Kirkenes

Good stories.

I would actually like to go kind of back in time, you know, like when I first started in this industry and I started with Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, and I started up in my hometown in Which is kind of like Kirkenes up in far, far northern Norway.

You know, like ice, snow and all that stuff.

This was back in the 90s.

Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

Flying from the airport of Kirkenes to some of these tiny kind of fishing villages, you know, like two, three hundred people living.

And they were using kind of twin autos that flew in and out.

So you always have to be able to ask someone for help even though you don't like them.

so you can never like make enemies that you can't ask for help in this community the infrastructure is about people helping each other because the state isn't as present here you can't get help from the hospital just by calling them then they might arrive from Kirkenes which is two hours or one hour from here by helicopter so it's just you have to be able to help each other

400 years ago, there was even less help coming.

When someone was sick or a birth went wrong or the pain would just not stop, people turned to women like Karen Ederstatter.

I'm sure if you are considering Javila or you are booked on a Javila journey, You are also curious about things like how the dining works, how the beverages work, right? Like the beverage packages.

Is the Wi-Fi strong? What is there for entertainment? How is the southbound itinerary? And today we are specifically talking about the southbound from Kirkenes to Bergen that Dan and I did together.

So you have all that to look forward to in today's episode.

So let's jump right in and talk about what is Havilah Voyages? Is it a ferry? Is it a cruise? Is it a cargo ship? What is it?

And it is very much a cruise that you have a lot of downtime on.

So playing those games with yourself is entertaining, I have to say.

Let's discuss getting to Kirkenes, which is very, very, very much northern Norway for your southbound sailing.

The way we got there was that we flew from the east coast of the United States over to Bergen, which is actually where we ended this cruise.

Yeah.

You can fly into Kirkenes or Vatsø in eastern, northeastern Norway.

And then from there you need a car.

So Varanger Halløya is just a completely unique area.

has raised 1,002 bottles of Barolo from Arctic waters off of Northern Norway after a year-long experiment to see how the Italian wine would change when aged in the sea.

The cruise line partnered with the Italian winery Rivetto to submerge the bottles 112 feet deep at 70 degrees north latitude off the coast of Kirkenes, where they spent 12 months in near constant temperatures of 41 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit, complete darkness and pressure of about four bar.

Now passengers sailing Hurtigruten's Norwegian coastal routes will have the chance to taste the Arctic eggs Barolo while traveling through the same waters where the wine spent the past year.

There

The Norwegian chairship took a new approach.

Instead of hosting official Arctic Council meetings, the chairship hosted a meeting with just working groups shortly after taking on their chairship, followed by an in-person meeting with all six permanent participants in Kirkonjarga, Kirkenes, Norway.

The meetings made it possible to continue in-person collaboration when it wasn't possible on a political level.

And it provided an opportunity to discuss the future of the Arctic Council during a time when it was uncertain that the forum would continue.

The governor's office described a clean handoff.

The governor has received very good assistance from the mainland and central authorities in the work to carry out the journey in a safe, orderly and good manner, the statement added, further stating that the Russians made the journey via Kirkenes on the north coast of Norway.

Moscow confirmed the arrival.

Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, confirmed the safe return of the citizens, stating they received assistance from Russian regional authorities before their onward travel to the Russian city of Murmansk.