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Trekking in Scandinavia

11:03 / 29.11.06

Does anybody here live in Scandinavia? Has anybody visited? Does anybody know the place at all? I need some advice:

My papa and i are looking to do a week or so's easy wandering and camping. A nice bonding thing somewhere with scenic views and maybe some photography and/or filming (ambient nature stuff rather than any kind of drama..) We have focussed roughly on Scandinavia as neither of us have visited northern Europe and we get the impression there are some pretty lovely areas to visit up there.

But we know next-to-nothing about the place(s).

So: Does anyone have any recommendations?

We're thinking of going around March or April, when the seasons are shifting and it isn't mighty cold, but winter is still lingering.

As i say, it would be about a week of easygoing hiking. We've both got experience with the whole hiking and camping thing, so are confident with going somewhere relatively out-of-bounds but the short trip would probably necessitate an area within easy vehicular distance of town or city.

On a practical level, i suppose we'd also prefer a country that either has a relatively easy language for a brit to pick up, or is likely to have an amount of english speakers (is it just stereotyping to think that a lot of Scandinavian people speak better english than i do? would this just be in the major cities?)

The level of knowledge i have about Scandinavia (for instance, i'm not even sure people still use 'Scandinavia' to describe the countries on the 'big willy peninsula') is shocking. So any information people can throw my way would be much appreciated.

And as incentive - I promise to send pictures of trolls to any and all people who help me plan this trip. If there aren't trolls (and i know there are), then you'll get pictures of me listening to The Knife while crossing a fjord. Or something.

19:32 / 29.11.06

Denmark is incredibly flat.

19:50 / 29.11.06

user wembley is currently living in Finland, and probably open to PMs about life in Finland. I get the feeling that Finland has the most wild space of Scandinavia and Denmark the least (except maybe the Greenland bit), but I've only been to Denmark and Sweden.

They have standing stones there, you know, like Stonehenge, but not circular. Shaped like boats.

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09:21 / 30.11.06

I'm from Norway. We've only managed to "civilise" 5% of our territory. The rest is mountains, highland plains, fiords, forests and overall relative wilderness. Depending on what kind of trekking you want I'd recommend either going to Oslo or Bergen. From there you have easy access by rail, bus or sometimes air to the most interesting parts. Northern Norway is gorgeous too, but quite expensive to get to.
Anyhoo, I could go on for hours. PM if you want any specific info or just more. Be warned, I'll not be much online until Sunday.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:46 / 30.11.06

Tromso! It's in Northern Norway, and it's great. If you like vast vistas of dick-all, and the odd glacier. The major city of northern Norway, Trondheim, isn't exactly the most cosmopolitan place, but leaps and bounds have been made, and the coffee is quite good. Very pricey, mind.

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10:15 / 30.11.06

I second Tromso, it's a great little town, loads of students, Sami people, crazy fishermen etc. But as I said, it's a tad expensive to get there, and once you're there, going anywhere is likely to take you hours, if not days. But the Finnmarks-vidda (the Finnmark high plain) is one of the largest tracts of unspoilt land in Scandinavia, great for trekking and camping, with reindeer, sheep and wolverines all around. Avoid Trondheim unless it's just a pit-stop, the only thing worth seeing there is the Nidarosdomen cathedral.

wembley can change in 28 days

09:12 / 01.12.06

Moiks!

Although Finland isn't technically Scandinavia (I'll shut up now, don't worry), it can be a great place for trekking. It's flat up north and very, very beautiful. There are pretty darn good facilities for roughing it--I mean, the national trails have wilderness huts parked every once in a while where you can get some shelter and cook, etc.

In cities, you can get along with English; most signs are in Finnish and Swedish so if your nordic languages are remotely okay, you can probably get by reading Swedish signs. Although if you're anywhere at all where there are tourists, English is spoke. The same seems to be the case in Norway and Sweden. And okay, fine, let's include Denmark.

The funny thing about the untouchedness of Finland's wilderness is that Finns really like that remoteness (a friend of mine goes hiking every year and it usually takes him a few days just to walk far enough in so that he feels he's found a destination where he's not going to see anybody, and that for him is wilderness) and they really want to keep it as wild as possible. Having said that, they understand that you can get in pretty compromising situations out in the middle of nowhere, so they're also really good about providing necessary information about said wilderness.

Now there's a pretty big difference between Helsinki in March-April and Rovaniemi (up near the arctic circle). One of the main ones is light: after the March 21 solstice, when day and night is approximately equal, days are longer, and they are much more so up north. March and April in Helsinki are a dreadful kind of "why, summer, why will you not come here noowwwwwwwwww" sort of weather and while the winter depression has ended, the waiting-for-spring frustration makes everyone a bit loopy. You can still ski in May. The march temperature averages in the north are still below zero; they go up to 0-10 about in April. In the south it's a bit warmer.

I think Norway can offer you more variation in the territory, given their fjords and hills and what-not, but you'll pay eight euros for a beer.

Oh, yeah, we usually refer to the area as the Nordic countries or the Nordics nowadays, at least when doing business between Finland and the rest of Scandinavia.

Got any more questions about us vikings? Ask!

12:27 / 02.12.06

Wow. Thanks for the replies.

Having had a quick chat with el pop, it seems we're going to go around maytime, as this would mean a bit less chill to deal with. He has visited Tromsø (childish, i know, but my mind keeps wanting to add an 's' to the start of that name and make it sound like an Italian swearie) and liked it a lot. He was there on business so didn't really get a chance to explore. So that seems like it might be a good option.

Would it be quite easy to find some good hiking areas near and around Tromsø? It seems it might be good to use the town as a kind of basecamp - stay there a day or so, go off hiking in the environs for a few days, then return to chillax for another day or two.

But then, i did just see a photo of a viking ship in a museum in Oslo.

I wouln't want to thin out the trip with too much 'let's do this, then this, then that', but it might be nice to visit some sort of museum-y stuff to get a feel for the place.

Language-wise; i've no experience with any Nordic languages. I'm pretty competent with french and have quite a feel for the latinate languages but i'm guessing the nordic languages have a pretty different structure. That said, i enjoy trying out new languages and a challenge is always welcome. I suppose a choice might be: which language has the least opportunity for disasterous and potentially insulting fuckups?

Wembley and LosMontes are you native or did you move over? If the second (and assuming you moved from an Anglophone area), how did you find learning the language?

Um.. I'm sure i have a million other questions, but they aren't arriving on this lazy saturday. Maybe later.

Oh: Diet.

I will eat pretty much anything, but not fish. I'm assuming Tromsø would have a pretty fish-intensive diet. Is this the case? Do you think it would be much of an issue to find other foodstuff? (I have memories of a trip to Prague when i was in the middle of a Macro-vegan detox. Prague with no meat, beer or cheese felt a little half-experienced.)

12:28 / 02.12.06

(and what does 'Moiks' mean?)

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10:11 / 04.12.06

.trampetunia. I'm native to Norway. Moved over to the UK a couple of years ago. As for Tromso, it's a great place to start out for some good hiking. You've got mountaineering opportunities - not exactly Mt. Everest, but still a challenge, a bit further inland you'll get some flatter and more walkable land. But, there's a chance there'll still be a lot of snow, especially the further inland and higher up you go. Yes, even in May... Which on the other hand means you might go skiing - there are downhill slopes and cross-country tracks not more than a short bus-ride from downtown. If you're more experienced, you can rent a helicopter and do some pretty extreme off-piste skiing in the Lyngen Alps, which also happens to be where my mum's from. Only an hour and a half from Tromso. I can go on and on.... Generally speaking, tho, it's an absolutely gorgeous part of the world.

Language - Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are pretty similar, all three being north Germanic languages. Finnish is unrelated and totally incomprehensible to the rest of the Nordic countries. Apparently it's also devilishly difficult to learn. I should add that I find it a beautiful tongue... But not to worry, pretty much anyone under 40 will have a working knowledge of English, and the younger they are the better their English will be. I reckon it's much the same in Finland (Suomi in Finnish).

Diet - unless you're sticking to a macrobiotic vegan diet you won't have any problems. Fish is abundant, but so is pretty much anything else. And they've got good beer. Not that it's cheap.

Rrrrright..