Lofoten, Norway. What can I say, when I feel like this place is too beautiful for words. Norway is beautiful itself, but Lofoten is the epitome of Norway's beauty. A small horn of islands extending out from Norway's northern boundary into the Artic Ocean, Lofoten is one of those places I will never forget. The Lofoten islands are steep jagged mountains rising directly out of the sea. Small bridges connect these islands, and allow you to traverse them out into the sea.
Along these islands are small fishing villages. For being such a dark and gloomy place for most of the year, the towns are beautiful and bright with color. These fishing villages were built on the salted cod industry. If you have ever been to southern Europe, you will find that salted preserved cod is a very common and old part of food culture. Throughout history, most of this cod has come from Norway. In the windows of some of the shops, we could even see old packaging for this fish written in Spanish.
On our way to visit one of these small fishing towns, we picked up a couple of hitchhikers who later treated us to some of the local dried fish. Stringy and slightly salty, the fish was not the most appetizing foods we have had, but it was easy to understand its appeal nutritionally.
The people in Lofoten were extremely friendly with us, but they were also a little confused about our Spanish car...
