COT : Notherners, norwegians, any tips ?

Post by **Basstruc** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:16 pm

Planing to go to norvegia all by myself very very soon. Is there any place or thing I shouldn't miss ?

Post by **mattias** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:24 pm

yeah, you *have* to go shopping on the swedish side of the border. best thing to do in norway for sure. :-)

/matt

Post by **Basstruc** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:32 pm

=D> Nice !
Pretty sure you would say something like this.

Post by **mattias** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:39 pm

seriously it's not my own favorite thing to do but if you ask the norwegians they'll second it. my family has a house outside of ÃƒÂ¥rjÃƒÂ¤ng which is the closest swedish town to oslo and it's crazy there. probably the most stores per capita in the entire world and no swedes to be seen in any of them. ;-)

/matt

Post by **danpuddick** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:28 pm

For me, an English guy, it was great just to hire a car (in sweden

) and drive up the coast in the north of Norway - the highway (there is only one real one up there) goes through so much interesting terrain, the kind that we just don't have in the south of England.

I got a real buzz of going north of the Arctic circle the first time

And try and stay in a hytta - a cabin - there are lots that are pretty luxurious if you don't like to rough it - but it's still much cooler to sleep in a wooden house than a concrete hotel.

If you are there in the Summer - of course you want to see the midnight sun. And if you are lucky you can see some pretty good wild life - reindeer, elk, whales.

Watchout for the mosquitos though.

Post by **Uppsala BildTeknik** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:40 pm

If you have a car you have to drive through "Geiranger" and "Trollstigen", really beautiful! The parts around Geiranger are the best.

I made a quick Googling "norway geiranger", this is one of the results: http://www.norphoto.com/r/eng29.php

Driving to "Nordkap" the most northern part is not recommended, they suck out all the fun with hundreds of DAMN TOLLS! The last one 50 meters from the end, I just laughed them in their face (the ones in the tollbooth) and turned my car around, as did many others. The last one was just an insult, there was no tunnel or other exquse for it.

Post by **mattias** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:12 pm

danpuddick wrote:good wild life - reindeer

while they're exotic to a lot of people they are far from wild. it's like scouting for cows. :-)

/matt

Post by **audadvnc** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:48 pm

We have bison on farms here in Minnesota. Try hitching your sleigh to one of those... 8O

Post by **danpuddick** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:46 pm

mattias wrote:
danpuddick wrote:good wild life - reindeer
while they're exotic to a lot of people they are far from wild. it's like scouting for cows.

/matt

Ha I know - but I guess it's like red phone boxes for tourists when they come to london. I guess it's funny seeing your own country as exotic.

Reindeer aren't much smarter than cows either. I guess that's cause really they're domesticated livestock. Driving down the road I would always want to stop and look but the locals obviously get pretty pissed off with them dawdling all over the place.

When I was living in Umea they had a big Saami exhibition on the river - with reindeer pulled skiing races and lasoo contests. I wish I had my camera that day. It would have made some classic travelogue footage with the Saami costumes n'all.

Post by **S8 Booster** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:06 pm

for Norway it depends somewhat on what your interests are. in terms of nature and scenery this country is changing very much from south to north starting of with pretty nice wide sand beaches (Atlantic cold temp though) close to where Andreas lives + the most beautiful coastal scnery around ending up abt 2500 km north on the mainland (still - Svalbard not included but definately worth examining) where it is more or less arctic. in between there are HUGE variations and a lot of extreme scenery. if you fancy snowboarding there are summer ski resorts and you may enjoy visiting glaciers.

if you like i can ask a French friend of mine if it is OK to contact him for his view seen with the eyes of a Parisiene as you guys are usually more culturally educated ;-) than us Hillbillies up here. he has lived here for abt 25 years and knows Norway well.

if you fancy extreme nature scenery i can provide you with some links and suggested travel routes.

samples 1

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YouTube · Post by **Andreas Wideroe** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:13 am

You should visit Kristiansand and me!

From here you can take Northsea road to Stavanger which is a very nice and scenic ride. You may also go up Setesdalen, cross the mountains towards Bergen. That's a damn nice ride too. Besides, listen to what the others have told you.

In Norway you will see most if you have a car, but what you're looking for depends on what type of tourist you are.