However, this also turned out to be the journey of a lifetime, and we had allowed three weeks to complete the trip.

On leaving Bergen we travelled through Voss, and cross country following the road between Sognefjell and the Jotunheimen which we had previously travelled in 1976, to Otta. Stopping just north of Otta for the night we headed on again the next day and got to Steinkjer where we stayed for the second night. On again up the E6, we arrived at a lovely caravan park just a few kilometers below the Arctic Circle at Krokstrand, where we took a cabin to break the journey. There were still three more days of driving ahead before we would be able to cross over to Magerøya, the island on which the North Cape or Nordkapp is situated. This was in the days of the ferry, not the tunnel. After the ferry crossing, we finally arrived in Honningsvåg in the early afternoon in a torrential rainstorm, and drove on to find somewhere to stay. It was good to get there, but if we were to see the midnight sun we would only be able to have a short rest, and then drive the last few kilometers to Nordkapp itself.

Unfortunately, we had not picked the best of evenings to go there as the cloud cover was almost 100%, but after a long wait with hundreds of other people of all nationalities, a gap appeared in the clouds which let us glimpse the sun. Back again we drove to our hotel without any lights on the car at 2 am in the morning. We had never witnessed 24 hour daylight before, and it was quite incredible. We went up again during the next day to take a better look at the surrounding area, and saw many reindeer in the wild, plus snow in some of the hollows which had not melted since the winter. It is indeed a bleak place at any time of the year.

Before I had left England I had had an unfortunate incident with a hammer, and had hit my thumb with it. The nail had gone very black and was obviously going to come off at some stage. As it happened this took place at Nordkapp, which really was quite a fitting moment. I could not allow myself just to throw part of my body away to blow in the wind, so we held a small ceremony and dug a little hole and buried it near the statue of the lady and the boy. Hopefully it is still there to this day, and perhaps I will go back sometime and retrieve it. I may be the only person in the world to have my DNA in two countries at the same time – who knows!

All this was 25 years ago now, but it just seems likes yesterday to me, and I have got the photo to prove it!

Obviously, ex-pats have options to choose between countries to move in, instead of just accept the unwritten rule “be like us or go home”. No, it doesn’t work like this. Did you know that there are around 20% of people with foreigners backgrounds living in Norway? It means that almost every 5th person on the street in Norway came here from abroad! That’s why Norway can’t blindly continue to behave as a solitary monolith nation of conformists, racists and xenophobes. They need to change their behaviour and be more welcoming to foreigners, otherwise, the trend will continue and skilled workers will prefer Finland, Sweden, Denmark or other countries to Norway.

I live in Norway with my wife now for around 5 years. It become our second home – we bought here a house, and car and expect a baby soon. But I am not sure wether I want my son to grow up in this society and face all the struggles I experience here as a foreigner..

that sounds very interesting i hope you had fun back then

Of course it’s all relative to the building square meterage , but we have been quoted £34,000GBP for 486 square metres . That I believe incudes the ugly panel radiators , tank etc , it’s a complete refurb so should be easier , financially in terms of a saving it’s a non starter .
However my concern though is will it do the job ?

Why don’t you google homeless encampments in western countries. Take a look at photos of Watts, Skid Row, and the Rind in Ohio. Thank God my parents immigrated to the USA in 1960 and not to Norway. I was born in the USA and thank God CPS didn’t take me away for eating from my Mom’s loving hands. My parents were admired my our teachers for raising polite intelligent children. My parents raised five college educated law abiding citizens. There are 83 and 90 years old and live comfortably at the Country Club.