Cabin fever

Norwegians are huge nature lovers and try to be outside as much as they can. One of my lunchtime discussions this week with some coworkers was a comparison of the various hikes (distance, view, time, difficulty) that are possible just walking out one´s front door in Bergen. It´s a more popular pastime than watching TV, and coming from the States, that´s a strong statement to make. Inki and I have averaged one hike a week since we got here, and that´s probably under par. The national passion for the outdoors is indicated by the huge number of sport shops here selling equipment for hiking, camping, fishing, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, boating, etc., etc.
This leads me to the Norwegian phenomenon of the "hytte" ("cabin"). Most Norwegians own or have access to one of these places where they can spend weekends and vacations out in the open air and far from the madding crowd. Some like to have them up in the mountains to be near the skiing. How good is the skiing, you ask? Well, if you consider that Norway consistently outmedals the rest of the world´s nations at the Winter Olympics with a population of four and a half million people, you might have an idea.
Those who don´t go up to the mountains for the skiing go to the coast for the water. This is probably what Inki and I will do since she is not very much into skiing and I won´t do it again until I get a ski fitted to my rear end since that´s how I always end up going down the mountain anyway. There´s lots of coast to choose from; with all its fjords Norway has over 15,000 miles of coastline on the mainland and 30,000 more if you include all the islands. Norway has, in fact, more coast than the rest of Europe put together, so owning a bit of shoreline isn´t prohibitively expensive. I found this listing on finn.no of a place I like -- not that we´re buying a second home before we move into the first on Friday, but, hey, what´s the harm in looking?

http://www.finn.no/finn/realestate/object?finnkode=8089369&sid=10amWTh7Df321312&pos=5&tot=29

I imagine we will get something like that at some point. Right now, though, the move-in countdown is five days and counting. Hurray!