Reindeer and the Russian Border

When we started talking about this trip my first wish was that we’d see reindeer in the wild, so we signed up for the ship’s excursion to The North Cape with a chance of seeing reindeer.

Yes! We saw reindeer, but it was hard to take pictures when we were on the bus, and I was excited. We never knew that reindeer turn white in the winter, but we were lucky enough to see some white ones. What fun!

The main purpose of this excursion was not to search for reindeeer in the wild, it was to visit The North Cape, which is the most northern point in Europe. Of course, there’s a visitor’s center with a point of interest to pose at, but this is a very bare landscape with no trees or grass.

Norwegians love trolls, and I think they’re fun too!

Last year I read a book, The End of Drum Time, which was about a Sami girl. The Sami are reindeer herders and, because they follow their migrating reindeer, they build homes that they can move when their reindeer migrate. This Sami man told us more of their history and showed us a boot he made for his granddaughter and some of their other crafts such as his granddaughter’s doll cradle. Sami people never reveal how many reindeer they own because that’s a sign of their wealth, and they like to keep that private. We could ask any questions we wanted to, but not ask how many reindeer they own!

Our next excursion was a visit to Kirkenes, which shares a border with Russia, and is also our last port while heading north. Before Russia invaded Ukraine the Norwegian people were free to travel to Russia, and many Russians shopped and were employed in Norway. The Ukraine invasion put a stop to all of that and the Norwegian government only allows Norwegians to travel into Russia for very essential reasons, and same for Russians. Our tour guide said he used to buy his petrol in Russia because it’s very cheap there. Now he said he would rather pay more and not give Russia any of his money. The first picture shows the sign on the store closest to Russia which is written in both Norwegian and Russian.

During World War II the Germans occupied Kirkenes and used it as a base to attack The Soviet Union. The town's location made it a crucial front-line point, leading to constant Soviet and Allied air raids. Kirkenes was bombed more than 320 times, with air raid sirens sounding over 1,000 times. To protect its residents, the town built a large underground bomb shelter, which could shelter only around 900 of the town’s 9,000 residents. The remaining people had to hike long distances to shelter in railroad tunnels. Only 13 houses in Kirkenes survived the war. The shelter is now a museum, and you can clearly see the hardships those people had to endure in this cold, damp shelter with no facilities at all. They only had coal lamps for lighting, and it was a very dark and damp place.

This was on the grounds of the Russian Consulate in Kirkenes. The tour guide really liked Bob’s thumbs down for Russia.

We were able to walk to the Russian border, but were NOT allowed to cross it. The guide made sure that we understood this important fact. There was a small store very close to the border with this huge, beautiful husky keeping watch. Our little Quinn loves huskies, and I wished I could take this one home for her. The last picture is one of the few remaining homes left after the Allied bombings.

So, this is as far north that we went along the Norwegian coast. We opted to make it a round trip, so we’ll stop at a few more ports on the way south.