Strange town of Nyksund

Leaving the hotel in Svolvær was pretty easy. The weather was gloomy, and we had a train carriage effect going while loading up the car which was parked around the other side of the hotel. It must have only taken us about two minutes to be completely done with the hotel room thanks to the constant flow of baggage out of the door.

We decided, well Katie decided that we needed to find a bakery with vegan bollers. If you haven’t read the previous parts to this Norwegian road trip adventure, bollers are like hot cross buns without the cross and have cardamom in them. They have quickly become one of Katie’s favourites and were responsible for the majority of our energy levels thus far. We ended up finding some bollers at one of the local supermarkets, a good start to the day.

Our destination now is Nyskund going via a place called Myre, though we didn’t make a stop here. Nyksund is one of those places that was desolate not too long ago. Apparently, people have been living there since before recorded history, though it has always been very scarce for people. It’s only in the 21st century that people have actually started a fishing village there. During summer the population is 30-40 people and less than 10 during the winter months. The Norwegian queen also visits every year during the summer months and goes hiking with the Queen of Denmark. They take a special route called “The Queen’s Route” which was named that way after the Norwegian Queen’s first Nyskund hike in 1994.

Nyksund is a peculiar little village, surrounded by large hills and built on the edge of a water inlet. There just happens to be a sunken boat in the middle of the village. The place is extremely quiet and so are the locals. We had accommodation at a very small hotel with perhaps four bedrooms total, a shared kitchen which overlooked the water and a shared bathroom. We were not the only ones at the hotel, though it almost felt like we were. The other guests barely made an appearance and we hogged the kitchen for a good two hours while we tried to cook on the ancient appliances. We were trying to make nachos but the oven wasn’t working. We only discovered this after the dish was ready for the oven. Nevertheless, we made do with our creativity and covered the nachos with a plate while the frying pan sat on the stove top. It worked pretty well. At least it was warm to eat.

 

It was now the right hour for a leisurely walk around the town. Off we went up the stony road to visit the other side of the inlet. This place really feels like a ghost town. I wouldn’t have counted more than ten people including tourists. We could only find two restaurants. We found a little house or shop, not sure what it was but it had whale bones out the front and old bottles lining the windows on the inside. It looked dark and gloomy inside too. I bet you would have to be pretty eccentric to live in a place like this. It reminded me of the scene from Harry Potter in Diagon Alley. I decided I wanted everyone to climb the nearby hill that went up about 40-50 metres. It was a very wet hill with grass long enough to infringe on the less waterproof parts of our shoes. It took us about twenty minutes to get to the top. What a view! You could see the ocean horizon which was pretty amazing considering the amount of cloud coverage and mist. It felt good being up high just the four of us. Looking down at the town seemed like looking at a very old photograph. There was no movement and no sound. One of those unfinished places of our planet which happen to be my favourite kind of places.

 

 

It was time to head back down the slippery slopes of the hill. We made our way down in about half the time it took to climb up. It was probably really late by now too which was hard to tell with it still being an early afternoon style of light. Our bedroom window looked out over the ocean and we could hear the sound of small waves crashing over the rocks. After taking in the sights and wondering what the next day will hold for us, we found our way to the beds and ended the chapter for today.