Two rows of colorful houses buried by snow and dominated by a mountain, Honningsvag, the "Bay under the mountain," is the gateway to the northernmost Finis Terrae in Europe, North Cape located at 71° 10' 21'' north latitude. At first glance, it looks like a fishing village like many, in the heart of a bay on the southern side of Magerøya island. Still, it is a very particular municipality with a practically unsolvable problem. The title of the northernmost city in the world in competition with Barrow, Alaska, and especially with the nearest Hammerfest, a race all played on the somewhat variable parameters that define city status. However, the 2367 inhabitants of Honningsvag still have a status that no one dares take away from them, the solid certainty of being the real holders of the record, and a landscape of poignant beauty, especially in winter. More than two hundred thousand tourists reach Cape Nord every summer, numbers that seem to be science fiction in over 150 days a year of Arctic temperatures. When the wind sweeps the streets in a few minutes, any human activity stops, on land and at sea, also suspending connections with the rest of the world. In Honningswag, the darkness of winter lasts much longer. It is almost a state of mind that those who were not born here often create mental discomfort. The sea is also particularly hard, especially in winter when survival in the water is a maximum of 15 minutes and a fishing vessel can sink in port due to the weight of snow. Meanwhile, Norwegian, Cambodian, and Thai workers fill crates of cod to be shipped throughout Europe, the largest industry in the whole area.
However, the real fear is that of an ecological disaster caused by the many Russian ships sailing from the nearby port of Murmansk. The last was avoided only thanks to the favorable weather, in June 2003 when an oil tanker with over one hundred thousand tons of Russian oil remained at the mercy of the sea right in front of the North Cape. Today, the unknown of climate change is also being added because the spring starts considerably earlier every year with significantly higher temperatures than average in the whole Barents region.