Around the World with Hardy(T)Around the World with Hardy(T)Bodø is pretty much the end of the line as far as trains go in Norway, or in Europe for that matter, so I got off after the long journey up from Oslo, via Trondheim, and spent a mostly pleasant day in this Arctic Circle town.
After taking ages to find the vandrershjem (I eventually found it cunningly disguised as a waiting room at the railway station!) I headed into town for a bite to eat and to catch the Italy vs. Germany Euro 96 match in the Peacock Pub. Here I fully realise the perils of watching a major soccer tournament in a foreign land. It takes my newly-found drinking buddy a full 30 minutes to explain, in a florid combination of Norwegian, pidgin English and universal beer language, why Italy had been knocked out of the tournament despite having a better goal difference than the Czech Republic. They'd have got away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids from UEFA...
The next morning there's an unexpected bonus as I manage to fit in a groundhopping opportunity at Aspmyra Stadium, home of former Norwegian cup-winners, FK Bodø-Glimt!
There's
also a quite unpleasant side to my visit Bodø. Down by the quay I
come across some particularly nice gentlemen selling great big slabs of
hvalbiff. No prizes for guessing what hvalbiff is, but if
you need a clue, click here...
Having said that, all in all, Bodø is a pleasant enough town and, if you had to live within the Arctic Circle, you could pick worse places than this.
From Bodø, I got the Hurtigrute ferry up the coast of Norway, via the Loforten Islands, to Tromsø.