TROLLS in NORWAY

I remember those little troll dolls my kids played with and collected, they all had different colored hair. Wait, was that me or my kids. In all honesty I can’t remember when those troll dolls hit the US market. In any event little did I know that Norway is the land of Trolls. There is even a Troll Museum, which was actually very disappointing.

Whether seen as fearsome giants or whimsical tricksters, trolls embody the rich tapestry of Norwegian mythology and its enduring legacy in modern storytelling

We’ve seen them helping Queen Elsa in Frozen, trying to cook Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings and guarding bridges to the annoyance of our fairy-tale heroes. Each portrayal is slightly different from the last. And they are in every shop and every window throughout Norway.

But the real reason I went to Bergen, Norway was to experience the Fjords and glaciers and they did not disappoint. I wish I was a bird and able to fly up to see the fjords from above.

I met a nice Norwegian couple about my age who live in Oslo but come to Bergen once a year to tend to his father’s grave site. We shared a glass of wine one evening in the hotel lobby and they told me what life was like in Norway and what they did in the winter- which at this age was basically hibernate inside like the bears.

The Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland have a different architect and feel to them than their southern neighbors. Think IKEA! Everything neat and tidy and made for function.

Norway was very expensive. Twenty one dollars for a baked potatoes. Twenty dollars for a bowl of salmon soup – which was delicious but not sure it was worth twenty dollars. A glass of house red wine thirteen dollars.

Needless to say, I needed a way to get out of those high prices and found an inexpensive ticket to Lithuania – not in my plans but it was a good price on the ticket. And so after four days in Norway I was off again.

If you beleive in something good, have the courage to engage in open honest debates about it.

I hope you rest tonight, knowing that some of the happiest moments in your life have not even happened yet!