@@ourcamperstories There's a 'market' for it. Many folks around the world are doing some task at home (in my case researching) and just want to have something mellow on like this in the background (though I did watch about half of this). Others live vicariously through the travel videos of others. IMO the key is a good soundtrack with ambience (or nothing too distracting), good scenery, and a smooth camera. Best of luck in the future, thanks for this, I'll watch it again soon.
Thanks for your detailed response, Ole! It is surprising to see that this video, that took the least time to make, is doing so well. I agree that the music supplements the imagery well and makes it a good "background video". There is a Spotify link to the artist in the description of the video, if you would like to listen to more of his music.
Thank you! It's even more breathtaking in real life! The music is from the artist Ström. You can find a link to Spotify in the description of this video.
3:18 May I ask what you're selling? 4:26 There's a video about how it's prepared in the spring that I'd *really* like you guys to watch if you're interested.
I am a marketing strategist who helps creative entrepreneurs, and in this case someone wanted in my group program and I had to do some things to make that happen. I love it when I sell things automatically while on the road, like website templates. And thank you for the link, we've driven between walls of snow like this in Sweden a few years ago, when we were there in June (yeah, it was a cold June :D ). I can't wait to watch the full video.
0:31 Nice pronunciation. :-) I can hear that it was difficult for you. But while definitely accented it was 100% correct. :-) 9:58 Let me guess, 1 200 NOK give or take? Yeah, Norwegian labour is expensive. Computerized services like cellular internet or phones or basically anything imported tends to be cheap. Anything involving high education is also really competitive. Raw materials are usually reasonable. But the moment you start using what's usually lower wage services in other countries... Yeah, expect to empty your wallet... 10:03 730 NOK!!?!!?! That's a *bargain*!!! Locals never cut your hair for under 800 unless they're trainees. And honestly most saloons tends to go for about 1 000 for my cuts, as a guy... Longer hair are usually charged a bit more, but then you don't have a beard to cut so it's usually roughly the same as for a woman with long hair... Women used to have to pay more even if the hair was short, but now the prices are increasingly length based rather than gender based. Sucks if you are a guy with long hair (thankfully I'm not) and a beard (something I *do* have). But yeah... On the whole a fairer system. The highest amount I've paid so far was 1 200 NOK for hair and beard and I've heard about people being charged 1 300 for *just* a hair cut on a long woman's hair... But that's usually premium saloons with a high demand and that often have a long waiting lists... Although in my case I *actually* dropped in, and got shocked by the price that I didn't expect up front (afterwards I've *always* asked about the price *before* getting cut instead of after). Occasionally you *can* find immigrants willing to cut you for cheaper. A Syrian refugee here in Trondheim tried to cut me and mum for just 500 NOK for each of us. We both *insisted* on paying at least 700 pr person, 1 400 NOK in total for the two of us as that's basically a *minimum*, even for trainees and you expect people to live of their wages here... That refugee worked at a saloon right next to Scandic Bakklandet in Trondheim by the way. There's 3-4 saloons there, but I'm sure that you can find him if you search a bit, assuming that he's still working there next time you guys visit Norway. 10:21 31!?!?!?! How can your hairdressers even *survive* on that!!?!!?!!?!
Thank you for the compliment! Yeah, I feel like by now, in the journey, I was getting the language down more and it was easier to find the pronunciations (though sometimes I would get completely wrong too). About the hairdresser: Yeah, with the pricing in Norway I kind of understand why it is so expensive. But if you are used to Dutch pricing it is very much a shock! :) And Marten could get his hair cut for 350/450 NOK so I was shocked that mine was so much more expensive. Looking back, maybe I should have done it, just for the experience, but in that moment I was just flabbergasted :D
@@ourcamperstories *How* could he get it so cheap!!?!!?!!? I've literally *never* seen anyone cut for 350 NOK before, not even children in the 90s with less inflation... I thought 500 by a refugee was extreme. Oo I try to shop around for good prices when getting my hair cut. And for me I feel like 700-900 is fair. 1 000 is the norm these days but is caused by the inflation in recent years and still feels a bit expensive to me but not unreasonable. And like I mentioned, I've paid 1 200 before...
@@Luredreier I don't know. It was in Alta that he got his hair cut, as you might have seen in one of the other videos. It was a really nice lady and they had an opening. Maybe that's why?
@@ourcamperstories And yeah, I can definitely hear that both of you are improving in your Norwegian pronounciations. May I ask why you guys wish to learn our language in the first place? :-) It's a fairly small one after all.
0:35 Agility training. <3 11:34 I'm glad she's alright. :-) 11:48 They don't make whiskey on Svalbard? 13:54 Good. Apart from drunk driving just being wrong in general we als have a really, really strict law regarding that stuff...
Isa loves agility training. When she was just a pup she would already jump on things, just 'cause she felt it was fun. So Marten and her train every week. And Marten will train with our new puppy too when she is old enough. No, they make beer on Svalbard but apparently not whiskey, or so I've heard/researched. Oh we would never drink and drive. We hardly ever drink anyway :) We just wanted to make sure that noone thought that would be a good idea or that we would do so. That is so not us :)
@@ourcamperstories Good, because like I said, traffic is one thing the Norwegian government takes *extremely* serious. We have more severe traffic penalties then any other European country. Up to jail time for speeding 20 km/h in some situations. And people literally being taken for drunk driving for eating bread or fruit that's a bit fermented or drinking the day before (partially due to the equipment not being 10å% exact, some due to peoples natural variability in naturally occurring blood alcohol levels) Most countries try to reduce traffic fatalities, but in Norways case they're taking that to the extreme. Look up the recent record in lowest number of road fatalities for instance. Both for bikes, pedestrians and cars I seem to recall.
4:54 I'm sorry you got that experience. :-/ Both Norway and Iceland has experienced a uptick in tourism that we haven't really been able to adapt to yet. Norway *is* used to the cruise traffic and train/plane based tourism, but the number of RVs have kind of exploded... More and more people are *driving* here, while the infrastructure is mostly designed for locals. 8:16 I'm glad you got a chance to see them. It's very much hit and miss. And it's important to note that it's not just the month that matters, but also the year. During a solar minimum you won't see much regardless of what month you're in... 10:19 I remember classmates using those blocks to weave, I think I tried to, but it's so long ago that I don't remember how they work... 13:15 Remember that most people come to places like Lofoten for the nature, not the history. And the local population is small. So there's fewer people left to pay for the preservation of that part of our history and legacy. And honestly the costal history has been neglected for a long time. During the 1800s it was the inland farmer that was seen as the essence of what it was to be Norwegian. While the coastal farmer/fisherman combination that's made up the majority of our population back in the day where largely neglected by our cultural institutions. Museums like this one are trying to preserve that aspect of our history before it's lost. Also, remember, everything you're seeing around you there is wood or plant fibers etc, not stone. So it's materials that naturally degrade over time. It rots. Or is dried up and cracked or just in general, requires replacement or constant work to maintain them. So between all the extra work required that also requires specialist knowledge and just the low population you end up with high costs. Also, add that our currency is of high value because the oil companies are paid in dollars but have their expenses like wages and taxes in NOK. So that increases the demand for the NOK. Meaning that costs for such a museum or anything else involving Norwegian work is going to be high for foreigners, while it's reasonable for us. 14:39 A "Nordlandsbåt". They're closely related to our "Åfjordsbåt" here in Trøndelag. I don't know the exact age of the nordlandsbåt. But Åfjordsbåten was created in the 1800s as a result of the tree types required for old viking ship style boats becoming so rare that it wasn't viable to use them for boat building in our region. As a result we switched from using axes to make essentially viking ships to using saws and the new tree types. But the basic design is still roughly the same as for the viking ships. And the same kind of rigging, the square sails are still really common in Trøndelag and northwards. Further south with different wind conditions they used different rigs and sail shapes more often. Nordlandsbåten tends to be a little bit bigger then our Åfjordsbåt, and they tend to not have the extra piece of wood we have on our sides to protect from water spilling in rough weather. I also *seem* to recall that their boats tend to cut a bit more through the waves them ours that tend to ride on top of them more. But I'm definitely not going to swear to that last part in a court of law to put it that way. It's been decades since I sailed one of these... 15:03 Nope. "Kval" means "whale" and "vik" means "bay" or some such. So the whalebay. And as two words, yeah, the syllables don't cross the word divide if you get my meaning. 17:29 It's not bad by our standards, after all some of our trails are way more challenging. But I agree that "easy and accessible" perhaps is overselling it a *little* bit. :-P 19:37 Good call, and right in line with the Norwegian mountain code. People literally die when they don't do that kind of stuff... If you had brought a tent etc and warned someone about where you where going wild camping could have been a option. But you'd definitely need shelter, heat, clothing and provision for that. As it's easy to end up stuck for days in the same spot. 24:46 A little bit spoiled, perhaps. ;-) Basically it depends on what you expect and want. Norway isn't a theme park but a country and while there's some considerations taken for tourists it's generally low priority in Norway. Most things are intended for locals and if tourists end up using those services too, great, but that's not generally why they're there. And tourists tend to come due to the nature, so building hotels or camping spots or fences etc kind of takes away from why people are coming in the first place. And also from what locals want to experience. But it's absolutely true that the number of tourists in places like Lofoten and many parts of Western Norway where our nature is at its most impressive has way more tourists then the infrastructure is designed to handle. If it's the peace and quiet of being far away from anyone else that you're looking for then yes, Lofoten, Nordkapp and Western Norway probably should be avoided in the middle of the season and rather be visited off season. Although be warned that off season weather can be challenging. I mentioned a channel named mispronounced adventures (or something like that) on RU-vid, they've been to Nordkapp just a few weeks ago and experienced more of what Norway can offer of *bad* weather. I do think that Lofoten and Western Norway should definitely be experienced at some point. But yeah, as you could see, it can be crowded, parking spots few and far between etc. Planning ahead and securing a place to stay well in advance can help. But there's going to be a lot of people. Honestly more then locals want sometimes... Some villages have experienced needing to call in reinforcement police due to badly behaving tourists occasionally keeping locals awake during the night etc...
We are actually working together with a researcher that is focussing on the effects of all the motorhomes on Norways tourism and what could be changed to help it and how it impacts things. Because we totally understand that the amount of extra traffic from all the vans is new and has a huge impact on the economy but also on locals, nature, etc. It's really interesting to talk about it with her and find solutions together. And yes, I do think it's a bit spoiled in a good way. We had already seen so much beauty in Norway by the time we came to the Lofoten that the beauty was negated with all the negative experiences that we didnt have in other parts of Norway. And I think that is just a great reason for people to go to places that are less busy too :) About Kvalvika... yeah... that was just my headache not remembering my own name ;) But I love that you explained what it means. I hope that one day we can go back and walk the whole trail to the beach.
@@ourcamperstories Name? And I'm sorry about that headache. Headaches really, really sucks... :-/ And yeah, I guess you have a point there. And absolutely. How to handle tourism is a big topic for everyone. I've heard that it's been making the news in the Netherlands too recently?
Yes, in Amsterdam some forms of tourism are difficult to manage. But where we live we hardly ever see a tourist :D The researcher is called Tarja and she has an instagram channel: @vanlife_landscapes She is just starting posting there but there is more coming and she loves talking about vanlife and tourism.
@@ourcamperstories Well, given that Norway is rather big with few people it's simply not a option. That Russian border is more or less due north of Turkey while our westernmost parts is north of the Benelux countries. And if you turned Norway around a fixed point roughly in Oslo you'd end up essentially touching Rome with northern Norway... We have more then half of Europes west coast. Depending on how you measure it the second longest coastline in the world after Canada. (Look up the coastline paradox though as your measuring resolution definitely will influence who comes in what order on that list, not to mention where you measure the coastline when dealing with rivers etc and that coastlines change over time for a number of reasons) But yeah, the overall idea that Norway is *big* should still come across fairly well I think. And most of the slightly more then five million people living here live in the cities, that leaves an awful little people pr square km for the rest of the country. So even if we *wanted* to (and we don't) we really *can't* make every little bit of Norway safe. People die here every year, and that's expected. But as long as people use common sense it's safe.
@@ourcamperstories I read the translation, I was wondering the *exact* words. ;-) Knowing a few Germanic languages you can often make a educated guess about other ones. And it's fun. ;-)
@@ourcamperstoriesVi har vår bensin"? ("We have our gas"). Although I can't hear him say "We" at all. So is it more like "(We) have our gas"? Does that make sense in Dutch?
3:07 Congratulations! :-) 3:24 "Grense" not "Hrense" I don't know about Dutch. But I've noticed that English seems to have a lot of silent letters that we just don't have. So it's probably a good idea to not assume that a letter is silent unless you're absolutely sure. Norwegian isn't totally devoid of them, we *do* have silent letters. But if you assume that a word doesn't have them you're more likely to be right then wrong. And our silent letters tends to be due to the differences between Norwegian and Danish when they're there... 6:54 I can imagine a American getting a heart attack watching that... It looks refreshing though. :-) By the way, no "f" sounds for the letter "v" in Norwegian. So "Vardø" was *almost* spot on except for that slight "f" sound. ;-) By the way, the "Ø" was impressive. :-) Well done! ^^ 8:22 Aww, how cute. <3
I love your timestamped reactions! To me Norwegian feels a bit like Dutch, English and German combined. I think that sometimes makes pronunciation harder because something might read (almost) Dutch but might be completely differently pronounced. On top of that, always talking English adds a bit of pronunciation fun in the mix too. I remember that somewhere in France I had the most horrific pronunciation of a word because I englishafied it while talking. Even though I know the pronunciation very well. All this to say that it is a continuous work in progress :)
@@ourcamperstories Yep I definitely know that feeling. I catch myself thinking in English and forgetting words in Norwegian, Icelandic and the tiny bit of German I'm *supposed* to know... And occasionally I do mix languages up (although not nearly as much as mum does). And yes, you're absolutely right. We have a lot of influence from the Hanseatic league here and there's whole Norwegian sentences that's made exclusively with Low German/Dutch loan words. Of course modified by Norwegian grammar etc. That's partially why we have so many words starting with "be". You don't find words starting with "be" in Swedish, Icelandic, Faeroese etc from what I remember.
Ohhh that is so interesting! Yes it is true I am learning a lot of words with 'be' right now. And 'kj' which is harder for me :) And I think the mixup is one of the things that makes it so much harder for non-native English people to vlog in English. You have atleast 2 languages in your head at any time, your native language and English, but a lot of time you also mix in the language of where you are at and any other language you know. Sometimes I hear myself utter an English sentence that makes me cringe, and it is just because my mind is going a million words a minute at that time and apparently grammar wasn't too high on my minds list :D
@@ourcamperstories Yeah, it helps switching the language you're *thinking* when you want to use it. You'll still occasionally mix things up, but it helps a lot with the consistency. Speaking of Hanseatic influences. Try to go to Bergen. It was illegal for foreign (German) merchants to travel further north then Bergen back in the day as our king wanted to make Bergen a merchant city. So it got a whole lot of privileges. People who wanted to sell their fish to foreigners had to take their fish south to Bergen. And likewise any other trade had to go to either Bergen or northeast to the Pomors who lived in what's today Russia. So a lot of Hanseatic traders settled there. Indeed the Hanseatic league has had quite a bit of influence on us. Norway was late with getting a professional army because, quite frankly our kings where poor by European standards and couldn't afford them. So we had a system where villages along the coast and navigable rivers had to provide a ship with armed men crewing them to the king in case of war. And that lasted till the Hanseatic league defeated us in a sea battle. The Hanseatic league is also a big part of why the Nordic countries where merged into the Kalmar union, leading to Norway being stuck in various unequal unions for over 500 years. Basically the plan was that the Kalmar union in theory would be strong enough to resist the Hanseatic league.
@@Luredreier We've been to Bergen (it's somewhere in the vlogs too) but we've had no clue about this history! That is so interesting! (And a bit weird that merchants couldn't travel further north)
1:14 Reminds me of Rivendell in LotR. 2:39 "Repvåg", not "Repveg" (the pronunciation you guys used). Ask someone how to pronounce "Våg" next time you get a chance". 5:37 People seem to beeline for the north cape instead of experiencing what Norway really got to offer. Honestly in summer I'd say that western Norway and Lofoten is probably the two best places in terms of landscapes. My own region of Trøndelag has less exciting landscapes but more historical significance (only 3% of Norway is suitable for agriculture, and my region of Trøndelag has a significant portion of that, so does the area around Oslo, hence why Trondheim and Oslo both have been capitals, Bergen was a capital during the time of the Hanseatic league as it was the northernmost point that foreign traders where allowed to go to trade back then, so fish and other resources from further north in Norway had to be brought south to Bergen to be exported). 5:43 Come in winter or at least off season if you want to experience it by yourself.
Silfar canyon was really pretty indeed and we love your comparison to Rivendell. It's always good to learn how to pronounce things better. Natalie is learning Norwegian and we try to be mindful of pronunciations but since we are not Norwegian we are bound to make mistakes :) We will ask next time we are in Norway. Yes, it's sad that so many people only go to the North Cape and miss all the amazingness that North Norway (and Norway in general) has to offer. We spent two months in the north and there were still places we would have liked to spend more time at/in. But there is always next time. And about visiting in winter: it's on our list :)
@@ourcamperstories Misspronounced Adventures is camping in Norway right now and posting videos. He just visited north cape with some others, so you can get a feel for how that is. I actually found this video as a suggestion while watching his. An alternative to camping is taking the train or a boat. For instance "Bergensbanen" from Oslo to Bergen then "Hurtigruten" from Bergen to Kirkenes. That gives you a better view of the coast. If you bring a tent you two can also just go hiking. But make sure you follow the Norwegian mountain code. People *do* die up there. But there's lots of mountain cabins in the middle of nowhere you guys can go to if you want to explore Norway in private.
Thank you for sharing this with us. This is absolutely amazing videography and of course the most beautiful route. How do you keep the windshield so clean? or the camera from getting wet if it's outside? :D
Hi! Thanks for the compliment. We used our GoPro attached to the outside of the windshield with a suction cup mount. The autumn colors were already showing and gave everything such a nice look. We filmed in 4K and we didn't even color-correct that much to make it look this nice! Fortunately, there was practically no rain when we drove the Aursjøvegen. However, in some parts of the video, you can see some raindrops. But they evaporated by themselves while driving due to the wind.
It is magnificent! I cycled this route in 2015, but the opposite direction. Highly recommended. I also made a detour up Øksendalen, and went for a hike in the mountains to Reinvassbua. Very nice hike.
Why not visit Lofoten in the autumn or winter. Not crowded then. But beside from that, the worst travel videos from Norway are those who complain about the weather( too cold, a lot of rain) and how expensive everything is. Stay home
Hi Anne, thank you for your message. Though there are things we didn't like about the Lofoten (and things we did love), we didn't complain about the weather nor expenses in this video. Yes, we had some bad weather that made us turn around on a hiking trail. We didn't mind, it's just about staying safe. Yes, we thought the entrance fee for Nusfjord was not worth it. Nothing to do with expensive, we were just not that impressed with the village. If you watched any of our other videos you would see we spent over three months in Norway and loved most of it. The Lofoten were just not one of the biggest highlights for us. If we would come back to the Lofoten, we would do so early spring, or a bit later in September. We expected that early September would be fine but hey, you live and learn.
Hi Kathy, thank you (again) for the invite. We definitely have that on our list of things to do in the UK, if you are not off biking somewhere that is :)
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Happy 2023 and I will be waiting for your future videos! When you were talking about that you can be only 8 months outside the Netherlands, it made me to think about car inspection? Do you have mandatory inspections in your country?
A happy 2023! Yes, we have a yearly car inspection, which will happen while we are home now. New cars sometimes don't need yearly checks but our camper is so old that it does.
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@@ourcamperstories Here in Finland a car must be inspected first time when it's 4 years. Then every two years and after the car is 10 years old, then every year. My camper is from 2008, so it must be inspected yearly.
I'm norwegian and went there once in the tourist season. Never again. It is too crowded with vans, cars and people. Besides, there are so many other places to see in Norway. For example the west cape and the fjords in western Norway.
Hi Rune! We completely agree with you! We loved so many places in Norway. We came from the north when we visited Lofoten and the Lyngen alps for instance were in our eyes a lot nicer than the Lofoten islands. But later we also visited Geiranger and a lot of other fjords and loved that too. Though we do expect Geiranger would be very busy in the summer as well. We wish we would have had more time in the south of Norway but there is always another time :)
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I can imagine how weird it feels to be at home after that long trip. Lot of space, everybody around speaks your own language... etc etc :)
People complain about the entrance price. But remember there is nothing up there. Everybody wants a wafle and a coffee. Well we have to stay there for four months working so you can have someone to serve you. Good fun I can wait to go back
Hey Francisco! We didn't pay an entrance fee, but we also didn't go into the center. We had our own supplies after all. We can imagine it is hard work up there in the visitors center! We saw the center stayed open until 3am during the night we were there. And saw some very tired employees come out at 4am. We felt sorry for them.
I would be terrified sitting next to a rally driver driving up Trollstigen, but I would have loved the experience! Would have picked other music in that case though :-)
