June 24, 2010
Today is our last full day in Northern Norway and the sun is peaking through the clouds! After a week of nothing but rain and clouds, we were in desperate need of some sunshine. I must say, Tromsø in the sun is much better than Tromsø in the rain!
Our morning activities included visits to Tromsø Geophysical Obervatory and Kongsberg Spacetec. Tromsø Geophysical Observatory is a research program and educational facility focused on studying the Northern Lights. Odd Erik Garcia, our host, explained the phenomenon behind Aurora Borealis including the fact that the name is actually a misnomer by an Italian scientist who saw the lights during a strong period when they reached as far south as Italy. However, the further they go, the less dense they are and thus the lights in Italy were red while in Northern Norway they are always bright green. In the past, the Northern Lights have been seen as far south as Jamaica. Every year, the intensity changes and the center shifts. Scientists study the solar activity to determine when they will see the Northern Lights. The past few years have actually been relatively dormant, but last year showed a little activity so if you are interested in seeing the Northern Lights, you should check them out in about two years! Dormant activity has been known to last as long as 100 years, so don't miss your chance while the solar activity is visible!
Kongsberg Spacetek is a ground satellite station, working to monitor and coordinate with the satellite activity to collect data for countries. The ground satellites are based across the world, including Tromsø, and work 24/7 to talk with the stations. Because of their location, Kongsberg is the leading ground satellite company. In Tromsø, the ground satellites can communicate with 11 of the 14 orbiting satellites while in Svalbard, all 14 orbits communicate regularly because the satellites orbit Pole to Pole and always pass over Svalbard. Some advantages of having quick data from the salellites include monitoring oil ships for spills, watching the migration of animals and watching the climate change in the Polar region. Currently, 83 percent of the work is outsourced.
After our last traditional Norwegian lunch, we explored sunny Tromsø and picked up some last minute souveniers from the North. Later in the evening, we took the life up the mountain to take in the aerial view of Tromsø. What a sight! The city was glistening as the sun bounced off the windows and we even watched some hang-gliders take advantage of the upward wind on this clear day. A last glimpse of the Midnight Sun and we said goodbye to Tromsø and Northern Norway.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Beer for Breakfast?
June 23, 2010
Is 9 am too early for your first glass of beer? Not in Tromsø. Welcome to the Mack Brewery, the largest commercial and microbrewery in Northern Norway since they opened doors in 1876. Although the administrative offices and factory have been located in Tromsø since they first opened doors, Mack Brewery's factory and brewhouse will be moving 70 km east of the city in two years to expand and upgrade machinery. The administrative headquarters will remain in Tromsø and the ølhallen, the oldest pub in Tromsø, will add extra floors. Today, ølhallen starts serving the first beer at 9 am and generally closes doors around 6 pm, catering largely to the old timers and those stopping by the brew for a tour of the facility. ølhallen started as the central location for all people who went to the Arctic, whether it be fishermen, researchers or explorers. The pub has not changed since the first days 80 years ago. In addition to being the largest brewhouse, Mack Brewery is also the northern most producer of Coca Cola products, supplying all of Northern Norway.
In addition to their traditional spread, Mack Brewery focuses on four seasonal limited time brew created to pair with the traditional food of the time. In the spring, the brew pairs well with cod and Easter lamb; in the summer, with shrimp; in autumn, with game and moose and finally, in winter, it is the Christmas beer. During our tour, we walked through the soda creating and bottling floor to the brewing machines, storage and even where the yeast is harvested and the beer is made.
After a stroll through downtown, we headed over to the Chamber of Commerce to learn more about the local business organization designed to bring together the companies in Tromsø and offer the support (advice, finances and network) needed to help businesses grow. Northern Norway currently has 30 percent of the land but only 10 percent of the population, so part of the Chamber's motives are to attract and retain individuals into the area. With an operating budget of about 200 million NOK a year, the Chamber has money to help develop innovative and interesting projects which they consider through an application process. They are currently focusing their business development in three areas: petrol, biotech and international affairs. About 50 percent of the budget comes from Tromsø county, while the other 50 percent comes from member dues or member budgets. Interestingly, Tromsø has 15 million NOK set aside for culture and innovation and the problem isn't the money, but the lack of creative ideas! We need to set aside that kind of money for the arts back home.
Our next stop was to Polaria and the Norwegian Polar Institute... what an amazing institution! The Norwegian Polar Institute is currently home to the Arctic Council but works to study climate and environment in the Polar Circle. It was established in 1928 and has several researchers on staff to conduct field studies and work to preserve the environment. While visiting the center, we saw the oldest book documenting the Polar Circle. The "Diarivm Nartium feu Vera Descripto Auctore Gerardo de Vera" was the Latin version of the Danish tale about the travel from Svalbard to the mainland Norway. At Polaria, we watched a panaromic video highlighting the scenery between Tromsø to Svalbard through the seasons. There is no question that the landscape of Northern Norway is unrivaled! We were able to meet the two seals at Polaria while we visited the interactive museum.
We had seen Tromsø by day, now it was finally time to check out Tromsø by night... and what better night to do it than Midsummer? Midsummer or Sankthansaften is June 23 and a Norwegian celebration to honor the summer solstice. The traditional celebration includes going down to the beach and starting a bonfire to barbeque and toast to new beginnings. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and the rain kept us from starting a bonfire but we did make new friends with the local Rotaract group and hit the town, first to have the best pizza in town at Yonas and then onto Grunder and Strut for some drinks and dancing. Skol to Norway!
Is 9 am too early for your first glass of beer? Not in Tromsø. Welcome to the Mack Brewery, the largest commercial and microbrewery in Northern Norway since they opened doors in 1876. Although the administrative offices and factory have been located in Tromsø since they first opened doors, Mack Brewery's factory and brewhouse will be moving 70 km east of the city in two years to expand and upgrade machinery. The administrative headquarters will remain in Tromsø and the ølhallen, the oldest pub in Tromsø, will add extra floors. Today, ølhallen starts serving the first beer at 9 am and generally closes doors around 6 pm, catering largely to the old timers and those stopping by the brew for a tour of the facility. ølhallen started as the central location for all people who went to the Arctic, whether it be fishermen, researchers or explorers. The pub has not changed since the first days 80 years ago. In addition to being the largest brewhouse, Mack Brewery is also the northern most producer of Coca Cola products, supplying all of Northern Norway.
In addition to their traditional spread, Mack Brewery focuses on four seasonal limited time brew created to pair with the traditional food of the time. In the spring, the brew pairs well with cod and Easter lamb; in the summer, with shrimp; in autumn, with game and moose and finally, in winter, it is the Christmas beer. During our tour, we walked through the soda creating and bottling floor to the brewing machines, storage and even where the yeast is harvested and the beer is made.
After a stroll through downtown, we headed over to the Chamber of Commerce to learn more about the local business organization designed to bring together the companies in Tromsø and offer the support (advice, finances and network) needed to help businesses grow. Northern Norway currently has 30 percent of the land but only 10 percent of the population, so part of the Chamber's motives are to attract and retain individuals into the area. With an operating budget of about 200 million NOK a year, the Chamber has money to help develop innovative and interesting projects which they consider through an application process. They are currently focusing their business development in three areas: petrol, biotech and international affairs. About 50 percent of the budget comes from Tromsø county, while the other 50 percent comes from member dues or member budgets. Interestingly, Tromsø has 15 million NOK set aside for culture and innovation and the problem isn't the money, but the lack of creative ideas! We need to set aside that kind of money for the arts back home.
Our next stop was to Polaria and the Norwegian Polar Institute... what an amazing institution! The Norwegian Polar Institute is currently home to the Arctic Council but works to study climate and environment in the Polar Circle. It was established in 1928 and has several researchers on staff to conduct field studies and work to preserve the environment. While visiting the center, we saw the oldest book documenting the Polar Circle. The "Diarivm Nartium feu Vera Descripto Auctore Gerardo de Vera" was the Latin version of the Danish tale about the travel from Svalbard to the mainland Norway. At Polaria, we watched a panaromic video highlighting the scenery between Tromsø to Svalbard through the seasons. There is no question that the landscape of Northern Norway is unrivaled! We were able to meet the two seals at Polaria while we visited the interactive museum.
We had seen Tromsø by day, now it was finally time to check out Tromsø by night... and what better night to do it than Midsummer? Midsummer or Sankthansaften is June 23 and a Norwegian celebration to honor the summer solstice. The traditional celebration includes going down to the beach and starting a bonfire to barbeque and toast to new beginnings. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and the rain kept us from starting a bonfire but we did make new friends with the local Rotaract group and hit the town, first to have the best pizza in town at Yonas and then onto Grunder and Strut for some drinks and dancing. Skol to Norway!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Forward thinking in Norway!
June 22, 2010
Our first morning in Tromsø (pronounced Trum-sa) was of course, rainy and cold. In fact, the newspaper said this has been the coldest June in 28 years! But, as the Norwegians say, "There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing."
Today was our introduction into some of Tromsø's industry including the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine and Remiks. It was an interesting morning/afternoon learning about how technologically advanced Norway is and the funniest part was hearing that Norway is in fact, 20 years behind Sweden!
Our host at the Norwegian Centre for Intregrated Care and Telemedicine was Gerd Ersdal, a medical advisor on staff. The Centre was created to research and explore telecommunication as an oppportunity within the medical field. To date, the Centre has connected the northern most hospital in Finnmark to the Centre via video cameras and Internet feed through a submarine-installed cable in the water. The Centre is developing telecommunication strategies as the next wave of medicine, allowing doctors to connect remotely with patients or smaller staffed hospitals and offer expertise and advice when needed. The Centre has also reached beyond the national borders, working with hospitals in developing nations through a program called Swinfin Chartiable Trust. The demand is there, the question is how to harnass it and use it in the most effective way. One interesting project the Centre is about to roll out is a diabetes study with 800 participants throughout the European Union participating in an electronic trial. Each participant is given a touch screen cell phone with an application that allows them to monitor their health, mood, food intake and other data the doctors need, all sent electronically. In the past, this Renewable Health initiative conducted small studies with 10-15 people within the region. This is a big test for the Centre and the success will help determine future projects.
After learning lunch at the Centre, we moved over to Remiks, the waste management company for the Tromsø area. This is my first time to a waste management/recycling plant, so I don't have much to compare to, but the operation here seemed very cutting age. Hilariously, the director of Remiks, Bård Jørgensen, said that Sweden was 30 years ahead of what was happening in Norway! In Tromsø, all residents are given free trash bags that are a thicker plastic and made in different colors. The residents are asked to separate their trash at home and put residuals in white bags, packages and light cardboard in yellow bags, organic kitchen waste in green bags, plastic materials in blue bags and papers in red bags. With the color system, the trash trucks - operated by one driver and a hydraulic arm - pick up all trash once a week. Before the color system was introduced, different trash categories were picked up every other week which meant that organic kitchen waste might be sitting at home for two weeks in the hot summer months. The colored bags are necessary because of the optical sorting system where bags are placed on a conveyor belt and different colors are separated into different bins. While Remiks cannot control what is placed inside the bags, they believe most of the material that comes into their facility is properly sorted into the right colors.
Remiks operates on a 140 million Norwegian kroner budget and is an entirely government-owned company serving 68,000 residents and handling 40,000 tons of waste a year. Another interesting innovation from Remiks and one will be implemented in all new construction is the automatic waste collection system. This is something that looks like a long fire hydrant on the street level and allows for people to drop their color-coded trash bags into the recepticle any time of the day or night. The sensor will go off when the recepticle is full and the trash will be automatically sucked into either a local dumpster or the recycle plant if the city is small through an air suction system. In the short run, this means $5,000-6,000 more per unit in an apartment building but in the long run, it means less expenses including trash removal, less noise from large vehicles and a cleaner neighborhood with no trash bins on the curbside. I wonder how this would work back home! Nicole, who has been a waste management plant in the United States, said she believes Philadelphia was considering an automated system so I'd be interested to see how that works out!
Interesting Tidbit: Do not crush cans because the sensors in the United States tend to work by size rather than material!
Our first morning in Tromsø (pronounced Trum-sa) was of course, rainy and cold. In fact, the newspaper said this has been the coldest June in 28 years! But, as the Norwegians say, "There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing."
Today was our introduction into some of Tromsø's industry including the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine and Remiks. It was an interesting morning/afternoon learning about how technologically advanced Norway is and the funniest part was hearing that Norway is in fact, 20 years behind Sweden!
Our host at the Norwegian Centre for Intregrated Care and Telemedicine was Gerd Ersdal, a medical advisor on staff. The Centre was created to research and explore telecommunication as an oppportunity within the medical field. To date, the Centre has connected the northern most hospital in Finnmark to the Centre via video cameras and Internet feed through a submarine-installed cable in the water. The Centre is developing telecommunication strategies as the next wave of medicine, allowing doctors to connect remotely with patients or smaller staffed hospitals and offer expertise and advice when needed. The Centre has also reached beyond the national borders, working with hospitals in developing nations through a program called Swinfin Chartiable Trust. The demand is there, the question is how to harnass it and use it in the most effective way. One interesting project the Centre is about to roll out is a diabetes study with 800 participants throughout the European Union participating in an electronic trial. Each participant is given a touch screen cell phone with an application that allows them to monitor their health, mood, food intake and other data the doctors need, all sent electronically. In the past, this Renewable Health initiative conducted small studies with 10-15 people within the region. This is a big test for the Centre and the success will help determine future projects.
After learning lunch at the Centre, we moved over to Remiks, the waste management company for the Tromsø area. This is my first time to a waste management/recycling plant, so I don't have much to compare to, but the operation here seemed very cutting age. Hilariously, the director of Remiks, Bård Jørgensen, said that Sweden was 30 years ahead of what was happening in Norway! In Tromsø, all residents are given free trash bags that are a thicker plastic and made in different colors. The residents are asked to separate their trash at home and put residuals in white bags, packages and light cardboard in yellow bags, organic kitchen waste in green bags, plastic materials in blue bags and papers in red bags. With the color system, the trash trucks - operated by one driver and a hydraulic arm - pick up all trash once a week. Before the color system was introduced, different trash categories were picked up every other week which meant that organic kitchen waste might be sitting at home for two weeks in the hot summer months. The colored bags are necessary because of the optical sorting system where bags are placed on a conveyor belt and different colors are separated into different bins. While Remiks cannot control what is placed inside the bags, they believe most of the material that comes into their facility is properly sorted into the right colors.
Remiks operates on a 140 million Norwegian kroner budget and is an entirely government-owned company serving 68,000 residents and handling 40,000 tons of waste a year. Another interesting innovation from Remiks and one will be implemented in all new construction is the automatic waste collection system. This is something that looks like a long fire hydrant on the street level and allows for people to drop their color-coded trash bags into the recepticle any time of the day or night. The sensor will go off when the recepticle is full and the trash will be automatically sucked into either a local dumpster or the recycle plant if the city is small through an air suction system. In the short run, this means $5,000-6,000 more per unit in an apartment building but in the long run, it means less expenses including trash removal, less noise from large vehicles and a cleaner neighborhood with no trash bins on the curbside. I wonder how this would work back home! Nicole, who has been a waste management plant in the United States, said she believes Philadelphia was considering an automated system so I'd be interested to see how that works out!
Interesting Tidbit: Do not crush cans because the sensors in the United States tend to work by size rather than material!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Watch out for the Trolls!
June 21, 2010
After saying goodbye to our friends in Bardu, we packed up the van and hit the road for our hour drive to the small port town of Finnsnes. With a population of 5,000, Finnsnes is slightly larger than Bardu but more of a working city. Since it was freezing cold at about 0 degrees Celcius today, we did a driving tour of the town including a stop at the local harbor to watch a ship come into port bringing iron ore from Sweden and the surrounding industrial park including a company that makes tombstones. From Finnsnes, we drove out to the aptly described fairytale island of Senja. The hour long drive into Senja is somewhat desolute, with tundra like landscape including barren trees and overbearing mountains. However, once you make it into the interior of the island, it is like a hidden paradise and a big tourist draw during the summer months. The island has sandy beaches, though the water is too cold to actually dip into, boats to rent for fishing trips and just beautiful landscape and scenery... when the skies are clear and the weather is warm, unlike our visit today! Our lunch was at a local resort and then we headed back toward Finnsnes but not without a stop to the famed troll museum.
Envisioned and created by Leif Rubach in 1993, the Senjatrollet is the largest troll museum in the world and showcases troll scenarios all located inside a building shaped like a troll head. Trolls are characters in Norwegian mythology and are often feared by children. The trolls in Northern Norway are large, brutish and feature big noses and stringy hair. They are said to live in the mountains, although there are the occasional trolls that live in the sea. Mostly, the trolls kept to themselves and stayed invisible but could travel with the wind and sneak into human homes. Sometimes you can hear them whisper or make noise. If you were in the forest and smelled food, you knew you were near a troll dwelling. Trolls have also been known to be shapeshifters, so they can take the form of a log or an animal. Trolls sometimes took humans or cattle as their prisoners. The women who recently gave birth but hadn't been to church yet were the easiest prey. Trolls could steal a new born baby, but would have to leave their own offspring in return. Christianity could be used as a defense from trolls or the hammer of Thor could be seen as a protective talisman.
One example of a troll story are the mitten trolls. These were trolls that lived in the fishermen's mittens on the docks and would come out and eat children who played by the water. At the troll museum was a wall of pacifiers and letters from children. Parents would often bring their children to the museum to leave behind their pacifiers, a necessary step so as to not grow a large nose like the trolls.
From trolls to the MS Fjordkongen, the hour long speedboat that will take us to our last stop in Northern Norway in the city of Tromsø.
After saying goodbye to our friends in Bardu, we packed up the van and hit the road for our hour drive to the small port town of Finnsnes. With a population of 5,000, Finnsnes is slightly larger than Bardu but more of a working city. Since it was freezing cold at about 0 degrees Celcius today, we did a driving tour of the town including a stop at the local harbor to watch a ship come into port bringing iron ore from Sweden and the surrounding industrial park including a company that makes tombstones. From Finnsnes, we drove out to the aptly described fairytale island of Senja. The hour long drive into Senja is somewhat desolute, with tundra like landscape including barren trees and overbearing mountains. However, once you make it into the interior of the island, it is like a hidden paradise and a big tourist draw during the summer months. The island has sandy beaches, though the water is too cold to actually dip into, boats to rent for fishing trips and just beautiful landscape and scenery... when the skies are clear and the weather is warm, unlike our visit today! Our lunch was at a local resort and then we headed back toward Finnsnes but not without a stop to the famed troll museum.
Envisioned and created by Leif Rubach in 1993, the Senjatrollet is the largest troll museum in the world and showcases troll scenarios all located inside a building shaped like a troll head. Trolls are characters in Norwegian mythology and are often feared by children. The trolls in Northern Norway are large, brutish and feature big noses and stringy hair. They are said to live in the mountains, although there are the occasional trolls that live in the sea. Mostly, the trolls kept to themselves and stayed invisible but could travel with the wind and sneak into human homes. Sometimes you can hear them whisper or make noise. If you were in the forest and smelled food, you knew you were near a troll dwelling. Trolls have also been known to be shapeshifters, so they can take the form of a log or an animal. Trolls sometimes took humans or cattle as their prisoners. The women who recently gave birth but hadn't been to church yet were the easiest prey. Trolls could steal a new born baby, but would have to leave their own offspring in return. Christianity could be used as a defense from trolls or the hammer of Thor could be seen as a protective talisman.
One example of a troll story are the mitten trolls. These were trolls that lived in the fishermen's mittens on the docks and would come out and eat children who played by the water. At the troll museum was a wall of pacifiers and letters from children. Parents would often bring their children to the museum to leave behind their pacifiers, a necessary step so as to not grow a large nose like the trolls.
From trolls to the MS Fjordkongen, the hour long speedboat that will take us to our last stop in Northern Norway in the city of Tromsø.
Snow in June!?!
June 20, 2010
Our Sunday in Bardu was unfortunately another rainy, cold day but after sleeping in, we decided to venture outdoors for an afternoon drive into the nearby mountains. Our first stop along the way was the largest military base in Northern Norway, located in our hometown of Setermoen. Our host, Liev Bjørn, spent some time with the army so was able to get us special clearance to drive through the base. This base is mostly geared toward education and training and neighbors the largest practice shooting area cordoned off for the military. About 2,000 military personnel are on the base at any given time and generally stay in the area for about two years before moving on to different parts of the country. Bardu itself is home to 4,000 residents, with about 2,000 living in Setermoen. Steingrim, our hosts' son, said he too wants to join the army when he has completed his three years of high school but rather than staying in the area, he wants to be based in Finnmark to work the Russian border.
Bardu is a municipality in the Troms County, with the administrative center being in the most urban of villages in Setermoen. Driving through downtown is literally four blocks which include the grocery store, a sports store and a couple odds and ends stores. Right after the "downtown" is a medical complex that houses the town doctors, nurse and emergency room. While we have been in small towns since we've started our stay here in Norway, this community of 2,000 was by far the smallest and most rural of the areas we've been. Bardu is a Norwegian name from the Sami word of Beardu, which means long and steep mountain side. This name is fitting since Bardu is the first of our towns that is entirely inland and surrounded by mountains with the occasional river or lake. It is actually not too far from the coast but because the mountains block the coastline and the warmer Gulf Stream, Bardu is known for colder winters. Our visit to Bardu, in winter, certainly lives up to the reputation with temperatures as low as -2 degrees Celcius and snow! Our hosts did say that once every 10 years, they see snow in June and we just happen to be here to experience the "green winter." One person joked that Norway is always an average 24 degrees Celcius, 20 degrees indoors and 4 degrees outdoors. Sounds about right!
Our next stop along the way to the mountains was a replica of the original power station in Bardu. The hydroelectric plant was essentially a series of wood tunnels used to harbor the power of the water streams coming down the mountain to then generate a saw to cut tree trunks into smaller pieces of wood. While this particular mill was a replica and not in use, the original is still functional but used more to prove its effectiveness rather than as the primary source of energy.
Although wet and overcast, we were able to take in some of the beauty of the surrounding mountains. Our host Heidi comes into the mountains every other day with her two English Setter hunting dogs to keep them active and in shape for grouse hunting season. In the winter, the entire Walle family skis and uses their cabin near Lake Altevatn as their base. Today, Lake Altevatn only has pockets of frozen ice but in the winter, the entire lake is frozen and a popular location for ice fishing. The Norwegian sport of ice fishing actually means riding snowmobiles on the water. Steingrim, who is 15, has already started studying for his snowmobile license which he can test for as soon as he turns 16. During the summer, Lake Altevatn, which is 50-60 km long, feeds the power plants in the area to create hydropower electricity.
From Lake Altevatn, we made a detour to the local Huskyfarm owned by Björn and Regina Klauer. This farm is home to 70 huskies, including six 10 week old puppies. These are all sled dogs, enjoying the summer but anxious to start the winter where they can lead groups for 5-14 day treks into the mountains. A group of five people, plus guide, can book a 5 day trek into the mountains including stays at cabins, weather-permitting depending on whether the dogs can make it to the next cabin, for about 2,100 euros or $3,000. Each person rides his own sled, led by six dogs, and each sled is mostly filled with a homemade dog food blend. The Huskyfarm started when Björn spent 12-months trekking from Oslo through Northern Norway with his husky as a companion. He fell in love with the country and wanted to stay, so found his niche leading mostly German tour groups into the mountains to experience the country the way he saw it and has since written a book, Mystic North, documenting the husky experience.
Our final stop for the day was a picnic lunch at Strømsør at the cabin of Liev Bjørn's great great grandfather, Erik-Bjønn. Erik-Bjønn was one of the first settlers in the region, building his house by the river initially but then moving the house up the mountain after realizing that the rising tides were dangerous. He and his wife lived in almost complete isolation with the nearest family about six km away. Erik-Bjønn started a business with two cows, one that he owned and one that he rented. One day, a bear came into his barn and killed the cow he owned. Immediately enranged, he vowed justice against the bear and spent the rest of his life and livelihood hunting bears in the mountains. Erik-Bjønn and his wife had a large family and there are photos of his daughter standing beside him in the mountains, with the sole purpose of holding rifles and reloading them while he was shooting at the bears. While Erik-Bjønn might have been a tough mountaineer man, his wife was perhaps stronger and more resilient. His wife would be home alone, pregnant, and would keep the neighbors' dog with her. When she was going into labor, she would release the dog who would run home and then the neighbors would know she was in labor and needed help. By the time the neighbors arrived, his wife had already delivered the baby and was busy washing her clothes!
Our picnic was at least dry, though the house was freezing cold! We had a typical Norwegian picnic lunch, which includes bread, brown cheese, jam, coffee and tea. After signing the guestbook - a Norwegian custom at every church/museum/historic site we have visited - we packed up our belongings and trekked down the hill back to the car. At Elin's house later that night, we once again had a homemade feast and spent our last night with our Norwegian friends before they headed home to Sortland. We have definitely been the lucky ones, meeting the Norwegian team in the United States first and having made friends before coming here to Northern Norway. In fact, this whole experience is all the greater because of how hard it would have been to navigate and plan such a trip while sitting at home. It is definitely an amazing country and we have made some amazing friends along the way!
Our Sunday in Bardu was unfortunately another rainy, cold day but after sleeping in, we decided to venture outdoors for an afternoon drive into the nearby mountains. Our first stop along the way was the largest military base in Northern Norway, located in our hometown of Setermoen. Our host, Liev Bjørn, spent some time with the army so was able to get us special clearance to drive through the base. This base is mostly geared toward education and training and neighbors the largest practice shooting area cordoned off for the military. About 2,000 military personnel are on the base at any given time and generally stay in the area for about two years before moving on to different parts of the country. Bardu itself is home to 4,000 residents, with about 2,000 living in Setermoen. Steingrim, our hosts' son, said he too wants to join the army when he has completed his three years of high school but rather than staying in the area, he wants to be based in Finnmark to work the Russian border.
Bardu is a municipality in the Troms County, with the administrative center being in the most urban of villages in Setermoen. Driving through downtown is literally four blocks which include the grocery store, a sports store and a couple odds and ends stores. Right after the "downtown" is a medical complex that houses the town doctors, nurse and emergency room. While we have been in small towns since we've started our stay here in Norway, this community of 2,000 was by far the smallest and most rural of the areas we've been. Bardu is a Norwegian name from the Sami word of Beardu, which means long and steep mountain side. This name is fitting since Bardu is the first of our towns that is entirely inland and surrounded by mountains with the occasional river or lake. It is actually not too far from the coast but because the mountains block the coastline and the warmer Gulf Stream, Bardu is known for colder winters. Our visit to Bardu, in winter, certainly lives up to the reputation with temperatures as low as -2 degrees Celcius and snow! Our hosts did say that once every 10 years, they see snow in June and we just happen to be here to experience the "green winter." One person joked that Norway is always an average 24 degrees Celcius, 20 degrees indoors and 4 degrees outdoors. Sounds about right!
Our next stop along the way to the mountains was a replica of the original power station in Bardu. The hydroelectric plant was essentially a series of wood tunnels used to harbor the power of the water streams coming down the mountain to then generate a saw to cut tree trunks into smaller pieces of wood. While this particular mill was a replica and not in use, the original is still functional but used more to prove its effectiveness rather than as the primary source of energy.
Although wet and overcast, we were able to take in some of the beauty of the surrounding mountains. Our host Heidi comes into the mountains every other day with her two English Setter hunting dogs to keep them active and in shape for grouse hunting season. In the winter, the entire Walle family skis and uses their cabin near Lake Altevatn as their base. Today, Lake Altevatn only has pockets of frozen ice but in the winter, the entire lake is frozen and a popular location for ice fishing. The Norwegian sport of ice fishing actually means riding snowmobiles on the water. Steingrim, who is 15, has already started studying for his snowmobile license which he can test for as soon as he turns 16. During the summer, Lake Altevatn, which is 50-60 km long, feeds the power plants in the area to create hydropower electricity.
From Lake Altevatn, we made a detour to the local Huskyfarm owned by Björn and Regina Klauer. This farm is home to 70 huskies, including six 10 week old puppies. These are all sled dogs, enjoying the summer but anxious to start the winter where they can lead groups for 5-14 day treks into the mountains. A group of five people, plus guide, can book a 5 day trek into the mountains including stays at cabins, weather-permitting depending on whether the dogs can make it to the next cabin, for about 2,100 euros or $3,000. Each person rides his own sled, led by six dogs, and each sled is mostly filled with a homemade dog food blend. The Huskyfarm started when Björn spent 12-months trekking from Oslo through Northern Norway with his husky as a companion. He fell in love with the country and wanted to stay, so found his niche leading mostly German tour groups into the mountains to experience the country the way he saw it and has since written a book, Mystic North, documenting the husky experience.
Our final stop for the day was a picnic lunch at Strømsør at the cabin of Liev Bjørn's great great grandfather, Erik-Bjønn. Erik-Bjønn was one of the first settlers in the region, building his house by the river initially but then moving the house up the mountain after realizing that the rising tides were dangerous. He and his wife lived in almost complete isolation with the nearest family about six km away. Erik-Bjønn started a business with two cows, one that he owned and one that he rented. One day, a bear came into his barn and killed the cow he owned. Immediately enranged, he vowed justice against the bear and spent the rest of his life and livelihood hunting bears in the mountains. Erik-Bjønn and his wife had a large family and there are photos of his daughter standing beside him in the mountains, with the sole purpose of holding rifles and reloading them while he was shooting at the bears. While Erik-Bjønn might have been a tough mountaineer man, his wife was perhaps stronger and more resilient. His wife would be home alone, pregnant, and would keep the neighbors' dog with her. When she was going into labor, she would release the dog who would run home and then the neighbors would know she was in labor and needed help. By the time the neighbors arrived, his wife had already delivered the baby and was busy washing her clothes!
Our picnic was at least dry, though the house was freezing cold! We had a typical Norwegian picnic lunch, which includes bread, brown cheese, jam, coffee and tea. After signing the guestbook - a Norwegian custom at every church/museum/historic site we have visited - we packed up our belongings and trekked down the hill back to the car. At Elin's house later that night, we once again had a homemade feast and spent our last night with our Norwegian friends before they headed home to Sortland. We have definitely been the lucky ones, meeting the Norwegian team in the United States first and having made friends before coming here to Northern Norway. In fact, this whole experience is all the greater because of how hard it would have been to navigate and plan such a trip while sitting at home. It is definitely an amazing country and we have made some amazing friends along the way!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I need a baby wolf!
June 19, 2010
After saying goodbye to our Narvik friends, we climbed into the big van to drive over to Polar Zoo. We were hoping for a bright, sunny day but instead we got a cold (1 degree Celsius!) and rainy (pouring !) day. It didn’t stop us from putting on our winter gear, followed by raincoats and gloves and heading out to see the animals. We were all so excited to kiss the wolves!
The Polar Zoo is the northern most zoo in the world, located in the Salangsdalen Valley in the Bardu municipality in Troms County. With over 275 acres of land, the zoo prides itself in providing a natural and spacious enclosure for the animals. The animals at the zoo today include moose (referred to as elk here), brown bears, wolves, wolverines, red deer, arctic fox and lynx. The biggest attraction at the Polar Zoo is Wolf Camp, where people can play with the wolves and get kisses. Unfortunately, three days ago, one of the female wolves died from a sickness and the wolf pack was in mourning and therefore, not interested in playing with humans.
Our first animal encounter for the day was with the moose. Elk can weigh up to 700 kg with a body length of 3m and shoulder height of 2m. In Europe, elk are typically found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Elk is primarily hunted by wolves, though wolverines and bears have been known to steal the carcasses from the wolves. Mating usually occurs in September and October and usually results in a solitary calf. During our visit, we only saw one elk.
Next door to the elk was the home of the lynx. Lynx, which belong in the cat family, are typically a very shy animal and sightings at the Polar Zoo are generally only during feeding hours. During this feeding we saw three lynx come out of the trees and eat the food, both on the ground or after climbing up. Lynx have short tails and characteristic black tufts of hair on their ears. Mating takes place in the winter and usually a lynx litter is about 2-4 cubs. This year, there was only one male in the enclosure and he was too young to know what to do so there were no new cubs. In the winter, lynx grow a thick undercoat of fur to protect themselves from the ice and the cold.
After feeding the lynx, we moved over to the wolves, who were also eager to get their meat for the day. The European wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf and is most common in Europe and Asia. The wolf is an apex predator, feeding on large animals. Wolves travel in packs and are highly sociable animals, especially relying on each other while hunting. A typical pack has 2-8 members, including the alpha male and the alpha female and then their cubs. Mating season is in February or March and the babies are born in May. A typical litter is 2-6 cubs, depending on the amount of space and prey available. This May, the wolves did give birth to babies. Three of those babies are in a separate location where they are becoming familiarized with humans. The rest of the babies are with the wolves in the enclosure. The Polar Zoo does not disclose how many cubs are with the mother because deaths are common at this age. The wolves typically do not leave their cubs unless they know they are in a safe place. When the two alpha wolves came out for the feeding, they left the babies hidden away.
From wolves to the lone wolverine, it was our turn to meet the largest member of the weasel family. These animals typically live in the isolated northern regions of the tundra and prey on reindeer and rodents, though they have been known to kill animals as big as a moose or steal the carcasses. They have a powerful jaw and thick hide, to help them hunt. Wolverines need a lot of space; a male typically needs 240 sq miles though that area can overlap with the females. Even in the same living quarters, males and females stay separate from one another until mating season in the summer. Watching the wolverine is an interesting experience since they are practically blind and rely entirely on their sense of smell. The zookeeper hid pieces of meat in trees, under rocks and in bushes before the wolverine started sniffing out the food and finding each piece. Wolverines are very agile and can easily climb up trees too!
Our last feeding stop was the most playful of the animals: the brown bears! In the enclosure today were three adult brown bears, putting on a show for their food including standing, sitting, leaning against the cages and play fighting with one another. The brown bear can weigh up to 350 kg and live for 20-30 years. They are extremely agile and fast for their weight, running up to speeds of 60 km/h in short distances. They eat berries, roots and herbs, along with rodents, fish and bird eggs. It is rare that a brown bear would kill sheep, deer, reindeer or moose because they are a solitary animal in the wild. In the fall, the bears must eat a lot of food in preparation for their long hibernation from October through March. Mating season takes place from late May through early June and the cubs are born during the winter. Baby bears are born hairless, toothless, blind and weight less than 1 lb at birth. They feed on their mother’s milk through the spring and summer, when they start eating solid food. Cubs stay with their mother for the first 2-4 years, learning survival techniques including how to search for food, fish, defend themselves and where to den.
If the adult bears were cute, there weren’t words for Salt and Pepper. These two cubs, born last year, are now too old to play with humans but until last summer, they would be able to climb all over people and would hug and lick them with unconditional love. Salt is an albino bear, which is extremely rare because albino cubs would usually die early in the wilderness since they can’t adapt as well to their surroundings. Today, I was one of the three people selected to go down to meet Salt and Pepper in their cages and hide some of their food before they were allowed to come out, find their treats and play for a bit. The baby cubs eat the same food as the adults, berries and fruit, with some fish tossed in for protein. Watching them look for food and then tease one another was fun, but watching videos of the two of them a few months ago made me wish we here last year!
After warming up with a mug of hot chocolate and attempting to get blood circulating in our body again, we headed back out into the cold rain to meet the baby wolves! Since we couldn’t kiss the wolves today, we signed up to help feed the baby wolves and the baby arctic fox. We sat outside on the wet log, in the pouring rain, with baby bottles in our hand waiting for the three 40-day old wolf cubs to join us and yes, it was so worth it! The wolves were adorable… they were still clumsy and learning how to use their bodies, so they’d often fall over for no reason. Unfortunately, they were not a huge fan of the rain so would come hang out with us for a few minutes and then run back under the wood logs for some protection from the rain. The zookeeper told us that they always keep the baby wolves in groups of three, so that if two of the animals started fighting, the third one would generally break it up and ease the tension. Wolf cubs might look like puppies, but they were more intense in every way. The zookeeper said that once the wolf has made up his mind about something, they stay focused and determined. For example, if the cubs start howling and scratching the door to go outside, they will not stop until they go outside. A dog would probably try for 10-20 minutes before giving up while the wolves would continue howling for hours unless they were let out. Speaking of howling, the zookeeper started a howl to show us how the babies respond. Sure enough, they each started yelping in response to let the mother know that they are still around and doing okay. Being able to have three wolf cubs play around in front of humans is quite an accomplishment since wolves tend to be very nervous and anxiety-filled around humans. They were incredibly cute… if only there were a way to keep the wolves cubs rather than have them grow up! These wolf babies will stay around humans and will join the other tame wolves for human interactions as they grow up. It is therefore extremely important to keep them associated with humans and to teach them early on to stop biting or feeling anxiety while next to big groups of people.
The Polar Zoo, weather aside, certainly did live up to our expectations! After a change of clothes, we all met back at Elin Uhre’s (the GSE inbound team leader and incoming president) house for taco night!
After saying goodbye to our Narvik friends, we climbed into the big van to drive over to Polar Zoo. We were hoping for a bright, sunny day but instead we got a cold (1 degree Celsius!) and rainy (pouring !) day. It didn’t stop us from putting on our winter gear, followed by raincoats and gloves and heading out to see the animals. We were all so excited to kiss the wolves!
The Polar Zoo is the northern most zoo in the world, located in the Salangsdalen Valley in the Bardu municipality in Troms County. With over 275 acres of land, the zoo prides itself in providing a natural and spacious enclosure for the animals. The animals at the zoo today include moose (referred to as elk here), brown bears, wolves, wolverines, red deer, arctic fox and lynx. The biggest attraction at the Polar Zoo is Wolf Camp, where people can play with the wolves and get kisses. Unfortunately, three days ago, one of the female wolves died from a sickness and the wolf pack was in mourning and therefore, not interested in playing with humans.
Our first animal encounter for the day was with the moose. Elk can weigh up to 700 kg with a body length of 3m and shoulder height of 2m. In Europe, elk are typically found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Elk is primarily hunted by wolves, though wolverines and bears have been known to steal the carcasses from the wolves. Mating usually occurs in September and October and usually results in a solitary calf. During our visit, we only saw one elk.
Next door to the elk was the home of the lynx. Lynx, which belong in the cat family, are typically a very shy animal and sightings at the Polar Zoo are generally only during feeding hours. During this feeding we saw three lynx come out of the trees and eat the food, both on the ground or after climbing up. Lynx have short tails and characteristic black tufts of hair on their ears. Mating takes place in the winter and usually a lynx litter is about 2-4 cubs. This year, there was only one male in the enclosure and he was too young to know what to do so there were no new cubs. In the winter, lynx grow a thick undercoat of fur to protect themselves from the ice and the cold.
After feeding the lynx, we moved over to the wolves, who were also eager to get their meat for the day. The European wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf and is most common in Europe and Asia. The wolf is an apex predator, feeding on large animals. Wolves travel in packs and are highly sociable animals, especially relying on each other while hunting. A typical pack has 2-8 members, including the alpha male and the alpha female and then their cubs. Mating season is in February or March and the babies are born in May. A typical litter is 2-6 cubs, depending on the amount of space and prey available. This May, the wolves did give birth to babies. Three of those babies are in a separate location where they are becoming familiarized with humans. The rest of the babies are with the wolves in the enclosure. The Polar Zoo does not disclose how many cubs are with the mother because deaths are common at this age. The wolves typically do not leave their cubs unless they know they are in a safe place. When the two alpha wolves came out for the feeding, they left the babies hidden away.
From wolves to the lone wolverine, it was our turn to meet the largest member of the weasel family. These animals typically live in the isolated northern regions of the tundra and prey on reindeer and rodents, though they have been known to kill animals as big as a moose or steal the carcasses. They have a powerful jaw and thick hide, to help them hunt. Wolverines need a lot of space; a male typically needs 240 sq miles though that area can overlap with the females. Even in the same living quarters, males and females stay separate from one another until mating season in the summer. Watching the wolverine is an interesting experience since they are practically blind and rely entirely on their sense of smell. The zookeeper hid pieces of meat in trees, under rocks and in bushes before the wolverine started sniffing out the food and finding each piece. Wolverines are very agile and can easily climb up trees too!
Our last feeding stop was the most playful of the animals: the brown bears! In the enclosure today were three adult brown bears, putting on a show for their food including standing, sitting, leaning against the cages and play fighting with one another. The brown bear can weigh up to 350 kg and live for 20-30 years. They are extremely agile and fast for their weight, running up to speeds of 60 km/h in short distances. They eat berries, roots and herbs, along with rodents, fish and bird eggs. It is rare that a brown bear would kill sheep, deer, reindeer or moose because they are a solitary animal in the wild. In the fall, the bears must eat a lot of food in preparation for their long hibernation from October through March. Mating season takes place from late May through early June and the cubs are born during the winter. Baby bears are born hairless, toothless, blind and weight less than 1 lb at birth. They feed on their mother’s milk through the spring and summer, when they start eating solid food. Cubs stay with their mother for the first 2-4 years, learning survival techniques including how to search for food, fish, defend themselves and where to den.
If the adult bears were cute, there weren’t words for Salt and Pepper. These two cubs, born last year, are now too old to play with humans but until last summer, they would be able to climb all over people and would hug and lick them with unconditional love. Salt is an albino bear, which is extremely rare because albino cubs would usually die early in the wilderness since they can’t adapt as well to their surroundings. Today, I was one of the three people selected to go down to meet Salt and Pepper in their cages and hide some of their food before they were allowed to come out, find their treats and play for a bit. The baby cubs eat the same food as the adults, berries and fruit, with some fish tossed in for protein. Watching them look for food and then tease one another was fun, but watching videos of the two of them a few months ago made me wish we here last year!
After warming up with a mug of hot chocolate and attempting to get blood circulating in our body again, we headed back out into the cold rain to meet the baby wolves! Since we couldn’t kiss the wolves today, we signed up to help feed the baby wolves and the baby arctic fox. We sat outside on the wet log, in the pouring rain, with baby bottles in our hand waiting for the three 40-day old wolf cubs to join us and yes, it was so worth it! The wolves were adorable… they were still clumsy and learning how to use their bodies, so they’d often fall over for no reason. Unfortunately, they were not a huge fan of the rain so would come hang out with us for a few minutes and then run back under the wood logs for some protection from the rain. The zookeeper told us that they always keep the baby wolves in groups of three, so that if two of the animals started fighting, the third one would generally break it up and ease the tension. Wolf cubs might look like puppies, but they were more intense in every way. The zookeeper said that once the wolf has made up his mind about something, they stay focused and determined. For example, if the cubs start howling and scratching the door to go outside, they will not stop until they go outside. A dog would probably try for 10-20 minutes before giving up while the wolves would continue howling for hours unless they were let out. Speaking of howling, the zookeeper started a howl to show us how the babies respond. Sure enough, they each started yelping in response to let the mother know that they are still around and doing okay. Being able to have three wolf cubs play around in front of humans is quite an accomplishment since wolves tend to be very nervous and anxiety-filled around humans. They were incredibly cute… if only there were a way to keep the wolves cubs rather than have them grow up! These wolf babies will stay around humans and will join the other tame wolves for human interactions as they grow up. It is therefore extremely important to keep them associated with humans and to teach them early on to stop biting or feeling anxiety while next to big groups of people.
The Polar Zoo, weather aside, certainly did live up to our expectations! After a change of clothes, we all met back at Elin Uhre’s (the GSE inbound team leader and incoming president) house for taco night!
Friday, June 18, 2010
From Sweden to Narvik... all in a day!
June 18, 2010
It’s finally a beautiful day outside! The sun is shining (at least for the morning) and the temperature is about 13 degrees. Even the residents of Narvik are complaining about the unseasonably cold June this year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon since there are only two months of summer left!
Narvik is a town of 15,000 residents, or about 18,000 if you include the suburbs. It is the first industrial community in Northern Norway and a city that expanded with the creation of the Ofoten Railway. The town is known as a shipping and transportation hub. Due to the Gulf Stream, the water in Northern Norway does not ice or freeze in the wintertime. This makes it an ideal base for large companies looking to ship materials into the world. Currently, Sweden sends all of its iron ore to Narvik via train, to be shipped out from the port to locations worldwide. There are currently plans to connect China to Narvik via railway, to take advantage of the same port. Narvik is also the headquarters for Hrutigruten, the famed cruise ship that travels the Norwegian coastline.
On April 9, 1940, Narvik became the focus of attention when Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. Narvik, as the transportation hub, became the prized target and for two months, there was a bitter war between the Germans and Allied forces (British, French, Polish and Norwegians) but ultimately, the Germans did succeed. Throughout Narvik, there are several World War II memorials immortalizing the landmark battles and events of the war.
Today, Narvik is also a large tourist attraction offering a range of extreme winter sports activities including off-path skiing, dirt biking, jumping, paragliding and anything else you would want to do. The Norwegian system allows individuals to go off the trails or the marked paths, but if any ambulance or police are needed, it is at the expense of the individual. From mid November to early January, Narvik is the home to migratory orcas. Every March, the town celebrates the “Winter Festival” in remembrance of World War II and the Navy period.
Our trip today is on the Ofoten Railroad, which was built in 1891 to bring the iron ore from Sweden to Narvik, the second largest harbor in Northern Norway. The railroad is actually built in the mountains, blasted into the hillside, and requires 20 tunnels. On the Norwegian side, the line had to climb from sea level to 500 meters in only 40 km. It was a difficult project that employed 6,000 individuals working for four years. The railroad was the start of the community of Narvik nearly 100 years ago. Without the railroad, the communities of Kiruna or Malmberget wouldn’t have existed because it was impossible to live in the mountains without access to the cities below. The Sami people were the only ones who lived in the mountains before the railroad existed. The Ofoten Line is dubbed one of the most beautiful journeys in Northern Europe and it certainly lived up to that name with the mountains and the fjords offering a brilliant contrast to the brown tundra just warming up for the summer.
Our host for the day is Svenn-Arne Andreassen, who was born and raised in Narvik and is a proud self-declared authority on the history of the city. We jumped off the train at Riksgränsen, Sweden. Riksgränsen is a tiny town located 200 km above the Arctic Circle in the Swedish Lapland. Laps are another term for Sami people. This area is empty during the summer months, but during the winter, it is packed with Swedes and Norwegians taking advantage of the ski slopes. Our hosts in Narvik wanted to take us on this trip to show us the beautiful scenery and to allow us to step onto Swedish territory. We had a quick lunch at a local restaurant and then drove back into Narvik for our afternoon career days.
This afternoon I visited Fremover, the regional newspaper headquartered in Narvik. My host for the day was Jan Erik Teigen, the kulturjournalist or arts and culture journalist. This newspaper is a small production with only 16 journalists putting together an average 42-page publication. Fremover was created in 1903 and has a subscription base of 9,000 with a pass-along readership of 30,000. A subscription to the newspaper is about 2,000 NOK while the newsstand price is 20 NOK. Fremover is one of 56 publications in a newspaper group owned by Apress, which includes Rana Blad of Mo I Rana. The newspaper is printed at Polaris Trykk in Harstad.
Fremover has a smaller newsroom than most of the other newspapers I have visited in Norway. There are about two editors and 16 journalists working in house with a small sales team of three people. There used to be several designers but the newspapers (as in most of Norway) has decided to consolidate their staffing and laid off the designers in favor of templates that section editors can use directly. The result is what looks like an unfinished newspaper, with lots of white space both around stories and photos, as well as at the bottom of columns. The pages all look standard as well since the editors have to use templates with a limited variation. At Fremover, most of the journalists write their pieces and then are responsible for a certain page which includes dropping the text into the column and the corresponding photo alongside. Another notable trend is there are few photographers, but rather, most journalists are asked to take photos while interviewing for pieces. Jan Erik is a journalist by title but is the only person responsible for the arts and culture section, which is usually three pages every day. As a special section, he does have the freedom of planning ahead and generally works a 7:30-3 shift. His first page is due at 11 am, second and third pages are to be in by 3 pm. He does the initial layout and then sends the pages to the design team – a single designer who works for a company located in Tromsø – for tweaks before giving his final approval.
Talking with Jan Erik was an interesting lesson in Norwegian culture. As I had mentioned earlier, everybody here seems content with their life. Jan Erik said he was working in Bodø for a while and was even paid twice his journalist salary to teach at the local university. He spend three semesters teaching journalism but when he was offered a permanent position, he turned it down because it lacked the excitement he felt while working for a newspaper. At the time, his wife wanted to move so when he was offered a editor position here in Narvik, he took the job so as to bring up his children in a quiet and peaceful city. Soon after working here as an editor, he asked to go back to being a writer because he missed the reporting and as the kulturjournalist, he feels like he has the best of all worlds. He loves what he is doing and is happy where he lives. A typical starting salary for a journalist in Narvik is 300,000 NOK or $50,000. Each year the journalist receives a bump in pay, per the union negotiations. This year, for example, the union negotiated a 10,000 NOK salary increase for all members of the union at the state level and then the local level added more increases based on job descriptions and work produced. Jan Erik said he makes about 450,000 NOK, which is enough to live comfortably in his own house with his wife and three children, travel frequently including an upcoming trip for his wife and himself to Sardinia where they plan on purchasing a summer house. The quality of life is an added incentive. All employees are given a mandatory six weeks of vacation, plus sick leave and holiday time. Any pregnant employee is given one year of full salary during the first year at home with her child. And most work days end by 4 pm with the option of flexible hours to take advantage of three day weekends.
Journalism in Norway are certainly a more respected and honored career than back home in the United States. Norway is a newspaper reading country and according to Jan Erik, that has not changed. There was a slight dip in readership several years ago but that was attributed to the population moving but at the local news level, readership has been consistent through the years. Jan Erik believes that comes from providing local news in a country that topologically is so isolated by the mountain ranges. When it comes to television, radio or the local newspaper, people always choose to pick up the print edition and learn more about their neighbors and their hometown. While Fremover does have an Internet-only reporter, they have made it a company policy to not put all the print information on the web and to use the web as an extension of the print publication rather than an alternative. Jan Erik sees that as a success and doesn’t hesitate to say that job stability and security in the newspaper industry in Narvik at least is not in question.
When I talked about print journalism and the dying industry back in the United States, I mentioned that while the pay is always going to be less than other industries, you can deal with that if you are doing something you love. The issue today is whether newspapers will even continue to exist and whether that is an option as a career. Perhaps the solution is to learn Norwegian and move to Norway!
It’s finally a beautiful day outside! The sun is shining (at least for the morning) and the temperature is about 13 degrees. Even the residents of Narvik are complaining about the unseasonably cold June this year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon since there are only two months of summer left!
Narvik is a town of 15,000 residents, or about 18,000 if you include the suburbs. It is the first industrial community in Northern Norway and a city that expanded with the creation of the Ofoten Railway. The town is known as a shipping and transportation hub. Due to the Gulf Stream, the water in Northern Norway does not ice or freeze in the wintertime. This makes it an ideal base for large companies looking to ship materials into the world. Currently, Sweden sends all of its iron ore to Narvik via train, to be shipped out from the port to locations worldwide. There are currently plans to connect China to Narvik via railway, to take advantage of the same port. Narvik is also the headquarters for Hrutigruten, the famed cruise ship that travels the Norwegian coastline.
On April 9, 1940, Narvik became the focus of attention when Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. Narvik, as the transportation hub, became the prized target and for two months, there was a bitter war between the Germans and Allied forces (British, French, Polish and Norwegians) but ultimately, the Germans did succeed. Throughout Narvik, there are several World War II memorials immortalizing the landmark battles and events of the war.
Today, Narvik is also a large tourist attraction offering a range of extreme winter sports activities including off-path skiing, dirt biking, jumping, paragliding and anything else you would want to do. The Norwegian system allows individuals to go off the trails or the marked paths, but if any ambulance or police are needed, it is at the expense of the individual. From mid November to early January, Narvik is the home to migratory orcas. Every March, the town celebrates the “Winter Festival” in remembrance of World War II and the Navy period.
Our trip today is on the Ofoten Railroad, which was built in 1891 to bring the iron ore from Sweden to Narvik, the second largest harbor in Northern Norway. The railroad is actually built in the mountains, blasted into the hillside, and requires 20 tunnels. On the Norwegian side, the line had to climb from sea level to 500 meters in only 40 km. It was a difficult project that employed 6,000 individuals working for four years. The railroad was the start of the community of Narvik nearly 100 years ago. Without the railroad, the communities of Kiruna or Malmberget wouldn’t have existed because it was impossible to live in the mountains without access to the cities below. The Sami people were the only ones who lived in the mountains before the railroad existed. The Ofoten Line is dubbed one of the most beautiful journeys in Northern Europe and it certainly lived up to that name with the mountains and the fjords offering a brilliant contrast to the brown tundra just warming up for the summer.
Our host for the day is Svenn-Arne Andreassen, who was born and raised in Narvik and is a proud self-declared authority on the history of the city. We jumped off the train at Riksgränsen, Sweden. Riksgränsen is a tiny town located 200 km above the Arctic Circle in the Swedish Lapland. Laps are another term for Sami people. This area is empty during the summer months, but during the winter, it is packed with Swedes and Norwegians taking advantage of the ski slopes. Our hosts in Narvik wanted to take us on this trip to show us the beautiful scenery and to allow us to step onto Swedish territory. We had a quick lunch at a local restaurant and then drove back into Narvik for our afternoon career days.
This afternoon I visited Fremover, the regional newspaper headquartered in Narvik. My host for the day was Jan Erik Teigen, the kulturjournalist or arts and culture journalist. This newspaper is a small production with only 16 journalists putting together an average 42-page publication. Fremover was created in 1903 and has a subscription base of 9,000 with a pass-along readership of 30,000. A subscription to the newspaper is about 2,000 NOK while the newsstand price is 20 NOK. Fremover is one of 56 publications in a newspaper group owned by Apress, which includes Rana Blad of Mo I Rana. The newspaper is printed at Polaris Trykk in Harstad.
Fremover has a smaller newsroom than most of the other newspapers I have visited in Norway. There are about two editors and 16 journalists working in house with a small sales team of three people. There used to be several designers but the newspapers (as in most of Norway) has decided to consolidate their staffing and laid off the designers in favor of templates that section editors can use directly. The result is what looks like an unfinished newspaper, with lots of white space both around stories and photos, as well as at the bottom of columns. The pages all look standard as well since the editors have to use templates with a limited variation. At Fremover, most of the journalists write their pieces and then are responsible for a certain page which includes dropping the text into the column and the corresponding photo alongside. Another notable trend is there are few photographers, but rather, most journalists are asked to take photos while interviewing for pieces. Jan Erik is a journalist by title but is the only person responsible for the arts and culture section, which is usually three pages every day. As a special section, he does have the freedom of planning ahead and generally works a 7:30-3 shift. His first page is due at 11 am, second and third pages are to be in by 3 pm. He does the initial layout and then sends the pages to the design team – a single designer who works for a company located in Tromsø – for tweaks before giving his final approval.
Talking with Jan Erik was an interesting lesson in Norwegian culture. As I had mentioned earlier, everybody here seems content with their life. Jan Erik said he was working in Bodø for a while and was even paid twice his journalist salary to teach at the local university. He spend three semesters teaching journalism but when he was offered a permanent position, he turned it down because it lacked the excitement he felt while working for a newspaper. At the time, his wife wanted to move so when he was offered a editor position here in Narvik, he took the job so as to bring up his children in a quiet and peaceful city. Soon after working here as an editor, he asked to go back to being a writer because he missed the reporting and as the kulturjournalist, he feels like he has the best of all worlds. He loves what he is doing and is happy where he lives. A typical starting salary for a journalist in Narvik is 300,000 NOK or $50,000. Each year the journalist receives a bump in pay, per the union negotiations. This year, for example, the union negotiated a 10,000 NOK salary increase for all members of the union at the state level and then the local level added more increases based on job descriptions and work produced. Jan Erik said he makes about 450,000 NOK, which is enough to live comfortably in his own house with his wife and three children, travel frequently including an upcoming trip for his wife and himself to Sardinia where they plan on purchasing a summer house. The quality of life is an added incentive. All employees are given a mandatory six weeks of vacation, plus sick leave and holiday time. Any pregnant employee is given one year of full salary during the first year at home with her child. And most work days end by 4 pm with the option of flexible hours to take advantage of three day weekends.
Journalism in Norway are certainly a more respected and honored career than back home in the United States. Norway is a newspaper reading country and according to Jan Erik, that has not changed. There was a slight dip in readership several years ago but that was attributed to the population moving but at the local news level, readership has been consistent through the years. Jan Erik believes that comes from providing local news in a country that topologically is so isolated by the mountain ranges. When it comes to television, radio or the local newspaper, people always choose to pick up the print edition and learn more about their neighbors and their hometown. While Fremover does have an Internet-only reporter, they have made it a company policy to not put all the print information on the web and to use the web as an extension of the print publication rather than an alternative. Jan Erik sees that as a success and doesn’t hesitate to say that job stability and security in the newspaper industry in Narvik at least is not in question.
When I talked about print journalism and the dying industry back in the United States, I mentioned that while the pay is always going to be less than other industries, you can deal with that if you are doing something you love. The issue today is whether newspapers will even continue to exist and whether that is an option as a career. Perhaps the solution is to learn Norwegian and move to Norway!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How Safe is Oil Drilling?
June 17, 2010
Our last morning in Harstad started with a greeting by Mayor Helge Eriksen outside Statoil. Last night, we had mentioned wanting a Harstad pin to add to our collection and Lise, who conveniently worked with the mayor before, texted him and asked him to meet the US delegation in town. Since we didn’t have enough time to make a visit to City Hall, Mayor Eriksen made a special visit to meet us at Statoil before our morning appointment at the local oil powerhouse. That makes three mayoral visits in two weeks!
Our host at Statoil was a 16-year veteran employee, Anne-Mette Fjærli, who recently took over as communications officer for the Northern Norway headquarters in Harstad. Anne-Mette gave us a brief overview of the company. With over 30,000 employees representing 40 countries, Statoil is a large entity in Norway and Europe, though the brand has not carried over the seas to the United States. Statoil is very much a Norwegian company. It was started in the 1960s when Norway discovered oil and was entirely governmentally owned. Today, the government still owns 70 percent of the company but individuals can buy stock in the company with shares being sold on Wall Street. Statoil produces 1.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is one of the largest net sellers of crude oil and the second largest importer of gas to Europe. It remains the largest operator in water deeper than 100 meters and is a world leader of carbon capture and storage. Most importantly, Statoil is the biggest retailer of oil products in Scandinavia. Norway is in a unique position because it is able to sell most of the gas produced in the country. Statoil is responsible for all of the oil drilling north of 62 degrees.
Our tour took us to the command center of the only oil operation managed by the Harstad office, Norne. This drilling started several years ago and was initially scheduled to end in 2016 but after the latest research, has been scheduled to run through 2030. The team managing the operation includes engineers, drill safety specialists, architects and planners and program managers. The team checks in with the vessel every morning for 24 hour reports and planning updates for the next 24 hours. They then analyze data and decide what the next steps are in laying out the foundation for and continuing to drill for oil in reservoirs several meters below the surface. This particular project works about 380 meters below the surface. The daily operational cost of the drilling is 1 million dollars and therefore efficiency is a priority on any project.
After learning about the above-sea operations, we met with head geologist Anna Fauke who works with seismic data to develop a picture of the sea bed and plan for the best areas to set up oil rigs. The cost for a seismic data test is approximately 1 million dollars, which is quite pricey itself but the cost of installing a rig is about 6 million dollars. To save money from putting in a rig in a wrong location, the seismic data analysis is vital and is conducted every two years. The test is done by blasting cannons or sending out sound waves to bounce off the floor of the sea bed. The geologists calculate the amount of time it takes to receive the waves and then by using other known data like the speed of sound in water and the speed of sound through various objects like rocks, they can develop a fairly accurate picture of the sea bed. No picture is as accurate as going down and drilling, so that must be kept in consideration when analyzing the data available. It is amazing to see how much information they can gather from these sound waves though!
As with any company, we only heard the positives at Statoil and it was reiterated several times that no shortcuts are made and all regulations are rigorously upheld so as to avoid the Gulf disaster that is currently plaguing the Gulf of Mexico. The people at Statoil and any oil company around the world are anxiously watching the Senate hearings play out and are anxious to know the outcome both in terms of the cause of the spill and the resulting fallout for BP and the countries involved.
Speaking of oil, the great debate that has haunted us from the first day we arrived in town is the question of whether to pursue drilling in what is deemed to be new profitable oil reservoirs off the coast of Lofoten. Lofoten, as we know from our travels, is the home to world renowned fisheries. Just nearby the fisheries are deep pockets of oil guaranteed to make the Norwegians richer. The Great Oil Debate in Norway is whether or not the government should pursue digging these wells and risk affecting the fish in the area. Research suggests that the fish are not affected heavily by the digging but there are also possibilities indicating that the fish are affected in the immediate future but learn to move beyond that in time. We’ve heard both sides of the debate but I think the general consensus is that Norwegians have had it too good for the last several years and are now fearing what would happen should their oil money dry up. When we first started our trip, it sounded like the government would vote to drill in the next few years but in the last few days, it seems like the government is going to vote no as a direct response to the oil spill in the Gulf. I guess time will tell but if the project is rejected today, it will certainly be up for debate again tomorrow!
Goodbye Harstad… hello Narvik!
Our last morning in Harstad started with a greeting by Mayor Helge Eriksen outside Statoil. Last night, we had mentioned wanting a Harstad pin to add to our collection and Lise, who conveniently worked with the mayor before, texted him and asked him to meet the US delegation in town. Since we didn’t have enough time to make a visit to City Hall, Mayor Eriksen made a special visit to meet us at Statoil before our morning appointment at the local oil powerhouse. That makes three mayoral visits in two weeks!
Our host at Statoil was a 16-year veteran employee, Anne-Mette Fjærli, who recently took over as communications officer for the Northern Norway headquarters in Harstad. Anne-Mette gave us a brief overview of the company. With over 30,000 employees representing 40 countries, Statoil is a large entity in Norway and Europe, though the brand has not carried over the seas to the United States. Statoil is very much a Norwegian company. It was started in the 1960s when Norway discovered oil and was entirely governmentally owned. Today, the government still owns 70 percent of the company but individuals can buy stock in the company with shares being sold on Wall Street. Statoil produces 1.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is one of the largest net sellers of crude oil and the second largest importer of gas to Europe. It remains the largest operator in water deeper than 100 meters and is a world leader of carbon capture and storage. Most importantly, Statoil is the biggest retailer of oil products in Scandinavia. Norway is in a unique position because it is able to sell most of the gas produced in the country. Statoil is responsible for all of the oil drilling north of 62 degrees.
Our tour took us to the command center of the only oil operation managed by the Harstad office, Norne. This drilling started several years ago and was initially scheduled to end in 2016 but after the latest research, has been scheduled to run through 2030. The team managing the operation includes engineers, drill safety specialists, architects and planners and program managers. The team checks in with the vessel every morning for 24 hour reports and planning updates for the next 24 hours. They then analyze data and decide what the next steps are in laying out the foundation for and continuing to drill for oil in reservoirs several meters below the surface. This particular project works about 380 meters below the surface. The daily operational cost of the drilling is 1 million dollars and therefore efficiency is a priority on any project.
After learning about the above-sea operations, we met with head geologist Anna Fauke who works with seismic data to develop a picture of the sea bed and plan for the best areas to set up oil rigs. The cost for a seismic data test is approximately 1 million dollars, which is quite pricey itself but the cost of installing a rig is about 6 million dollars. To save money from putting in a rig in a wrong location, the seismic data analysis is vital and is conducted every two years. The test is done by blasting cannons or sending out sound waves to bounce off the floor of the sea bed. The geologists calculate the amount of time it takes to receive the waves and then by using other known data like the speed of sound in water and the speed of sound through various objects like rocks, they can develop a fairly accurate picture of the sea bed. No picture is as accurate as going down and drilling, so that must be kept in consideration when analyzing the data available. It is amazing to see how much information they can gather from these sound waves though!
As with any company, we only heard the positives at Statoil and it was reiterated several times that no shortcuts are made and all regulations are rigorously upheld so as to avoid the Gulf disaster that is currently plaguing the Gulf of Mexico. The people at Statoil and any oil company around the world are anxiously watching the Senate hearings play out and are anxious to know the outcome both in terms of the cause of the spill and the resulting fallout for BP and the countries involved.
Speaking of oil, the great debate that has haunted us from the first day we arrived in town is the question of whether to pursue drilling in what is deemed to be new profitable oil reservoirs off the coast of Lofoten. Lofoten, as we know from our travels, is the home to world renowned fisheries. Just nearby the fisheries are deep pockets of oil guaranteed to make the Norwegians richer. The Great Oil Debate in Norway is whether or not the government should pursue digging these wells and risk affecting the fish in the area. Research suggests that the fish are not affected heavily by the digging but there are also possibilities indicating that the fish are affected in the immediate future but learn to move beyond that in time. We’ve heard both sides of the debate but I think the general consensus is that Norwegians have had it too good for the last several years and are now fearing what would happen should their oil money dry up. When we first started our trip, it sounded like the government would vote to drill in the next few years but in the last few days, it seems like the government is going to vote no as a direct response to the oil spill in the Gulf. I guess time will tell but if the project is rejected today, it will certainly be up for debate again tomorrow!
Goodbye Harstad… hello Narvik!
To Shoot or Not To Shoot...
June 16, 2010
Our introduction to Harstad continued today with a presentation by our Norwegian friend, Lise Aamot Linaker about her company, Kunnskapsparken. I should start by saying that knowing Lise in Harstad certainly opens doors since Lise is a famous soccer player. In Norway, soccer is not played in high schools and colleges or as a professional (paid) sport. Instead, there is an intramural league with divisions. Lise’s team (her father is the coach, her sister is also on the team) is Division I, which is the second best team. The top two teams in Division I move up to Top Division next year and currently Lise’s team is leading Division I. Needless to say, many people know Lise in Harstad!
Lise and Hilde are co-workers at a company called Kunnskapsparken Nord AS. Kupa, as they refer to it, is a regional industrial incubator working to contribute to the Northern Norway powerhouse for innovation. They do this by working within three areas: industry, entrepreneurship and youth. The goal is to bring attention and with that, people, innovation and ideas, to the Northern Norway region which is suffering from a lack of people to take advantage of the opportunity that lies within the region. Instead, the young people and those seeking professional careers tend to gravitate toward the south, around Oslo. With this company, funded largely by the local big industries including Statoil, Total, Bergen Group and Industri-Inkubator, the team leaders work to develop business ideas, attract talented and qualified professionals to helm projects and instill a sense of pride and loyalty to the northern area in the youth. Within the Dynamic Industry sector, the team works with established businesses to develop their business within the oil and gas, renewable energy and oil spill prevention and control areas. The team works to lead and develop projects, connect different companies with others in particular expertise areas, establish contact with research and obtain capital. Within the Dynamic Entrepreneurship area, the team seeks to create tomorrow’s businesses by connecting with individuals or companies with business ideas in early stages and helping develop business plans and innovative thinking. Within the Dynamic Youth area, the team wants to increase the interest in and knowledge of science and entrepreneurship in young people. They make science fun and interesting through the Newton program so kids can connect the knowledge they learn in the books with the reality of what is happening in their backyard and think about the possibility of growing up and working within the region.
Sitting and listening to these presentations was very interesting, especially keeping in mind that the Harstad area has 23,000 residents and the entire Northern Norway area has about 120,000 residents. I think it is easy for a company like Kupa to exist in a small area where there is no competition and the ability to connect with the individuals is almost on a one-to-one basis. In a country like the United States or a region like the East Coast or even a state like New Jersey, it would be impossible to make those connections because there are just too many people and too may organizations doing some aspect of the same project. There is also too much doubt; the fact that Kupa is funded by big companies working to essentially get more employees in the area for their benefit would be questioned. Although not advertised during our presentation, Kupa also owns a separate entity (Hilde is the CEO) that is strictly an investment group looking to put money into projects or entrepreneurial ideas. At the end of the day, Kupa is a business looking to make money and I think that fact, should it have been better highlighted or openly admitted, would have reduced my skepticism in the presentation. Regardless, whatever the intentions, the end result is that Kupa continues to deliver support to entrepreneurs and youth and that is making for a better Harstad.
After our tour of Kupa, we headed out to the Trondenes Fort for a look at Adofokannon or “Adolf’s Gun.” This area of Harstad was actually occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces at different times and is referred to as the Atlantic Wall. The Trondenes Fort, which is located at the naval ranger’s base, is home to the world’s largest land-based cannon or the Adolf gun. The gun barrel is 40.6 cm in diameter and has a range of 56 km. It was constructed by the Germans in World War II and was later used by the Norwegians as a defense weapon during the Cold War. While the gun was fired twice for practice by the Germans and the Norwegians, it was never used in war. The last time the gun was fired was in 1957. At the time, the Norwegians had extra ammunition and wanted to dispose of it. However, there was an accident and five men lost their lives. Tore, our tour guide for the trip, remembers being a young boy sitting on a bus waiting to go home when he saw blasts and fires from atop the hill. All the police and ambulance immediately went to the scene and the area was cordoned off and all people in the town of Harstad were asked to stay in because of shooting grenades.
Adolf’s gun is one of four within the same battery on the Trondenes peninsula. The original intention was the deploy these huge cannons on battleships, but instead they were used on the coastal forts of Norway to protect Narvik. Below and next to the canons are bunkers for ammunition, guard quarters, a power station, sanitary installments, hearting/ventilation and an emergency exit. In Trondenes, firing was led from a command post 150 meters north of the cannon. There were 20 people who worked inside of the cannon while 68 total people worked on the general maintenance and operation of the gun. The shells had a weight of 1,020 kg to 600 kg with a recoil power of 580 tons to 635 tons. One shell could be fired per minute at a 20 degree elevation. The gun was decommissioned in 1961, but it wasn’t until 1990, when a group of retired personnel took up the restoration and maintenance of the gun as a monument.
And what better way to end a rainy overcast day then to order pizza and have some drinks with our great friends in Harstad! Hilde hosted an evening in for our team, Lise, Ann and our hosts to toast to our adventures in Northern Norway and to promise a return visit in the near future!
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are very aware of the legal drinking and driving laws. In Norway, a driver cannot have more than 0.1 miligram blood alcohol content per liter of blood. This means that when we are out to dinner or at somebody's house, the driver will never touch a drink and in fact, non-alcohol beer like Freeze is very popular. The Norwegian penal code for driving and drinking is extremely harsh. First time offenders will lose their license for two years and must pay two month's worth of their salary as a fee. We need stricter laws in the United States!
Our introduction to Harstad continued today with a presentation by our Norwegian friend, Lise Aamot Linaker about her company, Kunnskapsparken. I should start by saying that knowing Lise in Harstad certainly opens doors since Lise is a famous soccer player. In Norway, soccer is not played in high schools and colleges or as a professional (paid) sport. Instead, there is an intramural league with divisions. Lise’s team (her father is the coach, her sister is also on the team) is Division I, which is the second best team. The top two teams in Division I move up to Top Division next year and currently Lise’s team is leading Division I. Needless to say, many people know Lise in Harstad!
Lise and Hilde are co-workers at a company called Kunnskapsparken Nord AS. Kupa, as they refer to it, is a regional industrial incubator working to contribute to the Northern Norway powerhouse for innovation. They do this by working within three areas: industry, entrepreneurship and youth. The goal is to bring attention and with that, people, innovation and ideas, to the Northern Norway region which is suffering from a lack of people to take advantage of the opportunity that lies within the region. Instead, the young people and those seeking professional careers tend to gravitate toward the south, around Oslo. With this company, funded largely by the local big industries including Statoil, Total, Bergen Group and Industri-Inkubator, the team leaders work to develop business ideas, attract talented and qualified professionals to helm projects and instill a sense of pride and loyalty to the northern area in the youth. Within the Dynamic Industry sector, the team works with established businesses to develop their business within the oil and gas, renewable energy and oil spill prevention and control areas. The team works to lead and develop projects, connect different companies with others in particular expertise areas, establish contact with research and obtain capital. Within the Dynamic Entrepreneurship area, the team seeks to create tomorrow’s businesses by connecting with individuals or companies with business ideas in early stages and helping develop business plans and innovative thinking. Within the Dynamic Youth area, the team wants to increase the interest in and knowledge of science and entrepreneurship in young people. They make science fun and interesting through the Newton program so kids can connect the knowledge they learn in the books with the reality of what is happening in their backyard and think about the possibility of growing up and working within the region.
Sitting and listening to these presentations was very interesting, especially keeping in mind that the Harstad area has 23,000 residents and the entire Northern Norway area has about 120,000 residents. I think it is easy for a company like Kupa to exist in a small area where there is no competition and the ability to connect with the individuals is almost on a one-to-one basis. In a country like the United States or a region like the East Coast or even a state like New Jersey, it would be impossible to make those connections because there are just too many people and too may organizations doing some aspect of the same project. There is also too much doubt; the fact that Kupa is funded by big companies working to essentially get more employees in the area for their benefit would be questioned. Although not advertised during our presentation, Kupa also owns a separate entity (Hilde is the CEO) that is strictly an investment group looking to put money into projects or entrepreneurial ideas. At the end of the day, Kupa is a business looking to make money and I think that fact, should it have been better highlighted or openly admitted, would have reduced my skepticism in the presentation. Regardless, whatever the intentions, the end result is that Kupa continues to deliver support to entrepreneurs and youth and that is making for a better Harstad.
After our tour of Kupa, we headed out to the Trondenes Fort for a look at Adofokannon or “Adolf’s Gun.” This area of Harstad was actually occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces at different times and is referred to as the Atlantic Wall. The Trondenes Fort, which is located at the naval ranger’s base, is home to the world’s largest land-based cannon or the Adolf gun. The gun barrel is 40.6 cm in diameter and has a range of 56 km. It was constructed by the Germans in World War II and was later used by the Norwegians as a defense weapon during the Cold War. While the gun was fired twice for practice by the Germans and the Norwegians, it was never used in war. The last time the gun was fired was in 1957. At the time, the Norwegians had extra ammunition and wanted to dispose of it. However, there was an accident and five men lost their lives. Tore, our tour guide for the trip, remembers being a young boy sitting on a bus waiting to go home when he saw blasts and fires from atop the hill. All the police and ambulance immediately went to the scene and the area was cordoned off and all people in the town of Harstad were asked to stay in because of shooting grenades.
Adolf’s gun is one of four within the same battery on the Trondenes peninsula. The original intention was the deploy these huge cannons on battleships, but instead they were used on the coastal forts of Norway to protect Narvik. Below and next to the canons are bunkers for ammunition, guard quarters, a power station, sanitary installments, hearting/ventilation and an emergency exit. In Trondenes, firing was led from a command post 150 meters north of the cannon. There were 20 people who worked inside of the cannon while 68 total people worked on the general maintenance and operation of the gun. The shells had a weight of 1,020 kg to 600 kg with a recoil power of 580 tons to 635 tons. One shell could be fired per minute at a 20 degree elevation. The gun was decommissioned in 1961, but it wasn’t until 1990, when a group of retired personnel took up the restoration and maintenance of the gun as a monument.
And what better way to end a rainy overcast day then to order pizza and have some drinks with our great friends in Harstad! Hilde hosted an evening in for our team, Lise, Ann and our hosts to toast to our adventures in Northern Norway and to promise a return visit in the near future!
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are very aware of the legal drinking and driving laws. In Norway, a driver cannot have more than 0.1 miligram blood alcohol content per liter of blood. This means that when we are out to dinner or at somebody's house, the driver will never touch a drink and in fact, non-alcohol beer like Freeze is very popular. The Norwegian penal code for driving and drinking is extremely harsh. First time offenders will lose their license for two years and must pay two month's worth of their salary as a fee. We need stricter laws in the United States!
The Future of Journalism Remains a Question Mark
June 15, 2010
Hilde Svenning, our host in Harstad, asked us if we would like anything in particular for breakfast during our stay with her and Nicole and I jumped at the chance to have some cereal! Cheerios for breakfast was such a treat! Our morning was off to a good start when we met up with the rest of the group for a driving tour of Harstad with Tore Lund, a retired Navy captain.
Harstad is the second largest city and municipality by population (23,000 residents) in Troms County and the third largest in Northern Norway. It is located about 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The municipality is actually split onto two islands: Hinnøya, which is the Norway’s largest island except for Svalbard and houses most of the population and Grytøya, which is the northern part of the county but located on the southern half. The city of Harstad is located on Hinnøya and is popularly referred to as Vågsfjordens perle or Pearl of Vågsfjorden. Harstad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It is a unique city because unlike most cities in Norway, there was no governmental agency that created the city but instead people saw possibilities (rich herring fisheries) and moved here on their own. Today, there is no more fishing on the island (in the 1970s, overfishing caused a demise in herring, and although they are back today, fishing has not been resurrected) but the harbor remains active and Harstad is known as the oil capital of Northern Norway. Several oil rigs are located around the Northern Norway area with Harstad headquartering operations including Statoil.
On April 9, 1940, Norway was attacked by Germans. One of the goals was to occupy the city of Narvik, which is located inland and protected by the waterways of Harstad. The Germans successfully occupied Narvik until the Allied forces counterattacked and reoccupied the city in May 1940. During that time, the Allied forces including the British, Polish and the French worked with the Norwegians in Harstad for what was dubbed the Narvik campaign.
One of the stops during our tour was to the oldest church in the area, located in Trondanes. At the rear of the church, facing out to the ocean, is a memorial for the 800 Russians buried here after World War II. As in Mo I Rana, the Germans came into the area to take all the remains and add them to a mass grave off an island in Nordland County. Unlike Mo I Rana, they were successful and today only a memorial stands to honor the fallen Russians.
Interesting Facts about Harstad:
The cost of a house in Harstad is approximately 2-5 million kroner. The new apartments, although smaller, are significantly more expensive due to the construction costs.
Tine, a dairy factory, is headquartered in Harstad and produces all the consumer milk and sour cream for Northern Norway.
After our morning tour of the town, we spent the afternoon visiting our individual career partners. In Harstad, I was introduced to Bård Borch Michalsen, the editor-in-chief of the Harstad Tidende. Harstad Tidende is the daily regional newspaper and at 123, it is the oldest company in Harstad, outdating the city itself. A daily newspaper in Norway runs Monday-Saturday since it is too expensive to print on Sundays because labor wages are nearly double any other day of the week. Walking through the newspaper offices, operations mimicked the publications back in the United States. A typical workday starts around 8 am with the morning meeting and the printer deadline is 10 pm. In between, reporters work on stories, submit text to a section editor and finally to the copy editor who sends the articles to the design team to lay out the pages and a final copy is sent to the commercial printing press. The Harstad Tidende has a circulation of 13,000 at a price of 2,000 NOK a year versus the newsstand price of 20 NOK a copy. Bård and I had a lengthy conversation on the future of journalism in our respective countries. Even though Norway is one of the top nations of newspaper readers at 1.6 newspapers per household, Bård agrees that the future of print journalism lies in community newspapers. The national and international news happens at a pace that far exceeds the morning paper and will likely be entirely delegated to the Internet. Community newspapers though, still have an appeal for the average parent who wants to see a photograph of their child in the school play or neighbors interested in the new construction project that will affect their morning commute. The Harstad Tidende, like many newspapers back home, has eliminated all national and international news and strictly dedicates its 38 pages to local news with the occasional wire story filling in the gaps. The newspaper has also made a conscious effort to increase its presence on the web, with a full-time web reporter dedicated to adding new and interesting stories to draw in the readership. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper revenue comes from advertising and the remaining 40 percent comes from subscriptions. In addition to publishing the daily regional newspaper, Harstad Tidende publishes a monthly magazine insert and a quarterly seasonal insert for all of Northern Norway.
My trip to the local newspaper ended at Polaris Trykk, the print house for Harstad Tidende and 15 other local publications. This commercial printer, located about 10 minutes from the downtown area, is a hub of all printing operations in the area and runs two shifts during the daytime and nighttime. This was my first time walking through a printhouse and it was exciting to see the process from start to finish. This particular printhouse uses an Internet-based software that allows the newspaper to upload finished pages and send over a final approval when they are ready. Each of the newspapers has a staggered deadline, so as to not jam up the offset printing towers. Once the pages have been finished or rigged, they are sent over to a CTP machine to be turned into a template. In Norway, all the newspapers are printed in full color and only in a tabloid size. Once the templates are ready, they are transferred over to one of 10 offset printing towers. Each tower can print four pages at a time and are two stories tall. The pages start at the bottom and through each phrase as it moves upward, a new CMYK color is added to the page. The final copy is then picked up by a conveyer belt to be dried and then sent over to the next room to be cut, folded, pressed and packaged by different machines. A separate machine is present to add any inserts, if needed. Norway does not have weekly coupons and advertisements like we do at home. There are occasional company advertisements, particularly grocery stores, but they are not frequent and are not coupons but advertisements about sales and prices. On any given day, 16 or so print jobs are being fulfilled or planned for so the work is truly 24 hours.
It was exciting to see the inside of a print house but it’s true that regardless of where you are, the industry does indeed work similarly and the bottom line is still the same. Even in a country where reading newspapers is a respected culture, print journalism is facing the same problems.
Our night ended with perhaps one of the most exciting activites to date: B&B touring's RIB speedboats. These boats are essentially rafts with seats and are designed to allow the participants to feel the waves and go on a rollercoaster ride through the water. We joined the 20/40 Club of Harstad for tonight's activities. The 20/40 Club is a local organization geared toward professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. Although a relatively young club, the goal is to create a personal and professional network for young individuals so as to create incentive and a structure to stay in the region. After donning our extremely attractive survival suits (this time no fish smell!), a face mask and goggles, we were ready to hit the water. Our stops for the two hour trip included the island of Grytay, where a fence literally divided the island of four houses into two because of fueding heirs to the original inhabitants; Hamnan, home to the Viking chieftain; and Bjarkøy, home to the bird berg of 10,000 migratory krykkjeberget birds. The Krykkjeberget looks like a small seagull and is found in the region only from late February through August 25 where they come to lay and hatch their eggs. The Krykkjeberget berg is an interesting hub of activity. Throughout the day, there are at least a few birds that are circulating the area on the lookout for eagles. The eagles are interested in eating the baby chicks and are therefore, one of the most dangerous hunters during this time. If an eagle is spotted, the Krykkjeberget have a carefully planned and practiced series of actions. The birds all fly in various circles and paths to confuse the eagle, so he leaves the eggs alone. When the chicks hatch, the baby birds are taught this same action to protect themselves when the time comes. The speedboat ride came to an end all too soon!
Food of the Day: Verdens Beste Kake or Kvæfjordkake. A few years ago there was a nationwide contest for the best cake and a local town near Harstad won with what they dubbed the "World's Best Cake." It is a hazelnut infused cake with a cream filling and a flaky spongy cake base. I can't really describe it and I can't say it was my favorite, but it was an interesting local treat! In fact, we are lucky to get to taste the cake since originally a large sheet was ordered but while driving down to Harstad, the driver hit the breaks suddenly and the cake was crushed. Thankfully, they had also ordered a smaller cake which allowed us a taste.
Hilde Svenning, our host in Harstad, asked us if we would like anything in particular for breakfast during our stay with her and Nicole and I jumped at the chance to have some cereal! Cheerios for breakfast was such a treat! Our morning was off to a good start when we met up with the rest of the group for a driving tour of Harstad with Tore Lund, a retired Navy captain.
Harstad is the second largest city and municipality by population (23,000 residents) in Troms County and the third largest in Northern Norway. It is located about 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The municipality is actually split onto two islands: Hinnøya, which is the Norway’s largest island except for Svalbard and houses most of the population and Grytøya, which is the northern part of the county but located on the southern half. The city of Harstad is located on Hinnøya and is popularly referred to as Vågsfjordens perle or Pearl of Vågsfjorden. Harstad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It is a unique city because unlike most cities in Norway, there was no governmental agency that created the city but instead people saw possibilities (rich herring fisheries) and moved here on their own. Today, there is no more fishing on the island (in the 1970s, overfishing caused a demise in herring, and although they are back today, fishing has not been resurrected) but the harbor remains active and Harstad is known as the oil capital of Northern Norway. Several oil rigs are located around the Northern Norway area with Harstad headquartering operations including Statoil.
On April 9, 1940, Norway was attacked by Germans. One of the goals was to occupy the city of Narvik, which is located inland and protected by the waterways of Harstad. The Germans successfully occupied Narvik until the Allied forces counterattacked and reoccupied the city in May 1940. During that time, the Allied forces including the British, Polish and the French worked with the Norwegians in Harstad for what was dubbed the Narvik campaign.
One of the stops during our tour was to the oldest church in the area, located in Trondanes. At the rear of the church, facing out to the ocean, is a memorial for the 800 Russians buried here after World War II. As in Mo I Rana, the Germans came into the area to take all the remains and add them to a mass grave off an island in Nordland County. Unlike Mo I Rana, they were successful and today only a memorial stands to honor the fallen Russians.
Interesting Facts about Harstad:
The cost of a house in Harstad is approximately 2-5 million kroner. The new apartments, although smaller, are significantly more expensive due to the construction costs.
Tine, a dairy factory, is headquartered in Harstad and produces all the consumer milk and sour cream for Northern Norway.
After our morning tour of the town, we spent the afternoon visiting our individual career partners. In Harstad, I was introduced to Bård Borch Michalsen, the editor-in-chief of the Harstad Tidende. Harstad Tidende is the daily regional newspaper and at 123, it is the oldest company in Harstad, outdating the city itself. A daily newspaper in Norway runs Monday-Saturday since it is too expensive to print on Sundays because labor wages are nearly double any other day of the week. Walking through the newspaper offices, operations mimicked the publications back in the United States. A typical workday starts around 8 am with the morning meeting and the printer deadline is 10 pm. In between, reporters work on stories, submit text to a section editor and finally to the copy editor who sends the articles to the design team to lay out the pages and a final copy is sent to the commercial printing press. The Harstad Tidende has a circulation of 13,000 at a price of 2,000 NOK a year versus the newsstand price of 20 NOK a copy. Bård and I had a lengthy conversation on the future of journalism in our respective countries. Even though Norway is one of the top nations of newspaper readers at 1.6 newspapers per household, Bård agrees that the future of print journalism lies in community newspapers. The national and international news happens at a pace that far exceeds the morning paper and will likely be entirely delegated to the Internet. Community newspapers though, still have an appeal for the average parent who wants to see a photograph of their child in the school play or neighbors interested in the new construction project that will affect their morning commute. The Harstad Tidende, like many newspapers back home, has eliminated all national and international news and strictly dedicates its 38 pages to local news with the occasional wire story filling in the gaps. The newspaper has also made a conscious effort to increase its presence on the web, with a full-time web reporter dedicated to adding new and interesting stories to draw in the readership. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper revenue comes from advertising and the remaining 40 percent comes from subscriptions. In addition to publishing the daily regional newspaper, Harstad Tidende publishes a monthly magazine insert and a quarterly seasonal insert for all of Northern Norway.
My trip to the local newspaper ended at Polaris Trykk, the print house for Harstad Tidende and 15 other local publications. This commercial printer, located about 10 minutes from the downtown area, is a hub of all printing operations in the area and runs two shifts during the daytime and nighttime. This was my first time walking through a printhouse and it was exciting to see the process from start to finish. This particular printhouse uses an Internet-based software that allows the newspaper to upload finished pages and send over a final approval when they are ready. Each of the newspapers has a staggered deadline, so as to not jam up the offset printing towers. Once the pages have been finished or rigged, they are sent over to a CTP machine to be turned into a template. In Norway, all the newspapers are printed in full color and only in a tabloid size. Once the templates are ready, they are transferred over to one of 10 offset printing towers. Each tower can print four pages at a time and are two stories tall. The pages start at the bottom and through each phrase as it moves upward, a new CMYK color is added to the page. The final copy is then picked up by a conveyer belt to be dried and then sent over to the next room to be cut, folded, pressed and packaged by different machines. A separate machine is present to add any inserts, if needed. Norway does not have weekly coupons and advertisements like we do at home. There are occasional company advertisements, particularly grocery stores, but they are not frequent and are not coupons but advertisements about sales and prices. On any given day, 16 or so print jobs are being fulfilled or planned for so the work is truly 24 hours.
It was exciting to see the inside of a print house but it’s true that regardless of where you are, the industry does indeed work similarly and the bottom line is still the same. Even in a country where reading newspapers is a respected culture, print journalism is facing the same problems.
Our night ended with perhaps one of the most exciting activites to date: B&B touring's RIB speedboats. These boats are essentially rafts with seats and are designed to allow the participants to feel the waves and go on a rollercoaster ride through the water. We joined the 20/40 Club of Harstad for tonight's activities. The 20/40 Club is a local organization geared toward professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. Although a relatively young club, the goal is to create a personal and professional network for young individuals so as to create incentive and a structure to stay in the region. After donning our extremely attractive survival suits (this time no fish smell!), a face mask and goggles, we were ready to hit the water. Our stops for the two hour trip included the island of Grytay, where a fence literally divided the island of four houses into two because of fueding heirs to the original inhabitants; Hamnan, home to the Viking chieftain; and Bjarkøy, home to the bird berg of 10,000 migratory krykkjeberget birds. The Krykkjeberget looks like a small seagull and is found in the region only from late February through August 25 where they come to lay and hatch their eggs. The Krykkjeberget berg is an interesting hub of activity. Throughout the day, there are at least a few birds that are circulating the area on the lookout for eagles. The eagles are interested in eating the baby chicks and are therefore, one of the most dangerous hunters during this time. If an eagle is spotted, the Krykkjeberget have a carefully planned and practiced series of actions. The birds all fly in various circles and paths to confuse the eagle, so he leaves the eggs alone. When the chicks hatch, the baby birds are taught this same action to protect themselves when the time comes. The speedboat ride came to an end all too soon!
Food of the Day: Verdens Beste Kake or Kvæfjordkake. A few years ago there was a nationwide contest for the best cake and a local town near Harstad won with what they dubbed the "World's Best Cake." It is a hazelnut infused cake with a cream filling and a flaky spongy cake base. I can't really describe it and I can't say it was my favorite, but it was an interesting local treat! In fact, we are lucky to get to taste the cake since originally a large sheet was ordered but while driving down to Harstad, the driver hit the breaks suddenly and the cake was crushed. Thankfully, they had also ordered a smaller cake which allowed us a taste.
Lidar, Whales and a Long Drive
June 14, 2010
Our last morning in Sortland started early as we packed our bags and headed out to Andenes, a town of 3,500 on the tip of Sortland about two hours away. Andenes is a picturesque whaling village that until three years ago, survived largely due to the military base. Since the base has closed, Andenes is rethinking its survival strategy and has started tapping into the tourism industry by offering whale and puffin safaris. About ten minutes outside of Andenes is our first stop at ALOMAR, the Arctic Lidar Observatory. ALOMAR is located about 380 meters above elevation and home to six full-time employees and six partner countries housing or operating their machinery in the facility. ALOMAR is also responsible for the ground operations of the Andøya Rocket Range, where rockets are sent out into the atmosphere to collect particles and data to be analyzed by the scientists at ALOMAR. As a lidar optic center, ALOMAR has several lasers in place that send out different wavelengths of light into the atmosphere. The scientists then measure the time it takes for the light to return, the frequency, distance and other characteristics that the electromagnetic waves radiate when interacting with atoms. Currently, the staff at ALOMAR is working around the clock to study noctilucent clouds. These are thin clouds located at 83 km above ground (space is 100 km) that were first noticed in 1885 after a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. These clouds are only visible in the summertime and although located above ALOMAR, cannot be seen from the area due to the Midnight Sun but rather by video footage taken from Trondheim, a city further south. Scientists at ALOMAR first started studying these clouds, visible only from June through August, in the 1980s to learn their qualities and characteristics. Today, more monitoring work is being conducted to continue collecting data. Another type of cloud, the mother of pearl, is also being monitored and studied since they are actually damaging the ozone layer and cannot be reversed. Touring the facility, we saw several visiting scientists working on their individual machines including a scientist from Boulder, CO working on a machine that starts creating the laser beam that will then be processed through the larger machines and sent out into the atmosphere to collect data. While the scientific terms and knowledge were too detailed to understand, the idea of collecting vast amounts of data by sending out a laser was amazing. ALOMAR probably sends out lasers 120 days a year, weather permitting. Generally, the center is operational from 8 am to 8 pm except for special projects which are 24/7. It is a private company but works through collaborations with several nations or universities looking to house their equipment and for technicians to operate the machinery. Our guide, Sandra Blindheim, is the head of ALOMAR and five years into her first job, that is not a bad place to be! Blindheim said that most of the staff does have a physics background and understands the technical side, but there are several people that visit from other backgrounds such as programming. Today, the field is nearing the point of having too much data so Blindheim said that in the next decade or so, scientists need to decide whether to make this into a business and sell data sets or to make them available for general consumption.
After ALOMAR, our next visit was into the town of Andenes for a trip to the whaling museum. Andenes is famous for its whale safaris which are year-round but will kick into high season in the next three weeks. Unfortunately, the whale safari for the day was at 5 pm and since we had to be on the road by 2 pm, we were only able to visit the museum and understand a bit about the famous animals. Standing around the carcass of a sperm whale, we learned that an average male is about 11 to 17 meters long. This particular carcass was discovered by two German researchers in 1996, after the whale washed up on the coast. By looking at the skeleton, we learned the sperm whale first got its name because scientists believed the large head was filled with sperm but in fact, soon learned that it was filled with spermaceti which is a fluid that the whale changes depending on its need. When the whale is looking to fish and dive down to the bottom of the seabed, the spermaceti hardens and makes the head heavier. When the whale is ready to come back up, it loosens and allows for easier swimming. The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal, but it only makes up 0.2 percent of its body weight compared to 2.5 percent of the human brain to body ratio. The sperm whale makes three different types of clicking sounds: to communicate, as an echo to gauge prey and to paralyze the prey for easy eating. Typically the sperm whale feeds on squid, but also eats several other fish in the sea or up to 1 ton of food per day.
As we moved to the orca, we learned that the killer whale is in fact, not a whale, but a large dolphin. There are two types of killer whales in the waters around Andenes. The first are the residential orcas that mostly follow the schools of herring around the water. The second are the migrating killer whales and they are the most dangerous since they eat anything out in the water including other whales, humans and fish. The female humpback whales, for example, do not migrate into these waters because of fear that the baby humpback whales will be eaten by the migrating killer whales. Instead, the female humpback whales stay in the Caribbean waters year round. The females stay in groups with the families they were born into while the males travel several miles to reach the Norwegian waters where they feed throughout the winter to become bigger and then swim back to the Caribbean to impress the females who only mate with the larger animals. A female typically delivers seven calves a lifetime, starting at the age of seven. Whales typically live for 80 years, though the oldest whale discovered was 220 years. Humpback whales keep their young with them for several years, feeding milk to the whales until they are at least three before teaching them to fish for themselves. Humpback whales fish through a technique called a bubble net where they surround a school of fish with bubbles, confusing the fish who believe they are caught in a net, before coming from below and eating the entire school at once.
The museum visit was not enough to satisfy our curiosity about whales but unfortunately, it would have to do. Following a lunch with our new friends in Andenes, we hit the road once again for a two hour trip back to Sortland before continuing on for another half hour to a ferry and then an hour and half to our new hometown of Harstadt. Dinner tonight was a Norwegian specialty of rømmegrøt or sour cream porridge, topped with cinnamon and sugar to taste. The porridge is served with salted meats, flat bread and potato salad. Yum!
Our last morning in Sortland started early as we packed our bags and headed out to Andenes, a town of 3,500 on the tip of Sortland about two hours away. Andenes is a picturesque whaling village that until three years ago, survived largely due to the military base. Since the base has closed, Andenes is rethinking its survival strategy and has started tapping into the tourism industry by offering whale and puffin safaris. About ten minutes outside of Andenes is our first stop at ALOMAR, the Arctic Lidar Observatory. ALOMAR is located about 380 meters above elevation and home to six full-time employees and six partner countries housing or operating their machinery in the facility. ALOMAR is also responsible for the ground operations of the Andøya Rocket Range, where rockets are sent out into the atmosphere to collect particles and data to be analyzed by the scientists at ALOMAR. As a lidar optic center, ALOMAR has several lasers in place that send out different wavelengths of light into the atmosphere. The scientists then measure the time it takes for the light to return, the frequency, distance and other characteristics that the electromagnetic waves radiate when interacting with atoms. Currently, the staff at ALOMAR is working around the clock to study noctilucent clouds. These are thin clouds located at 83 km above ground (space is 100 km) that were first noticed in 1885 after a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. These clouds are only visible in the summertime and although located above ALOMAR, cannot be seen from the area due to the Midnight Sun but rather by video footage taken from Trondheim, a city further south. Scientists at ALOMAR first started studying these clouds, visible only from June through August, in the 1980s to learn their qualities and characteristics. Today, more monitoring work is being conducted to continue collecting data. Another type of cloud, the mother of pearl, is also being monitored and studied since they are actually damaging the ozone layer and cannot be reversed. Touring the facility, we saw several visiting scientists working on their individual machines including a scientist from Boulder, CO working on a machine that starts creating the laser beam that will then be processed through the larger machines and sent out into the atmosphere to collect data. While the scientific terms and knowledge were too detailed to understand, the idea of collecting vast amounts of data by sending out a laser was amazing. ALOMAR probably sends out lasers 120 days a year, weather permitting. Generally, the center is operational from 8 am to 8 pm except for special projects which are 24/7. It is a private company but works through collaborations with several nations or universities looking to house their equipment and for technicians to operate the machinery. Our guide, Sandra Blindheim, is the head of ALOMAR and five years into her first job, that is not a bad place to be! Blindheim said that most of the staff does have a physics background and understands the technical side, but there are several people that visit from other backgrounds such as programming. Today, the field is nearing the point of having too much data so Blindheim said that in the next decade or so, scientists need to decide whether to make this into a business and sell data sets or to make them available for general consumption.
After ALOMAR, our next visit was into the town of Andenes for a trip to the whaling museum. Andenes is famous for its whale safaris which are year-round but will kick into high season in the next three weeks. Unfortunately, the whale safari for the day was at 5 pm and since we had to be on the road by 2 pm, we were only able to visit the museum and understand a bit about the famous animals. Standing around the carcass of a sperm whale, we learned that an average male is about 11 to 17 meters long. This particular carcass was discovered by two German researchers in 1996, after the whale washed up on the coast. By looking at the skeleton, we learned the sperm whale first got its name because scientists believed the large head was filled with sperm but in fact, soon learned that it was filled with spermaceti which is a fluid that the whale changes depending on its need. When the whale is looking to fish and dive down to the bottom of the seabed, the spermaceti hardens and makes the head heavier. When the whale is ready to come back up, it loosens and allows for easier swimming. The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal, but it only makes up 0.2 percent of its body weight compared to 2.5 percent of the human brain to body ratio. The sperm whale makes three different types of clicking sounds: to communicate, as an echo to gauge prey and to paralyze the prey for easy eating. Typically the sperm whale feeds on squid, but also eats several other fish in the sea or up to 1 ton of food per day.
As we moved to the orca, we learned that the killer whale is in fact, not a whale, but a large dolphin. There are two types of killer whales in the waters around Andenes. The first are the residential orcas that mostly follow the schools of herring around the water. The second are the migrating killer whales and they are the most dangerous since they eat anything out in the water including other whales, humans and fish. The female humpback whales, for example, do not migrate into these waters because of fear that the baby humpback whales will be eaten by the migrating killer whales. Instead, the female humpback whales stay in the Caribbean waters year round. The females stay in groups with the families they were born into while the males travel several miles to reach the Norwegian waters where they feed throughout the winter to become bigger and then swim back to the Caribbean to impress the females who only mate with the larger animals. A female typically delivers seven calves a lifetime, starting at the age of seven. Whales typically live for 80 years, though the oldest whale discovered was 220 years. Humpback whales keep their young with them for several years, feeding milk to the whales until they are at least three before teaching them to fish for themselves. Humpback whales fish through a technique called a bubble net where they surround a school of fish with bubbles, confusing the fish who believe they are caught in a net, before coming from below and eating the entire school at once.
The museum visit was not enough to satisfy our curiosity about whales but unfortunately, it would have to do. Following a lunch with our new friends in Andenes, we hit the road once again for a two hour trip back to Sortland before continuing on for another half hour to a ferry and then an hour and half to our new hometown of Harstadt. Dinner tonight was a Norwegian specialty of rømmegrøt or sour cream porridge, topped with cinnamon and sugar to taste. The porridge is served with salted meats, flat bread and potato salad. Yum!
Sunday drive to Nyksund
June 13, 2010
It’s Sunday in Sortland and we have been invited to spend the afternoon in the coastal village of Nyksund in the Vesterålen area of Northern Norway. Our host for the day is Jan Christiansen, a former resident of Nyksund and large owner of the village today. As we drive the windy roads to the small town, Jan tells us a little history about the old fisherman’s village. When Jan was growing up, Nyksund was a town of 250 permanent residents that grew to about 1500 during high fishing season. His family was heavily interweaved into the history of the town from his grandmother who was the teacher at the local school and ran the town to his cousin who invented his own fishing machinery. Nowadays, Nyksund has about 25 permanent residents and while the Christensens do not live in Nyksund permanently, they do spend many weekends in the village and are planning to throw a big three day birthday celebration for their youngest son on August 7.
Entering Nyksund, the first thing you notice is that it is not much of a town! There is one small waterway cutting through what looks like a little island and there are about 10 houses on either side of the water. There is another row of houses behind the road, but that is the extent of the house. The first house greeting any visitors is a large white main house, where the Christiansens live when they are visiting town. The Christiansens also own several of the other homes in the area and have given away 800 meters of property to local residents in hopes of attracting new residents. Our first stop was to the local hall which has several old photographs and memorabilia on the walls, detailing the history of Nyksund. Jan tells us that this town has been settled and abandoned at least four times in the past 200 years. One big storm, in 1947, brought such large waves that boats tied on one end of the jetty were pushed over the jetty without a scrape on the bottom!
As big ships failed to navigate shallow waters and as road transportation became harder with poor roads, the town of Nyksund started to face a dwindling population. In the 1970s, Nyksund was officially a ghost town in need of much repair and attention in order to bring back residents. It was in 1986 that Jan met a professor in Berlin who was working with juvenile delinquents, mostly drug addicts, who were sent to a special boarding school for their last chance to clean up before being punished severely. After much discussion and overriding of the town council’s vote, Jan brought nearly 200 of those boys to Nyksund. His idea was to provide the boys with a summer project, hands on work cleaning up Nyksund with the understanding that if his no drug policy was violated, the perpetrator was to be sent back to Germany immediately. The town folk feared bringing the boys into town, partly for the drugs and partly for the fear of the boys impregnating the young girls. Jan personally stood up for the program and the summer was a turning point for Nyksund as the boys did more to clean up that town than was every done before. Jan had asked the local police to make periodic surprise visits to check for drugs, so as to keep the town at peace. Only once, Jan said, did a search turn up something and it was only half a joint. Sticking to his promise, he asked the owner of the joint to step forward or else the entire group would be sent home. One small boy stepped forward and took ownership and to thank him for his honesty, Jan decided to allow him to stay. Years later, in 1997, a young man came to Nyksund looking for Jan and asked him if he recognized the man. It turned out to be the same kid who was given a second chance and today, that young man was a father of four and a professor at a technical school in Berlin. Good intentions really do pay themselves forward!
While looking through the town memorabilia, Jan pointed to a machine that looked like a small box. This was his cousin’s invention; an automatic reel for fishing to help save the shoulders and arms of the fishermen who spend their days out on the water. Jan remembers running around the town finding rubber bands and other things his cousin would need to test out the machine. His cousin almost went broke applying for an international patent, but thankfully did eventually succeed. Jan remembers taking the invention to a fishing conference in Seattle one year and impressing those in attendance. One corporate man asked Jan how many they would be able to make and Jan said “many.” When they got home, they received a fax from the man asking for 10,000 machines. His cousin had to call back and say they could deliver 20 but would need more time for 10,000… sadly, they didn’t hear back from the company again!
The rest of the tour through the town included a stop at the smithery, Nyksundsmia. Smed Vebjørn Sommerset, the local blacksmith, opened shop about four years ago and has spent most of the time making his own tools. Apparently, a blacksmith must make his own tools before he can start working on other projects. Smed is now starting to make small pieces and is currently working on a sign for his studio. He is also converting the front part of his studio into a little showroom. Smed gave us little souvenir pendants to remind us of Nyksund. My pendant is a Thor’s hammer, which the Viking God used to create thunder and lightning.
Our next stop in Nyksund is to the local church, built in 1887. The history of the church is a funny story that started with a few guys who were drinking heavily one night. At the time, there were no bathrooms attached to the building so you’d have to go outside to take care of business. One of the men, drunk and stumbling, went outside to go to the bathroom but was startled by noises he heard. He didn’t realize it was the ocean but instead convinced himself it was the devil. At the time, Jan’s grandmother not only worked at the local school but also ran the town. In order to pacify the men, she suggested building a church and for 4,780 NOK, this church was built. The church is a simple box building with all the artwork and objects donated by town residents. Just last year, the town restored one of the outside walls for 250,000 NOK alone!
Our day in Nyksund ended with a coffee break at Jan’s house, the main house situated near the entrance of town. In addition to a wide selection of refreshments and desserts, Jan and his wife, Britt, served us lefse. Lefse is a traditional Norwegian flatbread, served either as tjukklefse (thin bread) or tykklefse (thick bread). Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream and flour and cooked on a griddle. There are many ways of flavoring lefse but one of the most popular ones and the one we tried today is layering the lefse with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Yum!
Interesting Notes and Observations:
There is a large Norwegian contingency in the United States, mostly based in Minnesota and Seattle, Washington. In 1900, Norway was actually one of the poorest countries in Europe and almost half of the population emigrated to the United States in search of better jobs. Today, Norway is the richest country in Europe, mostly due to the discovery and mining of oil.
Norwegians tend to just look at a problem and take the obvious solution. This can be anything as simple as binders; rather than having to pull them out by the sides when they are stacked on the shelves, the Norwegian binders have holes to put your finger in and pull out efficiently. This also is true for bigger issues like the bank cards. The Norwegian bank cards have a picture ID, name and social security number (not necessary in the United States) on the back of the bank cards, thus eliminating the odds of identity theft. The flip side, though, is that such simple solutions are more costly and thus, likely not able to translate into the American system.
It’s Sunday in Sortland and we have been invited to spend the afternoon in the coastal village of Nyksund in the Vesterålen area of Northern Norway. Our host for the day is Jan Christiansen, a former resident of Nyksund and large owner of the village today. As we drive the windy roads to the small town, Jan tells us a little history about the old fisherman’s village. When Jan was growing up, Nyksund was a town of 250 permanent residents that grew to about 1500 during high fishing season. His family was heavily interweaved into the history of the town from his grandmother who was the teacher at the local school and ran the town to his cousin who invented his own fishing machinery. Nowadays, Nyksund has about 25 permanent residents and while the Christensens do not live in Nyksund permanently, they do spend many weekends in the village and are planning to throw a big three day birthday celebration for their youngest son on August 7.
Entering Nyksund, the first thing you notice is that it is not much of a town! There is one small waterway cutting through what looks like a little island and there are about 10 houses on either side of the water. There is another row of houses behind the road, but that is the extent of the house. The first house greeting any visitors is a large white main house, where the Christiansens live when they are visiting town. The Christiansens also own several of the other homes in the area and have given away 800 meters of property to local residents in hopes of attracting new residents. Our first stop was to the local hall which has several old photographs and memorabilia on the walls, detailing the history of Nyksund. Jan tells us that this town has been settled and abandoned at least four times in the past 200 years. One big storm, in 1947, brought such large waves that boats tied on one end of the jetty were pushed over the jetty without a scrape on the bottom!
As big ships failed to navigate shallow waters and as road transportation became harder with poor roads, the town of Nyksund started to face a dwindling population. In the 1970s, Nyksund was officially a ghost town in need of much repair and attention in order to bring back residents. It was in 1986 that Jan met a professor in Berlin who was working with juvenile delinquents, mostly drug addicts, who were sent to a special boarding school for their last chance to clean up before being punished severely. After much discussion and overriding of the town council’s vote, Jan brought nearly 200 of those boys to Nyksund. His idea was to provide the boys with a summer project, hands on work cleaning up Nyksund with the understanding that if his no drug policy was violated, the perpetrator was to be sent back to Germany immediately. The town folk feared bringing the boys into town, partly for the drugs and partly for the fear of the boys impregnating the young girls. Jan personally stood up for the program and the summer was a turning point for Nyksund as the boys did more to clean up that town than was every done before. Jan had asked the local police to make periodic surprise visits to check for drugs, so as to keep the town at peace. Only once, Jan said, did a search turn up something and it was only half a joint. Sticking to his promise, he asked the owner of the joint to step forward or else the entire group would be sent home. One small boy stepped forward and took ownership and to thank him for his honesty, Jan decided to allow him to stay. Years later, in 1997, a young man came to Nyksund looking for Jan and asked him if he recognized the man. It turned out to be the same kid who was given a second chance and today, that young man was a father of four and a professor at a technical school in Berlin. Good intentions really do pay themselves forward!
While looking through the town memorabilia, Jan pointed to a machine that looked like a small box. This was his cousin’s invention; an automatic reel for fishing to help save the shoulders and arms of the fishermen who spend their days out on the water. Jan remembers running around the town finding rubber bands and other things his cousin would need to test out the machine. His cousin almost went broke applying for an international patent, but thankfully did eventually succeed. Jan remembers taking the invention to a fishing conference in Seattle one year and impressing those in attendance. One corporate man asked Jan how many they would be able to make and Jan said “many.” When they got home, they received a fax from the man asking for 10,000 machines. His cousin had to call back and say they could deliver 20 but would need more time for 10,000… sadly, they didn’t hear back from the company again!
The rest of the tour through the town included a stop at the smithery, Nyksundsmia. Smed Vebjørn Sommerset, the local blacksmith, opened shop about four years ago and has spent most of the time making his own tools. Apparently, a blacksmith must make his own tools before he can start working on other projects. Smed is now starting to make small pieces and is currently working on a sign for his studio. He is also converting the front part of his studio into a little showroom. Smed gave us little souvenir pendants to remind us of Nyksund. My pendant is a Thor’s hammer, which the Viking God used to create thunder and lightning.
Our next stop in Nyksund is to the local church, built in 1887. The history of the church is a funny story that started with a few guys who were drinking heavily one night. At the time, there were no bathrooms attached to the building so you’d have to go outside to take care of business. One of the men, drunk and stumbling, went outside to go to the bathroom but was startled by noises he heard. He didn’t realize it was the ocean but instead convinced himself it was the devil. At the time, Jan’s grandmother not only worked at the local school but also ran the town. In order to pacify the men, she suggested building a church and for 4,780 NOK, this church was built. The church is a simple box building with all the artwork and objects donated by town residents. Just last year, the town restored one of the outside walls for 250,000 NOK alone!
Our day in Nyksund ended with a coffee break at Jan’s house, the main house situated near the entrance of town. In addition to a wide selection of refreshments and desserts, Jan and his wife, Britt, served us lefse. Lefse is a traditional Norwegian flatbread, served either as tjukklefse (thin bread) or tykklefse (thick bread). Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream and flour and cooked on a griddle. There are many ways of flavoring lefse but one of the most popular ones and the one we tried today is layering the lefse with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Yum!
Interesting Notes and Observations:
There is a large Norwegian contingency in the United States, mostly based in Minnesota and Seattle, Washington. In 1900, Norway was actually one of the poorest countries in Europe and almost half of the population emigrated to the United States in search of better jobs. Today, Norway is the richest country in Europe, mostly due to the discovery and mining of oil.
Norwegians tend to just look at a problem and take the obvious solution. This can be anything as simple as binders; rather than having to pull them out by the sides when they are stacked on the shelves, the Norwegian binders have holes to put your finger in and pull out efficiently. This also is true for bigger issues like the bank cards. The Norwegian bank cards have a picture ID, name and social security number (not necessary in the United States) on the back of the bank cards, thus eliminating the odds of identity theft. The flip side, though, is that such simple solutions are more costly and thus, likely not able to translate into the American system.
Sortland nightlife with great friends!
June 12, 2010
Today is our formal introduction to Sortland and who better to meet and greet with than Mayor Svein Roar Jacobsen and Commander Steve Olsen, head of the Kystvakten (Norwegian Coast Guard). Sortland, or “the blue town,” as it is often nicknamed because of the number of blue buildings in the downtown area, is a town of about 5,000 residents. The town is located on the island of Langøya and is the largest town and commercial center in Vesterålen. The municipality is named after the old Sortland farm, since the first church was built there. As one of our hosts, Jan Christensen explained to us, the name of a town can tell you a lot about its history. In this case, “Svorta” is a river name and “land” means land or farm. The river name is derived from the word “svartr” or black, hence the town being named “the black one.”
Commander Steve Olsen is the current head of the Norwegian Coast Guard but will be promoted in August to be an admiral in the Royal Norwegian Navy. The Norwegian Coast Guard is technically a branch of the Navy, so he will be moving out of the Coast Guard and into the Navy. The Coast Guard was established on April 1, 1977 and works on several different safety and security issues at sea. It currently consists of 21 vessels, 6 helicopters, 2 aircraft and 800 personnel. There are less than 10 people living on the base at any given time. The ships generally come into dock on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and stay at the base for 24 hours while the new crew takes their orders. Each crew is out to sea for three weeks and then on land for three weeks. The Coast Guard Law gives the authority to enforce all relevant rules and regulations at sea and to assist in emergency or distress situations. The operational area includes territorial waters and the continental shelf and any other international areas where Norway has commitments. It will also carry out military tasks including force protection if needed. The basic philosophy of the Coast Guard is to be present and maintain control.
After the presentations, we decided to have a low key afternoon and evening in Sortland. Three of our Norwegian friends, Ann Lisebeth, Marianne and Karl Erik, are all from Sortland and wanted to show us the everyday life in town. Nicole and I started the afternoon taking in the downtown Sortland area in search of some affordable Norwegian souvenirs. Sadly, the task was impossible. We did however get to walk around the two downtown malls, which have about six stores in each including a grocery store and the equivalent of a dollar store (but more than a dollar!). The one thing I did notice is that Norway as a whole and Sortland in particular does not offer anywhere close to the number of options we have at home. The only area where there are options is in the grocery store selection, because there are at least four chains in each town. Between the two malls, there are only three to four clothing stores, a couple flower stores, two pharmacy chains, nille (the dollar store equivalent), a toy store and an electronic boutique. Marianne said this was typical and enough for them. Between the sheer number of options and the value of the Norwegian kroner versus the U.S. dollar, it’s no wonder the Norwegian team went crazy shopping when they visited us!
After shopping or rather window shopping, we visited Karl Erik’s house to meet his famed hens! After meeting Karl Erik in New Jersey, we were all convinced he lived a rural lifestyle in the middle of nowhere living off the land. Instead, he lives right in the city but still has a chicken hatch in the backyard for his four hens. While we were visiting, his three little girls ran outside to the backyard to pick out some fresh rhubarb which they ate raw, dipping the end into a glass of sugar. Rhubarb and sugar is a Norwegian treat all our friends seem to remember enjoying while growing up but nowadays, if you were to buy rhubarb at the grocery store in the United States, it comes with a warning not to eat it raw!
Our evening started with some homemade pizza! Homemade pizza is definitely different in Norway, the crust is thick and the pie is either entirely topped with meats or veggies. All pizza is served with a garlic pizza sauce which is very similar to tzatziki. The Norwegians typically top their pizza with the sauce and don’t use any other toppings like oregano, crushed red pepper or garlic. The taste in all Norwegian food tends to run towards the bland side but I haven’t tasted the meats which are likely marinated and thus, flavorful. Karl Erik started a mini-barbeque (a foil pan with some charcoal) to make whale and reindeer kebabs. After dinner was our first night out with Norwegian friends, starting with a party at Ann Lisebeth’s house where she invited a lot of her other friends. Here we were introduced to two Norwegian drinking traditions… First, Karsk. You get a mug with a clear bottom and place a coin either inside the mug or underneath. Poor coffee in the mug until you can’t see the coin any longer. Then, you grab the vodka and pour it in until you can see the coin again. (Hint: The coffee is still in there, so you’ll never dilute it enough to be able to see the coin again). Second, a Turkish shot. Not good. A Turkish shot is essentially a homemade shot, combining vodka with a Turkish bean that tastes like black licorice. The liquor mixture is given a couple days to set, which intensifies the taste. Norwegians love this shot or black licorice in particular… on the other hand, Americans do not love the taste of black licorice. Yuck!
Our night continued with a taste of the local nightlife at Stedet. A famous local cover band, Topcoat, was playing in town so we decided to hear their 80s music. The nightlife in Norway is pretty similar to going out in a small town at home. The drinks were expensive, but that has been our experience the entire time. The bar also had a disco attached to the back with a dj and a dance floor. That was a little different only because the music was unfamiliar, mostly Europop with techno beats. But all in all, it was a fun night and we had a great time with our friends in Sortland. On a side note and perhaps of interest, there are no strip clubs in Norway. In fact, Norwegian men don’t understand the concept of paying to see somebody take their clothes off. Ha.
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are incredibly adept at using their utensils. Sitting at the dinner table with any Norwegian means you will feel inferior in your own eating abilities. The Norwegians eat with both hands, a fork in their left hand and a knife in their right. Without ever touching the food with their hands, they are able to scoop up every last morsel from the plate including gravy, rice and bread. Everything is cut into little bites and eaten including the open faced sandwiches for lunch. On the other hand, and somewhat embarrassingly, us Americans use our right hand to cut with the knife, then place the knife down and switch utensils so the right hand is now picking up the fork to put the bite of food in our mouth. Very inefficient!
Speaking of food, I have yet to get used to the typical Norwegian spread. Breakfast usually consists of a piece of bread, topped with mayonnaise, caviar, cheese or hard-boiled eggs. There is also usually a Wasa bread/cracker and then jams, butter, brown cheese and of course, fish. A typical breakfast starts with a piece of bread with several toppings, eaten with a fork and knife. The lunch spread is very similar to the breakfast spread, with bread and Wasa crackers, a spread of fish, mayonnaise, caviar, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, brown cheese, paprika red peppers and cucumber. Norwegians typically start with two to three slices of bread, with toppings to make an open-faced sandwich, eaten with fork and knife. Dinner varies from fish to meats to more traditional Norwegian meals like fish balls, sheep’s head, reindeer or whale. I haven’t had any problems finding vegetarian food, a salad at least, but the variety has been limited.
Today is our formal introduction to Sortland and who better to meet and greet with than Mayor Svein Roar Jacobsen and Commander Steve Olsen, head of the Kystvakten (Norwegian Coast Guard). Sortland, or “the blue town,” as it is often nicknamed because of the number of blue buildings in the downtown area, is a town of about 5,000 residents. The town is located on the island of Langøya and is the largest town and commercial center in Vesterålen. The municipality is named after the old Sortland farm, since the first church was built there. As one of our hosts, Jan Christensen explained to us, the name of a town can tell you a lot about its history. In this case, “Svorta” is a river name and “land” means land or farm. The river name is derived from the word “svartr” or black, hence the town being named “the black one.”
Commander Steve Olsen is the current head of the Norwegian Coast Guard but will be promoted in August to be an admiral in the Royal Norwegian Navy. The Norwegian Coast Guard is technically a branch of the Navy, so he will be moving out of the Coast Guard and into the Navy. The Coast Guard was established on April 1, 1977 and works on several different safety and security issues at sea. It currently consists of 21 vessels, 6 helicopters, 2 aircraft and 800 personnel. There are less than 10 people living on the base at any given time. The ships generally come into dock on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and stay at the base for 24 hours while the new crew takes their orders. Each crew is out to sea for three weeks and then on land for three weeks. The Coast Guard Law gives the authority to enforce all relevant rules and regulations at sea and to assist in emergency or distress situations. The operational area includes territorial waters and the continental shelf and any other international areas where Norway has commitments. It will also carry out military tasks including force protection if needed. The basic philosophy of the Coast Guard is to be present and maintain control.
After the presentations, we decided to have a low key afternoon and evening in Sortland. Three of our Norwegian friends, Ann Lisebeth, Marianne and Karl Erik, are all from Sortland and wanted to show us the everyday life in town. Nicole and I started the afternoon taking in the downtown Sortland area in search of some affordable Norwegian souvenirs. Sadly, the task was impossible. We did however get to walk around the two downtown malls, which have about six stores in each including a grocery store and the equivalent of a dollar store (but more than a dollar!). The one thing I did notice is that Norway as a whole and Sortland in particular does not offer anywhere close to the number of options we have at home. The only area where there are options is in the grocery store selection, because there are at least four chains in each town. Between the two malls, there are only three to four clothing stores, a couple flower stores, two pharmacy chains, nille (the dollar store equivalent), a toy store and an electronic boutique. Marianne said this was typical and enough for them. Between the sheer number of options and the value of the Norwegian kroner versus the U.S. dollar, it’s no wonder the Norwegian team went crazy shopping when they visited us!
After shopping or rather window shopping, we visited Karl Erik’s house to meet his famed hens! After meeting Karl Erik in New Jersey, we were all convinced he lived a rural lifestyle in the middle of nowhere living off the land. Instead, he lives right in the city but still has a chicken hatch in the backyard for his four hens. While we were visiting, his three little girls ran outside to the backyard to pick out some fresh rhubarb which they ate raw, dipping the end into a glass of sugar. Rhubarb and sugar is a Norwegian treat all our friends seem to remember enjoying while growing up but nowadays, if you were to buy rhubarb at the grocery store in the United States, it comes with a warning not to eat it raw!
Our evening started with some homemade pizza! Homemade pizza is definitely different in Norway, the crust is thick and the pie is either entirely topped with meats or veggies. All pizza is served with a garlic pizza sauce which is very similar to tzatziki. The Norwegians typically top their pizza with the sauce and don’t use any other toppings like oregano, crushed red pepper or garlic. The taste in all Norwegian food tends to run towards the bland side but I haven’t tasted the meats which are likely marinated and thus, flavorful. Karl Erik started a mini-barbeque (a foil pan with some charcoal) to make whale and reindeer kebabs. After dinner was our first night out with Norwegian friends, starting with a party at Ann Lisebeth’s house where she invited a lot of her other friends. Here we were introduced to two Norwegian drinking traditions… First, Karsk. You get a mug with a clear bottom and place a coin either inside the mug or underneath. Poor coffee in the mug until you can’t see the coin any longer. Then, you grab the vodka and pour it in until you can see the coin again. (Hint: The coffee is still in there, so you’ll never dilute it enough to be able to see the coin again). Second, a Turkish shot. Not good. A Turkish shot is essentially a homemade shot, combining vodka with a Turkish bean that tastes like black licorice. The liquor mixture is given a couple days to set, which intensifies the taste. Norwegians love this shot or black licorice in particular… on the other hand, Americans do not love the taste of black licorice. Yuck!
Our night continued with a taste of the local nightlife at Stedet. A famous local cover band, Topcoat, was playing in town so we decided to hear their 80s music. The nightlife in Norway is pretty similar to going out in a small town at home. The drinks were expensive, but that has been our experience the entire time. The bar also had a disco attached to the back with a dj and a dance floor. That was a little different only because the music was unfamiliar, mostly Europop with techno beats. But all in all, it was a fun night and we had a great time with our friends in Sortland. On a side note and perhaps of interest, there are no strip clubs in Norway. In fact, Norwegian men don’t understand the concept of paying to see somebody take their clothes off. Ha.
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are incredibly adept at using their utensils. Sitting at the dinner table with any Norwegian means you will feel inferior in your own eating abilities. The Norwegians eat with both hands, a fork in their left hand and a knife in their right. Without ever touching the food with their hands, they are able to scoop up every last morsel from the plate including gravy, rice and bread. Everything is cut into little bites and eaten including the open faced sandwiches for lunch. On the other hand, and somewhat embarrassingly, us Americans use our right hand to cut with the knife, then place the knife down and switch utensils so the right hand is now picking up the fork to put the bite of food in our mouth. Very inefficient!
Speaking of food, I have yet to get used to the typical Norwegian spread. Breakfast usually consists of a piece of bread, topped with mayonnaise, caviar, cheese or hard-boiled eggs. There is also usually a Wasa bread/cracker and then jams, butter, brown cheese and of course, fish. A typical breakfast starts with a piece of bread with several toppings, eaten with a fork and knife. The lunch spread is very similar to the breakfast spread, with bread and Wasa crackers, a spread of fish, mayonnaise, caviar, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, brown cheese, paprika red peppers and cucumber. Norwegians typically start with two to three slices of bread, with toppings to make an open-faced sandwich, eaten with fork and knife. Dinner varies from fish to meats to more traditional Norwegian meals like fish balls, sheep’s head, reindeer or whale. I haven’t had any problems finding vegetarian food, a salad at least, but the variety has been limited.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
We're famous!
June 11, 2010
An early morning interview with Vesterålen Bladett kicked off our first full day in Sortland. Our hosts for the day were the Stokmarknes Rotary Club, so we left Sortland for the 45 minute drive to the nearby island of Hadsel. Our first stop this morning was to the salmon fish farm and slaughterhouse, Nordlaks. This particular salmon factory is extremely high tech, reducing the labor force to only 26 employees on the floor and several motorized robots to read barcodes and move heavy boxes to the right conveyer belt. We started our visit checking out the salmon tanks where 30,000 mature fish swim in each pier. Today, about 50,000 were scheduled to be processed so a large vacuum tube was sucking the fish from the water into the plant where they would be electrocuted to paralyze the body and then either sliced for filet or processed as needed. The salmon are approximately five kilos in weight and 2.5 years old when they are mature and ready for processing. In general, Nordlaks prefers to work with fresh fish, however depending on the market price and the demand, they can also make frozen fish for grocery stores. Thankfully, I was able to opt out of the walking tour for this fish factory though I did hear it was much cleaner than the cod factory we visited in Lofoten. Smelly!
After a quick lunch, our next visit in Stokmarknes was to Trollfjord Kraft. Trollfjord Kraft, aptly named after a mountain range near the fjord where the powerhouse is located, was first created in 1907 to provide electricity to the local area. Trollfjord Kraft produces about 15 percent of the electricity needed in Stokmarknes and acts as a medium, purchasing and supplying the remaining energy needs of the area. The company has also expanded to offer other services including installation, technical support and broadband internet, to name a few. With 36 employees, the company’s gross revenue for the year is 100 million NOK or a profit of 9 million NOK after taxes.
Our final visit in Stokmarknes this evening was a trip to the Hurtigruten Museum with a former captain of the ship, Sten Engen. After having taken a ride on the ship, it was interesting to learn the history of the boat including its maiden voyage and the number of ships that have been built and added to the line. It was perhaps most fascinating to see how excited Sten was as he remembered his time aboard various vessels. Before heading back to Sortland for the night, we had dinner at the Isqueen (Ice Queen) boat/restaurant with the Hadsel Rotary Club. After reading my bio, the president of the club surprised me with a shot glass to add to my collection at home!
Interesting Observations:
The people of Norway, while taxed at least 40 percent of their earnings, are much more appreciative of the government than the people of the United States. Perhaps it is because they came from being the poorest country in Europe in the recent past, but there seems to be more of confidence in the government and its ability to make the right decisions for the people. Rather than complain, Norwegians are content paying the taxes because they believe they have it good and are willing to pay the taxes in order to enjoy the lifestyle they share. For that matter, it seems like there is less of push to get the better job or the better salary. Norwegians, in general, seem to be content with where they work and tend to stay in the same job for longer periods of time rather than bouncing around to make earn a better title or pay raise.
An early morning interview with Vesterålen Bladett kicked off our first full day in Sortland. Our hosts for the day were the Stokmarknes Rotary Club, so we left Sortland for the 45 minute drive to the nearby island of Hadsel. Our first stop this morning was to the salmon fish farm and slaughterhouse, Nordlaks. This particular salmon factory is extremely high tech, reducing the labor force to only 26 employees on the floor and several motorized robots to read barcodes and move heavy boxes to the right conveyer belt. We started our visit checking out the salmon tanks where 30,000 mature fish swim in each pier. Today, about 50,000 were scheduled to be processed so a large vacuum tube was sucking the fish from the water into the plant where they would be electrocuted to paralyze the body and then either sliced for filet or processed as needed. The salmon are approximately five kilos in weight and 2.5 years old when they are mature and ready for processing. In general, Nordlaks prefers to work with fresh fish, however depending on the market price and the demand, they can also make frozen fish for grocery stores. Thankfully, I was able to opt out of the walking tour for this fish factory though I did hear it was much cleaner than the cod factory we visited in Lofoten. Smelly!
After a quick lunch, our next visit in Stokmarknes was to Trollfjord Kraft. Trollfjord Kraft, aptly named after a mountain range near the fjord where the powerhouse is located, was first created in 1907 to provide electricity to the local area. Trollfjord Kraft produces about 15 percent of the electricity needed in Stokmarknes and acts as a medium, purchasing and supplying the remaining energy needs of the area. The company has also expanded to offer other services including installation, technical support and broadband internet, to name a few. With 36 employees, the company’s gross revenue for the year is 100 million NOK or a profit of 9 million NOK after taxes.
Our final visit in Stokmarknes this evening was a trip to the Hurtigruten Museum with a former captain of the ship, Sten Engen. After having taken a ride on the ship, it was interesting to learn the history of the boat including its maiden voyage and the number of ships that have been built and added to the line. It was perhaps most fascinating to see how excited Sten was as he remembered his time aboard various vessels. Before heading back to Sortland for the night, we had dinner at the Isqueen (Ice Queen) boat/restaurant with the Hadsel Rotary Club. After reading my bio, the president of the club surprised me with a shot glass to add to my collection at home!
Interesting Observations:
The people of Norway, while taxed at least 40 percent of their earnings, are much more appreciative of the government than the people of the United States. Perhaps it is because they came from being the poorest country in Europe in the recent past, but there seems to be more of confidence in the government and its ability to make the right decisions for the people. Rather than complain, Norwegians are content paying the taxes because they believe they have it good and are willing to pay the taxes in order to enjoy the lifestyle they share. For that matter, it seems like there is less of push to get the better job or the better salary. Norwegians, in general, seem to be content with where they work and tend to stay in the same job for longer periods of time rather than bouncing around to make earn a better title or pay raise.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Mountains, fjords, tunnels and bridges... onto Sortland!
June 10, 2010
Today was our last day in Lofoten, so our hosts decided to leave us with an introduction to their heritage. Our first stop for the day was to Lofotr, the Vikingmuseet. This interactive museum allows guests to walk in the footsteps of the chieftain and see the life of a Viking thousands of years ago. Walking up the hill to the reconstructed chieftain’s house, you can see wooden poles for where the remains of five houses and six graves were found. The discovery of this Viking location was accidental; a farmer in the area came across an amulet, a tiny piece of glass with an etched picture of gullgrubber. The little images of the god Odin and Skade, a giant and a Sami woman, are called “gullgubber.” The Viking and the Sami woman were not considered an acceptable match but their love was so strong that they convinced everybody they were meant to be and thus became the symbol of true love. An amulet depicting the sacred wedding of Odin and Skade was found by the high seat in the Chieftain’s Hall. The amulet in gold was used to tip the priest’s pointer, which was then used to turn the pages of scared scripture.
The chieftain’s house, on what looks like a Viking ship, was 78 feet in length and 5.3 meters at its widest point. Inside, the museum, the house featured several areas including a place for the women to weave. Unlike most weaving set ups where the rows continue downwards, this particular weaver started from the bottom and moved upward indicating that the women were extremely strong to pull the thread upward. There was also a tool area with several versions of popular items today including a saw and chisel. There was an area for cooking (they made bread by mixing barley, water and blood), sleeping including a bed for the chieftain (decorated with horses since they were considered protector animals), playing games (including an older version of chess and tic tac toe), storing food and gathering for meetings and other official duties. An interesting discovery was that women of the time used to keep many things in locked boxes and the more keys the woman carried, the more important she was considered. The location of the house was probably the most important decision in planning to settle. With the natural barrier of a fjord down the hill, the Vikings could see the incoming traffic into the area and could plant several men on both sides of the fjord to offer a first line of defense in case of attack.
After the museum, we were invited to dinner at Terje Johnasen’s house where his son had created a traditional Norwegian dinner. This particular meal, Terje explained, was usually their holiday celebration set up and is largely influenced by how his parents and his wife’s parents used to cook their food. The menu included avocado shells with a blue cheese and fish mixture, topped with peeled shrimp; potato salad; a tray of deli meats including ox; a tray of seafood including shrimp, salmon and cod; bread; homemade sour cream; and, honey melon, which is tastes like a yellow watermelon. We piled back into our rented van for our next stop for the day to Henningsvær.
Henningsvær is the cutest and most picturesque seaside village nestled between mountains. On our drive into the area, we came across our first single-lane bridges. In order to save money, the bridges were built with one lane instead of two and bookmarked with traffic lights. The cars on one end wait until they have a green light and can cross the bridge to pass the waiting traffic on the other end. This system works well for a country of only 4.5 million residents and an island with less than 3,500 residents. In comparison, the state of New Jersey alone has 9 million residents! Henningsvær is home to an art gallery showcasing the art of Gunnar Berg and photographs of Frank Jessen. The photo slideshow showcased images of Lofoten and the beauty of the Norwegian coastline.
From Hennginsvær, we headed to Fiskebøl to switch cars and say goodbye to our Lofoten hosts and hello to our Vesteralen hosts. Vesteralen is a large municipality, so for the first two days we were spending time with the Stokmarknes hosts although we will be based at the Coast Guard headquarters in Sortland. On our way to Sortland, we made one last stop to visit the offices of NorLense AS, a company that makes offshore booms, oil containment equipment, harbor safety equipment and inflatable tents. NorLense makes 95 percent of Norwegian’s booms and considering the presence of oil in this country, that is a significant amount. The booms are made in a large open warehouse and are generally made in 25 meter sections for a maximum length of 400 meters. The booms are 3 meters in height, about 1.5 meters go above the water and another 1.5 meters below as a skirt with a chain to keep the boom in place. Perhaps the most interesting technology of NorLense booms versus other companies is their ability to create flexible technology so the boom can withstand the waves and other natural obstacles in the water. NorLense is also proud of their rapid technology, making it so that only one person is need to guide the boom out into place and allowing the offshore deployment of a 400 meter boom in only 15 minutes and the coastal deployment of the same boom in only 5 minutes. A custom boom can be ordered and created in one man year or approximately a fortnight.
An hour and half later, we finally reached our home for the next four nights at the Coast Guard headquarters in Sortland. We had another delicious Norwegian meal at a local restaurant and reunited with Marianne and Ann Lisebeth, two of the Norwegian team members that visited us in the United States. Dinner, drinks and good company… a perfect ending to our first night in Sortland!
Today was our last day in Lofoten, so our hosts decided to leave us with an introduction to their heritage. Our first stop for the day was to Lofotr, the Vikingmuseet. This interactive museum allows guests to walk in the footsteps of the chieftain and see the life of a Viking thousands of years ago. Walking up the hill to the reconstructed chieftain’s house, you can see wooden poles for where the remains of five houses and six graves were found. The discovery of this Viking location was accidental; a farmer in the area came across an amulet, a tiny piece of glass with an etched picture of gullgrubber. The little images of the god Odin and Skade, a giant and a Sami woman, are called “gullgubber.” The Viking and the Sami woman were not considered an acceptable match but their love was so strong that they convinced everybody they were meant to be and thus became the symbol of true love. An amulet depicting the sacred wedding of Odin and Skade was found by the high seat in the Chieftain’s Hall. The amulet in gold was used to tip the priest’s pointer, which was then used to turn the pages of scared scripture.
The chieftain’s house, on what looks like a Viking ship, was 78 feet in length and 5.3 meters at its widest point. Inside, the museum, the house featured several areas including a place for the women to weave. Unlike most weaving set ups where the rows continue downwards, this particular weaver started from the bottom and moved upward indicating that the women were extremely strong to pull the thread upward. There was also a tool area with several versions of popular items today including a saw and chisel. There was an area for cooking (they made bread by mixing barley, water and blood), sleeping including a bed for the chieftain (decorated with horses since they were considered protector animals), playing games (including an older version of chess and tic tac toe), storing food and gathering for meetings and other official duties. An interesting discovery was that women of the time used to keep many things in locked boxes and the more keys the woman carried, the more important she was considered. The location of the house was probably the most important decision in planning to settle. With the natural barrier of a fjord down the hill, the Vikings could see the incoming traffic into the area and could plant several men on both sides of the fjord to offer a first line of defense in case of attack.
After the museum, we were invited to dinner at Terje Johnasen’s house where his son had created a traditional Norwegian dinner. This particular meal, Terje explained, was usually their holiday celebration set up and is largely influenced by how his parents and his wife’s parents used to cook their food. The menu included avocado shells with a blue cheese and fish mixture, topped with peeled shrimp; potato salad; a tray of deli meats including ox; a tray of seafood including shrimp, salmon and cod; bread; homemade sour cream; and, honey melon, which is tastes like a yellow watermelon. We piled back into our rented van for our next stop for the day to Henningsvær.
Henningsvær is the cutest and most picturesque seaside village nestled between mountains. On our drive into the area, we came across our first single-lane bridges. In order to save money, the bridges were built with one lane instead of two and bookmarked with traffic lights. The cars on one end wait until they have a green light and can cross the bridge to pass the waiting traffic on the other end. This system works well for a country of only 4.5 million residents and an island with less than 3,500 residents. In comparison, the state of New Jersey alone has 9 million residents! Henningsvær is home to an art gallery showcasing the art of Gunnar Berg and photographs of Frank Jessen. The photo slideshow showcased images of Lofoten and the beauty of the Norwegian coastline.
From Hennginsvær, we headed to Fiskebøl to switch cars and say goodbye to our Lofoten hosts and hello to our Vesteralen hosts. Vesteralen is a large municipality, so for the first two days we were spending time with the Stokmarknes hosts although we will be based at the Coast Guard headquarters in Sortland. On our way to Sortland, we made one last stop to visit the offices of NorLense AS, a company that makes offshore booms, oil containment equipment, harbor safety equipment and inflatable tents. NorLense makes 95 percent of Norwegian’s booms and considering the presence of oil in this country, that is a significant amount. The booms are made in a large open warehouse and are generally made in 25 meter sections for a maximum length of 400 meters. The booms are 3 meters in height, about 1.5 meters go above the water and another 1.5 meters below as a skirt with a chain to keep the boom in place. Perhaps the most interesting technology of NorLense booms versus other companies is their ability to create flexible technology so the boom can withstand the waves and other natural obstacles in the water. NorLense is also proud of their rapid technology, making it so that only one person is need to guide the boom out into place and allowing the offshore deployment of a 400 meter boom in only 15 minutes and the coastal deployment of the same boom in only 5 minutes. A custom boom can be ordered and created in one man year or approximately a fortnight.
An hour and half later, we finally reached our home for the next four nights at the Coast Guard headquarters in Sortland. We had another delicious Norwegian meal at a local restaurant and reunited with Marianne and Ann Lisebeth, two of the Norwegian team members that visited us in the United States. Dinner, drinks and good company… a perfect ending to our first night in Sortland!
Smelly Fish!
June 9, 2010
We survived our first night in the old fisherman’s cabin and joined our host for the day, Anders Paulsen, for a view into life in Lofoten. Although it is unseasonably cold, Lofoten is packed because this is the start of the busy summer season. The theme for today is fish, which is fitting since fishing is the main industry of the island from farming to packaging to tourism. Our first stop today is Nic. Haug AS, a storkfish factory. Here, storkfish are washed, dried, packaged and sorted. After the fish are dried, they are about 33 percent of what they weighed originally. The salted fish are exported to Italy, Portugal and Spain while the fresh fish are exported to Germany, England, Holland and France. Typically, the factory hangs the storkfish in February to dry and they remain on the drying racks through May. The quality of the fish is largely dependent on the weather conditions; need temperatures that are not too warm or freezing cold and a little wind. After the storkfish has been processed, a customer can buy it dried and soak it in water for four days to prepare it for consumption.
After a quick drive by past the local fish oil factory, our next stop in Lofoten was a visit to the Lofoten Maritime College/Vest Lofoten Upper Secondary School. Headmaster Søren Fredrik Voie introduced the college of 648 students and 160 employees. The school is located on the island of Vestvågøy, Lofoten, about 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Loften sees mild winters because of the Gulf Stream, allowing students training to be fishermen and seamen to take advantage of the ocean year round. One of the college’s greatest teaching tools is Poseidon, a computer-based simulator showcasing how to operate ships in different conditions. Poseidon, run under the direction of Captain Svein Arne, a mariner master with 366 months at sea under his belt, features 30 different ships in numerous ports across the world allowing students plan routes and then simulate the journey including rough weather conditions and docking.
After a delicious lunch, our next stop was to Aker Seafoods, a worldwide seafood distributor. At Aker, we were asked to dress in booties, a lab coat and hair net before entering the fishing plant. Over the course of the next 45 minutes, I learned more than I ever needed to know about the packaging of cod fish while stepping over fish guts and gagging from the stench of raw fish! It was interesting to see fish preparation from raw catch to final product on grocery store shelves. When a fishing shipment first arrives, the factory pulls out 10 percent of the total cargo to be measured for weight and length. The quality of the fish will determine the price to be paid to the fishermen. The fish is then cleaned and sent to the next machine via conveyer belt to be sliced as filets. The next step is the weighing where each worker is assigned to machine and required to weigh and cut the filets into 400 gram pieces. The workers’ pay correlates directly to the speed and accuracy of each cut, with starting pay at 140 NOK per hour to a max of 300 NOK per hour. If all the fresh fish is not needed, the rest is sent to be packaged as frozen food. Three pieces of the filet are packaged by hand into a plastic container and then placed in cardboard boxes. The boxes are sent into the freezer for about an hour to be frozen and then packaged into container freights. Aker Seafoods has about 90 total employees with 60 working on the floor. The workers generally start at 6:30 am and work until they have finished processing the fish or roughly 3:30 pm. The cleaning crew of five then come in and spends about seven hours wiping down and sanitizing all the equipment. After cleaning up, but still smelling like fish, we thanked our guides who sent us home with a package of frozen cod fish that Torgunn served for dinner later that evening.
Our last stop on the afternoon fish tour was a visit to LofiLabs, a fish farm. Our guide Espen showed us the process of harvesting fish which started with the parent fish that are kept in cages in the sea for most of the year. In February, the male and female fish are brought into a large tub where they spend two months mating while the fish farmers collect the eggs by spinning the water so all the eggs eventually land in the container. Those eggs are then taken into several individual tubs where fresh water is circulated throughout the day. Once a day, the y spin the water and the eggs that sink to the bottom are removed while the ones floating are still alive and continue to grow. There are nearly half a million eggs collected and transferred into the process. After three weeks, the eggs are now turning into larvae and the egg shells are collected while the fish are moved to the next step of large tubs. Here they are fed a specially cultivated microorganism until they are large enough to ingest dry feed. The larvae are monitored for another three weeks before they are big enough to take out to the sea. Here they are placed in large mesh bags to be hung underneath the jetty so as to allow the sea water to help them grow while they are fed dry feed. The fish are kept at this farm for about a year before they are sent to a sister company to be kept for another year until they are mature enough to be processed and sold. During the best year, 1.2 million fish were produced while the worst year produced only 200,000 fish. This year, Espen said the issue isn’t the quantity produced but the lack of buyers for the cod they do have.
After a fish filled afternoon, we arrived back to Kræmmervika Rorbuer for a quick dinner before getting dressed in our survival suits to head out on the boat to test our own fishing skills. Anders and Peter were doubling as our fishing instructors for the evening as we set sail around 8 pm. The speedboat took us into the middle of the water and surrounded by mountains and the midnight sun, the setting was absolutely picturesque. Our fishing adventure started early with Tim reeling in the first medium-sized cod fish and Peters bringing out his knife to release the fish and then slice the skin. For my first time on a fishing boat, I was horrified with the fish blood that splattered the boat and then watching the fish wiggling around as it bled out in the plastic container. Fishing was not for me, but I did capture the moment since this would probably be my only time aboard a fishing boat! Mason won the prize for the largest catch of the evening with a large cod fish. Other catches included haddak and sait (which was too small, so throw back into the water). The survival suit did a good job of keeping us warm but also retaining more of the fish smell. Never was I so excited to shower and so in need of laundry services!
We survived our first night in the old fisherman’s cabin and joined our host for the day, Anders Paulsen, for a view into life in Lofoten. Although it is unseasonably cold, Lofoten is packed because this is the start of the busy summer season. The theme for today is fish, which is fitting since fishing is the main industry of the island from farming to packaging to tourism. Our first stop today is Nic. Haug AS, a storkfish factory. Here, storkfish are washed, dried, packaged and sorted. After the fish are dried, they are about 33 percent of what they weighed originally. The salted fish are exported to Italy, Portugal and Spain while the fresh fish are exported to Germany, England, Holland and France. Typically, the factory hangs the storkfish in February to dry and they remain on the drying racks through May. The quality of the fish is largely dependent on the weather conditions; need temperatures that are not too warm or freezing cold and a little wind. After the storkfish has been processed, a customer can buy it dried and soak it in water for four days to prepare it for consumption.
After a quick drive by past the local fish oil factory, our next stop in Lofoten was a visit to the Lofoten Maritime College/Vest Lofoten Upper Secondary School. Headmaster Søren Fredrik Voie introduced the college of 648 students and 160 employees. The school is located on the island of Vestvågøy, Lofoten, about 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Loften sees mild winters because of the Gulf Stream, allowing students training to be fishermen and seamen to take advantage of the ocean year round. One of the college’s greatest teaching tools is Poseidon, a computer-based simulator showcasing how to operate ships in different conditions. Poseidon, run under the direction of Captain Svein Arne, a mariner master with 366 months at sea under his belt, features 30 different ships in numerous ports across the world allowing students plan routes and then simulate the journey including rough weather conditions and docking.
After a delicious lunch, our next stop was to Aker Seafoods, a worldwide seafood distributor. At Aker, we were asked to dress in booties, a lab coat and hair net before entering the fishing plant. Over the course of the next 45 minutes, I learned more than I ever needed to know about the packaging of cod fish while stepping over fish guts and gagging from the stench of raw fish! It was interesting to see fish preparation from raw catch to final product on grocery store shelves. When a fishing shipment first arrives, the factory pulls out 10 percent of the total cargo to be measured for weight and length. The quality of the fish will determine the price to be paid to the fishermen. The fish is then cleaned and sent to the next machine via conveyer belt to be sliced as filets. The next step is the weighing where each worker is assigned to machine and required to weigh and cut the filets into 400 gram pieces. The workers’ pay correlates directly to the speed and accuracy of each cut, with starting pay at 140 NOK per hour to a max of 300 NOK per hour. If all the fresh fish is not needed, the rest is sent to be packaged as frozen food. Three pieces of the filet are packaged by hand into a plastic container and then placed in cardboard boxes. The boxes are sent into the freezer for about an hour to be frozen and then packaged into container freights. Aker Seafoods has about 90 total employees with 60 working on the floor. The workers generally start at 6:30 am and work until they have finished processing the fish or roughly 3:30 pm. The cleaning crew of five then come in and spends about seven hours wiping down and sanitizing all the equipment. After cleaning up, but still smelling like fish, we thanked our guides who sent us home with a package of frozen cod fish that Torgunn served for dinner later that evening.
Our last stop on the afternoon fish tour was a visit to LofiLabs, a fish farm. Our guide Espen showed us the process of harvesting fish which started with the parent fish that are kept in cages in the sea for most of the year. In February, the male and female fish are brought into a large tub where they spend two months mating while the fish farmers collect the eggs by spinning the water so all the eggs eventually land in the container. Those eggs are then taken into several individual tubs where fresh water is circulated throughout the day. Once a day, the y spin the water and the eggs that sink to the bottom are removed while the ones floating are still alive and continue to grow. There are nearly half a million eggs collected and transferred into the process. After three weeks, the eggs are now turning into larvae and the egg shells are collected while the fish are moved to the next step of large tubs. Here they are fed a specially cultivated microorganism until they are large enough to ingest dry feed. The larvae are monitored for another three weeks before they are big enough to take out to the sea. Here they are placed in large mesh bags to be hung underneath the jetty so as to allow the sea water to help them grow while they are fed dry feed. The fish are kept at this farm for about a year before they are sent to a sister company to be kept for another year until they are mature enough to be processed and sold. During the best year, 1.2 million fish were produced while the worst year produced only 200,000 fish. This year, Espen said the issue isn’t the quantity produced but the lack of buyers for the cod they do have.
After a fish filled afternoon, we arrived back to Kræmmervika Rorbuer for a quick dinner before getting dressed in our survival suits to head out on the boat to test our own fishing skills. Anders and Peter were doubling as our fishing instructors for the evening as we set sail around 8 pm. The speedboat took us into the middle of the water and surrounded by mountains and the midnight sun, the setting was absolutely picturesque. Our fishing adventure started early with Tim reeling in the first medium-sized cod fish and Peters bringing out his knife to release the fish and then slice the skin. For my first time on a fishing boat, I was horrified with the fish blood that splattered the boat and then watching the fish wiggling around as it bled out in the plastic container. Fishing was not for me, but I did capture the moment since this would probably be my only time aboard a fishing boat! Mason won the prize for the largest catch of the evening with a large cod fish. Other catches included haddak and sait (which was too small, so throw back into the water). The survival suit did a good job of keeping us warm but also retaining more of the fish smell. Never was I so excited to shower and so in need of laundry services!
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