Weekend in Steinkjer

My next venture out of Trondheim was a weekend trip to Steinkjer, where another U.S. Fulbright Student, Caitlin, is spending the year. Steinkjer is about two hours north of Tronheim by train, following the scenic Trondheimsfjord most of the way there - a nice ride!

Like the rest of Norway (from what I can tell, at least!) Steinkjer follows suit and is filled with scenic vistas overlooking everything that lies below -- which, of course, means long hikes up hills to get to the top of the scenic vistas! Definitely worth it though.

Caitlin and I spent most of the weekend trekking around Steinkjer, learning a bit about it's history which dates back to the stone age (glad to have her to interpret all of the Norwegian signs!), and picking berries! The berry picking was much better in Steinkjer as compared to what I've seen in Trondheim!

One thing you need to know about Norway is that on Sundays, ALL of the stores are closed. ALL of them. MAYBE with the exception of a 7-11 or other convenience type store. BUT... Sundays are the ONLY day where many of these huts on top of mountains that serve treats like waffles and coffee are open! From what we can tell, all Norwegians come out of there homes and head to the hills for Sunday hikes -- young and old alike, there are all out with there spandex hiking clothes, walking poles, dogs, and strollers heading to the top -- often not taking the easiest path up and cutting through bogs and forests instead of the main hiking trail! So like all good Norwegians, one of our hikes took us to the top of a peak overlooking the town and fjord, and on top of the peak is on of these little waffle huts. We were more than happy to take advantage of this treat before starting our trek back down!

Finnmark!

Last week I got back from a 10-day field trip to Finnmark -- the northernmost county in Norway. I was as far north as northern Alaska and as far east as Istanbul! During the tour, we drove nearly 2000km, stopped at around 50 different collection sites, and collected thousands of insects! Basically, I was invited to tag along with three other scientists to help out with a biodiversity survey project that is looking at the diversity of certain aquatic insect groups in Finnmark, with goals of being able to document species in the area, describe new species, and have a baseline study that can eventually be used to help monitor effects of climate change on insect populations.

So my days were spent wandering around bogs, lakes, rivers, marshes, and coastlines of Finnmark with nets and other collection gear trying to round up as many chironomids as possible! Much of the inland areas reminded me of northern Minnesota -- gorgeous country! The coastline was rocky, rugged, and for the most part windy and cold! Still very neat to see. Fall definitely comes early to that part of the country. We based ourselves out of four different locations along the way and were put up in everything from multi and single bed cabins, an apartment-like house on the coast, and a national park center with hotel-like accommodations. Most very nice and an improvement upon my dorm-like flat in Trondheim!

A few exciting tidbits from the trip included seeing MANY reindeer (we also had a number of meals which consisted of reindeer... a couple versions traditional Sami reindeer stew, reindeer burgers, reindeer sausage, etc....), eating a fantastic meal of fresh-caught salmon, and seeing Russia ! A number of our sampling points were right across the river from Russia -- some literally a stone's throw away! But, the rules on the Russian border are quite strict -- if you even think of crossing or even making contact with someone on the other side, you get a free pass to jail with a large fine if you want to get out! The good news is though that they don't mind if you take a picture of the other side (as long as you don't do anything offensive or provacative), so I did take advantage of that (see picture below!!). We were quite close to the tri-country border of Norway, Finland, & Russia where they have a nice monument. You can cross the border from Norway into Finland and vice-versa, but if you make a full circle around the monument (which would take all of 2.5 seconds) you go directly to jail without passing go!