Hunting The Light - Part V (Journey Up North Part II)

In this part, I will reveal two important things : my encounter with Ms. Boreale, and my favorite parts on Polarlys.

So, let's talk about Ms. Boreale first. I just finished with my dinner, I haven't even touched the dessert (how bad was that...let's my dessert wasted...darn), and we heared the announcement that "there were northern lights appear on the sky", I grabbed my camera and tripod which I carried with me to the restaurant (how freaky I was), but I left the most imporant thing behind...my jacket, but that's the detail, I ran to out to the passage on the 5th floor (the restaurant was on the 4th floor) asked everyone to excuse me if I blocked their view or stepped on their feet, took my place and started to take pictures. After sometimes, I started to shake and that's the time I realized I was taking picture in the artic circle without any jacket on me, duhhhh..............anyhow, I took about 200 pictures of it (how lucky I was, Ms. Boreale was in the good mood so she made the appearance for about 2.5 hours on and off), even though only a fraction of them I really like.

Now, about my favorite parts on Polarlys. I like the cafetaria area, because they have the best hot chocolate and waffle. Prices on the cafetaria were quite descent if you compare with the price at Tromso (don't compare with prices on your home country, then you will let yourself starving in Norway). A cup of hot chocolate for 26 NOK, and about the same for a hot waffle fresh from the maker ;)

I also love the passage on the 5th floor. I could make the tour around the boat without anything obstruct my view. What I experienced with the massive cruise ship is that, I always have to find my way to get to the place where I could take picture without anything that blocked my view, and without the marked of restricted area...ugh.

If there is anyone on the polarlys that will hate me, I think it'll be the lady on the tourist advisory desk. I kept disturb her with the question about "how's the chance for me to see Ms. Boreale tonight?" LOL...I believe she felt relieved when I left the boat.

During our stop at Honningsvag, I went out for the excursion to the Nordkapp with other passangers. It's an hour bus ride from Honningsvag to the Nordkapp, which based on Francesco Negri was the end of the world. We're quite lucky because the weather was "nice" on that day, so I still had about 10 minutes of "sunlight" to take pictures with when we arrived there.

(to be continued...)

Trip to Tozeur (Part I)

Since I am already back here, I think it's time for me to reveal what I visited during my 4-day trips to south of Tunisia, Tozeur.

First day, 19 November 2009, I left at 4.10 am to catch my plane at Geneva airport. After 30 mins ride on the trained, it announced that the train might be late to arrive at Geneva airport, couple of minutes later, it announced that we actually had to change train at Geneva due to the locomotive problem. Well, 5 minutes spare time wasn't bad at all.

Arriving at Geneva airport, I hurried up to check-in and met those unfamiliar eyes of my soon-to-be travel mates. But honestly, none of them looked very friendly to me, which I don't really care either. Got my seat, 4A, luggage checked, followed by a little visit at the airport. Wow....now they have Starbucks installed at the end of the 2nd floor which is awesome, I don't really think I could ever cure my addiction to Starbucks LOL, anyway, a wish of good luck for my trip with a cup of warm Caramel Machiatto :) With or without Starbucks, my luck wasn't close enough to me, the flight was 30 mins late than scheduled and I already desperate to get to the plane for my siesta.

Make the long story short, honestly I don't think any of you will interesting to hear how I got transported from Geneva Airport to Tozeur-Nefta Airport, it's quite a boring 2-hour so flight since I know nobody and the food they served were pretty stink, cold rolls and croissant, strange smell hot plate, none of the items on my tray was appetizing. Arrived at the Tunisia, the immigration person got very unfriendly with me, they hold me longer compare to other, what a shame. And worse, out from the airport, since I knew nobody, I just went to the main exit, and somebody put me straight away to the transport car with the destination of my hotel , Sofitel Palm Beach Tozeur. While I was entering the door, that's when I realized I got to the wrong car without any chance to change to the other car :( I was ended up sharing the car with 3 other Swiss-German people. Technically speaking, Swiss-German doesn't messing around with Swiss-French people, which is me, or versi versa.

The hotel itself wasn't too far from the airport, once got there, I looked for my room's key, and without patient, I went straight to it, skipped all the welcome cocktail and gathering. My room number is 343, located on the ground floor of the wing after the pool, to be exact, first room on the right after the enterance. It's a good-size room, with a quite standard 3/4 stars amenities, considering I am staying at the 5* hotel. My bathroom is big, but with now cold water, means, I couldn't even flushed my toilet, forgot about taking shower with a boiled water. The safety box was so tiny, I couldn't even put my whole camera inside. I gave up, just used it to put my ID cards, and 2 lenses. Worse of all, one of my window was unlockedable. Tell me if I was paranoid, luckily the minibar-tv cupboard was not too far from the window, I pushed it to right in front of the window, just in case someone tried to enter my room, he or she at least had to try to broke the TV first.

It was a huge lunch, with a big "local food" buffet, even so, I tried to be prudent with  my stomach. I skipped all fresh salad, eggs, and lambs (since I am allergic to it). When I came over a big BBQ place, I saw a big chuncked of meat, which looked very intriguing, when I asked for the name of the food, they told me, it was camel's leg, I was....hmmmm..., and that guy, I didn't know if he was tried to be nice or just being an idiot, he even reframed the phrase he told me earlier, "...it's not a big camel, it was actually baby camel". Basically, during that big lunch, only thing I ate was "BREAD", tell me how gourmet I was.

(To be continued...)