Isn't Norway a Funny Shape?!

That's for you Don!...

OK, so I told myself I wasnt going to bitch and moan about the price of things in Europe any more, but Im going to have to quickly say that Norway gets the award for most expensive country thus far, yikes! We left Malmö, Sweden one morning and got a ride (Tack Frans!) up to Helsingborg, the closest border crossing to Denmark. From there I took the ferry to Helsingor (it's very confusing isnt it) in Denmark and returning with 6 bottles of alcohol (and Marcus's birthday present, hahahaha!) which is the most cost effective option when going to the land of the $100 bottle of Smirnoff. We then got a bus up to Oslo, fortunately passing straight through the customs checkpoint! We were met by our Norwegian friends Magnus and Gry, who Im just going to say were absolute champions (Thanks so much guys!), letting us stay at their place, feeding us some excellent food and organising basically everything that we are going to talk about below!

The Mighty Canoe Trip

Every year, for the past 12 years or so, Magnus and a few of his mates organise a canoe trip somewhere in the Norwegian lakes. This year we were lucky enough to get invited along, so there was no way we were going to turn that down. A couple of days after arriving in Oslo, we packed up Magnus' car with booze and food (and a few less important things, like tents and clothes) and headed north for about four hours, to Lake Femund. Here we met up with the rest of the crew, jumped into three canoes and a kayak between the seven of us and headed off into the wilderness.

First up I'll give you the stats. Over the next eight days we covered 56km (biggest day: 18.2km, shortest day: the closest we got to the canoe was to use it as a windbreak). We paddled in Lake Femund and Lake Isteren, using little canoe trolleys to walk the couple of kms between the two. Due to the weather, we only ended up paddling every second day so we set up camp at four different spots.

As it turned out, we chose the wrong summer to go, weather-wise. Last year they were paddling in shorts and a t-shirt most days. This year we had a half day that was an absolute stunner (even had a brief dip in the chilly waters) but the rest were a mixture of just about everything except snow. We had massive winds, perfect calm, pouring rain, clear skies and everything in between. While it would've been fantastic to have scorching hot days for the whole week, it was actually quite cool getting what we did. Both of us thought it made the trip feel a bit more outdoorsy and a bit more of an adventure. We're just glad we had warm sleeping bags with us.

One of the main things we were looking forward to about the trip was the fishing. We spent a lot of time casting into the beautiful, clear waters around us, trying a selection of lures and bait, both from shore and from the boat. Despite that, well... let's just say it was lucky we'd brought plenty of food with us. We did at least manage a fish each (one of which was a delicious bass) and we also both now have a one-that-got-away story but it wasn't exactly what we were hoping for! Apparently it was the wrong year for fishing too, as some years they've caught plenty. Still a great way to pass the day though.

There were a few highlights on the trip:

- The best meal we ate (and those of you that have been freezing and wet out in the bush after a day of exercise will understand what I'm talking about) was a steaming hot, massive pot of cheapo two-minute noodles in a spicy Mexican tomato packet soup. Words cannot describe just how good it was!

- Being able to dip your cup into the lake for some crystal clear water whenever you're thirsty was surprisingly satisfying.

- It's always fun walking into the forest, chopping down a tree, then bringing it back to camp and making a fire. Must be some residual caveman in us.

- And of course the Norwegian scenery was stunning and very similar to NZ actually.

Big thanks to all the lads on the canoe trip, we had a fantastic time. And an even bigger thanks to Magnus for organising our canoe and all our gear so that we could actually go.

Happy 25th Marcus!

So the day after canoeing was Marcus's birthday, and we couldnt have been in a better place for it! Fortunately the bad weather of the canoe trip had subsided and it was a cracker of a day and a warm night. We had the party in the bbq area outside the apartment with about 30 people that Gry and Magnus had invited (we only knew a few of them from previous excursions but everyone was really cool) .

The Touristy Stuff

The day after Marcus's birthday Gry took us around Oslo to see the sights. Up on the hill is a massive ski jump that you can see from almost anywhere in town, it's huge! I've seen the sport a few times on tele but when you're standing at the top if the jump you can appreciate the balls you need to actually do it, typically you have a good 5 seconds in the air and travel at least 100 metres!!! There's also a good museum up there with a whole lot of stuff on Arctic/Antarctic exploration and a pretty good history on skiing. Because Im a cheap bastard Im going to mention the fact that we accidentally walked into the museum for free, ha ha, take that Norway with your expensiveness, you're not getting my 70 Kronas!!!

Following that we went to the Viking museum. They have three original viking boats, two of which are in really good nick and very impressive considering they were built 800 or so years ago. They must have been a tough bunch as there's no shelter on the boats and they used to go on massive journeys through Arctic waters in them. I guess that's why they managed to thrash everyone else in the area and take all of England's good looking women for themselves!

Finally we went to Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Park in the city. Every city round the world has a park but this was one of the better ones. This artist guy (Gustav) designed hundreds (actually 192) of statues, all of people doing things in the nick. It's pretty cool and is capped off with a huge monolith in the middle made up of human figures, very cool. For once I actually did some research for the blog, here's a link with more info if you are interested...
http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/arch/769/Vigeland/
As it was another corker day we just chilled in the sun for a couple of hours on the grass, niiiiiice!