Getting Fjorded in Norway


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July 8th 2011
Published: July 15th 2011
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A rough estimate of our path through the fjordlands in Norway.

If you zoom in a little, the northern starting point of this zig zag was Geiranger (our first camping spot) and the southern end point was Laerdal (our last camping spot).

Of course there's no verb form of fjord, but I'm gonna go with it anyway. Last weekend, I got fjorded. I'll define that as being exposed to a heavy dose of fjord. For those of you who have never seen a fjord in person, there is something especially captivating about fjords. Besides being a fun word to say, fjords, at least in my opinion, are one of the most brilliant landscapes mother nature has created in this world.

Once it was decided that I would be back in Sweden for the summer, I told Adina that I intended to visit the fjords. Well, when she relayed this message to her parents, her father, Anders, planned a road trip on my behalf. Anders, Petter (Adina's brother), and I would spend one night in Oslo on our way north followed by two full days and three nights surrounded by narrow strips of sea, waterfalls and towering mountains.

Anders and I set off from Halmstad at roughly 11 AM last Thursday. The first leg of our journey was a drive to Oslo, which we dragged out into 6 hours with a stop at Fredriksten Castle in Halden, Norway, just across the border from Sweden. From atop this old fortress, you look out at both Sweden and Norway. We arrived in Oslo, a city Adina guided me through last summer, and found our way to a hostel where Petter was living for the summer. It's very common for young Swedish people to go to Norway for summer jobs as work is very easy to find and wages are high. This cozy hostel where Petter was living is owned by an overly generous, highly entertaining, excessively wine drinking couple, Ragna and Frode. They have become a set of Norwegian parents to Adina and both of her brothers as all three of them have lived in this hostel from time to time over the years. This being the case, they hosted a BBQ for Anders and I, their guests of honor, along with some old friends of mine, Linn, Linus and Bettina, all of whom visited me in Hawaii over the past year and are currently residing in Oslo. We dined on fresh grilled salmon, salad and potatoes. However brief, it was great to see these friends again and to be so graciously hosted by Ragna and Frode. Ironically, while we had come all this way for Petter to join us on this adventure, he was still at work while we feasted, so our chance to catch up would wait til the following day when we'd have nearly 8 hours in a Volvo station wagon to rehash the year gone by since we saw each other last August in Stockholm.

The following day we didn't hit the road until nearly 11, as Anders first had a business meeting in the city to wrap up before we could set off. Once on the road and beyond the city limits, Norway immediately became very green. Gradually, hills rose from the flats and depressions in the landscape filled with water. Be it rivers or lakes, the road north would hug a body of water for nearly our entire route to the fjords. After an hour or so driving around the western perimeter of Lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, we pulled into Lillehammer, a small town nestled on a hillside that looks over the north part of the lake. Lillehammer is famous for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics, for which a video game was subsequently produced that I loved when I was young. Considering it was a foreign city I knew more about than probably any other before my 12th birthday, I was surprised to see and learn how small it was, with a population of less than 30,000 and a picturesque downtown that was just a few short blocks of shops and cafes. We took a quick stroll through the town before driving up to the ski jump, built for the Olympics, that overlooks the city, and then once again hit the road in search of fjords.

After knocking out a few more hours on our drive, we pulled off at a campground for a picnic. This would become routine and was a unique part of this Scandinavian road trip adventure. Every point along our path north that had a particularly beautiful view, had a spot to pull over. Whenever a particularly gorgeous sight coincided with a grumbling stomach, we pulled over, grabbed the camping table and cooler from the car, and had a beautiful spread in front of us within minutes, looking over snow capped mountains, a fjord, a lake, a river or all of the above.

As we continued our drive, the hills reached towards the skies and became snow capped mountains. Though
Norway is still the most expensive country INorway is still the most expensive country INorway is still the most expensive country I

Last year, I posted a photo of the cost for a pint of Haagen Daaz ice cream, which at the time was around $10. Today, Norway is more expensive than last year with the dollar down more than 10% against the Norwegian Krone since last August. This year, this 10-pack of Coca-Cola cans is my example - nearly $17.
we weren't at a particularly high altitude, the forest thinned out, I presume due to extremely short days for half the year coupled with excessive snowfall. As the mountains grew, an abundance of waterfalls emerged in the landscape. The area is generally exposed to a lot of rain during this time of year, which, combined with snow and glacial melt, feeds countless alpine falls. After slithering between towering mountains, the road eventually leveled off. Shortly thereafter, we rounded a bend for our first glimpse of fjord. In front of us was a tightly winding road that took us from the mountain tops to sea level and to the shoreline of Geiranger Fjord, where we would set up camp for the night.

Geiranger is perhaps the most famous and most beautiful of the fjords in Norway. A very small village sits just of the narrow shore of the fjord. Sky high mountains rise on all sides into the clouds. A very large waterfall cuts right through the small village on its path to drain in the sea. Numerous other waterfalls dress the mountains on the two sides of the fjord and the most magnificent waterfall of all lies perhaps a kilometer off shore and perpendicular to the campground as the fjord wraps hard to the west. We set up our tent and camping grill, dining in what felt light 7 PM light, when it was actually well after 10. With our stomachs full, tiredness immediately set in, and though our tent suffered some minor leaks and our air mattress deflated within an hour of laying down, we slept otherwise well through a night that never got completely dark.

After a leisurely morning at the campground, we set off without much of a plan (but that, of course, was precisely our plan). We would drive wherever we felt like, stop for picnics and coffee wherever it suited us, and set up camp at whatever time and place we desired. The day began with immediate and unbelievable views. After waking up along the shores of a fjord, we drove up the mountain which sat across from the shore until we were gazing down into the wrapping waterway. From the camp site, our view into the fjord was not so distant because of the sharp turn it quickly made, but from up high we could see the way the narrow sea wrapped in and out of towering mountains for miles. Magnificent to say the least.

A few hours later we reached the famous Trollstigen (Troll's Ladder in English), a windy stretch of road that decends an extremely steep mountain face and cuts across two waterfalls (and yes, it is also inhabited by trolls). After a picnic at the base of the Trollstigen, we continued our routine of driving, somewhat aimlessly, for a few hours at a time, through a network of tunnels and ferries, occassionally stopping for coffee, photos, and sandwiches. Many hours of driving later and we found ourselves in an ever so tiny town called Hellsylt, only a few miles, as the bird flies, from where we had started the day. We would spend the night in a small cabin called a Hytte (these are available at nearly every camp ground and very common in Scandinavia) with a view of fjord from our window.

The following day followed suit with many hours of driving through nearly unimaginable beauty, but as the three of us concurred later, we had already hit the most beautiful stretch which was the drive from Geiranger to Trollstigen. Don't miss this if you find yourself in the area. On this day, we navigated our way south to the southern tip of Sognefjord, Norway's longest fjord (which was somewhat in the direction back to Oslo and Sweden). At the southernmost finger of this fjord was a town called Laerdal, our home for the third and final night in the fjords. We got there fairly early in the day providing us nearly a whole day to relax, once again, at the edge of a fjord. This day would be highlighted by the 30 second (felt like longer) swim in the frigid fjord waters of Laerdal's pebbly shore. Don't know what it is about those fjords, but its just as magical to be in it as it is to gaze upon it... just colder.

The next day was a doozy. We hit the road at 9 AM, waving goodbye to Sognefjord and the fjordland area of Norway. While beauty still surrounded us, we had lost some perspective after 2.5 days of getting fjorded. We arrived in Oslo at 3:30 PM, just in time for Petter to begin his 4 oclock work shift. Six hours later, Anders and I arrived in Halmstad. I walked into the house to a room full a Swedish girls getting ready to go out on the town for the night. After 13 hours in the car that day, there was clearly only one thing to do in that situation... a quick shower, a change of clothes, and we were off to Club Monday on the beach in Tylosand.

A big tack (thank you) to all of those who had a part in this amazing whirl of a weekend. The fjords are definitely somewhere I one day intend to return to while I'm on this journey...

***91 photos in this one... make sure to check them out***




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Fjord Swimming!Fjord Swimming!
Fjord Swimming!

Yes, I took a dip in Sognadal fjord and it was fricken freezing, but worth it... There's just something about fjords thats magic.
Campground at Geiranger FjordCampground at Geiranger Fjord
Campground at Geiranger Fjord

This is how many Europeans go on vacation. They get into their mobile homes and hit the road.


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