Oslo and Trondheim
Trondheim - Mile 0 - Jun 24th, 2018
``I set out alone from the city of Upsal on Friday May 12, 1732, at eleven o`clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age. At this season Nature wore her most cheerful and delightful aspect, and Flora celebrated her nuptials with Phoebus.`` -Carolus Linnaeus, ``Lachesis Lapponica``
Since arriving in Norway, we`ve been blessed with wonderful company, great hospitality, and (mostly) beautiful weather. Upon arriving in Oslo, Sam and I took Oslo`s amazing public transit system to the house of our hosts, Cathrine and Robert, and their daughter Rikke. Liam had arrived there a few hours earlier. We slept until 1 PM the next day, and once we woke up, Rikke showed us the highlights of Oslo, including the opera house, the Viking Ship Museum, and the Fram Museum, which houses the ships used by Roald Amundsen on his two great voyages: the Gjoa from his Northwest Passage voyage, and the Fram, which he brought to Antarctica. That night, we were invited over for a barbeque at our host`s sister Camilla`s house. We got to meet her husband and kids, and had a fantastic dinner.
The next day, we took an early-afternoon train to Trondheim, passing through Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park, giving us our first glimpse of the striking Scandinavian Mountain landscape we`ll be living in for the next month and a half. We were struck by how clean, spacious, quiet, and inexpensive Norwegian trains were.
After a relaxing 7 hours on the train, we arrived in Trondheim, where we met up Kristian, the fourth member of our crew. Liam and Kristian have been friends since sixth grade, but Sam and I had never met him in person. I`ve only known him four days, but it already feels as if he is as much a part of the group as any of us.
We`ve spent the last few days in Trondheim buying food and last-minute pieces of gear, as well as exploring the city. On Thursday, we visited the island of Munkholmen, which has, over the last 1500 years, been a monastery, a fortress, a prison, and a Nazi anti-aircraft gun station. On Friday, we had dinner at Liam`s cousin Louisa`s house, where her husband Terje cooked us an astonishingly good reindeer stew. Both Louisa and Terje and geologists, so we learned a lot about the geology of Norway. Yesterday, we set up a full campsite in Kristian`s backyard while it rained in order to test all of our gear, including tents, tarp, and stoves, all of which worked without a hitch. Today we got our packs fully assembled; including water and food weight, they all clock in around 55 pounds. Between the four of us, we`ve got nearly 50 lbs of food packed, including an entire cured leg of mutton.
The only thing standing between us and the train up to the trailhead now is the UPS Express delivery of Liam`s prescription sunglasses. We hoped they would arrive yesterday, but it looks like we probably won`t get them until tomorrow. Once they come, we`ll most likely take the overnight train up north, and start our hike mid-morning on Tuesday the 26th. While we were hoping to start earlier, it`d be a bad idea to leave without such an important piece of gear, and there`s no use stressing over it, since we have no control over when it arrives.
We`re beyond excited to hit the trail, and are hugely thankful to everyone who`s helped us so far, including our own families, our host families, our friends, and everyone who`s pledged money to support IWGIA, an amazing human rights organization, on our HikeFor page. If you haven`t made a pledge yet and are able, you can read more about IWGIA above, and make a pledge as large or small as you would like! If you`d like to see pictures of our trek, you can follow us at @lapland_lads on Instagram, or if you don`t have an account, at this link: https://www.instagram.com/lapland_lads/. If you want to see a live feed of our location at any point on the trail, you can check out https://share.garmin.com/U4FDW.
We`ll likely make our next blog entry once we reach either Vaisaluokta, Ritsem, or Abisko, so signing off until then!
-Eli
Eli, Liam, Sam, and Kristian
Trondheim - Mile 0 - Jun 24th, 2018
