Cute little fishing villages on the Coasts of Anywhere have become the darlings of the Cruise Industry. Honningsvag, Norway was our Port yesterday….. we pulled in at precisely 8 AM, and started disembarking about 10 minutes later, we were some of the first off of the ship, our (my!) goal was to get to that ‘cute, little’ fishing part before the hordes descended upon it. We had it on good authority that at least one other ship was going to be sharing this Port with us, so time was of the essence!
We were successful! And hopefully the serenity of a quiet Saturday morning can be felt as you peruse the attached photos. It seems that the fishing fleet takes the weekends off, so all of the brightly colored boats were snuggled in for a few days.
Honningsvag is the northernmost city of Europe and sits on an arm of the Barents Sea and because of this, it is a very popular place to visit and observe both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights. ‘City’ is loosely used here as the population probably qualifies it more as a ‘village’ of sorts as that number hovers around 2500 depending on the season. And we just upped that number by about 30% as soon as we pulled in!
Honningsvag was first settled/discovered/invaded/ about 10,000 years ago (more on that later) and it took until 1996 for them to achieve that ‘official city’ status in order to qualify for government assistance when it came to infrastructure projects and the like. They acquired that status not on the population factor, but on the strategic port factor. This place is an important stop for the commercial trade industry, including liquid natural gas transportation ships.
Now for some ‘Port’ photos!
They then grind them up into a ‘flour’ which is used as a spice of sorts.
This photo was taken from up on a dock and these guys are probably five feet under water.
Getting back to 10,000 years ago…… so the original peoples that made their way here from the south-central part of Europe (working theory) are the Sami. Very similar in nature to any other indigenous folks from around the world, they had no political boundaries and thus covered the entire northern range of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia with their nomadic villages and herding practices.
They live in an area called Sapmi.
We all know it as Lapland.
She was orphaned and it was our Sami Guide who took her in, fed her every three hours and now she’s like a dog who won’t leave him alone! She stayed right outside the tent while we were inside just waiting for him to emerge.
Their story has been echoed around the world, the most familiar adaptation of would be our own Native Americans. We heard stories from the Sami reindeer herder that we met yesterday about the government’s attempts to ‘assimilate’ them all into the locals by sending their children off to boarding school, forbidding them to speak their native languages (there are several dialects) and other ways and means to just have them all ‘go away’. Interestingly, the Sami are the only indigenous peoples to be recognized by the European Union.
Our excursion yesterday afternoon comprised of a relatively short bus ride to one of their local ‘camps’ where we met the Herder and his family. This particular family’s heritage in this way of life goes back as far as it possibly can because the only way to have the knowledge, traditions, and particular working ethic of reindeer herding is to be born into it, and that is what is changing for them all. The changing lifestyles that we all experience over the years are available to these folks. We heard the story of how their grandfathers walked or rode larger reindeer in order to cover and control their herds. Our Herder uses ATV’s and he joked that his son uses his drone to accomplish the same thing!
“The times they are a changin’”
Their traditional Winter in the South and Summer in the North grazing ares follows the natural migration patterns of the reindeer that they have had domesticated for thousands of years. There are no more wild reindeer as the Sami have had them under their care and control for uncounted years. The reindeer are like any other herd of domesticated animals…… cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and the list goes on, that have been harvested for their meat and hides. We had the opportunity to sample a bit of reindeer meat, and I can see how this protein source has attained the modern-day status of a delicacy! During our presentation we sat on logs in a tent identical to a teepee that were covered in reindeer hides as soft as can be. These too are sold and the families reap those benefits as well.
We were treated to some of their ethnic songs which apparently are rather unique in their form and style and had a most pleasant rhythm and sound to them. They are called joiks and it was this practice, (obviously among others) which is incredibly old and unique, that helped establish these people as their own and helped them gain back their ‘independence’.
It is a good story.
Norway is overrun with trolls and has been ever since the days of Odin.
Trolls figure heavily in the folklore and stories from the past.
They are everywhere!
2 replies on “Honningsvag”
Looks like you outran the rain! YAY.
Love the wooden boat.
1. The wooden boat is PRETTY
2. Wouldn’t it be funny if the mean boat’s captain is actually the friendliest person in town?
3. If you gave me a millions guesses I wouldn’t have guessed the reindeer’s name is Mindy.