Hi to everyone and happy new year. I have had a suggestion made that it might be a good idea to have an international get together. I live in North Norway and run a guest house here but am originally from Cornwall England. I speak German and a little Norwegian. The guest house name I am going to withhold at the moment as we live in a very small community and if it gets out that we intend to do something like this it could be a disaster for our business but I am willing to try. This is to test the waters to see if there is interest in such a meet and you are willing to travel here in the winter. I say in the winter as in the summer we are full of fishermen and other tourists but during the winter you would have the place to your selves. There is also the possibility of Northern lights fishing and eagle spotting/photography and walking in the mountains. Well thats it for now I just wanted to test the water. Ian
I think this is a wonderful idea. I should be finished studying if we are looking at the end of 2009. What sort of numbers are you looking at? I really would love to meet some of the members of this site, and this is far enough in advance to enable people to save up for it and hopefully make plans. (Or lose weight!!!) I still intend to visit the US at somepoint in the not too distant future. I just need to get pet into hypnotherapy and cure his fear of flying, or it'll just be me on my ownsome. Mind you, someone has to babysit!!!! :sex020:
Well I have always wanted to get to Norway... plus meet some new peoples... ok, sounds good to me! oh, except for the wintry cold portion ;-)
It would cost 900 NOK (exchange rate is changing so much all prices will be in NOK) for either a flat with 2 rooms and 5 beds or a house with up to 10 people sharing the house so if you are willing to share it would be very cheap. The winter thing has advantages and disadvantages. Yes it can be cold but at the moment it is 6 deg C here and I believe most of europe has it a lot colder. The northern lights are only here in the winter as in the summer it is 24 daylight. You cannot play in the snow in the summer (snow men just do not work without snow). I will upload a pic of the place in my profile.
Well the Northern Lights is on my "to do before I die" list. Which airport would be best to fly in to? I've checked checked flights from the UK to all airports and they seem quite reasonably priced.
Narvik/Harstad is the airport of choice as it is the only one but you have to get here from Oslo and the cheapest internal flight is by Norwigian The only snag is that the airport is two and a half hours from here so we have to charge for transfer 800nok. unless you hire a car.
Doesn't do that mean that it is 24 hours of darkness in winter ??? ... sounds quite depressing ... However, it sounds like a good idea at least for the European Ladies/Masters and their chastees. Of course, i can not confirm that MyLady and i will take part but W/we will take it into consideration. maid katrin
No it never gets 24 dark we have about 5-6 hours of light but the sun does not come above the horizon so you get fantastic colours in the sky when it is clear, when it is overcast it can get rather depressing. You just have to find other things to do he he. Snow on the ground lightens things up a lot. The sun is not visible from the mid of november to the mid of Jan from which time it goes rapidly into 24 hour day light so by the end of april the days are very long.
As i said in another post i have been to Norway in the winter and can attest to the fact that although it is cold it is not nearly as bad as some of the northern regions here in the states. Goddess and i would certainly be interested in a group outing. Sadly Her ability to get time off in the winter is limited due to Her job so arranging a time which would be mutually beneficial for everyone might be an issue. :anim_43: There is also that darn financial issue as well, but given enough prior notice we could get the money saved i am sure.
Yes I understand and this is just to test the waters so if enough people register their interest I will take further steps to get it sorted but I think a time frame for about feb next year will be about right. so 14/02/2010
February won't work for us. I will have to try and find Goddess' schedule for next year and get some dates up. (please be patient, as it might take a while) Exchange rates: During the first part of January 09 it has been about 6.9 NOK to 1 US Dollar. So 900 NOK is approximately $130, which is not a bad price at all for renting a place like this. We routinely pay that and more for a cabin in the Appalachian mountains. Heck, a decent hotel in the states starts at $100 (For those on the wrong ( :evilgrin0042: ) side of the pond.... 900 NOK is just over 84 GBP) Here is where i got the exchange rates. Of course the exchange rates change every day, so who knows what it will be next year. Especially with the way the American economy is going!
So i talked with Goddess and finally got Her to sit down and look at the pictures Locked posted. She was very impressed and we are definitely interested. As of yet our schedules are pretty hazy with exact dates, but we do know that Goddess will only be able to get one week sometime in March 2010 and a week or two around the '09-'10 New Year holidays. Since our prime reason to go would be to see the Northern Lights, we think that a New Years celebration would be super! We are thinking maybe a 5 day stay in Norway. Would that allow enough time to enjoy the local area I wonder? Goddess and i are thinking this might be a great vacation even if others don't come along (but we would LOVE to have a kinky get-a-way with other couples). I will have to check flights because I can imagine an international flight being pretty pricey. Hopefully it isn't so horribly expensive as to be a deal breaker! Well, did a preliminary search of airline tickets. Right now the airlines are not booking this far in advance, but from what I can find a round trip flight for 2 from the mid-west to Oslo, Norway is about $1,500 and Oslo to Harstad/Narvik is about $330 or roughly $900 a person. Still in the realm of do-able since we have some time to save, but it will have to be a vacation on a budget for everything else!
Sounds good you will be very welcome and we are very accommodating for people on a budget as our flats are fully kitted with kitchen for self catering and we have a restaurant the only thing is at new year time of year the days are at there shortest and the northern lights are a chance thing as you need clear skys and sun activity. Last year we had just that and a really good show on new years eve but this year the weather was too bad.
When do you think we would have the best chance to see northern lights? I understand that the weather has to cooperate.
Not only the weather you need to have sun activity as well plus as little moon as possible due to the fact that if the lights are only weak the moon will out shine them. With cloud cover you have no hope anyway. The best time for them last year was Easter but as I seid it is very hit and miss. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html This is what I keep an eye on and tonight should be a good night so I will have a look no too much cloud to the north.