Hello and welcome back to another impromptu post. We’re still at sea, and as I type this on the morning of the 20th June, we are somewhere in the Arctic on our way to Honningsvåg. This will be our second time as we also stopped here in 2023. It’s the most northern of Norway’s cities, and has some stunning scenery.
In my last post I discussed our time walking the llamas in Skjolden. Since then we have visited two other ports; Olden and Trondheim.
Note: I wanted to add many more pictures but my internet connection is poor.
Olden
Olden may be the most stunning and beautiful place I have ever seen. It is a small settlement of scattered houses spread across the various mountain sides at the end of the fjord. The way the mountains rise and curve up on either side can give the illusion of being inside an O’Neil cylinder; a vast rotating drum in which the spinning produces gravity. I’ve now been to Olden three times and each time I’m there I’m reminded of a line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
When Kirk looks at the newly created Genesis planet he says, “I feel young again.” When you have vast mountain ranges, clear waters from the fjord, and waterfalls cascading down from the snowcapped peaks, it’s impossible to feel any other way. If I was to build a house in Norway, Olden would be high on the list of places I would consider.
Those of you who have been with me since the beginning will remember that it was on my first cruise to Norway that my FI ambitions started to take form. Back then, in 2019, I was on a TUI cruise around Norway and I spent some of the downtime between ports listening to various FI related audiobooks. I had already been investing for a few years but it was a scattergun approach, rather than anything focused and organised.
The only downside to Olden this year was that I was feeling pretty rough. It took me quite a while to come around but I was still able to enjoy the surroundings. As we left the ship, the small trains that run on the road were waiting to pick up tourists. A guided tour is offered which runs for around 80 minutes, and takes you round some of the points of interest in Olden. There’s an audio commentary as well, and there’s something endearing about the Scandinavian accent; it’s one of those I could listen to all day.
Once the tour was over we spent some time in the shops which make up the town, and then went for a mini hike up some of the roads up the mountains to get a better view of the fjord. One thing you notice about Norway is just how clean it is, and how well maintained the towns and cities are. Norway has a fantastic standard of living, much of which is down to the responsible way the country has managed its finances. Whole books could be written on the subject, but the long and short of it is that Norway has the biggest sovereign wealth fund on Earth. It equates to something like $3.5M for each citizen. With such wealth, they are able to offer incredible infrastructure and public services. The reach of their fund is long and diverse, and they even own the major shopping centre, Meadowhall, in my home city of Sheffield.
Trondheim
The day after Olden we arrived in Trondheim which was the first large Norwegian city we have seen on this cruise. We first visited Trondheim in 2023 and not much has changed. The only difference between then and now is that it was hot and sunny in 2023, whereas this time it was raining pretty much constantly.
I was looking forward to this port as I knew there was good coffee available. The coffee on board the ship is… well… how do I politely say it tastes like stale dumpster juice? There’s a small chain of coffee shops in Norway called Espresso House. The three of us homed in on it like laser guided missiles and got coffees and a carrot cake muffin. Now, I must stress that this place does an amazing carrot cake muffin, and even Oana likes it and she doesn’t normally go for carrot cake.
Trondheim feels as though it could be in any of the western European countries, as it’s vibrant and full of interesting architecture. Once again we were impressed by the cleanliness of the city and the friendliness of the people. One thing that surprised me was how much we saw Norwegians communicating with each other in English. I’m assuming they were Norwegian, but we saw this several times in different places so it can’t have just been a one off.
Once we were caffeinated we visited a church in the centre of town. Oana and I have been there before but we wanted to show my Dad. None of us are religious but we have an appreciation for history and art. This church was basic and lacking any of the tacky, in your face, opulence that the Catholic church is guilty of. Just inside the entrance there is an area where volunteers prepare fresh food and hot drinks for those in need. I’m not quite sure if it’s just for the homeless, the poor, or simply for anyone wanting company, but it’s still a nice thing to see that the people are treated with dignity and compassion.
We then made our way to the Starbucks to acquire more of their mugs. I had a Norway one from our first cruise but back then I used these mugs to drink from. I’ve become a bit more serious about collecting them since, and my Norway mug was faded from the dishwasher. I couldn’t find one on my last visit but I was in luck this time. So far on this trip I’ve added Edinburgh, Scotland, and Norway mugs to my collection.
Once we had secured the mugs we wanted we walked over to Nidaros Cathedral; the largest cathedral of its type in the world, which took over 250 years to complete. The stone work is incredible, and although the inside had some art, sculptures, and incredible stained glass, it was much more tasteful than the pound-shop looking atrocities that some cathedrals have.
Our next item of business was trekking up to the Kristiansten fort. Oana and I recalled a lengthy climb up several roads that left us winded. It was a scorching hot day back then, whereas it was rainy and cool this time. As a result, the climb was not so hard. The wet weather made the visit a little uncomfortable but we still had fun, especially inside the fort as we read up on the history of the place, and climbed up to the higher floors of the fortress itself.
After finishing up at the fort we had seen everything we wanted to see in Trondheim, and had left some time to just have a stroll and see where the day took us. Unfortunately, due to the weather, it took us back to the ship. We tried finding somewhere to eat but no where took our fancy. Time was against us so we couldn’t go anywhere too out of the way, and so we made our way back to the ship.
Sky Princess
The Sky Princess is a massive ship. Not quite the biggest cruise ship in the world, but it’s definitely up there. It has 19 decks, although 18 and 19 are partial decks. On the subject of which, can anyone tell me why some ships have their decks in ascending order and some in descending order? Our cabin is on deck 17, in the forward-starboard area.
There are several restaurants, bars, and dining rooms on board. Our usual haunt is the marketplace on deck 16, but on the day we left Trondheim we decided to give the dining room a try. Oana and I had tried this on our last cruise and it wasn’t good. Sadly, it’s not improved since. For those who don’t know the difference between a restaurant and a dining room on this ship; the dining rooms are included in your package. Some items have a surcharge, but most of the menu is included. It’s a more traditional, sit-down, restaurant-style service. The food seems tailored to the elderly and is often soft, and bland. It’s one of those where the spiciest seasoning they use is seemingly plain flour.
None of us finished our food and instead went back to deck 16 for a little something else. Two highlights for food onboard are the pizza place on deck 16, which serves by the slice, and The Salty Dog which serves burgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, and fries. Their burgers and hot dogs are very decent and it’s always popular at lunch time.
After leaving Trondheim we set sail for Honningsvag which left us with a day at sea. We had booked for the steak restaurant on board, Crown Grill, which you pay $55 extra per person. The food was, pardon my language, dogshit. For starter there were four options; a tartare, two salads each containing either blue cheese or fish, and a crab cake. Oana doesn’t do fish and my Dad doesn’t do most fish or blue cheese. So, tartare all around.
A good steak tartare should be finely diced, but some people will use mince or ground beef. It’s always better with diced beef though as you want the meat to retain some texture. The tartare we were served had the texture of pureed beef, and that’s the only way I can think to describe it. This wasn’t the worst problem with the dish though. Although not stated anywhere on the menu (we double checked after) the dish contained caviar.
Two of the tartare were sent back and returned without fish eggs, but the texture of the dish was just wrong and gross. Some of the best ones I’ve had, have been where the plate is prepped at the table so you can add your own ingredients to taste. The closest thing I could compare this to was dog food.
In fairness the steaks were good. On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is rare and 10 is cremated, I tend to prefer my steak around 4. Mine was maybe a 3-4 but it was still good. The side dishes were underwhelming, and in some cases missing completely.
For dessert we ordered the triple chocolate treasure but it tasted like soap, or dishwasher liquid. It was bizarre. All in all, I’d say at least a third, maybe more, of the food we were served went back. We were asked about our food precisely once, and the waitress left before we could answer. When our plates were collected there was not a single question about the large amounts of food left.
Overall the service was poor from the moment we arrived, so we made our complaints to guest services. Whether anything comes of it, we will have to wait and see.
Honningsvag
We arrived in Honningsvag in the midmorning of Saturday, and after a chilled breakfast onboard we left to explore the area. Honningsvag is the most northern settlement in continental Europe, and has a population of roughly 2,000. Our plan was to have a walk through the town, and then climb the mountain, Storfjellet, to get views over the mountains. It was a tough climb over uneven rocks until we hit the Sherpa Steps which were finished in 2023. It’s a series of approximately 3,000 steps set down on a path up the mountain. Just when you think you’ve reached the summit, you realise it was a false alarm and there’s another few hundred steps ahead. Eventually, we made it to the summit and had a brief rest. The journey back down was, in many ways, more difficult. Your steps have to be more precise, and it’s a different strain on the leg muscles.
Those who know me well understand that I like to troll people from time to time. It occurred to me on the way down that I should have placed a sign around 85% of the way up to the top simply stating; “Halfway”.
Once we made it back down we went back to the ship to freshen up and have some lunch, before venturing back out to the town to wander around some more. We went out on a little pier, and strolled some of the residential streets. We were all aching and tired, and decided to stop for a coffee and cake at a little cafe we had seen earlier. We went in and it was empty except for a young woman working on a laptop, and a dude in the back behind a glass partition who was preparing some pastries. He glanced up a few times as we waited at the counter, and again as we waited some more, but he seemed content to ignore us whilst he worked in the back.. After five minutes Oana popped her head around the partition and asked if they were actually open. They were, but the person prepping the pastries said the woman serving was in the bathroom. I mean, I get it when nature calls. No issue with that whatsoever. All it would have taken was the guy to acknowledge us with a quick hello and to tell us to take a seat and someone will be with us shortly. That’s literally all it would have taken. We ended up leaving.
Just to emphasise, we didn’t leave just because someone was in the bathroom. It was the complete lack of any acknowledgement or greeting as we were just left waiting at the counter.
I’m now picking up writing this on Saturday evening at 19:20 Norwegian time. We are due to leave the port within the hour as we head for Tromso. Last time we were in Tromso we had an amazing breakfast at a deli-cafe, and we reserved a table for our next visit before we left the UK!
This cruise has been much better in many respects that our last cruise. On the whole, the food and service have been much better. There’s been some hiccups but when you’re talking about 15 days, three meals a day plus snacks, having more hits than misses is a good record.
On the subject of good service, we had marked down a special occasion for this cruise. For my Dad, this is partly a gift from Oana and me for his 60th. For us, it’s a celebration of Oana taking my name and going no contact with almost her entire family. There’s a story to tell there, but it’s not mine to tell fully. People don’t cut their family off for no reason, and this is something that has helped Oana immensely. It just so happened that the cruise dates matched up with the one year anniversary of her name change becoming official.
Anyway, for the special occasion they decorated our cabin with balloons and a nice card, as well as a $50 voucher to the spa. Considering that A) we have no interest in the spa, and B) the cheapest thing in the spa is a short massage coming in at $350(ish) we were never going to use it. We thanked them for the gift and asked if we could exchange it for a voucher for a restaurant or something. They said that wasn’t possible but that they’d try and come up with something else. A few days later we returned to our cabin to find it covered with flower petals, with a few little goodies waiting for us. We were very happy and impressed.
Tromso
I’m now writing this bit shortly after we set off from Tromso. We arrived here at just after 9am, and we had booked tickets for the shuttlebus into the city, as the dock is 4km out. The last time we were in Tromso, Oana and I stumbled across a great cafe and bar called Helmersons. When we realised we would be back in Tromso we made sure to reserve a table for brunch.
Brunch was amazing. We were worried it would not live up to the hype and that my Dad would be disappointed. Well, for once we found somewhere that not only lived up to the hype but surpassed it. Our meal was superb, and each of us left extremely happy. The meal might sound a little strange, but it just works. The “large plate breakfast” includes some slices of fresh bread, a soft boiled egg, some manchego-type cheese, a few slices of ham, fresh yoghurt and granola, some jam, and flakes of salt. It just works. The yoghurt and granola is my favourite part of the dish.
After brunch we walked along the bridge in Tromso to get to the Arctic Church. The bridge is just over 1km long, and at its tallest point is 38m above the water. We had a look around the outside of the church and then made our way back across the bridge. As it was Sunday there was not much else happening in the city so we caught the shuttlebus back to the ship for a quick freshen up. Then we walked over to the Botanical Gardens. The ones in Tromso are small, and simple, but calming and peaceful, and very well designed. It’s the sort of place you can just relax in, and everyone seems to just slow down.
The Water
There’s something that seems to be innate in most people, and that’s a yearning to be near the water. It can be calming, peaceful, and a giver of life, but on the flip side it can be terrifying and destructive. It is vast and mysterious, and much of it remains hidden to us with the difficulties of exploring the depths being greater than exploring space in many ways.
Being at sea brings about a sense of peace and freedom. There’s something about waking up in a different place each day. This world is so huge that I often feel impatient to get out there and see more. This is where FI becomes key. Everything I’m working towards is directed to an end point which isn’t wealth for wealth’s sake, but rather the freedom that wealth can purchase. Every penny directed to FI is another penny that is buying my freedom; my freedom to travel and experience what this world has to offer. It’s impossible to look at these mountains, forests, and fjords and not feel an almost ancient call to return to a simpler life. The possible future of living in a house on the side of a fjord, waking up each day looking out over calm waters sounds much more appealing than living in a busy city with lots of stuff. The older I get, the more I yearn for peace.
Financial Update
With the difficulties of typing this up on an iPhone I hope you will forgive me for not having the usual format. I was able to gather together information for my assets as follows:
Premium Bonds: £19,000.00
ISA: £113,006.69
Pensions: £95,306.27
Once we finish up this holiday it will be back to drawing board for Oana with her job search. I’ll need to get my head down and start pushing forward in my job, as I’m still fairly new and this is the first break I’ll have had. Once we have two incomes coming in we can really start motoring forward.
Why FI Demands More Than Frugality
There’s a common misconception I come across both in my work and through my blog: the idea that if you just budget well enough, financial independence will somehow take care of itself.
Let me be clear: budgeting is important. It’s the foundation. But it’s not the full structure. You don’t budget your way to financial independence, you invest your way there.
Budgeting Is Defensive. Investing Is Offensive.
I’ve known so many people who claim to be great with money, yet have no investments despite respectable salaries. If you are spending more than you are earning, it doesn’t matter how much you are earning. You need the income figure to be bigger than the outgoing figure.
“Ok, I’ve done that. Now what?”
That’s brilliant, and it’s a crucial step. You can’t build wealth if you’re haemorrhaging cash on takeaways, subscriptions you’ve forgotten about, or impulse purchases. Budgeting gives you control. But it doesn’t give you growth.
Budgeting is the financial equivalent of eating healthy in that it stops things from getting worse. But if you want to get stronger, fitter, faster? You’ve got to train. You’ve got to move. You’ve got to build. That’s what investing does.
You’re Not Saving – You’re Losing (Thanks, Inflation)
Let’s say you’ve done the hard part. You’ve got a solid budget. You’re regularly putting aside £500 a month. Over 10 years, that’s £60,000.
But what does £60,000 actually buy in 10 years?
If inflation runs at an average of 3% per year, not unrealistic, your money’s buying power shrinks considerably. £60,000 in today’s money might only be worth £44,000 in real terms by the time you need it.
That’s not wealth building. That’s treading water with a slow leak in the lifeboat.
This is something I struggled with earlier in my own FIRE journey. I was saving well, budgeting hard, but I wasn’t really building anything. It took time and a lot of reading, trial and error, and mindset shifts to get comfortable with investing. Especially as someone who likes control, the idea of volatility felt like a threat, not an opportunity.
Investing Is the Engine That Drives FIRE
If you’re serious about FIRE, you need your money to work as hard as you do.
Let’s go back to that £500 a month example. If you invest that money and achieve an average return of 7% (which is around the long-term average for global stock markets), after 10 years you wouldn’t have £60,000. You’d have closer to £86,000. Over 20 years? Around £260,000.
That’s the magic of compounding. It’s not magic at all, actually. It’s maths but it feels magical when it works in your favour.
And here’s the thing: you don’t have to be Warren Buffett. You don’t need to pick winning stocks or time the market. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. A simple, diversified, low-cost index fund strategy, something like a global tracker in a stocks and shares ISA, is more than enough for most people.
I’ve talked about this on my blog before: the paradox of investing is that doing less often achieves more. The hard part isn’t technical. It’s emotional. It’s about consistency. Staying invested. Riding out the bumps. Trusting the long-term picture.
Why Don’t More People Invest?
There are two big blockers I’ve seen:
1. Fear: The market feels intimidating. It fluctuates. Headlines scream about crashes. But short-term dips are the price of admission for long-term growth. I’ve had years where my portfolio dropped five figures. I didn’t sell. And I’m still here, closer to FIRE than ever.
2. Mindset: Many people still see investing as something “other people” do. Rich people. Experts. Not ordinary savers. But investing isn’t exclusive. It’s not a secret club. You can start with £25 a month. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to begin.
For those of us who are neurodivergent, like myself, investing can feel particularly risky. The loss of control, the uncertainty, it’s uncomfortable. But FIRE is as much about psychological resilience as it is about maths. Building systems that work for you like auto-investing, staying informed but not reactive, can make it manageable, even empowering.
Budgeting Keeps the Lights On. Investing Gets You Out of the Rat Race.
If you’re budgeting, great. Keep doing that. It’s the foundation for everything.
But if you’re not investing; if you’re just letting your cash pile up in a savings account earning 4% while inflation quietly eats it, you’re missing the crucial step.
FIRE isn’t just about cutting back. It’s about building up. Building a portfolio, building passive income, building freedom.
Because ultimately, financial independence isn’t about being “good with money.” It’s about letting your money be good for you.