What an amazing write up. It's as described as your pictures. I love travel posts like these!Food was good. Lots of seafood especially salmon. Some good sushi. Nothing earth shattering but there's also a culture in Norway (at least in the north) where travelers make a lot of their own meals. In part because some places in the north literally only have 1 restaurant for the 'town' (which might only be a handful of buildings). They'd be open from 5pm-9pm and have 1-3 main dishes based on what they caught or happened to get shipped in that day. And in part because food is pretty expensive there. A lot of our lodging came with kitchenettes so we'd get staples that can last a few days without much refrigeration: bread for toast in the morning and sandwiches on the trail/in the car, eggs, fruit, butter that kind of thing.
As an anecdote to explain the remoteness of some of the places up north: The Narvik airport (EVE - which is a fairly notable airport for Norway) is in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Its 50min from Narvik itself. It has a single hotel, gas station, and restaurant near it. The next restaurant is 15min away by car and the next restaurant after that is 40min away.
Anyway we were surprised to learn that frozen pizza and beer dinners are a big thing in Norway so we had to do that. We were still skeptical it was actually a thing but sure enough as we stood by a freezer at a grocer trying to decide on what pizza we wanted there was a steady stream of Norwegians to grab their favorite pizza. Busiest part of the store. And sure enough all those people were then by the beer section picking up a 6 pack. Unfortunately I selected what I eventually learned was the broil icon on the oven so that first pizza wasn't the best and we had to give it another go for another dinner.
I loved the scenery. Hiking was top notch - and a touch aggressive for this flatlander. When your "Moderate" difficulty hikes include near vertical cliff scaling via rope we have different definitions of "Moderate". But then I can walk for several miles at home and get 50' of elevation gains and everything in Norway (even their museums and zoos) has several hundred feet of elevation changes. But there were great trails and scenery everywhere you looked.
I also loved how there wasn't the obsession with monetizing everything. "Hey while you're in the park here's some food. Go hand it to the foxes over there." "Hey we need to socialize our dog sledding dogs. Come play with them for free. Buy some coffee if you want but its not required. By the way can you hold this puppy for us? Thanks." "Welcome to our museum. Here are the exhibits. You want a boat ride? Included. Horse back riding? Included. Axe throwing? Same. Shoot ye old replica bow and arrow? Ditto. " You know that shit would have been extra in the US (and other countries). And come with separate release forms. They were just handing out axes to kids
Evenings? To be honest outside of Bergen and Olso we didn't do a ton. In part because we were up early to make sure we could get out before the crowds, get on the first ferry etc. I mean - outside of a few places it wasn't crowded but if I can get out early and have the entire trail to myself? Heaven. And in part because we were out hiking a lot and we're not used to their terrain so we were usually pretty tired. Which was good because most of the places in the north likely didn't offer much in the way of other options
" You know that shit would have been extra in the US (and other countries). And come with separate release forms. They were just handing out axes to kids
The cuts of salmon were generousPictures of food? Don't fail us.
Oh my god.
What do they eat every day? Or their traditional cuisine.
You're welcome!Wow!
I can't thank you enough for posting your photos and comments.
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Thanks!Awesome pics thank you ..... was about time for some new wallpaper too!