From Tromsø to Kirkenes
How to slow down the rhythm of your life? If you ask the internet, you will find many advices on what to do to make your everyday life stress-free. Meditation, mindfulness and relaxation exercises are very popular. But when it comes to traveling from one location to another, most people still chose the fastest way of traveling. But traveling slowly not only gives my mind the opportunity to keep up with the changing landscape, it is also a perfect way to de-stress our fast-paced everyday lifestyle. Therefore, I will travel by ship instead of taking the flight on my way home from Tromsø to Kirkenes and I will enjoy the slowness of traveling.
Already the check-in on board is fast and stress-free. No long waiting line and no security check where I have to take off my belt and my shoes. I don’t have to distribute my luggage that I packed thoroughly this morning at the hotel into different plastic boxes for scanning. And I don’t have to try to stuff my belongs back into my bag after scanning while putting my shoes back on and holding my trouser because the belt is still in the security check. And there are no people behind me who are getting irritated because it takes me so long time to sort my things out.
The cabins are situated in two hallways on the outer sides of the deck. In one hallway you will find all cabins with even numbers and on the other way the cabins with uneven numbers. So far I can follow this logic. But I do not understand why cabins number 385 to 399 are on the hallway of the even numbers. Therefore, it takes me some time until I find my cabin with the number 389.
The MS Finnmarken departs at half past six and we are leaving Tromsø. The journey northwards begins.
I make myself comfortable in my cabin, afterwards I am going for dinner. Since there are not so many other guests on the ship, I get also my own dining table and since I don’t have anybody else for making a conversation, I listen to the conversations of other people which is always quite entertaining. “The chair creaking”, is the complaint of an old German gentleman. “The fish is not warm enough” and “it’s strange that there was kale in the salad” are further complaints of my fellow traveller. With conversations like that I don’t need a traveling companion to have an entertaining evening.
For the rest of the evening, I am working on something on my computer and when my concentration is dwindling, I just look out of the window and watch the landscape passing by.
The next morning, a quarter past five we are in Hammerfest. But all the streets are still empty and the town seems to be abandoned that early in the morning.
But also on board of the MS Finnmarken everybody is still sleeping. But this gives me the opportunity to take pictures of the interior of the ship without having other people in the pictures.
We are arriving Honningsvåg late in the morning. It is cold and rainy, not exactly the kind of weather for exploring the town. Therefore, I am quite happy that I meet a former working colleague in Honningsvåg and that we are sitting in a café and are talking about the good old times.
The weather hasn’t changed by the time we leave Honningsvåg. So I try to brave this weather by drinking a warm cup of coffee and eating a delicious piece of chocolate cake when leaving Honningsvåg.
It keeps on raining for the rest of the day so that there is nothing else to do but to relax and care for my well-being. And nothing is more suitable for that than sitting in a hot tub on deck and watching the landscape passing by. Surprisingly, there is less snow here in the north than further south in Tromsø.
Early in the evening we are docking in Mehamn but unfortunately, we are not staying long enough to explore the city. Therefore, the only chance I have to see something from the town is via my camera lens. And the green and white church is one of the buildings that stands out quite clearly.
The passage of time seems to be much slower while traveling with a ship. At least I feel that I have heaps of time this evening for reading, working on my computer or watching the landscape.
At 10 pm we are docking in Berlevåg which is situated on the northern side of the Varanger peninsula. This night we will drive around the Varanger peninsula and when the MS Finnmarken docks in Vadsø tomorrow morning, I will be almost at home.
I am totally relaxed when I wake up on the last morning on bord of the MS Finnmarken. There are less clouds in the sky then the days before and even the sun shines sometimes. I am eating breakfast while we are in Vadsø and afterwards I pack my belongings. I spend the last hour of the journey on deck. The ship drives smoothly into the Bøkfjord and approaches Kirkenes. Sometimes the sun comes through and the water is reflected in the mirrors. I am relaxed and revived when we arrive in Kirkenes.
