Preikestolen. (Photo courtesy of mcxurxo at Flickr, CC License.)
What attracts you to Norway? Is it språket (the language), fjordene (the fjords), fjellene (the mountains) – or maybe trollene (the trolls)? Tourists and Norwegians alike often have very romantiske forestillinger (romantic ideas) about Norge! 🙂 Here are some of the images reisebyrået ditt (your travel agency) love to paint:
- Norwegians love skiing and trekking på fjellet (in the mountains). They often have blonde hair and blue eyes and are really athletic. Norwegian women, and some men, wear bunad (national costume) at every opportunity, such as 17. mai – the constitution day where everyone is happy and waves a little Norwegian flagg.
- Norway is the land of fjords. Sola skinner (the sun is shining) a lot, there’s always snø på fjelltoppene (snow on the mountain peaks) and you can take a boat all the way from Bergen to Northern Norway and shoot a million wonders with your camera. Watch out for midnattssol (midnight sun) and nordlys (northern ligths) up north.
- All Norwegians drink melk (milk) and eat brunost (brown cheese, often from goat milk). They spend their holidays in primitive hytter (cabins) hundreds of meters above the world’s problems.
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Rosemaling. (Photo courtesy of Barbara Olson at Flickr.)
Norway is the land of traditions. Unlike other European peoples, Norwegians keep their dialects. Ancient arts such as rosemaling (”rose painting”) and hardingfele (a violin with two layers of strings) still thrive. Farmers still hang grass to dry on a hesje [HESHeh] (drying rack for hay) and bring their sheep to a seter (highland farm or grassing area) each summer.
Hesje with drying grass on it. (Photo courtesy of Fairy Heart at Flickr, CC License.)
Of course, my above list is exaggerated. Of course, Norway is a modern country with iPads and plenty of ”real world” problems. But then again, the points aren’t very far from the truth. Go to Preikestolen, and you’ll see there’s a reason for the hype. Isn’t it great that Romantic Norway really does exist? 🙂
