Farfar (Grandfather) is Northern Norway – a hard working farmer . Our Farfar is 82, 90% blind, needs two walking sticks to get around and still climbs ladders! Once a farmer, always a farmer. In 1960 Farfar bought a patch of land in rural Alta and built a house on it. Over the years he [...]

I always thought ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ was the longest word in the world. Apparently, I am very wrong! Let me introduce you to Norwegian compound words. The basic rule is any verb or noun that describes a ‘thing’ can be collected into one word. And it’s completely legal! It is an everyday phenomenon to read, hear and [...]

Even though ‘hello’ is probably the most used word in any language you will probably not need to use it much in Norway. This is because Norwegians have an asocial society. If you are standing at the check-out, sitting at the bus stop or passing the neighbour, you can be guaranteed a non-conversational experience. Norwegians [...]

In Norway they say that everyone speaks English – (‘they‘ are the Norwegians). But it’s a myth. Firstly, even though people can speak English, it is another thing for them to want to speak English. The further north you go the less English is used, spoken or appreciated. Secondly, most Norwegians know all the ‘touristy’ [...]