Boarded the M/S Trollfjord, one of their newest boats, around 1am. Paid about 780 Norwegian Crowns for the passage to Kirkenes, including a cabin and breakfast. That’s less than I paid for the hotel in Vardø AND it carried me across the Barents Sea for several hours!
Arrived in Kirkenes around 10am. Lots of Russian fishing trawlers in the harbour. The town seemed almost deserted, very few people out and about. Streets, hotels, and public buildings have their name written using Latin characters and underneath again using Cyrillic ones. E.g. library: библиотека. The Russian border is at most 12km away. Found a campsite a few kilometers outside town.
The French guy I’d met near Vadsø, David, is staying here, too, as well as yet another Swiss cyclist, Cyrill. We had a long chat over dinner and beyond, about our previous trips and experiences, as well as ideas for future tours and adventures. We’ve all done more than 4000km on our current journeys.
We also listed the most useless things we’re carrying around on the current trip. David is carrying a spatula, Cyrill’s got a second mobile and rubber boots (even though he thinks they might be useful at some point), and me, I’ve got two tents in my luggage as well as pills against sea sickness.
The weather was awesome today. Warm and sunny. Forecasts are not that good for the coming days, unfortunately.
