Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I feel so Norwegian right now! I just got home after an afternoon of fishing in the North Sea. It was great...and freezing!
Silje, who is in the Peace Program with me, invited our class to go on a traditional Norwegian fishing trip with her dad who owns the oldest fishing boat in the world or Northern Norway, I forget which. Anyways, we all got on the wooden boat that looked like a toy wooden boat I would have had as a kid. There was snow covering the deck, but that was no deterrent! We piled on and basically got to watch as Silje's dad did all the work and took us "out to sea."

We had a great view of Tromsø and mountains. We drove around on a small tour until his sonar detected a presence of fish. No joke. It seemed a little unfair, but we took advantage of our technology and dipped in the lines. After two hours of fishing and chasing fish with sonar, we ended up catching 5 fish, three of which were worth keeping...so I guess our technology needs tweeking...or maybe it was just a little too obvious when five tasty looking metal lures dropped into the fishes' school at the same time. Regardless, I am proud to say that I did well! I caught 3 of our five fish and even more impressive, I helped Stian clean the fish when we finally got home. A new feat for me after years of watching my Grandpa clean everyone's fish.

Speaking of feet, mine are still freezing! It was -10 celsius outside and as soon as we got out on the water the freezing wind hit us. The water passage between Tromsø island and the mainland of Norway act as a wind tunnel, making the water the coldest place north of the Arctic Circle to be! We were all dressed warm and used the safety vests as wind blocks. We looked like a boat full of construction workers. Despite all our attempts however, we came to the obvious conclusion that fishing in the North Sea in February is a little ridiculous. I loved it though! Plus, we have dinner for tomorrow and it only took 4 hours and cost us a few toes each.

Thankfully, a hot chocolate at a cafe as soon as we got off the boat help us to forget the cold feeling and helped get us ready for a party tonight at the peace house. We are taking the Luther tradition of "Gentlemen's Club" abroad, so I'm excited to wear a tie and start telling tales about my fishing trip. Soon, everyone will know about the 10 whales I caught!

If you want to actually know, or see the truth, make sure to check out the photos I just added from our trip in the "Photos from Norway" link in the right column!