The past three weeks have been wonderful. To escape our daily lives and to be able to explore a new world, Matt and I have spent our days off driving through Scandinavia. We’ve pushed ourselves and our sweet, loyal blue hatchback to the limit to see as much as possible of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Not only have we shopped and chilled in the capitals of these countries, but we’ve also seen the most beautiful landscapes imaginable. However, there are some things you should know, before ever considering to go there yourself. Things you won’t read in travel guides, but simply need to know. Please let me share our experiences with you.

1. The most interesting thing that ever came from Denmark undoubtedly must be LEGO. Who hasn’t played and built with those creativity provoking little blocks of plastic? The thing is, I always thought the LEGO world didn’t exist. Where on earth would you find bright green, perfectly round trees, even brighter red houses and buildings full of relatively small, sash windows? Now I know: Denmark itself is fully made out of LEGO.

2. Maybe it’s well hidden, maybe it simply doesn’t exist. But we haven’t found the Scandinavian cuisine. The only type of food that is widely available is sausage. It doesn’t matter where you look: petrol stations, sellers on the street or real restaurants. They serve them in different variations, with different garniture and dressings, chips or bread, but in essence, it’s always nothing but sausages. The sausage is the hamburger of the Northern countries.

3. The people in Norway are fixated with ice cream. Even when it rains, everybody walks around nibbling on cones and sticks. Maybe it’s because we were there during the summer. Maybe they have a feeling of “It’s summer, so we are entitled of ice cream!”. Or, considering they are the most reserved kind of people we ever came across, maybe they need ice cream as a kind of fuel to make sure they don’t melt. Who knows?

4. There’s no such thing as the Scandinavian landscape. Matt and I thought we were heading for three weeks of pine trees, but we were wrong. Never have we seen a landscape of such diversity. Yes, there are mountains full of pine trees. But during a trip of merely 3 hours you can also see golden fields, fjords towering over rivers and lakes, mountains with snow peaks and glaciers and waterfalls.

5. Not only the Scandinavian landscape is diverse, but also its people. Like I said, the Norwegian people are very reserved and even refuse to exchange a friendly ‘hello’ when you walk by them. The Swedish are very different: informal, polite and warm-hearted. So are the Danish.

6. They like safety, particularly the Swedish. But never have I seen so many cars with broken headlights.

7. Talking about cars. Do you think that the tunnels in Italy and Austria were uniquely long for Europe? Maybe we were just being plain ignorant, but we did. Until we drove through one of 24,5 kilometres in Norway. I know longer tunnels exist, but we thought they were situated in the Alps exclusively. But no, the roads through Norway are full of them.

8. Another road related thing you should know concerns moose and reindeer. They aren’t there. Yes, the signs say you should be careful not to run them over. But we haven’t seen a single one of them! There are a lot of sheep on the roads in the mountains, though.

9. The mosquitoes I was so scared about earlier? They weren’t there either. Honestly. We’ve been harassed by swarms of flies and I even had a tick at some point, but nowhere the maddening sound of those darn buzzing insects. Except for one day: the day we camped near a lake. They were everywhere. Hitting one of your left leg meant that there were three on your right arm. The day after I could count nearly 60 bites, all from spending 45 minutes outside our tent! So remember: don’t camp near a lake.

10. Scandinavia may be very special, but there’s something every country has in common: the Japanese. Busses full of Japanese people. Everywhere. Screaming, streaming and taking pictures.

But don’t let these things scare you. Scandinavia may have it’s strange bits, but is definitely worth visiting!

Column published by Cecile on Monday, July 21st, 2008.

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