Since I got the job at the Radio I applied for, I will be working for Trondheim’s student radio RadioRevolt which is a part of the Samfundet student society. The radio just switched to 24 hour broadcasting and I will be a part of the new marketing team in order to gain some money through broadcasted radio spots. As this hasn’t been done yet I am very exited about my new appointment..
Monday. Carlos flew in for a visit to Zeus, my new neighbor and we decided to go up to the north, Narvik and maybe Tromsø – that was basically all of the plan. We woke up on Monday at 8 with the idea in mind to rent and take the whole way by car which (thank goodness) we found out to be too expensive and a suicide mission anyway. We booked flights with Norwegian for 120€ each and went out to REMA to hunt us some diner.. that’s how it started with a trip perfectly fitting the category “entirely unscheduled freestyle”.
It was 15:45 at the kitchen table with the plates displaying remains of the dish and a beheaded pineapple on top of it all when someone noticed that we would need to take the bus at 16:00 in order to get the flight. To arrange the launch even more emotional we decided to skip the first stops of the airport bus by taking line 9 crossing its way and finding the right stop via.. GPS – like three kids on the bus constantly monitoring the smart phone radar to catch the flight which was only few minutes away. Afterward one kid ripped his trousers while crossing the street barrier, but neither humans nor animals were harmed and we popped out in Tromsø at a quarter past 8. As our flexible trip approach has forbidden us making any plans besides of maybe renting a car we shortly realized while walking down the airport hall that on a Monday evening all car rentals at the airport are closed.. all but one. We decided to get us a car immediately and I tried to get in touch with with Ula who hosted me in Tromsø before and might have been able to help us. Unfortunately she just came back from Oslo and already had 2 guests. Additionally we found out that the Tromsø International Film Festival was just taking place resulting in many hotels being fully booked. But we had the car and everyone knowing ice skating can imagine how much fun one can have on a slippery surface with the right speed and a handbrake. After almost 3 hours of driving across Tromsø with GPS plus several hotels on a map and some quite funny attempts to seduce the local population to let us stay overnight, we found a home stay occasion with 700 kr for all the three of us. After leaving our backpacks at the place with a 40 years old guy on crutches we headed downtown for the deserved beers, found a bar called Blå Rock Café and stayed there until 1:30am. As this is the time in Tromsø when the lights go down and we were still lacking an adventure, we decided to drive more into the countryside to watch out for polar lights also called as aurora borealis. Around 2am at a Tuesday morning with no auroras and nothing going on in Tromsø there is no adventure you might say? Paaahh.. sure it is.. because just after driving few meters into the countryside and leaving the pavement we got stuck up to the ankles in deep smooth snow.. in.. believe it or not: Turistvegen (literally: Tourist Road ) !
It took us 3 (three) hours and a road sign to get out of this wonderful nature. After several failed attempts to use dry branches to prevent the wheels from digging deeper into the literal sh** we lifted the car and sacrificed a plate from a nearby road sign to keep the wheels off the slippery surface. Totally exhausted we returned to our accommodation at 6 in the morning. The first day of the trip.
Tuesday. It was around 14:00 and just about to get dark outside when we regained consciousness. Tromsø has daylight from 10:00 till 14:30 in January and the sun is expected to be visible at the weekend for the first time since the winter. As Zeus has reached his friend in Narvik we had a place to stay there, we packed our bags and decided to leave immediately – but before – we had still to pay yesterday’s crime scene a visit. We took some pictures and put the remains of the sign we used back in place (see picture above).
The way to Narvik as being part of the E6 is supposed to be the most important motorway in Norway. It is a narrow 2-lane road, twisty, icy and very dangerous partially. Even with the spikes on the tires which are mandatory here you can feel the slippery road and the wind and the snow produce a picture of a polar mission behind the windows. Well, you get used to it ..and then it happens.. the tires keep on turning, Zeus keeps on wrenching the steering wheel left and right to regain control over the car while it throws us back and forth. Finally the car stops with all of us and good shock inside.
On the way to Gløshaugen – Realfagbygget in front
Nidaros Cathedral and Trondheimsfjord
Hovedbygget på Gløshaugen