norwegian island living 2

there was a fascinating bar in the in-house restaurant (and isn't the restaurant gorgeous with the atlantic lapping on its shore) and the bar tender was kind to talk us through the drinks. most of which we were unfamiliar with! what i also liked was how they infused their own (60%) vodka with chilli, ginger, seabuckthorn and other local delicacies whose names escape me now.

we went walking by the beach and there were lots of washed up jellyfish, although i posed with the biggest hehe. and the view of the row of painted wooden houses was worth the stroll to while away some time before noon (said bartender wouldn't serve us drinks before haha).

norwegian island living

the mister never fails to surprise me with his resourcefulness and how he found our island stay was sheer serendipity. even though he very graciously plans our holidays and keeps most things a surprise (so i always have that 'first look' wow), it's nice to see how he reacts to 'new' places that he's already extensively researched. i suppose it's a sad thing if a website does a place justice, because they should really look better in real life. unless the photographer is amazing (which isn't always the case!). the beach house was built on a former concrete factory, and when we met the charming owner* the next morning i was fascinated by his vision and ethos. there was such amazing attention to detail, from the repurposed sail wrapped around the bar, to the different design elements of each room, to the gorgeous restaurant. what i particularly enjoyed was learning how there was a story behind every thing. like the wood was from the local ship junkyard where a russian ship had run aground while escaping the coastguard and later dismantled. and how the starck chairs were integrated into a composite whole where not everything was fancy, but everything came together harmoniously. what an eye!

*a very distinguished-looking norwegian gent who, get this, exports uni from the island to tsukij and knows his konbu, dashi, bonito and umami! 

cloister garden

the only problem with taking the great atlantic road so leisurely and enjoying every twist and turn was that the mister ended up driving in pitch darkness to the abbey we were spending the night at. it did not help that the area was so remote the GPS could only take us to the general vicinity (it was on a big island) but not the exact location. and a big, remote island is no fun to navigate in the darkness. but we found it eventually (phew!) and were given the entire house when the mister had just booked a double room. had a mini freak out when i learnt our bedroom door did not lock (the main door did) and again the mister rolled his eyes at my paranoia. guess i'm less trusting than the islanders and it was fine in the morning for no one had harvested our kidneys in the middle of the night.

the farmer / home brewer / coffee shop owner was a real sweetie. despite our unfriendly arrival time (11pm) he was up waiting, and made us a hearty supper. for breakfast, he comp-ed the aronia juice (his new product!) and was nothing but smiley and helpful. aw. and the perks of staying in an abbey garden that also makes its own beer is that we'd lots of it after breakfast, a safe time before setting off.

great atlantic road

what attracted the mister to norway, and inspired him to road trip was the great atlantic road. to be honest, it's a lot less impressive when you're actually on it (compared to the google image below) but the views were still breath-taking and we hopped out of the car ever so often to take silly photos or race around the little hills and islands. in fact, one of my favourite photos from the trip came out of leg-stretching stop. usually don't trust anyone to take photos for us (so we've plenty of selfies and poorly-taken timer-cam shots!) but this kindly german man toting a pro camera offered to take a photo on my iPhone. as a rule of thumb, i only pass my iPhone to strangers i think the mister can outrun. and this time, the german tourist looked like santa claus without the facial hair. took a calculated risk (the mister says i'm paranoid, he's probably right) and thanked him for his offer. and boy, was it a textbook shot in photo composition, complete with the right light. and you might know how hard it is to get the light right on the iPhone. all that fussy fiddly angling you've to do but somehow he managed it, and we've (what i think is) a great photo of us :)

 the only problem with taking the great atlantic road so leisurely and enjoying every twist and turn was that the mister ended up driving in pitch darkness to the abbey we were spending the night at. it did not help that the area was so remote the GPS could only take us to the general vicinity (it was on a big island) but not the exact location. and a big, remote island is no fun to navigate in the darkness. but we found it eventually (phew!) and were given the entire house when the mister had just booked a double room. had a mini freak out when i learnt our bedroom door did not lock (the main door did) and again the mister rolled his eyes at my paranoia. guess i'm less trusting than the islanders and it was fine in the morning for no one had harvested our kidneys in the middle of the night.

the farmer / home brewer / coffee shop owner was a real sweetie. despite our unfriendly arrival time (11pm) he was up waiting, and made us a hearty supper. for breakfast, he comp-ed the aronia juice (his new product!) and was nothing but smiley and helpful. aw. and the perks of staying in an abbey garden that also makes its own beer is that we'd lots of it after breakfast, a safe time before setting off.

juvet landscape hotel

knowing how hard it would be to tear ourselves away from the lighthouse, the mister had hidden his ace up his sleeve. it was only after much cajoling, and telling me "the next place will be even better" did i reluctantly follow him to the car. and boy am i glad i did. because my oh my, i do think he outdid himself with the next place. little did i know that he'd seen this hotel, booked it before even booking our flight tickets, and proceeded to plan the roadtrip around it. strangely, i'd just read about it on my fb newsfeed and even earlier, a friend had blogged about it. so there was this strange deja vu moment when i stepped into our room. but in a good way! and i couldn't believe i was actually staying where i'd only dreamt of before.

the photo above is of the steam room before the steamer came on. had to crank up our core body temperature before swimming in the glacial meltwater haha. 

we bumped into yet another gorgeous norwegian man who was filming on location and he told us about the troll's way just down the road. that's the thing about norway. every one we'd the privilege of meeting had been nothing but welcoming and eager to share their country's bounty with us. intrigued, we ventured to the troll's way before dinner and caught the trail and platform in the setting sun. again, tour bus and almost tourist-free ;) 

dinner back at the hotel was a communal affair, one i'm not entirely used to but do enjoy on the odd occasion. reminded me of dinner in goa and it was a fascinating, international bunch. mostly couples (german, israeli, mexican, us) and an indonesian family from jakarta. the israeli gent was a tribal art collector who'd been to more places in south east asia than i (and the indonesians!), the mexican couple were a barrel of laughs, and the indonesian family good conversation, laughing at how corrupt indonesia is and how you just need to know which palms to grease to make any thing possible. not too sure how i take to that, coming from straight-laced, un-corrupt singapore (something i love and am proud of!) but it was just dinner banter. and no one meant any harm. it did get quite political at one point, when the indonesian and israeli started talking palestine (dun dun dunnnnn...) but someone diffused the situation (probably the mexican) and it was smiles all round when dessert came.

edit: if you'd like to read more about india, here's a guest post i did yonks ago!

lighthouse

now the mister knows me better than i know myself. knowing that i like the idea of the sea, but would never survive the night on a boat, he booked us into a lighthouse ;) i mean, who'd have thought of that?! (not me) and he kept it a surprise so i thought we were randomly walking along the sea wall because the mister, bless him, is curious that way, when suddenly he stops in front of this little lighthouse. all along i'd been bracing myself to spend the night on a little fishing boat so to realise we were going to be on solid ground was such a comfort.

it was a tiny lighthouse, unmanned but functional. so if it's just one night, it was quite novel to have the green light flashing every now and again (we'd eye masks for sleeping time) and to hear the waves lap against the shore. thank goodness the ships had left by bed time. no creaky rocking and no fishing boats tooting their horn.

the supremely well-appointed bathroom even had a raintree shower. how awesome is that?! a raintree shower in a lighthouse. my mind is still reeling.

and breakfast the next morning was delivered in a hamper, which we promptly unpacked and ate in bed :)

car ferries north!

we left the little guesthouse on the fjords, passed the huge glacier, and stopped at cafe built into the fjord for a snack. little did we know that our car would start rolling downhill (and straight into a rock!) when we were out of it. i heard a shriek and turned around to see this incredible german guy jump between our car and the rock, and stop it with his two hands. i mean, talk about a hulk moment! and wow what public spirited-ness. i'd not have come between a metal behemoth and the edge of a fjord, if you get what i mean. much less successfully stop it in its tracks. naturally, we were immensely grateful and got talking to the lovely gent and his lady friend. turns out they were berliners (!!!) and what was meant to be a quick waffle stop became an hour-long friend-making session :) 

(yes, our car was fine. it was parked on a gravel slope and despite the handbrake being pulled up all the way, there was insufficient grip... so we re-parked on a flatter stretch of fjord and all was right with the world.)

after exchanging contacts, it was onwards to what turned out to be one of three (!!!) car ferries that day! there was a bit of a wait so we'd stop for kebabs, pizza and postcards just before boarding the ferry. this one even had free wifi haha so i think i uploaded a couple of photos to fb. i guess the thing about connectivity is that there's always the temptation to browse but this trip i tried to wean myself off social media (with limited success) and focus on being truly present. stuff like one instagram a day (usually at night when we got wifi) but no constantly checking email / whatsapp because, well, the only person i wanted to talk to was right next to me :)

glacial detour

the gorgeous norwegian man who was summer job-ing at the guesthouse told us of this amazing glacier a mere ten minutes away. now, i'm intentionally digressing here, but what's up with handsome norwegian men? there must be something special in their fjord water, or whatever it is they drink, because oh my every single norwegian man we met was gorgeous. even the older ones! they seem to age very well indeed. chiseled good looks, well-landscaped facial hair and amazingly clear skin. crazy! but yes, back to the glacier. the stars aligned and we managed to miraculously hop out of the car during the tour bus lull. we saw a horde of buses leave as we arrived, and another horde arrive as we left. but for the half an hour we were there, the lake felt like it belonged to us :) yay!

fairyland

we took a slow, scenic drive to our first stop and despite the mister's reservations (he had warned me it was going to be hit or miss!) we fell head over heels for the guesthouse on the fjords. in fact, we went for a walk before dinner and were relieved that he picked ours over the one down the road. now that looked completely haunted, and dated, and apparently he'd picked ours on a whim. whew! our room opened right onto the fjord and i was torn between spending dusk on the terrace (also on the fjord) or in our room. happy problems :) went a'exploring the area before dinner and realised i could get a good view of the hotel from the houses across the road. small problem there - wasn't about to trespass in the name of inquisitiveness (and art!) but as luck would have it, i bumped into one of the residents on his way out for a fishing trip and he invited me to traipse around his land and "take as many photos as you like!". later sheepishly explained to another couple on their porch (as i was stepping off local #1's property) that i'd his express permission to walk around and they too were completely welcoming, telling me they'd a good view of the mountain from their backyard and to mosey over for a look-see if i'd wanted. and that's when i realised that unlike the common law notion of private property, them norwegians thought of the land / mountains / fjords as a common good, something meant for everyone to enjoy. suppose living across a small street from the guesthouse meant they'd no shortage of curious tourists, but to be so warm about it and open up their homes to a complete stranger - now that was something very special. really gives an insight into their psyche!

 

the unreal view from our room.

bergen

ok so this isn't really about bergen. having just been in january, we were sorta bergen-ed out and only saw the airport. it was a good entry point to start our roadtrip from and we passed some pretty nice views on the drive north. i mean, like this photo below... any how snap on iPhone also looks decent. (proper english translation: despite it being a careless iPhone snap, the photo turned out looking decent) oh yes. all the photos are taken on the iPhone and they haven't been edited / filtered. the sky was really that blue. the grass was really that green. if only every thing was like summer in norway :)

along the way, we passed what was hailed as continental europe's highest waterfall. i'm a little skeptical but hey, they need the tourist revenue, some how! and the drive north / wonderful thing about driving in norway is that we took car ferries to cross from one fjord to the next. it's almost like an extension of the road (funny!) but we'd drive until we run out of road, then onto the car ferry which would take us to the landing point on the next fjord. good fun, and how novel!

 

roadtripping the fjords!

when i was on exchange in stockholm in 2009, i pirated the 'norway in a nutshell' tour. the irony (pirates, vikings etc) wasn't lost on me and it was good fun traveling from bergen to flam by bus, ferry and train. when the mister was in belgium on exchange in 2008, he went to tromso and was lucky enough to see the northern lights. having had only a taster of norway, we were both excited to go back. so much so that we popped over to bergen for the weekend after my january exams earlier this year. when the summer bank holiday rolled round, we were tempted to do what (feels like) every other mobile brit / brit-based person does i.e. fly south and veg out on a beach. but the mister, as you might've guessed by now, is anything but conventional. plus the thought of fighting throngs of brit tourists in the mediterranean didn't appeal to us. the mister then turned his attention north, and planned an amazing route through the norwegian fjords*, and a surprise foray to sweden. because, i mean, i had been going on and on about how much i missed sweden and kicking myself for not venturing outside stockholm. suppose i shouldn't be surprised he actually listened, bless his heart, and sneakily detoured through are (pronounced "o:ra") to fan my swedish flame.

the mister's theme for the trip (he's poetic that way!) was "sleeping in unusual places". thank goodness i protested the original plan (camping and sleeping in a tent) because unusual as that might've been, comfort is something i take very seriously. the mister, however, is a guards captain and goodness knows them brown berets are completely at home in unhospitable environments. that said, the mister planner supreme then hand-picked an amazing bunch of places to stay. we spent the night at a quaint guesthouse that opened right onto the fjords, a functional but un-manned lighthouse (!!!), a military-inspired barrack room with killer views, a converted cloister garden and a beach house made from re-purposed materials. oh ya, the beach house used to be a concrete factory haha. for that surprise foray to sweden, we stayed at the best ski lodge for a steal (because it was summer!) and staying off-season at swish places has its benefits... like an amazing spa that was almost completely empty and great views of the ski valley.

but i get ahead of myself. will be posting on the various places we stayed for the next week or so. please do check back if you'd like to see :)

*right after our icelandic midsummer wedding, we went walking on the icelandic fjords and fell in love with their serene majesty. visiting their continental european cousins was, therefore, the next logical thing to do!

why we walk

so i got a teensy bit conned into a 10km hike. the mister suggested we take the funicular up the mountain. seeing how i don't usually enjoy going against gravity in the natural, a funicular solves all problems. little did i know that the funicular only went midway up the mountain. and the mister, oh the mister, had his eye set on the many kilometres of forested trails. we alighted from the funicular, took a few great shots of the view from the platform and then started walking behind the pushchair army. but then the pushchair army stopped, and we kept going, and suddenly we were walking almost vertically. and off piste. which was not fun. 

hike

we rode the funicular thinking there'd be a good view from the top, and so there was! what i hadn't realised was that this was all part of the mister's sneaky plan to hike 10 (!!!) km in the undulating terrain, before catching our afternoon flight back to london. it was a breath-taking walk with majestic views of the norwegian wilderness. what we liked was how everyone and their mother seemed to be on that mountain on a sunday, just chilling. it was so social - like it was the common meeting point and we saw many groups of friends / family walking together. what a great example of healthy living! unfortunately, the guidebook sort of under-sold (over-sold?) the route the mister chose and when we as we were climbing steep steps cut into the mountainside, i started to wonder what exactly we'd signed up for.

bryggen

so bergen is all about the bryggen moneyshot - the row of hanseatic houses by the water. there's also a fish market that's cleaned up its act and moved indoors since i visited in 2009. we climbed up to the church behind the funicular ticket house and had a good view of the rooftops, followed by a cheeky cup of coffee at a cosy cafe tucked among the windy windy lanes.