SØRVÅGEN TO SVOLVÆR
I woke to the sound of water gently lapping its way around the rocks. I remember one key thing now about waking up however early on this road trip in nature. It was always very easy to get up and I never just wanted to sleep in, no matter what the temperature or any other weather conditions. I think being out in nature tunes us all so much that even wanting to get out of bed in the morning becomes a reality.
It was a bit difficult to leave our cabin by the water this morning. Everything just felt so at peace though we knew there were more unseen treasures on our path ahead which was enough to sway our attention to the car again.
Our car went north as usual, following the main road for a short while before arriving at a fishing village called Nusfjord. This town is more of an outside museum really. It famous for hosting fish buying stations. The place itself was quite pretty from the car park which overlooked the village. It is a bit of a tourist trap though and requires you to pay a $12 fee each, to enter the village. We just wanted to go to the bakery there to buy some stuff but were told we still had to pay the entrance fee to get to the bakery to buy something. We decided we didn’t really care enough to pay so we just enjoyed some fresh air before clicking our seat belts again.
A decent drive further up the road and on the opposite side of the coast we found ourselves at a beach called Uttakleiv. This wild terrain hosted a few sheep on the grassy hills that bordered the sandy coastline. There were only very tiny waves but it wasn’t enough to deter a few keen paddlers on longboards hoping to catch a ride on Norway’s icy cold water. It seems like quite a popular camping spot and I could only imagine how beautiful it would be looking up at the stars in the night with a campfire to keep warm.
The car kept moving onward to Henningvær, another coastal fishing town with a famous gallery called Kaviar Factory. The sign shows it as KAVI FAC ORY. The letters missing are spell out ART, pretty creative huh. This place requested another entrance fee so we didn’t end up checking it out further than the payment room. We ended up finding a hidden away restaurant down an alleyway that stretched around the docks by the water. This place had an incredible vegan burger that would fill the stomach of a giant. We sat outside in a little enclave surrounded by windows which looked out on our surrounds of the water and little fishing huts.
Then we headed to another little town called Kabelvåg where we found a Bakery named ‘Bakeri Unseld’ that had vegan options and sold some vegan packaged food. Arne bought some vegan hazelnut spread and chocolate imported from Germany that tasted amazing!! I bought some ginger beer for Josh and I. Arne talked to the owner for quite a while, who said that usually she makes vegan danish pastries, but didn’t have them that day!
We headed further north to the town of Svolvær. One of the biggest towns in Lofoten which is developed quite a bit. We stayed in a strange place with a porthole in the door so we could see out to the boat harbour. The reception had stuffed birds in it and a picture of a harpooned whale, which I found a little disconcerting. This place seems to have been popular for whaling. The room itself wasn’t so bad. We ended up cooking some dinner of a modified bruschetta and some potato and broccoli soup. This place didn’t feel that interesting to explore around much. It was more of a rest and recharge spot for the night.
We had planned to go for a drive to see the midnight sun but the weather wasn’t that great – very cloudy and misty – like most of the time we had been in Oslo, so we gave it a miss and went home and watched crappy TV for a while and I tried to learn some more Norwegian words!
