Last night we were in the Lofoten islands where we got off the boat in Stamsund, took a bus to a Viking feast and return to the boat in the town of Svolver. Learned a little bit about the Viking history and religion but I hope to learn more as the trip goes on. I did learn that the Vikings believe that there are many gods and that there are also these giants and other bad things and that the gods and the Giants fight each other and at some point humans will die off and then there’s going be a battle at the end of time between the Giants and the gods. Onto more pleasant things though. We had a feast in a Viking long hall that included a very healthy portion of lamb. There was some kind of ritual to appease the gods and there was singing and dancing. Also got to try honey mead which now I’m looking forward to having more of. it was hard to get good pictures because of where we were seated and the lighting in the hall.

Upon returning, the ship headed to troll fjord. To celebrate they served troll soup which turned out to be somewhat of a mysterious thing. Some people thought it was some kind of fish soup but what I wound up having was some kind of fruit drink spiked with rum. It was very delicious and I got to keep the cup. The cup had a picture of a troll on it. Troll fjord is extremely narrow. The ship can only go in on a high tide. The schedule has them going in at around midnight so they light the walls of the fjord with big spotlights. Somehow they managed to turn around inside the fjord and come out. Unfortunately when we got there, it was not high tide so we just went up to the entrance and the captain lit up the entrance of the fjord.

Here are some random pictures as we make our way north. The first two were taken around sunrise which happened to be around 7:30 in the morning.