Oscar II’s chapel: right on the border with Russia and a surprisingly popular place to get married.
Yesterday we drove out to Grense Jakobselv, the easternmost border with Russia. It’s on the southern part of Varangerfjorden. I can’t enter Russia since I don’t have a visa, but at Grense Jakobselv we could see right over the river that the border runs through. Northern Russia looks exactly the same as Finnmark: stony, snowy, and barren. Norway’s oldest mountain is visible from the same road that goes to the border. Unlike the flat plains of Northern-Varangerfjorden, there are high cliffs and mountains here. The only actual Russians we saw were in Kirkenes. Most of the signs in Kirkenes are also written in Russian and there’s a road that goes right to Murmansk.
Vikings and Vadsø 