Nordic Wanderings

Before heading to Ireland to pick up our campervan, we made a quick detour to visit Tara’s brother, Simon and his cheese and kisses, Ida in Norway.

Currently living in Oslo, they have an apartment, which has a crazy 360 degree view of the city, with surrounding mountains to one side and a dazzling fjord to the other. To enhance this spectacular view we arrived at 11pm, which is dusk at this time of year. The navy light of the night sky filters down to a powder orange at the horizon, with a gradient of blues in between. It’s nothing like you’ve ever seen at home, and I’m sure it’s unique to regions nearing the arctic circle.

Oslo itself is a clean, safe and incredibly expensive city, which is relative to the wages earned in Norway, but not to our meagre travelling budget. Luckily the blow up air-mattress in Simon and Ida’s apartment came rent free along with fruit and veg in the fridge.

We spent our first day roaming the streets of Oslo, taking in the fresh spring air and sunshine, while trying to find a decent meal under $40 each. We couldn’t. To give you an idea, a can of Heineken at the supermarket is around $6-7 AUD, and it doesn’t get cheaper if you want to buy a slab. It’s all by the can. Holy Shit is right my bogan beer-drinking friends. There’s really no way around it. If you come to Norway be prepared to spend some coin. It is well worth the trip however. Every corner you walk around there is the most beautiful human you’ve ever laid eyes on, it’s kind of ridiculous. Guys and girls, all dressed well, hair primped and pout on walk around the streets like it’s a Milan catwalk. Tara and I had whiplashed necks by the end of the day. There must be something in the icy water up there.

On the Friday night, over a meal of salmon and veges with friends from Western Australia; Simon, Ida, Tara and I decided that we’d bus down to Ida’s family summer place off Skjærhalden for the weekend.

Herføl  is a quiet island in the south of Norway, a sleepy little town with a population of 80 people and no cars allowed accept by special permit. It’s like something out of Moby Dick. Black Nordic water, storm tossed by the wind, surrounds the main island, with small grey humps of rock rising out of the water like whale’s backs. There is green lush vegetation all over, engulfing the few shacks, which have been built there. 

I couldn’t think of a more peaceful area and we kept imagining the Vikings, rowing their boats through the same waters over a thousand years before. A reminder of these yesteryears came when Ida showed us a rocky cairn of boulders, which is an old gravesite from the Bronze Age. 

Despite its isolation, even now from the outside world, people have been coming to Herføl  to relax for a very long time. We were told that in winter the island is covered in snow, and more often that not, the sea freezes, so you can walk across the ice to either the mainland or even Sweden if you want.

We spent our time in Herføl  walking over the island, peering into old fishing cabins, and relaxing in Ida’s shack, which is coloured in blue, yellow and white, to give it a real seaside feel. We even curled up on the coach in front the roaring log fire to watch Eurovision on T.V. In case you haven’t heard, Azerbaijan won. It’s OK, we didn’t know it was a country either.

Two days on the island felt like a dreamy week, and on Sunday we emerged back into the real present day world, ready to catch our plane to the Emerald Isle and pick up our van.