Norway

Living in Sweden has provided our family with numerous opportunities that just would not be available otherwise. Once you are here, you can get in your car and drive anywhere and see anything. We can experience the culture, meet the people, learn their ways, gain a new perspective, and do things that we never thought we'd be doing.

Driving through Norway is something I never dreamed of doing, but I have done it now. It was fascinating to see this unknown place come alive before my eyes. I felt as if I was drinking in each sight, and purposely committing each glimpse to memory. I'm afraid of forgetting it. I want it to be as alive in my mind as it was the day I saw it. That explains why some of us have to snap pictures of every interesting thing that passes into view: a fence, a building, that hillside, those goats, a tractor, a lake, etc. I tried desperately to capture the feelings that were evoked by what I saw onto film. Again and again I was disappointed with the quality of my pictures because they could not reflect what I felt as I saw whatever it was I found so moving. The picture doesn't tell the story. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes its only worth a hundred.

I snapped over 200 pictures. I am happy with all of them. I think I took pictures of everything that excited me. But already I'm left with an emptiness. All I have left are some pictures, a few souvenirs, and many happy memories. Even if I could go back right now, it wouldn't be the same as when I was there before. The same thing has happened with my expectations of this summer in Stockholm repeating itself to be as good as it was last year. It isn't that its not as good, its just different.

If you're wondering exactly how our camping trip to Norway went, hang on a second. I'm getting there...

I was excited about going to Norway, but I had low expectations. I assumed it would be very similiar to Sweden or Denmark. But it wasn't. It was vastly different. We looked at pictures on the internet while we searched for ideal places to camp, and things to see and do. Based on those pictures alone, I knew we were in for the scenery of a lifetime. I didn't know if we'd find anything else of interest, but at least it would be pretty!

The landscape was spotless. There were no billboards, no fast food advertisements (because there are no fast food chains in Norway - not that we saw anyway), no trashy ditches or back yards, no "bad part of town", no stoplights (just roundabouts), no traffic jams, no speed limits over 50 mph, no big city life... do you get my drift? Its perfect for camping!

The landscape was rich - dominated by the greenest, thickest grass you ever saw, with trees everywhere. Cows grazed in hillside fields, and free-roaming goats wearing bells around their necks were casually hanging out near the roadside. (They seemed to know that the road was dangerous and kept to the grassy ditch area.) Moose signs were plentiful along the roadside, warning travelers of the possibility of crashing into one. Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose. I think its more likely you will crash into the moose sign, than an actual moose. Perfect houses with flowery front yards were scattered throughout the mountain valleys. The main highway passes through small towns where the dark brown color of its buildings seems to say to you "I'm Norwergian" in the same way that the dark red of the houses here in Sweden say "I'm Swedish."

We rode fjord horses for an hour through a picturesque hillside town that looks over a fjord. Halfway through the ride I began to experience that rookie cowgirl problem, a good idea of what it was going to feel like to be saddle sore the next day. My boys had never rode horses before and I could gauge their happiness by the grins on their faces! It was worth what it cost, both monetarily and physically.

Our adventure began in Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Olympics. We enjoyed the museum and seeing the ski jumps above the city. I was happy to see the place and take my boys there since this year's Olympics are right around the corner. Driving around in Lillehammer we were surprised to hear country music playing on the radio. (There is no country music station in Stockholm!)

We visited Briksdalsbreen Glacier and climbed nearly an hour and a half to reach its snout. What a sight that was! Icy blue mountain, with little streams of water running in various places as part of the glacier melts each summer. We had hoped to actually do some walking on it, (with a guide of course!) along all with the necessary gear. But we arrived after the last group of trekkers went out and we couldn't come back the next day. Note to self: Next time don't rely just on the schedule that the brochure contains - call the place and verify they actually will have a guide available at 5:00!

My guys were brave (and thick skinned) as they took a dive into some very cold water. We camped at Strynsvatn Lake, where the temperature of the water is around, oh, something like 65 degrees. Refreshing, you say? Heart stopping, I say. It took my husband and both boys quite awhile to work up the willpower to jump in, but they finally took the plunge. No sooner were they in the water, than they made a beeline for the ladder to get themselves OUT. Seeing's how someone has to run the cameras and tape such important events as these, yours truly was unable to experience this. I'm sure you understand.

Have you ever heard of the Geiranger Fjord? Its one of the most visited fjords in Norway. Now we know why. We drove our truck onto the ferry and enjoyed the scenic trip across the fjord as we sat on the top deck. We saw the Seven Sisters Waterfall. Oh, did I mention that we saw waterfalls very frequently while we were in Norway? I've never seen so many waterfalls in my whole entire life as I did in those seven days in Norway. At one point I joked with ~D~ that we might actually get tired of seeing mundane old waterfalls!

These are the highlights of what I'd call "the best camping trip ever." I plan on having a nice long visit with my Norwegian neighbors when they return from vacation. I need to know their address in Norway so we can go visit them someday.

Rejoicing,
For time spent in Norway
and for Home Sweet Home,
Marla

P.S. I'll post a few pictures later. For now, I wanted to get the words down before they escaped!