The Hurtigruten exemplifies Norway.  Whether it’s sitting in a Jacuzzi in the midnight sun, passing by snowcapped mountains and dramatic fjords or sipping Hot Toddy’s under the dazzling Northern Lights, the Hurtigruten provides the perfect mix of rugged landscape, luxury and arctic intrigue.

While I'm no expert on this beautiful country, there are a few things I crammed into my month there that are completely unmissable.

On my recent visit to Oslo, they bragged that they were no longer the world’s most expensive city.  That might be the case, but Oslo is still a ridiculously overpriced city for anyone not from Oslo.  For that matter, Norway is pretty expensive on the whole.  Can you visit this beautiful city if you’re travelling on a budget?

We've just touched down in Tromsø after a mindblowingly beautiful time in the Lofoten Islands.  We saw wild orca hunting during the midnight sun, stumbled upon a landship on Kvalvika beach and drove through some of the most beautiful seaside towns I've ever seen.  

While the thought of doing 12 days of planned out cruising didn’t particularly appeal to us, doing a short stint on a fancy and convenient boat did.  The Hurtigruten started off as a practical fleet of ships, going from port to port to deliver passengers and goods.  Over time, roads were developed and it became less necessary, but now offers luxury cruises up the Norwegian coast.

I recently had the joy of doing the Norway in a Nutshell tour on my way from Oslo to Bergen.  It was recommended in Lonely Planet as a great way to get into Fjord country, so I paid the hefty fee attached to the tour and set out. 

In January 1904, a huge fire ravaged the burgeoning, wooden town of Ålesund, burning it to the ground.  A village that had experienced exponential growth due its thriving fishing industry was literally reduced to ashes in just a few hours.  We still don’t know how the fire was started.

When we were in Oslo, we got started looking at some of Norway’s amazing and bewildering geology.  We’d hoped that we would hike some of the fantastic rocks Norway has to offer, like Trolltunga, Pulpit Rock and Kjerag Rock, but the seasons were working against us, and not all the necessary buses were running.  As a compromise, we had decided that on our way up the coast, we would make a stop at Kannesteinen rock in the little town of Måløy.

We woke up sore from sleeping in the car and decided to drive to Fjærland, where almost a whole town’s worth of buildings had been abandoned, and then turned into second-hand bookstores.  Stopping by the climate change center on the way (and refusing the pay the exorbitant fee to get in) and making several stops to marvel at the beautiful Fjærlandfjord.

On Tuesday morning we woke up with the sun – not that it ever fully went down – and headed down our little mountain to the town of Sogndal.  Sogndal isn’t a particularly big town, but it’s a lot larger than the other scattered settlements we had seen along the fjords.  Halfway down the hill we stumbled upon a red stave church, which really set the tone for the day, which was to be filled with visits to the beautiful, fairytale-style buildings.

When we woke up this morning, the rain was falling thick and fast on top of the tent.  Nick rolled over and swore loudly.  We couldn’t leave the tent up and hope it would dry, because we were leaving Bergen that afternoon.  We’d have to roll up a wet tent and towel it out in the evening – not ideal, but our only choice.

 Nicholas first woke up with the sun, but I was still falling in and out of sleep until after 7am.  The tent was far too wet – and the inside damp with condensation from our warmth inside – to take down, so we decided to leave it pitched and hope nobody came along and damaged it.  We hadn’t had the guts to do this yet, but figured that camping was so commonplace in Norway that the tent would be fine for the day.

This morning we were out of bed before 5am – the Norwegian sun was up before us though! – and set off with a thermos of hot soup for central station.  From here we were headed on the first leg of our Fjord adventure.  A little touristy, perhaps, but with good reason – we were taking the Norway in a Nutshell tour up to Bergen.

On Wednesday morning, we woke to more chats with Roger, and shared some smoothies and juices with him.  He’d concocted a pretty delicious juice of apple, lemon, ginger, avocado and banana, which he called “the elixir of youth”.  He looks pretty good, so I’ll take his word for it.

On the morning of May 26, we still hadn’t met Roger, the man whose AirBnB we were currently staying at.  When we arrived, his mother had let us in, and he hadn’t been home at all the past two nights.  We ran into him over breakfast this morning, though, looking particularly well-styled for so early.  Nicholas picked his brain for tips about hiking and walking, and he referred us to Norway’s DNT.  He was quickly off and about, though, and left us to our banana smoothies and roasted breakfast tomatoes.

In its advertising material, Moss is referred to as “the pearl of the fjord”, and I’m inclined to believe it.  The island is beautiful and green and surrounded by ocean. The train from Moss to Oslo takes less than an hour and travels through lush pine forests and small villages dotted with bright red and yellow houses.  The train is very clean and feels more like an airplane than the trains in Melbourne.  So far, Norway looks not dissimilar to Scotland, but has a distinctly different feel.  There’s magic here, but it’s a very different kind.

Frantic packing, frantic organising and a hurried breakfast preceded a very brisk walk to Buchanan Bus Station.  Going via the post office, we sent off some OS maps to Craig, feeling he would make better use of them than we would.  I also sent him my book of Scottish folklore, filled with pressed flowers because I worried they wouldn’t be let into Australia.