When taking a plane ride to visit family within the country or a last-minute trip, trip insurance tends to be unnecessary, because of low cost and/or the fact that the likelihood of you having to cancel for a last-minute trip is not very high. Also, you tend to only be able to book within 2 weeks of your trip date at most companies.
So why, then, during other times, is trip insurance such a wonderful thing?
Read more to find out!
I’m a preparer. A list-maker, a worrier, a “let me send myself 12 emails and 2 text message drafts just to make sure I remember these things.” When it comes to travel, I really like to be prepared. While I may save the actual packing itself for the day before, I have to have everything in place so I know I’m ready to go.
One website, Travel’s Checklist, has proven undeniably useful in recent trips. Instead of writing a list and worrying if I’ve managed to include everything I could possibly need on it, Travels’ Checklist asks a few simple questions about where you’re going, how long you’ll be staying, and the type of trip it is, in order to determine a basic list of things that you’ll need to bring. From there, you can modify the list, adding your own unique options and removing unnecessary ones. It even gives extra suggestions in many categories.
Travels’ Checklist usefully includes things like travel preparations, from remembering to renew or check your passport to checking in online, getting trip insurance, and checking baggage weights. It can remind you to clean certain parts of your home and turn off your air conditioner, and even warn you of any vaccines you may need. It provides a list of documents you could need, tickets, money, flying and packing tips, and then anything you could ever want or need to pack.
I can’t recommend this resource enough, whether you’re going on an extended vacation or just away for the weekend. It’s helped me stress out much less about travelling and remember the important things!
Going back and forth from Norway can be pricey, especially if done frequently. Whether you’re interested in going for a one-time trip or travelling back and forth, there are ways of finding more affordable pricing– even including direct flights!– if that’s what you’re looking for. Here are some of my tricks for finding the most affordable airfares. Read on to see my 5 top tips for finding affordable flights to Norway!
It’s time!
After a very hectic and stressful airport check-in– the line was an hour and a half simply to check baggage, and then about twenty minutes through security– I was happy to make it to my flight just as they were about to begin boarding on a Dreamliner plane. Those new Norwegian planes are so cool! They have digitally tinted windows, lighting that helps you be less jetlagged, and a console with an Android tablet built in. (Also, as far as airplane food goes, Norwegian isn’t the worst.)
The first destination on my first trip to Norway wasn’t the capital, Oslo, and it wasn’t the second largest city, Bergen. It was, in fact, to a small town called Ålesund, along the western coast of Norway, in the district known as Sunnmøre. With a population of only about about 45,000 people, it’s the 9th largest urban district in Norway.
The town has a distinctive architectural style, as most other locations in Norway. These differences mostly developed because before the invention of the trains, due to the divisions created by the vast mountains, it was difficult to get around, leading to the differences in dialect, culture, and cuisine. The city has a small airport, and is built over a series of small islands. It’s a major harbor that does lots of business in fishery. I recently saw an episode of New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad that featured the Spanish, dried fish of Bacalao that was being made in Ålesund. The city center is small, and I mean small– I walked through the entirety of it thoroughly in less than a few hours on the rainy night I arrived. It has a beautiful, old architecture and bright, colorful wooden buildings. The streets in the majority of the center are paved still with beautiful old stones. (more…)
My trip to Oslo is fast approaching, and Jul is just around the corner. While I’ve been informed that I’m missing all sorts of preparations that are exciting, such as the advent calendars and decorations going up, I can’t help but still remain starry-eyed myself at the idea of my first Norwegian Christmas!
Today I tried my first attempt to wrap gifts. Let’s just say that my family isn’t really known for being gift-givers. While I was very spoiled with food, love, and even material possessions, once a person is past a certain age, my parents didn’t really see the necessity to provide lots of wrapped presents. Now, despite being an artist and having gone to college, my horrible wrapping genes appear to have overtaken any ability I may have ever had, and after about 20 minutes between me and a half-wasted roll of gift wrapping paper, I found myself saying into my phone, “OK, Google. Wikihow how to wrap gifts.”
Needless to say the resulting gift-wrapping wasn’t very impressive, and in fact is quite laughable. However, it was still incredibly enjoyable to be frustrated by such a minor, trivial thing. I’m incredibly lucky to have someone I want to shower with gifts that are wrapped in pretty paper, so despite all the frustrations, I am just glad to have this experience. I also put up snowflake twinkle lights in my bedroom to get me into the mood a bit more, to my boyfriend’s response of “That’s so American!”
Guilty!
So I’m finally going back to Norway, to spend my first Jul, or Christmas, with my boyfriend and his family. Yes, that’s right, I’ve never celebrated Christmas before! I’m Jewish, and growing up I wasn’t allowed to help my friends decorate their Christmas trees, and I was carefully instructed by my parents to not inform all the other kids that Santa wasn’t real. It was a little intimidating thinking of having my first Jul overall, but the fact that I’ll be meeting more of my boyfriend’s family for the first time is a little scary (and exciting, too!)
Being me, a million thoughts ran through my head. Norway in winter? I mean, I guess I have to get used to it eventually. But damn, isn’t it supposed to be insanely cold? Thankfully, I was relieved to find that in Oslo, it’s not actually that much colder than New York City most of the time– it tends to hover around the freezing level the majority of the winter. It is, however, much more of a wintry wonderland cast in snow, as opposed to the dreary streets of a cold New York that occasionally get shrouded in a dirtied, blackened snowy mush.
In my head I’ve begun to romanticize it; the snowball fights and the warm, cozy Norwegian sweaters (okay, so I still have to get one of these) and warming up with some Akvavit or wine. Watching kids’ faces as they open up their presents and excitedly play with them, and of course, huge family meals. My boyfriend, knowing my curious palate as he does, has generously painted word pictures of foods that might be seen: special Jul sausages, ground pork patties in sauce (medisterkaker), reindeer (reinsdyr!), Jul sodas (Jul brus), chocolates, and liquors. I’ll be bringing along a little Menorah to have a part of tradition and home with me while I’m there, and get to share it with him. Maybe if he’s lucky, I’ll have room for latke mix in my suitcase that I can share with him as well.
In the meantime, I’ve been stocking up on socks, tights, leggings, and other thermalwear! I plan on getting some appropriate boots once I’m there, since mine are a bit lacking, to help safeguard me from wintry doom. I’m getting very excited for my first Christmas, and my first Norwegian Jul. 🙂
Over a year ago now, I traveled to Norway on a whim after graduation. My family and friends all questioned me– why Norway? Truth was, I’d had a friend recently come and visit me who was from a small fishing town in Western Norway, and show me pictures of his hometown. I was immediately captivated and knew I needed to go there. So what if I was a wuss and didn’t have a lot of experience hiking? The photos I kept looking at were screaming my name, begging me to come take a whiff of those mountains.
So I did, and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I fell in love with Norway, travelling from the western city of Ålesund down to Bergen, road trip style. I gazed longingly at fjords, smelled the fresh grass and the smell of the sea mixing with the mountains on the coast. I watched the clouds part over the distant mountains and sea just to allow sunlight to pass through them in rays, while I sat on my knees in tears, in awe of the beauty. I swiftly hiked to the top of a muddy mountain to watch the sun set, hiked to the top of a small mountain at night in a local park, experienced the gorgeous architecture of Ålesund and Bergen, had the honor of being treated to local, home-cooked meals, and gotten spoiled with a 7-course, locally-sourced dinner in Bergen.
That trip changed me, and changed my life. I suddenly felt a whole new world inside of me opening up, and I felt connected to the country in a way I’d never felt before. I felt free, liberated, and as though I had been missing out on something my entire life.
One year later, I’ve been back to Norway, though sadly not to the Western Coast again. Since then, I’ve visited Oslo and its immediate surrounding areas. I’ve been learning Norwegian on my own for about a year now, and while I’m nowhere near fluent, I can manage some basic conversations. I’ll be going back to Oslo again soon, and heading up north through the eastern part of Norway to Trondheim, the former capital. I’ll experience Julmat, or Christmas food, and a snowy, wintry wonderland. I can’t wait!