Norway:Land of the Midnight Sun
Norway:Bergen, Norway ... home town of Edward Grieg ... beautiful city surrounded by hills, and gateway to the majestic fjords.
It was in Bergen where I collected a rental car. What a trauma! It was about 15 minutes walk to the Avis agency but about 2 hours to drive back. The roads in Bergen are narrow, winding, steep, and stop at unexpected dead-ends. I felt miserable and daunted at the prospect of driving around Norway without a navigator and would have left that day if I hadn't prepaid USD1000 for car rental.
Next day I left early, got onto the 'highway' and within half an hour was on narrow steep roads and in and out of tunnels. Many of the roads in Norway are one-lane roads but unlike the north of Scotland where drivers are skilled at stopping at frequent turn-out points, the Norwegians (or probably the tourists) do not try to anticipate and stop at an appropriate point but expect to pass on a road where one side was a granite cliff and the other side a railing-less sheer drop to the fjord below.
Tunnels were an experience too. There were tunnels of up to 15 km long, tunnels without lights, tunnels with one-lane roads for two-way traffic, even tunnels with roundabouts in them! Headlights are mandatory in Norway at all times, which is understandable. No need to worry about remembering to turn headlights on and off, the ignition in Norwegian cars turns them on and off.
Youth hostels are good quality in Norway, most have single and double rooms available as well as the 3-4 bed 'dorms'. Because of the high cost of accommodation, it is common for youth hostels to be used by pensioners as well as young backpackers. I found no hitchhikers. I was told that the Europass is cheap and trains very good and frequent, and there is usually a 50% discount on buses with the Pass so there is no need to hitchhike.
Fortunately I'd read about 'private accommodation', the Norwegian equivalent of the UK B&B without the breakfast. For around US$20 a night, I was able to find this type of accommodation each night. The room comes with shared bath and fully-equipped kitchen where you can cook dinner and breakfast. Unlike the UK where B&Bs are registered and classified, 'private accommodation' is invariably 150-200 kr (US$20-30) but the quality varies enormously. Rooms can be booked through the tourist office or by looking out for signs on the road such as rom, hytte, overnatting, sojun. I quickly learned to ask for addresses from the tourist office so that I could inspect them first (and also invariably saved a booking fee of 25 kr). Beds in Scandinavia are not comfortable. Typically, it's a wooden slat base, a thin slab of foam rubber, a fitted bottom sheet, no top sheet, and a doona. I soon learned that by buying a cheap sheet and towel and thus supplying my own linen, I saved another 25-50 kr on the cost of the room.
Grocery stores abound in Norway because very few can afford to eat out. Even food in supermarkets was hideously expensive so I had a diet of yoghurt, bread, cheese, eggs, orange juice and coffee. Fish is relatively inexpensive - smoked salmon, a luxury in Australia, is much cheaper than meat for example.
Norwegians are friendly, polite, but not as open as Americans, Australians and the British. Northern Norwegians are much friendlier than southern Norwegians though and tend to be more talkative. Almost everyone spoke English and spoke it well. Most can also speak German but many, especially older people, refuse to speak it. There is still a resentment to Germans after their occupation of the country from 1941 to 1945. When the Germans left, they burned almost every village in northern Norway. Many of the buildings in Norway have been built quickly after 1945 and are therefore characterless - wooden boxes painted in red or mustard yellow.
Norwegians are very healthy and outdoor types. The country caters for hikers and campers. There are numerous camping huts along hiking trails, innumerable camping sites, signs every 20-30 km along the road point to picnic benches and WCs. The WCs are clean and in most cases there is a second WC provided for the handicapped. There is no such restriction as 'camping forbidden' - every person has a right to camp anywhere, the only restriction is that a camper must be 150 metres from the nearest house.
One highlight of the Norwegian trip was a climb up to the top of Galdhopiggen, the highest mountain in Norway in the Jutenheimen National Park. I joined a group with a guide to take us on the 3 hour hike up and 2 hour hike down. The first part was hiking on very large boulders and rocks, then it was no easier hiking in very deep snow. After an hour's hike, we were roped together to cross a glacier. The last half hour was an almost vertical incline to reach the top.
The other highlight was the Lofoten Islands, the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. There are four main islands and two very small ones just off the coast of northern Norway, well above the arctic circle. Referred to as the Lofoten wall, the islands are sheer jagged snow-capped (in summer) mountains rising from the sea. I found a wonderful rorbu (a fisherman's cottage refurbished for tourist accommodation): two bedrooms, lounge, dining room, kitchen, bath, beautifully furnished, window overlooking a deserted beach, a lighthouse, the midnight sun, with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. The only other habitants on that part of the island were the owners who had a farm and separate houses for an uncle and a grandmother. The 'farm' had 18 cows which was apparently sufficient to support the entire family.
Only 3% of Norway is arable but there are many small farms with a few cows, sheep or goats. Like Switzerland, one can sit on a mountain top and listen to the tinkling of bells but the bells are on sheep, not cows.
An amusing but embarrassing part of the trip was an encounter with a 77 year old Dane. We both had rented rooms in a farm house and being my usual friendly self, I talked and invited him in for coffee since his room didn't have kitchen facilities. He said he would have liked to get to know me better so I said I'd be staying at the same accommodation the next night and if he were still in the area perhaps we could have dinner together. Next night he *did* turn up again and we had dinner. He then confessed that he'd driven 120 km back just to see me and then wanted to sleep with me! I declined, so the poor guy had to drive 120 km back to continue his journey.
I left Norway bankrupt but happy. A long flight to Tokyo where I was intending to spend a day but didn't feel up to coping with yet another culture so I took an earlier flight to Guam, a Pacific island and a territory of the USA. There was actually a sunset and it was dark for the first time in four weeks for me. Guam is a very poor Hawaii, but as yet beautiful and unspoilt beaches. At 95 degrees with high humidity, I spent a day on the beach - sunbaking, swimming, reading, relaxing - before the last flight back to Sydney, leaving Guam at 3:30 am!!