Sometimes it is very hard to find foods in Norway that are just every day life in your home country.  I recently discovered calamari in the stores.  Calamari is eaten by the bucket loads in Australia and can be found at any fish’n’chip shop.  Here octopus is only used for fish bait and not for [...]

You need to have a certain personality to survive Norway.  I’m lucky, I enjoy my own company and can amuse myself, so the standard isolation as an ‘immigrant’ is quite perfect for me.  However, others who need social interaction have a much harder time of it.  Below are some tips (well, more like humorous tactics) especially [...]

Oksfjordhamn is between Alta and Tromsø on the E6.

Some people think they can just pack up their gear and move to Norway.  They think that once they get a cosy apartment they will find a good job earning lots of money, make great friends and live happily ever after.  All I can say about this is: hmmm.
Over the past couple of years [...]

Ferry crossings are everywhere in Norway.  It is sometimes just easier to boat around the mountain than build a  through it.  Some crossings are time-savers so you don’t have to drive in and out of fjords, and others are a link to the outside world.
The Fosen ferry route between Flakk and Rørvik is very busy [...]

In Norway it is the chicken that is the symbol of Easter and the Easter egg the traditional treat.   The eggs themselves, made of paper or cardboard, are a fairly new tradition and are specifically for wrapping Easter sweets.  They are brightly decorated and come in many different sizes – normal to huge.  Smågodt, [...]

The Sun is back, but “King Winter” is not about to loosen his grip on Norway just yet. This February has been one of the coldest in decades, so I thought this is a good time to share some personal experience on how to deal with the cold weather when you venture outside.
Dress up!
The obvious [...]

‘I’ll be away’ is starting to be a pain.  I’m organising a festival at the moment and to make a festival happen you need people, lots of people.  However, this time of year is the ‘I’ll be away’ season.  Spain, Brazil, Thailand, Africa, Sweden and France are just some of the places my friends, family [...]

Eli is the wife of a prominent politician in Norway.  One day (in 2001) she had to drop off her husband at the royal palace in Oslo for a government dinner.  She had been to the palace grounds many times before but had never driven.  Not sure where to go, Eli headed straight for the [...]

This is always a controversial topic in Norway.  There is currently a documentary series on national TV that presents the issues of being an immigrant in Norway: Det nye landet.  Last week the documentary focused on Norwegian men and ‘import brides’.  It is commonly known amongst Norwegians that Norwegian men import brides because Norwegian women [...]