Norway and Denmark with Peyton

Now that we’ve been here for a couple of months, we’re starting to get the hang of things. We joined a gym. We can pay our bills. We know where to shop for things. We have the appropriate number of coats. Through a combination of our Norwegian language lessons, Google Translate, and the general immersion experience, we can (mostly) read the street signs and get around the city without any problem. So, that makes it all the more fun to have visitors, because we are better equipped to show off the city and give our friends a truly Norwegian experience.

Not that it’s that difficult. Trondheim is nestled in a fjord and is surrounded on all sides by parks, hiking areas, and ski trails. It is the birthplace of Christianity in Scandinavia and has a rich Viking history. It is a quirky college town. So, it basically sells itself.

Our friend Peyton visited a couple weeks ago, and was our first guest in Høgskoleveien 2. Peyton was my roommate in Ghana and during our junior year at Davidson. She lives in DC, so we are lucky to see a lot of her when we’re at home. She spent several days with us in Trondheim, and then the three of us went to Denmark for a long weekend. Here are some highlights and pictures from the trip.

 

Norway Highlights

Days 1-2: See the city. See the fjord. Eat smørbrød (open sandwiches) and drink beer at our favorite fjord restaurant.

 

Day 3: Do something American (“goat yoga”). Do something Norwegian (curling). Beat both Norwegian teams at curling. Get some bruises from falling on the ice (this was mostly Peyton). Our curling adventure merited further elaboration, so read about it here.

 

Day 4: Go on a sick hike. See some elk and some turf roof hytter (cabins).

 

Denmark Highlights

This was the first trip to Denmark for all of us.

With two daily flights, Copenhagen is one of the main thoroughfares to Trondheim, making it an excellent weekend destination. The travel is especially easy because Norway and Denmark are both in the Schengen Zone, meaning they have open borders.

To our delight, we discovered that Copenhagen is one of the world’s best food cities, mainly thanks to a group of chefs who wrote a “manifesto” about 15 years ago declaring that Nordic food didn’t need to be terrible. One highlight was the flæsk, which is thick-cut bacon swimming in a white sauce with vegetables. It was described to us as “Denmark’s national dish,” and might be my new favorite food.  The Copenhagen food scene stands in stark contrast to Trondheim, where the best you can hope for eating out is a mediocre burger that costs $25 and is served with limp french fries.

My second favorite thing about Copenhagen is all the bikes — not only the quantity (although that’s impressive) but the diversity of styles. I would totally love to ride around a utility bike like one of these!

And luckily, we got to. Our airbnb host left us the use of her two bikes. This might have been a problem with three people, except one of them was this one:

 

Days 5-6: Copenhagen! See the canals. See the castles. Copenhagen is beautiful and seems totally liveable — no wonder Denmark and Norway trade off which is the world’s happiest country.

 

Day 7: Day trip to Roskilde to see some really awesome Viking ships. Gavin is overwhelmed by the prospect of building his own.

 

Day 8: Back to DC/Norway. I thought Denmark was totally awesome and would highly recommend it. It merits more than the three days we had, so I hope we can go back sometime this year.

Thanks Pey for visiting us! We had a great time and we really appreciate you making the effort!