Next Dream Vacation: Vardo
I love rocky, barren islands. I’m okay with patches of grass and a few spindly trees, but you know that scene in the first Harry Potter movie where the family goes to hide out in the ramshackle island house so the Hogwarts letters can’t find them? THAT would be like my ideal vacation home space. A close second would be Vardø, Norway.
Listen to this description:
Once the cod capital of the Arctic, Vardø, population 1,875, perches like a fish-scented mirage on the edge of the Arctic Circle in Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county. While the Visit Vardø website makes the town look like Williamsburg with puffins and Aurora Borealis, it isn’t. There are only four ways to Vardø — none are good, and all originate at Kirkenes, a shithole in the way that only towns that are waystations to other places can be.
Heaven.
It’s Wolf Island. It is known for its snowball fights. (Wait, scratch that, I don’t like snowball fights.) They have puffins! It’s light almost 24 hours per day in the summer. (Which I know means that it’s dark almost 24 hours per day in the winter.)
The kids will be sad that they turned down my request for Newfoundland because they left the door open and now my heart is set on Vardø.
4 comments
I daresay Newfoundland would be a lot cheaper & easier to reach than Vardo. 😉 You can find puffins there too!
I saw “witch capital of Norway” and let out a laugh that brought the neighbors knocking on my door. Course now I want to join you on your upcoming adventure because: Aurora borealis, puffins, coastal snow and hard to access.
Just to make things interesting, here’s my pipedream of a vacation: Noirmoutier, France. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noirmoutier). Only accessible at low-tide = swoon.
No puffins here, but we do have everything else, including reindeer, in Finland. The light-light and dark-dark are amazing and fun to experience the first couple of years…it’s only after that that it gets…at times tedious. (At least that was my reaction.)
Send me a postcard and I’m good.