Norway

It felt like we had walked straight into a picture postcard. The mountains loomed tall in the distance; their snow-capped peaks glistened in the mid-morning sun, the Gieranger fjord stretched far and wide as our ferry gently purred along the water.

Along the way we passed waterfalls with rainbows on them. Every possible hue from nature’s palette was painted on these rainbows. Tiny boats hugging the water’s edge fell behind, as our giant ferry passed by. Up in the mountains we could see winding roads leading to now abandoned cottages. Once these settlements used to be inhabited by families. Their inhabitants would own orchards of apples and peaches. In summer, when the trees could no longer bear the weight of the fruit they would trade fruit for other worldly goods. Today these families have moved into more modern parts of the country.

Norway is a land of contrasts. Extreme light in summer battles with pitch darkness in winter. One the one hand, towns are crowded with narrow matchbox houses and buildings, on the other hand you see no civilization for miles at a stretch. While this country has one of the highest standards of living in the world, it struggles with having one of the world’s lowest birth rate. Where the worlds most advanced underwater tunnels have connected two land masses, yet sometimes a national highway is actually connected by a ferry ride.

Thousands of years ago, giant glaciers ruptured their way through the mountains and tore a huge land mass into a multitude of tiny islands. Today, these pieces of land are carefully sown together through a labyrinth of tunnels, bridges and ferries. This conglomerate forms the country of Norway. It feels almost strange to call this jigsaw puzzle one nation.

As our plane flew over Norway, we flew over hundreds of tiny islands. Of all shapes and sizes, each island a little jewel of the sea. With lush green mountains, streams running down them and huge, mirror lakes on the top of these mountains.

While the North Sea’s water is black and dark, these lakes up in the mountains are the color of the summer sky. We stumbled upon one such lake on our reindeer (or should I say wild goose) chase. All we spotted were signboards warning us to drive slow as there might be reindeer around. But like all deer, these are shy animals and refused to stroll down a national highway to appease mere tourists like us. Where reindeer’s kept us disappointed, nature kept us enthralled. Rugged cliffs, jutting rocks, grey,grey,grey and then round the bend we would find a gurgling spring with bright red flowers and purple heather growing around it’s edges. We climbed higher, almost reached snow level and fell upon the most beautiful lake on the very top of a mountain. Reindeer though, do not drink the water from these springs or these lakes and were not to be spotted even by these water holes!

Our days were filled in marvel and wonder of this show that nature had put up for us. Yet the evenings were the most memorable. When we were home catching up, laughing, chatting and doing what we all feel best doing- spending time with family!

Norway was indeed a picture postcard come alive.