Cruise Lofoten

In the end of march I've spend, with two roommates and three other friends, the night in a tent on Kvaløya. Therefore we had to walk two hours through a thick layer of snow, which was pretty hard for me. But the moment we arived, and we gathered some wood for the fire, there was immediately a good atmosphere and I forgot the rough tour. After a cold night (more or less -4 degrees) we went home the next day, and had to walk up a very high and steep mountain. But it was totally worth it, because it was such a nice experience to sleep in a beautiful quiet pristine nature!

From the 13th of april till the 19th of april I've been on a cruise to the Lofoten for my courses Marine Ecology and Ocean Climate. The Lofoten is a group of islands a little bit more to the south of Tromsø. On this boat we did a transect with several measurements (chlorofyl, density, salinity, light permeability, temperature etc.) but we also did some trawling over the bottom and in the water to catch some fish samples. Hereby we found a lot of interesting animal species. In this cruise we worked with shifts of 6 hours. There were two groups: The first group worked from 8 'o clock in the morning till 2 'o clock in the afternoon and 8 'o clock in the evening till 2 'o clock in the night and the second group worked from 2 'o clock in the afternoon till 8 'o clock in the evening and 2 'o clock in the night till 8 'o clock in the morning. Luckily I was in the first group, which fits the best with my normal rithm. In the hours off we had to eat, sleep and write the report which had to be handed in after the cruise. Despite the small amount of sleeping hours and the hard working, it was a really nice experience. The Lofoten are really beautiful with all those steep mountains pointing out of the ocean. Especially on a sunny day I preferably spent my day on the deck watching the surroundings (see picture). I also liked the students with whom I was on the ship, so I really enjoyed this cruise!

In the mean time the snow started melting here, and although the snowing starts again on some days, you can see that summer is comming! Two months left and then I have to go home to finish my bachelor. But before that I go a weekend to the North Cape, to Oslo during the national holiday 17th of may and my parens will come to visit me. So there is enough left to do!