Off to the zoo. Short drive to a ferry and then on to the Arctic Zoo (entry cost not included, about NOK240) as it opened at midday. Feeding tour started at 1pm. It was pretty informative, even if the animals didn’t always cooperate :-).
Two different types of cabins at this campsite. I was with 5 other guys in a self-contained cabin, power, heat, water, toilet, shower, TV, kitchen. Two sets of bunks in one bedroom and one queen like sized bed in the other bedroom. Used sleeping bag. A group of girls had a double storied self-contained cabin and everybody else had basic cabins.
This was where the polar plunge took place. There was about 3 of us that didn’t do it. I played camera man/boy recording the crazy people running in 🙂 (with permission, one of the group asked me to record with their phone). Safest option seemed to be to run into the river from the far bank (over the foot bridge from the camp) and that’s what all but a couple of our group did. No pressure to do the plunge, no issues with not doing it.
Yummy burgers for tea. Assembled your own from lots of different provided filling options.
NOK10 per 4min for the showers (if in a basic cabin). Laundry was NOK20 for a wash, free drying.
Fermented fish (eating) challenge for team points. Only one person was able to eat it and keep it down.
Day 16 – Skibotn to Olderfjord
Mostly just a driving day. Back to a basic cabin for everybody, power and heat. Sleeping bag used. Left for Nordkapp at 20:30. Took about 2 hours to get there. Interesting drive. Nordkapp is the northern most point on mainland Europe. Fairly fancy visitors centre. If it isn’t cloudy then you can see the sun bounce off the horizon. They had a (movie) theatre with a surround screen downstairs in the visitors centre that showed a whole year compressed down into 10-15mins. I bought it and another touristy film on DVD from the gift shop at ground level. I tried a time-lapse but it was a bit cloudy and I didn’t start it at quite the right time. Was quite cold, approaching 0 degrees. I bought some warm gloves from the gift shop at the accomodation. My notes say we were due back around 3am, I haven’t checked my GPS tracking to see what time we actually got back. It was still light though of course.
Day 17 – OLDERFJORD
Sleep in day. Brunch (and bubbles) from around 11:30. Lazy day lazing around the campsite. Went for a bit of hike. Not sure if we went the right way but it wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours of the day. Weather wasn’t too good. A fair amount of alcohol was consumed.
Showers were NOK10. The gift shop/reception could make change. Laundry was available, in the part of the accomodation across the road.
Rather long bus day. Google says it is over 500km.
We arrived fairly late. One of the girls had a painting she wanted to see at an art gallery. It wasn’t open on Day 9 and was closing pretty soon after we arrived so when we arrived she went straight to the gallery.
Tour manager put all the people continuing on from Oslo in one lot of rooms and people finishing in Oslo, plus me as there wasn’t room with the continuing people, together in another lot, more or less.
Bit of time to settle in etc then we walked to a restaurant for tea. Pretty good food and restaurant. Bit of a walking tour to the opera house afterwards to see the sun set from its roof. If you are going to do one of those jumping photos off the roof wall be very careful how you land. You don’t want to stuff your foot and spend the next few weeks limping (no it wasn’t me).
Day 9 – Olso
Included breakfast at the hotel next door. Then off in the bus to the Holmenkollbakken Ski Jump and The Vigeland Sculpture Park (competition for the best recreation of the sculptures). Then on to the optional Viking Ship Museum. Then to the, again optionals, Fram Polarship and Kon Tiki Museums. I did the Viking and Fram Polarship museums, skipping the Kon Tiki one.
We had the rest of the day free to explore. Lots of walking around.
For tea one of the group found a restaurant to check out. After the fairly long walk to it (although since we were in a group it didn’t seem that long) they didn’t really like the look of it or something like that. I just went back to the Burger King we’d past and got a burger etc that I ate on the walk back to the hostel.
In Oslo about half of our group was replaced (people finishing in Oslo left and people starting in Oslo joined).
That night we walked to organised hello/goodbye drinks to say goodbye to the people leaving in Oslo and hello to the people joining.
Day 10 – Oslo to Andalsnes
Breakfast in the hotel next door again and then the last lot of goodbyes before heading off to Ã…ndalsnes via Lillehammer township and then its bobsled.
All but two of us did the optional bobsled ride. I did it last time and once was enough for me. Our tour manger couldn’t wait to ride it again and most people got out of the bobsled at the end with huge smiles on their faces.
We had lunch at the bobsled track, hotdogs. Lots of choices of stuff to add in. Yummy.
Then off to our campsite via a stave church.
Cook tent
At the campsite we got a lesson in setting up the cook tent. It was set up on a grassy patch behind a small amenities (toilets etc) block. Earlier we divided up into groups. The tasks of helping with breakfast and tea were rotated through the groups. When it was your group’s turn the group was further divided into helping with the preparation or helping with the clean up. As my preparation skills are basically zero I always helped with the clean up. Clean up was only for the preparation etc stuff. Everybody washed, rinsed and dried their own plates and utensils etc. The air dry method of just flapping everything around with great vigour until it was dry was used.
The cabins had a small living room/kitchen with a bedroom out the back with 2 (I think) bunks (so 4 people per cabin). They had power, heat and water. Bedding (no towels) was provided, I got the impression it wasn’t always. Toilets and showers were in the amenity blocks. There was a small one near reception where we set up the cook tent (just toilets and a kitchen wash room (and a dump station so when cleaning up the cook tent use the kitchen wash room NOT the dump station 🙂 ) I think and the main one was in the other direction. Hot water for the showers was by tokens where each token was 5min which were purchasable with cash or card from reception. Reception wasn’t open 24/7 so if you are going to shower when it isn’t open make sure you get the tokens while it is open.
Day 11 – Ã…ndalsnes/Geirangerfjord
Big day of scenery. I have the timings noted down as 6:45 for breakfast and 07:30 departure. Via the Trolls Pass to a cruise on Geirangerfjord. 2 small ferries plus the one long one on the fjord.
Looking back down Trolls PassCruise on the fjord. Lots of water falls
After the cruise we had a stop for lunch, jacket/baked potato with numerous options to mix/put in with the spud (and some little yummy muffins afterwards).
Lunch stop view
We had a good long stop at the top of Trolls Pass on the way back. My understanding on the timings for the day depends on which ferries the group gets booked on. The way we got worked quite well.
My notes say we were expected back at camp around 16:30. Not sure what I did between then and tea (at 19:30 apparently). I think some people went for a walk up a nearby hill. Some got a ride in the bus to the start of the walk (I think he was doing a fuel run). One person didn’t and was very, very late back. We were pretty sure he had a working cellphone with him, but nobody knew how to contact him on it. He did turn up eventually, but, yeah useful if you (or at least somebody in the group) can be contacted if you are out and might be late back.
Chess match final (camp had a big chess board on the ground) at night. Points to the group (the same one used for the cooking duties). Followed by a “punch party”, card/drinking games etc.
Sunrise at 03:40, sunset 23:15.
Day 12 – Andalsnes to Steinkjer
Off to the next place. Couple of stops along the way. This was the first stop that didn’t have bedding so we used our sleeping bags. The cabins had power, heating, and water. They were up the top of a hill, toilets and showers where at the bottom of the hill under the reception. I don’t remember what the showers cost, they might have been free. There was a laundry but it was closed while we were there.
Had a small bonfire on the beach.
Day 13 – Steinkjer to Bjerka
No cook tent set up at this site as they had an undercover area we could use. Supermarket short walk away. Not really anything else around. Two quite different types of cabins. One fully self contained with toilet, shower and TV. The other had power and heating and that was about it (that we would use anyway). I had one of the basic ones. There was a laundry, machines took local coins if I remember correctly. Showers in the amenities block, if like me you were in one of the basic cabins, also took local coins. And only local coins. One of the guys showers was out of action as one of our group tried to put a different country’s coin in (by accident) and it jammed. Each coin gave you a pretty short time of hot water, 10NOK = 2 minutes. We used a lot of hot water cleaning up after tea, but the showers were pretty stingy on the hot water. I don’t really use cash so didn’t really have much in the way of coins but thankfully other people did and were usually fairly generous about sharing out coins for things like showers etc. I guess it was kinda off season as we seemed to be about the only people there. Even the camp manager only seemed to be there for a short while some time after we arrived and then was gone. Obviously used my sleeping bag again.
Day 14 – Bjerka to Tysfjor
Very early departure, 06:30. So we collected our breakfast to eat on the bus later. Off to walk to the Svartisen glacier. Bus to boat. Boat to beginning of walk. Walk to glacier. The walk starts off on fairly formed track but as you get closer to the glacier you start having to just pick your way over rocky terrain. If you don’t do the walk (like one in our group) then you basically just wait at the bus where we caught the boat and there isn’t really anything there. If you didn’t feel comfortable walking over the rocky part you could just stop at that point. The glacier was pretty visible from there.
The glacier. You were able to walk right up to it
After the walk we continued on, passing into the Arctic Circle. Had a stop at the Arctic Circle Centre for all your souvenirs (and food if you wanted, they had reindeer burgers) and for a group photo op.
Had a 30min shopping break. Got money out at out an ATM there for the Nordkapp visit. They have to hire a bus for it (due to driving hours) so how much it is is dependant on how many people go. The more people the cheaper it was. I think nearly all our group went and it came out as NOK900 (about NZD150). See day 16. The ATM was just inside upstairs.
Our stop for the night (Tysfjord Turistsenter AS) was self contained cabins, but with a seemly rather limited hot water supply for the whole blocks of them. They had two beds down stairs, or should I say ladder, and two upstairs. Used sleeping bag again. Had really yummy roast chicken for tea. I ate quite a bit of it. There was a free washing machine and drier, but only one of each which were in quite high demand, and neither were very quick. Had to supply your own washing powder.
I originally booked the 37 day Red Star Special trip that spends a week in Russia after Scandanvia but the football/soccer world cup meant Top Deck couldn’t get accommodation in Russia so they came up with an itinerary that spent a week in Poland instead of Russia.
This isn’t as detailed as my previous trip ones as I’m only starting writing it nearly a year later vs a few weeks for the other ones and there’s only so much I can remember and gleam from my notes, photos, and day sheets.
Before the tour we’d made a Facebook group to get to know everyone etc. On the tour the tour manager made an offical Facebook group page where he posted extra updates and information etc. The really important stuff was still on the day/”What’s On?” sheets, the group just provided more detail etc.
All our optionals had to paid for in cash. They were pretty much the only thing I used cash for. I don’t drink so I don’t know how people usually paid for those. ATMs were easy enough to find and all could be switched to english (some did automatically when I inserted my card).
Day 1 – Berlin
My final flight from Frankfurt to Berlin was cancelled. I was meant to have a few hours in Frankfurt and arrive in Berlin in the early afternoon, in plenty of time for the 5pm tour start time. The flight the airline rebooked me on was over 4 hours later meaning I got to the hostel just after 6pm, just before they left for the included meal. I rang my pre-booked airport transfer and got it changed to the later flight, at no extra charge as the change was out of my hands, and mentioned it on the Topdeck app chat. The tour manager saw my post and replied just to get there when I could and we’ll sort all the normal paper work and stuff that they were doing from 5pm out later.
The included meal was a short walk away. A massive pork knuckle, or a whole heap of veggies for the vegetarians.
Back to the hostel after the meal and we then sorted out the paper work of me and another person who also had transport issues. Learnt only 4 of the people starting in Berlin were doing the whole 37 days and we were only picking up another 2 in Tallin so only 6 of us for the last bit of the tour from Tallin. I guess lots of the original Red Star Special etc people changed to later tours that were still going to Russia and the tours that were mostly just Russia (eg ones starting in Tallin) were cancelled.
Wombats hostel wanted some form of ID (eg drivers licence) they could hold on to until you left or a copy of your passport and a EUR10 deposit. Only place that required that. I did the passport copy and deposit thing as that was the only ID I had on me. I don’t drink so don’t need ID for that and I certainly wasn’t going to drive so why would I bring my drivers licence with me.
Day 2 – Berlin
After breakfast off on a driving tour, check out some of the remains of the wall etc and then dropped off either for own time or the optional walking tour. I did the walking tour. Pretty good, I thought it was worth the money. Had lunch with a group after the tour then headed off with some of them via the subway (ticket machines on the platform took cash and cards, although some cards didn’t work) to the large sporting/outdoors shop (Decathlon) for them to get sleeping bags etc. Subway ticketing was based one what zones you were going to be passing through I think. We only needed the cheapest ticket anyway. Back to the hostel via a pub. I rested the rest of the day, the others went back out, to the gardens I think.
Day 3 – Berlin to Copenhagen
Breakfast at the hostel and then to the ferry to Denmark. First experience of meals with our onroad chef with lunch before boarding the ferry (the first of many salads, I think I heard something about a Topdeck policy regarding meat when travelling, some sort of restriction due to food safety concerns). All the ferries we went on on this tour were the smoothest I’ve ever been on. Most of the time if I didn’t look out the window I’d barely know we were moving, and I’m pretty sensitive to movement (not in the feel sick way though most of the time now, thankfully). Tour in the bus of Copenhagen upon arrival, including stops at Christiania, little mermaid etc.
Hostel (a Generator) was pretty nice and quite well located. Very slow and small lift though so do the thing where you send one person up with lots of bags and everybody else take the stairs. Another set of stairs (and an even smaller, slower lift) at the other end of the building.
Day 4 – Copenhagen
Free day after breakfast. I tagged along with a group that wanted to go for a swim in the sea (I didn’t partake in that part though). Pretty good walk around, went up the Christiansborg Palace tower, followed by a boat/canal cruise in the afternoon. We bought tickets at the hostel but would have been just as easy to buy from where the boat left from. We bought the one group voucher and the hostel was fine with taking a mixture of cash and different cards. Another group bought a seperate voucher that included a boat cruise and access to Tivoli Gardens. Unfortunately the boat cruise part was for a different company so they couldn’t join us. So watch out for that. More walking around including a visit to a lego store. Had quite a number of yummy ice creams from a little shop on a corner.
We tried to have a little picnic in a nearby park but it closed “early”.
Day 5 – Copenhagen to Stockholm, Sweden
45min drive to the ferry, 30min ferry ride. Then 6 hours to Stockholm. Person came on the bus and quickly checked our passports. Stop for included lunch. Stopped at a huge IKEA. Included tea (what I call the evening meal) at the hostel (another Generator), rather yummy Swedish meat balls :-).
Day 6 – Stockholm
Drop off/Pick up for the optional Vasa museum (wreak of a huge old war ship from 1600s). I’d already been the last time I was in Sweden (in 2015) so skipped that (it is quite impressive though so you should go if you haven’t seen it before), slept in, and just met up with the group for the city walking tour (included) afterwards (via McDonalds at the train station for brunch).
The other optional was the a City Hall tour, which I also did last time, but there was some issues with timings or something. It is pretty good so do go if you can fit it in.
After the walking tour I walked with a couple of the girls to the ABBA musuem via a little place on the water front for them to get some lunch. Museum only took card. They were into it a bit more than me but it was quite interesting. Exit via a gift shop of course.
Tea with the ABBA museum girls in the bar on the ground floor of the hostel. A pretty nice pizza. Note: not the cheapest option.
Day 7 – Stockholm
Second free day in Copenhagen. I took the day off, slept in, and did washing. Pretty good place to do washing. You have 2 days and the hostel makes washing pretty easy, for somewhere you did it yourself. From reception you just paid via cash or card and they gave you a wash token, a dry token and quantity (serving?) of washing powder. Took those and your washing to the laundry where they had some fancy washing machines and dryers with screens that supported multiple languages. On the wall they had posters with instructions for changing the language on the machine’s screens and how to do basic washes and drys etc.
Other people visited the artistic subway stations (I’m underselling it, they are pretty impressive, just google stockholm subway station art).
Lots of groups seemed to just converge on a hill to watch the sun set.
