Alle fugler… (Photo courtesy of Henning Klokkeråsen at Flickr, CC License.)

Det er vår! (It’s spring!) To really know how fantastisk våren er, you have to spend a vinter i Norge. Nothing compares to fuglesang (bird song) and fresh vårluft (spring air) after months of snø (snow) and darkness! With two visits to Norway so far this year, I’ve been able to follow utviklinga (the development) up close.

Central Europeans may leave their luer (winter caps) at home in February or early March, but in Norway våren usually arrives a bit later to the party. Of course, with such an insanely long and varied country nothing is clear-cut: You might be enjoying an utepils in Oslo while it’s snowing in Tromsø – eller omvendt (or the other way around)!

På Vestlandet (in Western Norway), where I’ve been living, it’s hard to tell where vinteren slutter (winter ends). Down by fjorden there may be vårblomster (spring flowers) and nice regnvær (rain weather) for the fisketur (fishing trip). Then you go 500 metres opp på fjellet (up in the mountains), and there’s still plenty of snow for skiing! 🙂

Fugler (birds) are a classical vårtegn (”spring sign”). Up north birds are a bit like tourists who only come when sola skinner (the sun is shining). Lots of birds spend their winter in Africa, then return to Norway when været (the weather) is a bit more pleasant. To me, the following song nicely describes spring in Norway:

Alle fugler små de er
kommet nå tilbake!
Gjøk og sisik, trost og stær  
synger alle dage.
Lerka jubler høyt i sky,
ringer våren inn på ny.
Frost og snø de måtte fly,
her er sol og glede!

All small birds have
now come back!
The cuckoo and the redpoll, the thrush and the starling
are singing every day.
The lark is shouting loudly with joy towards the clouds,
invoking spring anew.
They had to flee from frost and snow,
here there’s sun and joy!