Norway 2026

Lots of travel to get here! Original plan was TLV to Frankfurt, to Oslo to Tromso. Flight to Frankfurt landed in Athens for a crew change, okay fine. Then long layover in Frankfurt, nice time in lounge but I struggle to sleep on planes and in lounges so very very tired. Delay in flight to Oslo led to missing the flight to Tromso and lots of stress and uncertainty ensued trying to figure out how to get to Tromso and not have our rental car cancelled. Ultimately, we booked a flight on Norweigian Air to Bardufoss which is just a 2 hour drive from Tromso and took an early morning bus to Tromso from there. We went in person to the Budget desk in Oslo and were able to work out the rental car situation. After seeing no hotels and nothing on Booking.com for sleeping Monday night in Bardufoss, Judah found a great Airbnb which ended up being super amazing because the house was perfect and our hosts, Tobias and Camila, were wonderful to meet, shared about life in Norther Norway and provided rides from the airport (Camila was on our flight from Oslo where she had flown to get her hair done!) and then Tobias drove us down to the bus stop in the morning (after helping us figure out the the travel app and buy our bus tickets). Camila is an ER nurse and Tobias is an officer in the Norweigian military, both live in a small, remote town about 6 (8?) hours north of Bardufoss where they chose to live for the time being because of the economic incentives provided by the government. Tobias explained that Norway has a conscription army for about 12 months of service but relatively few are accepted because of very high physical profile standards. Staying there and meeting T&C was really a highlight we would otherwise not have gotten!  

Location: Tromsø Municipality, Norway

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