I know I'm not being fair on the industrious Norwegian town, but I don't care.
We arrived late. There is nothing to do, as there is no town centre, and the hostel was very average. I'm sure on a sunny winters day the snow capped mountain that overshadows the small town of Narvik is a beautiful sight and give hundreds of good hiking tracks, lookout sports and ski slopes. But for the day we were there, it was pretty lame.
You can tell a lot about a place when it has a statue of a dead baby near the train station.
We arrived, had a wander, went to bed.
I awoke the next morning feeling a little harsh. I wanted to give the place a fair go. So I set off alone to scale the mountain, see how high I could go.
What weather!!
The traffic lights had been stripped from their posts by the wind. I was skidding backwards on ice as I walked forwards. Literally moving two paces backwards to every one pace forwards. For once it was a good job I was going in the wrong direction as I ended up where I needed to be!
I perceviered up the mountain. Past countless people slipping, sliding and falling everywhere.
I got up a fair way and essentially skiied back down from one street sign to the next.
I picked up mum and we set off for the station. The wind was still so strong mum physically couldn't walk against it. So, she was using me as a wind break. Walking behind me, holding my backpack. About half way to the station the wind died a little so she let go of me. Only for it to start off again, before she could grab hold she was 5 meters back. Skidding backwards shouting and crying out as she clung to a bit of fence beside the road. With the wind screaming in my ears I heard nothing and plowed on.
Eventually I turned to see mum, like a rag doll, clinging to this fencing for dear life laughing her head off.
I went back and reattached my windstrewen mother to my pack and got us to the station.
There is a glitch in the Swedish rail network. You cannot book online without a Swedish bank account. You also can't book a bed on a sleeper train at a station. It has to be done online. So we were facing 17 hours overnight in a seating car. Even better, a seat costs more than a bed...
We had a yarn with the conductor, who after trying to charge us another £60, we got to phone head office to appeal our case.
Eventually we were upgraded, at no extra charge, to a lovley sleeper cabin. Which we got all to ourselves! The only snag was a stupid jobsworth woke us up at 5:20am as he didn't check his sleeping chart properly and accused us of being stow aways!
We got the old fella on side and pushed on to Stockholm on a snowy Friday morning.
