Mortensnes and Neiden, Norway
We rose early today since we knew we had a long and exiting day ahead of us. This is the day where we really explored the Sami culture. In the morning we split into three groups to visit the area around Mortensnes. One of the highlights was the Varanger Sami Museum. This is a modern museum describing and displaying Sami culture from its origin to the Sami way of life today. Following the museum we had the famous Norwegian waffles with cloudberries. Next stop took us to a market with local Sami handicraft – beautiful jewellery, knives and so on. We also went through one of the oldest archaeological sites with relicts of Sami culture descending back to its origin 10,000 years ago. All groups gathered at a turfhut where there were local Sami people who performed some of the original songs – Joik. These traditional songs are often a gesture to certain people, places or animal the singer would like to honor. A joik is mostly performed by a single person, and will often contain humorous elements – as we could see!
During lunch we sailed to Neiden, and passed herds of reindeer grazing the coastline. With the ship at anchor, we started off with buses to a siida (village) of the eastern Sami culture. Here we were served a tasty traditional reindeer soup in a lavvo. This community speaks a different language, which other Sami cultures don’t understand. They also have different costumes using more silk and other fabrics rather than wool. We also learned how you can see their social status by looking at their costume. Before we went back to Endeavour we visited a Russian-Orthodox Chapel, a beautiful small church with a rich diversity of flowers covering the surroundings. It was a great ending to this warm summer day here in northern Norway.
We rose early today since we knew we had a long and exiting day ahead of us. This is the day where we really explored the Sami culture. In the morning we split into three groups to visit the area around Mortensnes. One of the highlights was the Varanger Sami Museum. This is a modern museum describing and displaying Sami culture from its origin to the Sami way of life today. Following the museum we had the famous Norwegian waffles with cloudberries. Next stop took us to a market with local Sami handicraft – beautiful jewellery, knives and so on. We also went through one of the oldest archaeological sites with relicts of Sami culture descending back to its origin 10,000 years ago. All groups gathered at a turfhut where there were local Sami people who performed some of the original songs – Joik. These traditional songs are often a gesture to certain people, places or animal the singer would like to honor. A joik is mostly performed by a single person, and will often contain humorous elements – as we could see!
During lunch we sailed to Neiden, and passed herds of reindeer grazing the coastline. With the ship at anchor, we started off with buses to a siida (village) of the eastern Sami culture. Here we were served a tasty traditional reindeer soup in a lavvo. This community speaks a different language, which other Sami cultures don’t understand. They also have different costumes using more silk and other fabrics rather than wool. We also learned how you can see their social status by looking at their costume. Before we went back to Endeavour we visited a Russian-Orthodox Chapel, a beautiful small church with a rich diversity of flowers covering the surroundings. It was a great ending to this warm summer day here in northern Norway.
