What to do, What to do during 'On Board' Days

Photo, taken above the Arctic Circle, where
the sun  never rises above the horizon, 

How wrong I was about life above the Arctic Circle! I've been north of it several times in Alaska. Those trips were during the summer, with 24/7 sunlight. So I 'assumed' being above the arctic circle means 24/7 dark. Nope. I was wrong. There are spots above the arctic circle that are in the dark 24/7, but generally I mostly just experienced very short spans of daylight. We were poised on planet earth, just at a point on the earth's axis that the sun, was just below the horizon. 

Oh... and the food... OMG! The food was served buffet style for every breakfast and every lunch. Dinners were different. Ila and I were assigned to table 47. Our dining time for dinner was between 6:30 and 7 o'clock. 

We got to know our table neighbors and our server Chris, all 6 foot 2' of him. Nordic men are as tall as Watusi Warriors. Chris was quite friendly and didn't mind being bombarded with our questions. Some nights dinner too was buffet, it depended a lot on the number of passengers picked up and dropped off... I think. 

Every night our menu was based on a city we docked at that day, and the food picked up there. 

Here is typical shipboard dnner 'Mat' (food):

Starter:

The Entree:

Duck leg confit

And yummy dessert:

Looks weird, tasted like heaven on a plate

My favorite meal of the day is always breakfast and after the first day I had my routine down. Hot porridge topped with loads of cut-up fresh fruit, followed by a plate with fried egg, perhaps some potatoes, one or two of the many cheeses, salmon served every which way, i.e., smoked, peppered, and bread with fresh butter and a dollop of cloudberry jam.  Norwegian bread was to DIE FOR! So grainy and yummy! I must learn to bake my own grainy bread. 

I ate enough reindeer at the buffets to horrify my inner child

Up on the 7th floor was a gelato shop, where I purchased Beer Gelato, Brown Cheese Gelato and even Fish Gelato. The latter was way tastier than it sounds, even with the ensy fish bits in it. 

Alongside the gelato were amazing pastries which meant I tried to avoid the shop altogether so I could manage to still fit through the deck doors. 

Ah! But that wasn't the only opportunity to stuff one's jowls. Special events were held up on the 7th floor deck outside. A couple of nights I purchased drinks. The drinks were in adorable tiny tin mugs were dedicated to Norge Trolls, and filled with Aquavit,  a tasty liquor that is 95% potato. Another frigid night the tiny mugs were sold containing a wonderous spiked hot chocolate. SKOL!

Daily, there were presentations offered in English and German, to keep us updated on what was on for the day's excursions, but also to educate us on various topics. It was amazing to hear our presenters switching from English to German on a Kroner, plus of course they also spoke Norwegian. 

One of my favorite lectures was on the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. The Sami were the indigenous peoples who originally lived by herding reindeer. Many still do that, but many have taken on traditional roles. 

Reindeer herding by Sami people

I love the Sami clothing

Another day I was fascinated by a lecture on the similarities between Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and the Icelandic languages. The 4 languages are from the same branch of the language tree so all four language speakers can pretty much understand each other. 

But quirkily, Finnish is from a different, v-e-r-y different language family so it is the odd fellow out, and it is not understood by it's neighboring countries. Interestingly enough, the Sami language is of the same language family as is Finnish. 

"My Name is"  in 4 languages and you can see Finnish is the odd language out

I did a little 'Duolingo' studying of Norwegian (Norge) before the trip, but  as pretty much all Norwegians speak English, learning Norge was really not necessary. The most 'Norge' I used was "Takk" (thank you), "Tusen Takk" (A thousand thanks, aka many thanks) and "Takk for Matten" (Thanks for the food!). I wore those 3 phrases to shreds. 

How did we know where we were each day? There were occasional shipboard announcements, spoken in Norwegian, English, then German. After a while I was hallucinating that I could understand all three languages. There were also monitors strategically placed around the ship, that wised us all up on where we were, where we were going that day, as well as the current temperatures, and such.

Where the heck are we today?

On ship bound days (my choice as I could have disembarked but I developed a weird fear of getting left behind on shore). I spent my time journaling the trip in one of my many, many travel journals, and otherwise I watched the beautiful scenery skirting by. 

A Mountain that is likely named Mt. Ski Cap

A little Norwegian Fishing Village 

Cruising past a colorful Yule Fair

A quick look at a nighttime amenity offered to passengers on the top deck.