Day 4 - King Crab Fishing (Freaking Awesome)

We visited the museum this morning after getting back from the Snow Hotel.  The tour guide woke us up close to 9am and we were the last to leave.  He drove us to our new "real" hotel, the Rica Arctic hotel where we dropped our things off then took a walk to the museum.

Where we are, and where we could possibly go...

The museum.  A Chinese woman from Beijing served us at the counter, she married a Norwegian, that's how she ended up there.

Some exhibits in the museum.  There were 2 floors, the 1st floor was mostly World War 2 related facts and stories, and the 2nd floor was more about the history of Kirkenes but it was all in Norwegian so we only understood what was on the 1st floor.

Propaganda posters.

Bomb shell.

We headed back at 12:30 as we were going to be picked up at 1pm.  So lunch was chips that we bought from the grocery back at Tromsø.  Our guide picked us up at 1pm, his name was Oerjan and he turned out to be a great guide!  We had no idea what we were in for.  He basically gave us a history of the area while driving us around, took us to the same scenic spot we were yesterday and even drove us to the Russia Norway border!  Our fishing spot was Lanabukt and took about half an hour to get there, it's close to the Russia Norway border so he showed us that area too which is quite nice of him.

Our tour guide on the left, he wasn't really a guide but... a one man show, guide, chef, fisherman...

Dam and church in Russia.

One footstep I was away from Russian territory, taken near Storskog.

After that we continued to our destination, then prepped ourselves to go on the boat for fishing!

Prepping the boat.

Here's one of the crabs, it's pretty big, about 1m in length!  We got a few.

Check out the size of its teeth, it's apparently the size of a horse's tooth.

Oerjan holding up one of the crabs.

After he gutted them, this was our catch...

King crab fishing is now permitted as it's a pest in Norway, so we are helping to control the population.

We also went further up the fjord to have a look at the salmon farm.  The ice was hitting everyone in the face and I caught this picture. :)

After that we had a short drive, then when we thought it was all over, we went on a ski doo out to the bush where we were going to cook the crabs!  I had fuel in my face as I was sitting in the back on a sleigh attached.  Haha!  Anyway Oerjan made a fire and then cooked the crab.  We were sitting around the fire but it was still freezing!!

It was nice though, different.  Eating distracted us from the cold. :)

Our cooked crab!

We did not manage to finish all of it, but don't worry the remains will be given to the foxes.

Now it's close to 3am and I have to sleep.  Tomorrow we get on the boat again which I am not really looking forward to so this could be my last post for a while but hopefully not.