Norway 2008
Introduction
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In July 2008 I spend one week in southern Norway photographing the beautiful
landscapes of Norway.
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You can read whole article or jump to
photos directly. |
Planning and preparing
Planning of the trip - or lack of it...
I didn't want to make any schedule or fixed plan. I have read the guide book
and used Google maps at last evening before the trip started. Majority of the
planning was done on boat trip from Turku to Stockholm. There where few basic
princibles which I tried to follow:
- avoid large cities
- drive as fast as you can to western Norway
- the goal is not to drive big number of kilometers --> don't go further North
than to Trondheim
On photography point of view I set goal to photograph:
1. fjords
2. mountains
3. sea shores
Also I would not mind to hike in Norvegian mountains, but that
was not intended to be the focus point of this trip. Also I'm interested to
see colorful fisher houses, churches, old towns etc.
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Preparing for the trip
Preparation started by buying "Insight Guides - Norway" (ISBN 978-981-258-712-1),
which is quite good book. It has 140 pages of Norway history, culture and other
information. After that part there are 200 pages of introductions to various
parts of Norway. In the end of the book there is about 20 pages of travel tips.
Book also contains 16 one page maps of parts of Norway or biggest cities.
Norway is very expensive country, even compared to Finland. Therefore I brough all
food possible from Finland and also outdoor cooking kit with addition of proper
pans and pots since I have the luxury of having car with me all the time.
Finally I checked that car has oil and water and all the lights are working.
Ready to go!
PS. Generally I would advice people also check their travel insurances. And if going
by car also are repairs covered or replacement car. I used to travel 200+ days/year
and still doing travelling more than 100 days/year, so I have my travel insurance
in place. What comes to car, "plan B" in case of car breakdown was to pack my stuff
to suitcase, which I had in the trunk of the car, and take the licence plates
and fly back to Finland. For me this is an option since I drive car which monetary
value is less than 1000EUR and in any case if I need to do major repair to car I will
just simply exchange the car to other 1000EUR car instead doing expensive repair.
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Day 1 (July 19th) - With boat to Stockholm and drive as far as you can...
First day's route is: Tampere(FI) - Turku(FI) - Stockholm(SE) - . And the goal is
like header says "get as far as possible". I'm not planning to spend extra time
on Sweden on way to Norway, if I come back early then maybe
Tampere - Turku: Alarm clock wake me up at 4:00AM, then quick shower and I was
refilling the car's tank at 4:20AM. Then boring drive to Turku and waiting to drive
to the boat.
Turku - Stockholm: After admiring views of Turun Saaristo I concentrated on
planning where to go in Norway with topographic map of Norway and the guidebook.
Stockholm - Oslo: Driving through Sweden...
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rverve |
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Boat | Turku - Stockholm | Turku | 59 | | |
| Food | Lunch at boat | "Turku" | 10 | | |
| Gasoline | 50,48L | Ärjäng (SE) | 74,50 | | 689,75 |
| Road toll | Østfold Bompengeselskap | Moss | 2,52 | 20 | |
Photos from day 1:
No photos in picturebank.
Day 2 (July 20th)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Road toll | Oslo | Oslo | 3,15 | 25 | |
| Food | Dinner & breakfast stuff | Joker - Sinnes | 12,45 | 98,30 | |
| Ferry | Lauvik - Oanes | Lauvik | 6,94 | 55 | |
| Gasoline | 43,81L | Flateland | 77,35 | 610,71 | |
Photos from day 2:
Day 3 (July 21st)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Ferry | Hjelmeland - Nesvik | Hjelmeland | 6,94 | 55 | |
| Food | Dinner and breakfast stuff | Sørfjordsenteret | 13,05 | 103,50 | |
| Sleep | Hotelroom | Odda | 105,30 | 830 | |
Photos from day 3:
Day 4 (July 22nd)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Food | Few boxes of "Morellers" for breakfast | Roadside | 9,46 | 75 | |
| Ferry | Brimnes - Bruravik | Brimnes | 9,46 | 75 | |
| Food | Dinner stuff | Kiwi - Vangen | 25,25 | 200,30 | |
| Gasoline | 41,17L | Voss | 70,65 | 560,32 | |
Photos from day 4:
Day 5 (July 23rd)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Ferry | Fodnes - Mannheller | Fodnes | 12,99 | 103 | |
| Food | Dinner and breakfast stuff | Kiwi - Lom | 15,56 | 123,40 | |
Photos from day 5:
Photos to be added here when published
Day 6 (July 24th)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Gasoline | 41,72L | Bryggja | 72,61 | 574,90 | |
Photos from day 6:
Photos to be added here when published
Day 7 (July 25th)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Ferry | Koparneset - Årvik | Koparneset | 6,94 | 55 | |
| Ferry | Hareid 06 - Sulasundet | Hareid | 10,09 | 80 | |
| Food | Dinner and breakfast stuff | REMA 1000 - Moa | 21,00 | 166,50 | |
| Road toll | Parking | Ålesund | 2,52 | 20 | |
| Sleep | Hotel Norlandia Baron | Ålesund | 95,92 | 760 | |
Photos from day 7:
Photos to be added here when published
Day 8 (July 26th)
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Ferry | Sæbø - Lekneset | Sæbø | 7,57 | 60 | |
| Food | Dinner stuff | Kiwi - Ørsta | 19,63 | 155,50 | |
| Ferry | Solavågen - Festøya | Solavågen | 8,20 | 65 | |
| Food | Strawberries and drinks | Spar - Hellesylt | 5,49 | 43,50 | |
| Ferry | Hellesylt - Geiranger | Hellesylt | 29,00 | 230 | |
| Ferry | Eidsdal - Linge | Eidsdal | 6,94 | 55 | |
| Gasoline | 44,63L | Dombås | 75,88 | 601,17 | |
Photos from day 8:
Photos to be added here when published
Day 9 (July 27th)
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I decided that today I'll drive to Umeå and checked from Tomtom how long it would
take and according
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I didn't spend much time in Umeå, went directly to harbour. Then cooked pepper
stakes and booked RG Line boat trip from Umeå to Vaasa. RG Line is very expensive,
the boat trip from Turku to Stockholm was 59EUR and this RG Line trip was 125EUR,
and the travel distance is about half of Turku - Stockholm!
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| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Food | Food to eat in car while driving | ICA - Hede (SE) | 25,77 | | 239 |
| Gasoline | 59,54L | Balsjö (SE) | 84,76 | | 786,52 |
| Food | Dinner stuff | Balsjö (SE) | 12,98 | | 120,46 |
Photos from day 9:
Photos to be added here when published
Day 10 (July 28th)
| Finally going back to Finland. Woke from Umeå harbour at
6, cooked some tea and drove half kilometer to RG Line terminal. The ship seems much
worse than the Silja Line boat I took from Turku. There are two large rooms which seats
like airplane seats in rows, and then the deck - well that's all... |
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erv |
| Category | Description | Location | Cost EUR | Cost NOK | Cost SEK |
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| Boat | Umeå - Stockholm | Umeå | 125 | | |
| Food | Lunch at boat | "Umeå" | 14.40 | | |
| Gasoline | 32,63L | Tampere | 47,61 | | |
Photos from day 10:
Photos to be added here when published
Cost
I divided the costs to following categories:
- gasoline: 503EUR (314 liters)
- ferries: 105EUR
- boat: 184EUR
- road tolls: 8EUR
- food: 185EUR
- sleep: 201EUR
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Total cost was 1187EUR, resulting daily cost of 119EUR/day.
Saab did good job and average gasoline consumption was 7,86 liters/100km on this
3994km trip. I consider this pretty good number since terrain in Norway is what it
is and on Sweden and Finland I was driving 120-130km/h most of the time. Average
gasoline price in Norway was 1,77EUR/liter, Sweden 1,73EUR/liter and in Finland
1,46EUR/liter. Distances driven daily varied from 130km to 915km, average being
400km/day.
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Summary
On photography point of view the trip was very good - the goals I set to myself were
to photograph and see:
1. fjords - Succeed
2. mountains - Succeed
3. sea shores - Skipped
I would have preferred to photograph more human made stuff (old colorful fisherhouses,
churches etc.) but it seems that in 10 days everything cannot be done. Also those,
as well as sea shores, are better photographed on more rural North Norway. Maybe next
summer North Norway and Finland...
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erv |
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