squeezed between Finland and Russia. Here, there is a tripoint, the only one in the world where three time zones meet! However, a bi-point was enough for us, as we wanted to get close to the Russian border today with the traditional longboats.

For this, we were first loaded into minibuses by Hans (Norwegian) and Monika (German). Hans manages the excursions around Kirkenes and Monika has visited Hans and his longboats 6 times during her trips with Hurtigruten up here to see the Russian border. On her 7th visit, Hans convinced her to stay. That was about 6 years ago, and since then she has been helping him with his excursions. His two grandsons also joined us today as diligent support.

When we arrived at the small boat harbor, we had to put on life jackets first. They are bright orange and look like diapers from behind:

Then everyone got on board - but in such a way that the boat was well balanced - and off we went across the river with Hans as the helmsman:

After about 20 minutes, we arrived at the camp, which is located right on the Norwegian-Russian border. However, to get there, we had to walk from our boat (the "Trifon", see on the left in the picture) across this shaky bridge construction - Papa was holding on like a girl because it was shaking so much. And I was laughing ;-):

Earlier, Hans had mentioned that we had to keep enough distance from each other because the bridge was not stable enough to carry everyone at the same time. Apparently, the bridge had been built by a Finn. Apparently not a quality guarantee! Once, Hans had a government delegation visit who didn't want to listen and rushed onto the bridge with 22 people. And then they all fell into the water. Well...

When we arrived at the camp, we learned a lot about the history of the region. It got particularly interesting when Hans removed the barrier and allowed us to walk a few meters further - within spitting distance of the Russian border. Last warning:

And there we were - the Norwegian border post in yellow, and the Russian one in red-green:

A few years ago, some guests didn't want to listen (they were not the same ones with the bridge incident). A woman leaned too far forward while taking a picture. And two men wanted to test what would happen if they "jumped over" to Russia, just for a moment. A few minutes later, all of them were picked up by Norwegian border guards and taken to the police station in Kirkenes. A fine of 5,000 euros for crossing the border. And since the Hurtigruten ship had already left after the interrogation, another 3,000 euros for the taxi to the next port. From the camp, we could only see two watchtowers (one Norwegian and one Russian), but the border guards are hidden in the forest everywhere and have technically advanced equipment to identify anyone from a distance. After all, this is also a border to the Schengen Area, so it is even more strictly guarded. So we were extremely careful not to cross the border!

For refreshments - since breakfast was already 2 hours ago - Hans' grandchildren made coffee for us and served cloudberries with cream:

These orange cloudberries only grow up here in Norway and are very popular because of their high vitamin C content. Since they taste a bit sour, the Norwegians recommend eating them with pancakes or ice cream. And cream. Always cream!

QUICK STOP IN VARDØ

We arrived in Vardø in the afternoon, the oldest city in Finnmark. We were supposed to have an hour for sightseeing, but now we only had a little over half an hour. But it wasn't so bad because there isn't much to see here. At least we made it to the "main attraction," the fortress. The military was there too:

And tomorrow: We will arrive in Hammerfest, the northernmost city in the world, then continue with a midnight excursion in Tromsø - it is a new addition to the Hurtigruten program and no one could explain what we will actually do there. So it remains exciting!