Issue № 05 · Norway · Scandinavia
Norway
at the edge of the world
Fjords, Trolltunga, the northern lights and silence. A country where nature is so vast that a person feels like a dot on a map — and this is magnificent.
Fjords, Trolltunga, the northern lights and silence. A country where nature is so vast that a person feels like a dot on a map — and this is magnificent.
Norway is a country that resets your sense of scale. Everything you thought was large becomes small here.
Norway begins where the familiar world ends. Mountains plunge straight into water, water rises into mountains — the boundary dissolves. Fjords are not simply beautiful scenery. They are a place where you understand how ancient the world is, and how new we are within it.
The Norwegian word "fjord" means "the place where you can cross." For thousands of years Vikings crossed them in longships, setting out to conquer half of Europe. Today cruise liners travel the same waters — and the feeling is unchanged. Everything is still as vast as it ever was.
Norway has the highest standard of living in the world, maintained for several decades. Yet as recently as the 1970s it was one of the poorest countries in Western Europe. Everything changed with oil discovered in the North Sea in 1969. The state created a petroleum fund — it is now worth more than one trillion dollars. That is approximately $200,000 for every Norwegian, including newborns.
Trolltunga — literally "troll's tongue" — is a rock formation that juts horizontally above Lake Ringedalsvatnet at a height of 700 metres. The hike there and back takes 10 to 12 hours. Every year thousands of people make the journey — for one photograph at the edge.
According to Norwegian legend, trolls turn to stone in sunlight. The rock, they say, is a troll that was caught by the dawn. Whether to believe this is your decision. But standing on the edge, it is easy to believe almost anything.
In Norway, nature is not a backdrop for people. Here, a person is a detail in the landscape. Small, temporary — but necessary.
Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world. But the nature is free — and that is exactly what people come for. Best time: June to August for fjords and hiking, January to February for the northern lights. Flåm — a small village at the end of the Sognefjord — is the ideal base. The Flåm Railway is one of the most beautiful in the world: 20 kilometres, 800 metres of altitude change.