Onwards and upwards

"It's compelling", I mused to Damian shortly before his departure...
"What."
"Coming this far north, you just get the urge to go norther"

Tromso has been enthralling for nigh on 2 weeks, exploring by week and snow-sporting by weekend at the incredible hospitality of my first couchsurfing hosts Melanie and Jon.

But I run the risk of becoming a slovenly traveller and must tread on.

I was informed by tourist information that the only link from Tromso to Finland, Lipan Linjat coaches, had made it timetablingly obvious that they didn't want people from Tromso to visit their country during the Winter. It seems - like many businesses this far north - that during the colder months they'd prefer to sit quaffing reindeer than accept my cold hard cash. This presented the first major hurdle to my plans, as previous readings of their schedule had led me to believe otherwise...

I was not to be undone, and a Norwegian sauna later my thoughts turned to a conversation with some German couchsurfers during my first night in Tromso,

"It had a sauna and a roof top swimming pool" they gushed of the great Hurtigruten ferry which scours the pock-marked west coast of Norway all the way up to the second-most bombed town during WW2. "...but we had no trunks".

and so my friends I was faced with the choice of a gruelling hitch-hike through the Finnish outback (a 7 hour journey from Tromso to Kitilla) or the Hurtigruten. Loca, a Taiwanese traveller with Eurail pass in hand had opted for former, and we received his relieved, babbling email 2 days later that went something to the tune of:

14 hours, 7 drivers, 2 sleepless nights (one in an unlocked outhouse he had found after missing the last train).

Great story, but the call of the Hurtigruten is strong and I must take heed.

Set the heading for north by north east and don't look back. Apologies to Finland, but it had mostly been a means by which to reach the Motherland, which I can now do by way of the 5 hour journey from Kirkenes to Murmansk - northern Russia holding a certain mystery en (my) route second only to North Korea (recommended reading).

Due to leave today on this, I instead opted to wait an extra day for the pride of the fleet to dock in Tromso - complete with sun deck, panoramic bar, jacuzzi, sauna and dancing bears.

Arriving in Kirkenes 40 hours later, feeling a little morose to be leaving Norway as I trudge to my 2pm departure to Murmansk, largest city north of the arctic circle, where I shall couchsurf a few days before a train ride to Pertozavodsk and beyond.

Mother Russia awaits...