Friday 18 February 2011

Day 4 Narvik, Norway

      I contacted SJ the Swedish railway company and the trains were cancelled again for the day due to the extreme cold weather.. I decided to catch a bus to Narvik, Norway which is about halfway of where I wanted to be, but hey you gotta role with the punches and keep on moving! The bus ride was scheduled to be two and half hours and the cost was 270 Swedish Kronor(US 42). I went to the back of the bus and just relaxed... I thought it would be nice to get away from the extreme cold of Kiruna. Along the ride I saw some amazing views of the mountains and snow that covered all the land.. it was beautiful! Next the bus driver pulls up to a ski resort and all the passengers get off. Its just the bus driver and I left on the bus. He pulls over and parks the bus. He tells me that we are waiting for another bus and the passengers from that bus and I were going to get on one bus and then goto Narvik. I look at the time and it was about 15 minutes before we were scheduled to be finished the trip. I start asking some questions how long are we going to wait? about 30 mins... how far is it till we are finished the bus ride? 45 mins..... At this point I'm pretty frustrated so I told the bus driver this isn't fair to me and I paid a lot of money to be in Narvik at the scheduled time. It was like the bus driver didn't have any concern about how I was feeling or anything... He offered to give me 100 Kronor in return for my delay and I thought that was fair. I arrived in Narvik an hour and half late. When I walked out of the bus the weather was much different! only -5C(23F) considering I had been dealing with -25C(-13F) to -35C(-31F) weather It felt like Summer time!! haha I loved it...I met with a CouchSurfer named Jim. I had contacted him a few days before just in case the trains were to be cancelled and I had to take a different route. He was very nice to accept in such short notice. I was very impressed with Jim! He's been a member of CouchSurfing for about 6-7 years and has Hosted over 275 Surfers! Traveled to 153 Countries. Jim and I enjoyed some nice conversations over Fika(Coffee and snacks....Example: Tea time for Scandinavians)

Cost- Bus ticket Kiruna-Narvik 170 Swedish Kronor(US 26)


                                    Bus ride Kiruna to Narvik


              Jim's collection of photos in the Countries visited
              Organized by Color to show different Continents
             World map with all 153 Countries listed he's visited


                                  Jim and I overlooking Narvik

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