BERNA TO THE RESCUE - RICA HOTEL, HONNINGSVAG

After we went to the Nordkapp we came back to Honningsvag dreading the thought of having to find somewhere to sleep without having booked anything. None the less we got back on the Hurtigruten to pick our bags up in storage and for the last time bid farewell to the boat. We felt a little sad because the boat was just awesome… he he he..
Honningsvag isn’t a very big town in winter, there are about 3000 or so permanent residents here but in summer the population quadruples with seasonal workers and thousands of tourist coming here. Talking to the locals, the place sounds like one big party in summer, with the endless sun, warmer weather and thousands of tourist, it sounds like Dubrovnik of the north. There can be over 200,000 people coming to Honningsvag in summer and all visitors come here to visit the Nordkapp and arctic surrounding countryside.
There is a micro brewery in town with it’s own local brew (our tour guide to the Nordkapp was funny when she said, ‘the people in Honningsvag don’t drink much, they only like to drink when the sun sets.’ very amusing). The northern most brewery in continental Europe is back down in Tromso (the Mack brewery) but Honningsvag like to claim that they have the northern most ‘micro’ brewery, go Honningsvag.
The people here are friendly and very helpful, I guess they are use to tourist coming in and out of there town during the year, but I’m not sure many come here in winter time, like us :-)
So, from the boat we headed out to find a place to stay, we end up visiting the brewery for food and something to drink, we saw a sign outside saying Internet so we thought we could log on and find some where to sleep for the night. The internet wasn’t working so we couldn’t log on, luckily for us the locals came to our rescue. The Rica Hotel, which is a hotel chain in Norway, Sweden and Denmark has three hotels here in Honningsvag but in winter only one of them is open.  We called up to find out about room availabilities and prices, the conversation didn’t last very long as the price for a hotel room was way too much…
After having some dinner, I had pizza and B had a chicken taco (yup, pizza and chicken taco’s in the arctic, GOLD!) and having no other options with accommodation, we thought we would try again at the Rica. Success, B worked her magic and got us a discount with the hotel room for the night, thanks to  Steina our soon to become Honningsvagian friend. We had a place to stay in Honningsvag.. Yay!
We arrive at the hotel and we see that the lady B had spoken to on the phone Steina, was the same girl we had met earlier in the day up at the Nordkapp working in the souvenir shop. We where like, ‘man, your everywhere’ and had a laugh. Steina, was really nice she helped us out with accommodation, there was actually only 3 people in the hotel, 5 including us two.
It was all good, we settled into our room which was AWESOME…It was huge, better than the hotel room we stayed in at Tromso, which was in the Thorn Polar Hotel. The thing you gotta love about staying in the north and arctic is that the bathroom floors are heated. It’s awesome, even on the Hurtigruten the bathroom floor in our cabin was heated. Love it!
We had planned a big night out in the town, but the room was so cosy, B passed out on the bed after 5 minutes, and I mad videos… Great day, so glad we found somewhere to sleep, cause it’s freezing outside.
Peace

Technorati Tags: Honningsvag,Rica Hotel,Thorn Polar Hotel,Norway,Nordkapp

The Nordkapp (North Cape) and back again….

Today was a truly an awesome day, one that you can look back on and say, ‘bloody hell it was windy’. My sisters  birthday today so I was thinking of her when we made our trip up towards the Nordkapp  here in Norway. We made our way up from Tromso last night on the Hurtigruten boat named the MS Midnatsol (Midnight Sun), awesome boat ride. We we’re originally only going from Tromso to Hammerfest (the northern most city on continental the Europe) but getting off the boat at 5:15 am in the morning wasn’t very fun. Bernadette haggled us a ride on the boat to Honningsvag from Hammerfest. The plan was to catch a bus from Hammerfest to Honningsvag (cheaper) but Berna got the boat ride price down to the same price as the bus ride, so it was back on the  boat we go, which was awesome cause the boat is so comfy and brilliant.
We signed up for the excursion Hurtigruten offer to the Nordkapp (not the cheapest thing on the planet, but then again, when you come to Norway, expect to pay) and off we went to 71 degrees, 10 minutes and 21 seconds…
The boat cruise was brilliant, the boat was immaculate and the services we’re of the highest standard, we both loved it. The Hurtigruten is highly recommended for seeing the the beautiful coastline and islands of Norway.
Check out our trip from Honningsvag to the Nordkapp below:

Peace

Technorati Tags: Norway,Hammerfest,Honningsvag,Tromso,Nordkapp,Hurtigruten

Tromso Lights

No northern lights for us in Tromso, but we did take a shot of this car driving past us with our new tripod.

Sweet :-)

Peace

HAPPY BIRTHBAY B :-)

This is for you Bernadette Marie Kennedy :-)

 

Bring on

NORWAY – Tromso, Hammerfest, Alta, Oslo

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS,

SNOWMOBILES,

A BIG A$$ BOAT,

REINDEERS,

ICE HOTELS,

COUCH SURFING,

THE NORDKAPP,

SKIING,

and anything else anyone wants to throw our way :-)

As long as I’m with you i’ll always be smiling :-)

Happy Birthday Silly Girl

Love you always

Silly Boy

 

Technorati Tags: NORWAY,Tromso,Hammerfest,Alta,Oslo,THE NORTHERN LIGHTS,SNOWMOBILES,A BIG A$$ BOAT,REINDEERS,ICE HOTELS,COUCH SURFING,THE NORDKAPP,SKIING

A very MARY Christmas.. A late but worthy Christmas Poem

In my family we have dance off’s to communicate our Christmas wishes to each other across the planet. We video tape the dance an then upload the video onto Youtube and whoever gets the most views wins our Christmas Dance off competition.

In the Kennedy household on the other hand, it’s a little different. They have an annual Kris Kindle Christmas Poem competition. Not being the greatest poet, I thought I would add my own Carlos Garcia flavour to the competition this year :-)

Below is my Christmas Poem to Mary…

MARY KENNEDY CHRISTMAS POEM ‘THE REMIX’

Peace

Technorati Tags: Mary Kennedy,Christmas,Poems,Shakespeare In Love,CC's,Michael Jackson,Jam,Henley In Arden,Suzuki Jimmy,Steve Waugh,SCG,Century,Croker Island,Green Day,John Farhnam,Your the Voice