Kragerø, Norway

-
Usually on our lazy Sundays, the husband and I will go to a small coastal town. We've been randomizing lately so we can visit all the nearby coastal towns. We only live about 20 minutes from the coast which is absolutely great! Some people may not understand my excitement for these trips and that's okay, but I'm more properly used to just seeing farm land as that's what the majority of Kentucky consists of. Farm land and coal mines in the Appalachian mountains on the eastern end.

There is no coast in Kentucky. It's surrounded by borders to Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia,  Missouri and Illinois. If you see any body of water in Kentucky, it's probably a pond, a river or a lake. Anytime I've been able to see a coastline and look at the ocean has been on trips to either South Carolina or Florida - and I know many people who have never even seen the natural beauty of a coastline.

A few weeks ago I went to Kragerø, Norway. I like to research these towns a bit before going so I can get more of an idea of the place. What I found out is Kragerø was a favorite coastal town of Edvard Munch. So that in itself is interesting already.

Edvard Munch was the Norwegian man who painted The Scream.

And so we went to Kragerø. Another lovely coastal town! We walked around, sat on a bridge and enjoyed the little river which ran through the town and ate ice cream (with chocolate sprinkles of course!)

Very old and well-preserved streets. 

This was the river which ran into the city, but opened out to the sea. 





Apologies in advance if you're reading this and find this is your door! I just liked it, I liked
the color of it and thought to myself, "I want a blue door on our future house." 

Eating ice cream!!! 

A nice fountain in the middle of the city. The husband and I thought this town resembled
a miniature Norwegian version of Nice, France. It has many ice cream shops and cafes and there are
statues and fountains around the city. 

An ATM with play on names with Johnny Cash. Clever name for an ATM.



As we were leaving. 
                  Kragerø was nice, but it still never compares to my favorite coastal town of Langesund!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expat Life

-
I've finally begun reading a book that has been in my reading list for a few years now; Norwegian By Night by Derek B. Miller. The author is actually an American man from Boston living in Oslo. Although it's a thriller, the expatriation of the main character is relatable. Sheldon Horowitz, a Marine, relocates to Oslo with his granddaughter, an American married to a Norwegian man. One particular quote, or paragraph rather, stood out to me, "Lars, being Lars, was overjoyed and encouraging and optimistic about her ability to adapt and join the pod. Norwegians, true to their nature, prefer to spawn in their own waters. Consequently Oslo is peopled by Norwegians married to a shadow population of displaced souls who all carry the look of tourists being led like children through the House of Wax." According to Wikipedia  16.8% of Norway's population is made up of immigrants. Granted this number also includes children born to immigrants regardless of being born in Norwa
Read more

The Dyne

-
Image
Separate dyne!  On beds a dyne (duvet) is used and you purchase covers in many prints and different types of fabrics. These are a pain in the butt to put over the duvet, but we manage. Many people have a duvet for summer months and a duvet for winter months. Oh, and the most common thing is for each person to have their own duvet. Moving to Norway as a newlywed, I wanted to have one duvet that we shared on our bed thinking it would be extra cozy and we'd cuddle more. Newlyweds are hilariously idealistic though! This lasted only a few months before we surrendered with white flags in the war zone that was our sleeping quarters. Turns out, I'm quite territorial over the duvet. I hear a lot of women are like this. I freeze easier than my husband so I was often less comfortable than I wanted to be and he's a night owl who goes to bed later than I do which means every time he lifted the duvet, a gush of cold air would follow him waking me. We gave up with our idealism o
Read more

Movie Title Translations

-
Watching TV earlier, I noticed some movies are given different titles translated into Norwegian. I believe the movie being advertised on TV was Couples Retreat, but being translated into something different it was something like Trøbbel i paradiset. Translated it would be Trouble in the Paradise - you can see the similarities in the language in that title. All original English speaking movies are still spoken in English with no voice overs, but they are shown in Norwegian subtitles. There is an exception to this with children's movies and TV programs which do have Norwegian voice overs. I asked Arild why some movie titles are in English, some are translated, and some are translated into names completely different. He said he really didn't know and thought of a coffee table book he has which has a list of the most off-titled movie translations. He pulled out Typisk Norsk from under the coffee table and started reading these to me: I'll do the correct English title, t
Read more