Spending five nights in Bodø was not in plan. Actually, only one was scheduled. The main course was Lofoten, and just a layover, for one night, in the “bridge” town, which offered us the link from Oslo to Svolvær. The impression of this frugal stay is not great. Bodø looks moist, sad, deserted. It is dark already, and the rain from the last days offers a landscape more suitable for a deep autumn evening. The huge Christmas tree from the central park tries to save the impression, but hasn’t too much success. Being in love already with Tromsø, didn’t help at all. We expected to see snow. Having no other option, we try to enjoy our short stay, and to prepare for the vacation in the “most beautiful archipelago in the world”, as a photo book we bought says. Is that so? We are about to know. On daytime, we see Bodø only in our road to the airport, and in these regards, I must say, it is the shortest path I know between a town center and an airport: bit more than 1 kilometer. That’s all about Bodø.
From Lofoten, with… cancel
Or, at least, it should have been, on 28th of December, when we depart. On the 2nd of January 2025, after a full and perfect vacation in Lofoten, things start shifting dramatically. I’ve kept the flight back from Leknes, a small airport situated around 65 kilometers from our Thon accommodation. There is a bus, no worries, and we will have plenty of time: “breaks don’t work, sorry guys, cancel this one”, the chauffer tells us, so then I realize we need to take a cab: 170 EUR for the trip. Tesla, great drive, but still. Only the beginning. We arrive, and, fast forward – because I will write about this separate – we are informed that our flight is cancelled, and we will be heading to Bodø by ferry. What an experience that was! Everything changed 180º, and against all our efforts, we remain stuck three full days in Bodø. Since our first impression was not great, we wanted badly to leave. But what can we do…? Just go with the flow!
Bodø, decorated by a lot of snow
The thing is that Bodø was literally flooded with snow, heavy snow, and the image of the town changed and got the shape of a fairytale Christmas village, like we hopped for. It is not Tromsø, but neither is it that far. Then, we took the opportunity and explored it in depth, walked tens of kilometers around, including at the fortress, took tens of pictures and enjoyed a lot of fresh air and a beautiful landscape, culminating with a great sunset at… 13:00! Northern Norway has its thing, that is for sure, and our penitence had a wonderful part. We are grateful for this, on one hand, even though, one the other hand, we are pissed our vacation has a forced delay. The memories are secured, with a run, of course. And everything came back to my mind on 16th of February, when Bucharest was covered with snow. It is a phenomenon that happens so rare in the last decade, that I’ve decided to celebrated it with… another run.
Bodø confinement, a gift for us
The layer is not that thick as in Bodø, but you can’t compete with Northern Norway, of course. Not in these years, no way. However, in terms of memories, that helped me to share our experience with you sooner than I’ve planned. We’ve seen Bodø in detail, but didn’t visited the stadium, unfortunately. The stadium of the most successful football team in Norway, in recent years: Bodø / Glimt. Don’t know how such a small town is basically replicating what Rosenborg of Trondheim was doing some 20-25 years ago. Maybe some other time. Until then, we’ll remember the pure and untouched snow of the continuous caused by the polar vortex which gave us, as a present, three more days in our favorite country.
