How my one-month trip to Norway was
Part One - Norway: The Travel and Experience.
I.
It started - of course - with a plane over England to Norway, the air turning gradually from a smoke-grey haze on whose edges the sun laced it into gold linen, to a clearer blue with the sun fully up. No dew was in the air. I landed on an airport called Sola flyplass, then continued to Oslo flyplass, until - eleven pm, I landed in Kristiansund flyplass, close to the cabin we had ordered. We drove for thirty minutes until we reached tens of small and large islands combined by broer that blended into the scenery, each island seperated by a large lake. It was a grand world, so unique - ethereal, almost: the sun lazed behind large, forest-sweeped mountains on one of the islands on the opposite direction of ours, and that island - along with another, kind of made a path into another Norwegian "world", with the lake running between them until it mended into the two islands. There were snow on some tops - even if it was summer, 28 degrees celsius, and the sun shone brightly - some said the snow never leaves some peaks. It was beautiful, strange, haughting, as if the land of giants or gods: the combination of sea and islands, islands full of rock and tree and snow. We reached the cabin by turning off to the left from the small roads (as if blended into the nature - almost invisible) into another, smaller road - pebbles and sand corn, which bent around to the road again and went beneath it (a sort of underground arc) and continued down the island toward the sea. Forest was on both sides of the steep, descending road - shrubs, flowers, straw- and rasp- and blueberry plants - and we drove until - in front of us - we saw two deer (mother and child), and we clutched the break. The short moment is something I will never forget - time had stopped, momentarily we held each others eyes before - suavely - they leaped into the trees. We drove to the bottom of the road, and we saw a small clearing where we could park our car. This place was untouched by human hands, the only sign was that it said Hut number 3 to us, so we knew where to park and where to go. There was a small path leading out of the claring, toward the water we still hadn't seen except from on the road, when the forest suddenly stopped and we stepped into a huge garden. It was beautiful, and there was a wide plant with flowers (yellow) in an arc that was our entrance to the garden, large pebbles leading us down the garden and to the cabin, at the right. At the left, there was a small stream running through the garden, cutting off the main garden to the smaller garden the farthest away from the cabin. Flowers were everywhere and neatly places - magnolias, lilacs, honeyscuckles, gazanias, roses, and behind the cabin - facing toward the forest and off the sea - was a cloudberry tree and a redcurrant bush. We walked to the cabin, still on the pebbles, which did not end before we came to large three-leveled veranda we stepped onto. Then we faced the garden beneath us - and the large lake, and the island at the other side, with its mountain and snow at the top, forest on the bottom. We also noticed that - between the garden and the sea - was a lovely terracotta coloured stone berg falling into the sea. Curious to see it, I dropped my bags on the veranda, saw my parents turn the key and take our baggage into the fine, red cabin, and walked over the garden and onto the berg, looked to both my sides, saw that the berg stretched around the whole place (and probably did the whole island), and that - on the left - there was a boat house and a boat . . . Paradise. We stayed here for a week, saw a type of small whales in the water (not larger than two meters the Norwegian called "nise" and looked as cute as a dolphin), caught salmons from the boat, played cards, badminton, before we reluctantly continued our travel, to Kristiansand this time, a coast city on the other side of Norway, far south.
We were greeted with rain and sun at the same time, a soft, wet warmth, and found took into a hotel. This was another life than the calm in the cabin - this was a coast city through and through, with the atmosphere of berg and boats, beach, water, fishfood, sea, beer and city life, mixed with a cultural life reminding me of Scotland almost. It was here that I saw the OotP movie and bought the book. More of that in Part Two later.
I.
It started - of course - with a plane over England to Norway, the air turning gradually from a smoke-grey haze on whose edges the sun laced it into gold linen, to a clearer blue with the sun fully up. No dew was in the air. I landed on an airport called Sola flyplass, then continued to Oslo flyplass, until - eleven pm, I landed in Kristiansund flyplass, close to the cabin we had ordered. We drove for thirty minutes until we reached tens of small and large islands combined by broer that blended into the scenery, each island seperated by a large lake. It was a grand world, so unique - ethereal, almost: the sun lazed behind large, forest-sweeped mountains on one of the islands on the opposite direction of ours, and that island - along with another, kind of made a path into another Norwegian "world", with the lake running between them until it mended into the two islands. There were snow on some tops - even if it was summer, 28 degrees celsius, and the sun shone brightly - some said the snow never leaves some peaks. It was beautiful, strange, haughting, as if the land of giants or gods: the combination of sea and islands, islands full of rock and tree and snow. We reached the cabin by turning off to the left from the small roads (as if blended into the nature - almost invisible) into another, smaller road - pebbles and sand corn, which bent around to the road again and went beneath it (a sort of underground arc) and continued down the island toward the sea. Forest was on both sides of the steep, descending road - shrubs, flowers, straw- and rasp- and blueberry plants - and we drove until - in front of us - we saw two deer (mother and child), and we clutched the break. The short moment is something I will never forget - time had stopped, momentarily we held each others eyes before - suavely - they leaped into the trees. We drove to the bottom of the road, and we saw a small clearing where we could park our car. This place was untouched by human hands, the only sign was that it said Hut number 3 to us, so we knew where to park and where to go. There was a small path leading out of the claring, toward the water we still hadn't seen except from on the road, when the forest suddenly stopped and we stepped into a huge garden. It was beautiful, and there was a wide plant with flowers (yellow) in an arc that was our entrance to the garden, large pebbles leading us down the garden and to the cabin, at the right. At the left, there was a small stream running through the garden, cutting off the main garden to the smaller garden the farthest away from the cabin. Flowers were everywhere and neatly places - magnolias, lilacs, honeyscuckles, gazanias, roses, and behind the cabin - facing toward the forest and off the sea - was a cloudberry tree and a redcurrant bush. We walked to the cabin, still on the pebbles, which did not end before we came to large three-leveled veranda we stepped onto. Then we faced the garden beneath us - and the large lake, and the island at the other side, with its mountain and snow at the top, forest on the bottom. We also noticed that - between the garden and the sea - was a lovely terracotta coloured stone berg falling into the sea. Curious to see it, I dropped my bags on the veranda, saw my parents turn the key and take our baggage into the fine, red cabin, and walked over the garden and onto the berg, looked to both my sides, saw that the berg stretched around the whole place (and probably did the whole island), and that - on the left - there was a boat house and a boat . . . Paradise. We stayed here for a week, saw a type of small whales in the water (not larger than two meters the Norwegian called "nise" and looked as cute as a dolphin), caught salmons from the boat, played cards, badminton, before we reluctantly continued our travel, to Kristiansand this time, a coast city on the other side of Norway, far south.
We were greeted with rain and sun at the same time, a soft, wet warmth, and found took into a hotel. This was another life than the calm in the cabin - this was a coast city through and through, with the atmosphere of berg and boats, beach, water, fishfood, sea, beer and city life, mixed with a cultural life reminding me of Scotland almost. It was here that I saw the OotP movie and bought the book. More of that in Part Two later.