Norway, some useful information

We have been waiting for this journey for a long time. When we looked at the pictures with red houses, blue sea and snow-covered hills, we kept dreaming that one day we would see these places with our own eyes. This year we finally went to the land of fjords, glaciers, moose, trolls, the midnight sun... to Norway. We traveled in July, but sorting lots of photos and information takes a lot of time, I am a little late with the posts.

Na tole potovanje sva res dolgo čakala. Ko sva gledala slike z rdečimi hišicami, modro morje in zasnežene hribe, sva sanjala, da bova tudi midva nekoč te kraje videla s svojimi očmi. Letos sva se končno odpravila v deželo fjordov, ledenikov, losov, trolov, polnočnega sonca... na Norveško. Potovala sva v juliju, ker se je nabralo veliko fotografij in informacij, z objavami malo zamujam.

Before we went on the trip, we looked for some information on the Internet, including blogs and travelogues. So, if you're heading up there, just a quick, short and useful summary of tips to make the trip easier:

- Norway is a land of tunnels, bridges, and ferries. A few times we also drove through the tunnels under the sea, and roundabouts in the tunnels. The payment of tolls can be arranged on the autopass internet page, where you register your vehicle at least a month before the trip. I wasn’t sure we would go, so I was a little late with the registration. Nevertheless, I managed to arrange an autopass agreement for both tolls and ferries. The amount of the toll depends on the air pollution caused by your vehicle. Tolls are not paid on the spot, but the camera reads the license plate of the vehicle and the tool is paid online a little later. For ferry services, a certain amount (NOK 3000) needs to be paid in advance, and then the advance payment is simply reduced for each ferry transport when the license plate of the vehicle is read on the ferry. You can also choose not to arrange these payment agreements. In this case, you will get the invoice home after the trip with no discounts.

- Debit and credit cards are accepted everywhere and you don’t need to pay with cash.

- Norway is a very large country, so the distances traveled are long, consequently the price of oil is not negligible. This is higher than in Slovenia (currently around 1.7 euros per liter) and it can vary from pump to pump. Perhaps the best tip here is to simply fill up your tank when you drive past a low-priced pump, even if it's not empty yet.

- Internet usage conditions are the same as in EU member states.

- Opening hours of the shops are mostly from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Food prices are a bit higher than here. We loaded quite a bit of supplies into our van, in Norway we bought only a few things and cooked our meals. Fishing in the salt water is also allowed and free of charge in Norway. In my opinion fishing takes some time and some skills, but it's worth a try.

- Wild camping is allowed in Norway, as long as you follow certain rules such as parking away from the locals so as not to disturb them, not polluting the nature, and cleaning up before you leave. There are also lots of PZAs and campsites everywhere. Usually, all additional services in the camp such as showering must be paid for separately. It is also possible to use only one service. We never slept in a camp, but always camped somewhere outside and stopped a few times in the camps just to take a shower.

- the weather can quickly change, so it always makes sense to have a waterproof jacket or a rain cape in a rucksack. We were warned that there can be some problems with mosquitoes, in reality not a single one bothered us.

Preden sva šla na pot, sva na netu pa tudi iz blogov in potopisov poiskala kar nekaj informacij. Če se boste odpravili tja gor, samo na hitro nekaj kratkih uporabnih informacij, ki lahko olajšajo potovanje:

- Norveška je dežela tunelov, mostov in trajektov. Nekajkrat sva se peljali tudi skozi tunel speljan pod morjem, pa skozi krožno križišče v tunelu. Plačevanje cestnin si uredite preko strani autopass, kjer vpišete svoje vozilo, kar pa je potrebno začeti urejati kašen mesec pred potovanjem. Jaz sem bila malo pozna, saj skoraj do konca nisva vedela, ali bova lahko šla. Kljub temu, mi je uspelo urediti autopass sporazum tako za plačevanje cestnin kot tudi za trajekte. Višina cestnine je odvisna od tega, koliko vaše vozilo onesnažuje okolje. Cestnine se ne plačujejo sproti, ampak kamera odčita tablico vozila in potem plačate preko spleta. Za trajektne prevoze pa je potrebno določen znesek (3000 NOK) nakazati vnaprej, potem pa se predplačilo enostavno znižuje za opravljene trajektne prevoze, ko na trajektu odčitajo registrsko tablico vozila. Možno je tudi, da tega ne uredite. V tem primeru bi račun dobili domov brez upoštevanja popustov.

- Vse se plačuje z bančnimi karticami. Norveških kron tako sploh nisva videla.

- Norveška je zelo velika in temu primerne so tudi prevožene razdalje, zato cena nafte ni zanemarljiva. Ta je višja kot v Sloveniji ( trenutno približno 1,7 eur) in se od črpalke do črpalke lahko zelo razlikuje. Mogoče je tu najboljši nasvet, da enostavno napolnite rezervoar, ko se peljete mimo črpalke z nizko ceno, tudi če ta še ni prazen.

- Pogoji uporabe interneta so enaki kot v državah članicah EU.

- Trgovine so večinoma odprte od 7 do 23 ure. Hrana v trgovinah je nekoliko dražja kot pri nas. Midva sva kar nekaj zaloge naložila v najin kombi, kupovala pa le osnovne stvari in si sama kuhala. Na Norveškem je tudi dovoljen in brezplačen ribolov v morju. Mislim, da to zahteva nekaj časa in predvsem spretnosti, vendar splača se poskusiti.

- Na Norveškem je dovoljeno divje kampiranje, v kolikor upoštevate nekatera pravila in sicer, da parkirate dovolj stran od domačinov, da jih ne motite, ne onesnažujete narave in pospravite za sabo. Povsod je tudi veliko PZA-jev in kampov. Tu je poleg prostora za kampiranje vse dodatne storitve potrebno posebej doplačati. Možno pa je tudi koristiti samo eno storitev. Midva nikoli nisva prespala v kampu, ampak vedno divje kampirala in se nekajkrat v kampih ustavila samo za tuširanje.

- vreme zna biti muhasto in se hitro spremeni, zato je smiselno, v nahrbtniku vedno imeti nepremočljivo vetrovko oz. pelerino. Čeprav so naju vsi opozarjali, da zna biti v teh krajih ogromno komarjev, naju ni zmotil niti eden.

Our route looks something like this:
Najina pot je izgledala približno tako: