must bring, its really funny! The good thing is though they all go to bed really early so you end up getting the observation lounge to yourself! An oldish Scottish lady befriended us last night, she had come away on holiday on her own, really nice lady, and very brave, she come on holiday and was hoping to camp but the weather has been too cold so had ended up staying in her car for the past couple of nights! So it ended up with me, Rob and her up till gone 2 drinking our brandy in an empty observation lounge watching a very very mad snow storm, whilst the ship was docking at some little port somewhere just before the arctic circle!

After dinner we passed into one the most beautiful places I have ever seen, the Trollfjord and its surrounding region, wow we have never seen scenery like this before, it's like living through a National Geographic programme. The boat went through the narrowest gap

and before it turned into the fjord the wind just froze your face and to be honest we have never experienced a chill in the air like that, its bitterly cold yet stunningly beautiful and the air is so fresh its unbelievable! This 24 hour daylight thing is also crazy, we sat up till gone 2 and it was still broad daylight as the boat meandered through yet more stunning fjords, (we were in the panoramic lounge by this point!) and I honestly can't describe how awesome this place is, it evokes your spirit in a truly special way.

Crazy days! Xhx

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16TH MAY 2005

Stokmarknes - Sortland - Risoyhamn - Harstad - Finnsnes - Tromso - Skjervoy

We slept through the stop at Harstad as it was calling in a 06.45 a.m. then the next major stop was Tromso, we were looking forward to having a