Lofoten

Aboard the Wideroe; propeller plane.

Leknes airport, in Lofoten.

Second leg of the journey: Finally reached Leknes airport! We took domestic flights out from Alesund to Oslo. From Oslo to Bodo. And from Bodo to Lofoten. 3 domestic flights in a day. Got our car quickly from the rental company.

Tried to find Offersoy but we went towards the wrong direction because information provided by website wasn't accurate.. Drove back and forth along E10 a bit and finally found it but the parking area was under renovation. So we skipped the hike and went to find our hotel instead.

Hotel restaurant & reception is in the white building.

Google map GPS brought us through some really small neighbourhood roads to get to Solsiden Brygge. The place looked desolate... and the wind was COLD. Walked around the restaurant, found the 'front desk' and a very helpful and friendly lady who showed us around and even recommended us a place to try hiking. (She said it was easy..... only the earlier part is steep LOL. Don't be fooled by the Norwegians, their 'easy' is not for normal city folks like us :P) and also a nearby convenience store and cafe for snacks (because the hotel restaurant was closed)

Our fisherman hut-turned-hotel.

Settled down into the cosy, warm and well equipped room, and quickly went out to explore (don't want to waste the day). The convenience store is called 'Joker'. We also tried out the cafe that was just opposite. It looks newly renovated. We shared a fish burger (quite yummy) and a cup of coffee as it was about tea time. That cost us about S$17.70.
Grocery shopping there was cheap and fresh! (Compared to restaurant price) Broccoli, pack of eggs, cherry tomatoes and a packet of milk is about S$9.

Joker supermarket.

"Shipyard" beside the supermarket and cafe.

We then drove to the other side of the little peninsular to scout out the hiking trail the host recommended. Couldn't find the start point and the way up certainly didn't look easy. On the way back, the sun started to set and the view was gorgeous. Had to stop to take many photos, videos and even flew the drone.

 Grass on the roof to help retain heat in the Winter, and to cool down during Summer.

Is that a Viking boat?

Comfort asian food.

Having learnt our mistake from our trip to Iceland, this time round we made sure to book rooms with a cooking area. We can cook dinner and eat in, and we'd save cost on meals. Most of the time in the day, we would eat sandwiches, or western food like fish and chips or burgers.


Next day we tried to find Ryten. Started the hike at the wrong trail. It was late autumn and there were still so many spiders and bugs in the grass field.

 View from the car on the way to our wrong destination.

We had no idea where we were, but it was gorgeous.

In the end, we left and managed to find the correct one. We started our hike kind of late in the day. We rushed as much as we could, but we still couldn't complete the hike unfortunately. There were lots of locals and their dogs, puppies, who were much faster than us.

Saw northern lights at Solsiden that night. We couldn't eat there as they only have beef soup. We thought we'd drive out to another nearby restaurant for dinner. While walking to the car, i saw a strange looking cloud, that was slightly green and moving! Dropped my beanie when filming the northern lights. Too excited didn't notice that i dropped it even. Luckily found it when we were checking out the hotel the next day. Someone picked it up and put at a bar next to the carpark. Really nice people out there. And thank goodness the wind wasn't strong enough to blow it away.

That night itself, there were strong aurora sightings. The green lady was wild!! It was amazing. I was feeling really stuffy, (the fishermen huts were really well heated) and i had to open a window to let some cool air in and i saw the green lady!
Shannon got so excited that she went and stood outside for a long time, trying to capture the green lady as much as she could. Unfortunately, we didn't know what was the best settings on the gopro for it. (She followed some gopro specs online, but because the aurora kP was so strong, by right she should have toned down the settings. They appear too green and overexposed now.)

We settled our dinner, using our instant noodles and groceries that we bought.

Char mee always hits the spot.

Last day in Lofoten, sky is overcast and there is light rain. Can't go hiking. So we decided to drive to Henniingsvar to find the football field we saw in many online sites. It was quite a far drive, but that's better than doing nothing in the hotel. I managed to fly the drone and got some really sick views. It was awesome.

Screen capture from our drone video.

Lofoten was nice, and a little too short. Next time if we were to return, we'll definitely stay and explore longer!