Norway

I think we arrived to experience the land of the midnight sun at just the right time. The skies were clear, sun was shining, the trees were sprouting their new leaves and the spring flowers were popping up everywhere. The remnants of the cold wintery days were behind us.
We flew into Oslo and checked into our apartment we rented from a lovely couple for a few nights. They had an amazing array of records, a fireplace and scrabble to keep us entertained.
Norway being named as one of the expensive countries in the world is fact, I would have to say the most expensive country I have ever been to. Day one we are feeling a bit peckish, we ended up at this funky outdoor bar, which was recommended to us. After having some help with menu translations we decided on the salmon burger and the beef, blue cheese and loganberry burger with 1 pear cider to share and this all came to the equivelant of approx $70AUD!! That was our first and last dining in Norway experience!!

Having arrived into Norway during the Easter break, allot of shops were closed in downtown Oslo, so we decided to spend Easter Saturday in the forest, where we had been told by our host that you just have to catch the metro to the end of the line and there you are in the forest, and that is was!

The one downfall was that the weather was forecast for a balmy 20 degree’s, excited that I was, I wore my thongs, and to my dismay we arrived to find that there was still snow on the mountainside and as we got deeper into the forest we found the tracks to be totally covered in snow, and the only way through was to brave it and get the feet emerged! We couldn’t have thought of a more perfect way to spend Easter than our forest picnic dining experience! It even came complete with, to my surprise an Easter egg hunt!

Day 3 we caught the train to Bergen on the West Coast of Norway. The train journey is famed as the most impressive train trip in all of Europe, and that is was. The 7 hour train trip had the most varied landscape, with views of forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, glaciers and fjords. Arrival at around 8PM and the sun still shining in Bergen gave us the first glimpse of the midnight Sun. In the summer months Norway and most part’s of Scandinavia stay daylight for most parts of the day and night and we have arrived in time to get the beginning of this magical ordeal.

We found our new apartment which was situated in one of the old heritage buildings that gives Bergen its old world charm and the feeling as though you have stepped back to the times of the Viking’s! We spent most of our time in Bergen cooking and sampling some of the finest Nordic ingredients. From the freshest Salmon fillets, actually to my surprise the cheapest cavier I have ever purchased, to the finest sweetest berries.

The food here may be expensive, yet amazing on the tastebuds, but at least it gives you the feeling that Yes you are paying through the roof for it but at least it’s good quality and tasty! A big shock to us was when we were down at the fish markets and asked if we would like to sample some smoked whale meat, after declining and asking why, then thinking maybe we heard wrong or the fishmonger’s english wasn’t the best, to than find out that Norway and Japan are the only places in the world to legally sell whale meat. This was just one of the small downfalls to this wonderful country and we were lucky enough to spend our 1 year anniversary in one of the most magical, beautiful, amazing places I have experienced in the World.