Harstad, 8-9 June

From Sortland, we headed a bit northeast to the city of Harstad, also in Vesterålen. We met a wonderful Rotarian at the District 2270 Conference, Berit, who kindly invited us to stay with her at her home for a few days. Upon arrival to Harstad from Sortland, we met with Berit and headed over to the Harstad Rotary Club meeting. We rented a rowboat our second day and did some fishing, then checked out 'Adolfkanonen' in the evening. Berit and her husband, Lars, were gracious hosts and fed us all sorts of delicious foods...including some hard-boiled sea gull eggs, a local delicacy :)

The five of us, left to right: Lucas, Lars, Berit, Travis and me

Excited for the sea gull eggs...

Left to right: homemade cured trout, shrimp, the sea gull eggs, and a thinly sliced lamb deli meat

At the Harstad Rotary Club meeting exchanging banners

Our workhorse on the rowboat

Not cod...

The evening's catch

The region of Vesterålen is known as the 'Land of Contrasts'. This scene is from just a bit outside of Harstad, northwest of the city.

At the port in Harstad

Lucas, Travis and Berit in front of 'Adolfkanonen' or 'The Adolf Canon'. This heavy artillery is claimed to be the world's largest land-based canon.

Inside the Adolf canon. There was a total of 7 of these canons constructed around the area during World War II by the German occupying forces.

Our tour guide explaining where the 7 canons were constructed, the types of shells that could be used, and the range of the shot...an impressive 56 km (35 miles).

Posing in front of the 40.6 cm (16 inch) caliber barrel

This Adolf Canon's name is actually Barbara, after the patron saint of artillery people.

Sortland, 5-7 June

From Tromsø, Travis, Lucas and I headed southwest over to Sortland, in a region called Vesterålen. Sortland was the venue for this year's Rotary District 2270 Conference. We had been in touch with District Governor Rolf Johnsen and made arrangements to join the conference. DG Rolf and others graciously welcomed us with them for the weekend and we sincerely appreciate the wonderful hospitality and goodwill.

The city of Sortland is known as the 'Blue City' as many of its buildings all around town are painted blue. Here is the Norwegian Coast Guard base in Sortland where we stayed during our time there.

At the conference

Me, DG Rolf, Lucas, and Travis with a banner exchange

The midnight sun.

We met these two special people at the banquet dinner Saturday night. Øyvind and Silja mentioned they had plans to go out on their fishing boat the next day, and our eyes lit up. We let them know we'd be very interested to join.

The boat

The captain

Birds loved coming in to feast on the fish parts thrown out while cleaning them.

A pollock (or saithe) on the left and a cod on the right

We caught a lot of large pollock on this trip

Big ones

There is about 200 lbs (100 kg) of fish in this bucket. We had fun filleting them later that evening.

Tromsø, 3-5 June

From Svalbard, Lucas and I headed down to Tromsø, the largest urban area in Northern Norway, where we met our friend and fellow Rotary Ambassadorial scholar, Travis. Our time in Tromsø was brief, but we were able to check out the city and pay a visit to the Tromsø Syd Rotary Club. Their presentation that evening was on hospital reform in the region so I was particularly interested.

Tromsø on a foggy day. The noteworthy Artic Cathedral with its unique design is the white structure in the photo.

We finally managed to see our polar bear. We found this guy on a visit to the Mack Brewery, touted as the northernmost brewery in the world.

Fishing was an essential part of our trip north. Here you see Lucas and I trying our luck. One nice thing about fishing this far north in the summer is that it never gets dark. I think this photo was taken around 10 p.m., and we didn't stop fishing until around 11 or midnight.

Travis was the lucky one our first evening fishing, though. He caught all the fish we ate that night.

A successful evening. We cooked up these cod on the grill back at our campsite for dinner.

Svalbard, 31 May to 3 June

Our journey began in the city of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is situated in the Artic Ocean about midway between the North Pole and mainland Norway. The flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen lasted about 4 hours and brought us 1,266 miles north to 78 degrees latitude. We began our journey from the top.

Some nice aerial shots of the Svalbard terrain from the plane

Still plenty of snow and ice flows, even in June!

No economy lodging was available in this small town of 2,000 people, so we decided to utilize the nice summer tent we brought with us. The summer tent's well ventilated design allowed for plenty of the crisp artic air to keep us cool around the clock. Average evening temperatures at this time: 30-34 degrees F.

Found some whale bones lying around

We called our tent the 'Base Camp'

The town of Longyearbyen below. The industrial looking complex is part of the coal mining operations that have been a vital element of the local economy since the beginning of the 20th Century.

They have 'isbjørner'--polar bears that is--but sadly/luckily (?) we didn't bump into any during our stay.

We took a number of hikes around the area surrounding the town.

The town as seen from our tent.

Stopping by the local Rotary Club meeting place

Snowmobiles were the choice mode of transportation on this island.

It may be difficult to see with this photo, but most snowmobiles have a gun case attached. The polar bears mentioned earlier can literally be found all over the island, so protection is needed when travelling outside of the town.

Lucas and I along one of our hikes.

We hiked up this one behind me in the photo. This mount is known as 'sukkertoppen' or 'the sugar top'

On our way back down into town following the nicely carved path of a riverbed through the snow and ice.

Back home

Hello friends,

After a wonderful 10 months in Norway, I've finally returned home. My flight came into O'Hare Airport in Chicago on 25 June where I found my Dad patiently waiting to bring me to our home in La Salle. I say patiently because he was waiting outside the airport for a little while as I was busy trying to hunt down my skis the airlines had misplaced with my flight. But no worries, the skis arrived safely via FedEx just the other day.

I've really enjoyed the past week catching up with family and friends, and getting back into some uniquely Sadowski activities, viz., jug fishing and frog hunting. I'm taking an online Spanish course through the community college in my area now, and I plan to begin my field research in Iowa early August.

My final 3 1/2 weeks in Norway were busy with travel. I will soon be posting photos and a little travel log highlighting the stops we made along our trip to Northern Norway and in my side trip over to Dublin and Birmingham for the Rotary International Convention.

Its nice to be home with family and friends.

Dan