🇳🇴 Norway — a house by the fjord 🌈🍄

🌈 A house by the fjord, a rainbow, and the smell of mushrooms after the rain 🍄

Sveinavik, Vindafjord — the first evening that smelled like happiness and wet wood 💛

After a full day of travel — a flight, then a drive from Stavanger to Sveinavik — we were dreaming of nothing more than a bed, some tea, and a moment of silence. But the second we opened the door to our wooden cabin, all the fatigue… just disappeared.
The place looked like something out of a fairytale — covered with grass and moss, tucked into the hillside, with a view of mountains and water so calm it made you want to whisper. It smelled of wood and something else — that Norwegian freshness that really should be sold in bottles.

Before we even had time to unpack our bags, the sky suddenly lit up with a thousand colors. A huge rainbow stretched over the fjord, as if Norway had decided to welcome us in royal style 🌈
We stood on the terrace, completely spellbound — quiet, smiling, with that slightly silly thought that if the rest of the days are even half as good… we’re done for.
Because Norway won us over at first sight 😄

For three days, we ate them in every possible version: fried, stewed, in scrambled eggs, and even in pasta sauce.
By the end, we started laughing that if this keeps going, we’ll come back to Poland with Norwegian citizenship… mushroom edition 😄

🔎 Fun facts from the Norwegian forest and fjord

🌲 Norwegians truly love their forests.
Over 30% of the country is covered by woodland — mostly pine and spruce. They call it their “green sanctuary,” a place where you can walk, forage, camp, and… simply be.

🍄 Mushroom picking is serious business here.
In Norway, everyone has the right to enjoy nature — it’s called allemannsretten, the “right to roam.” You can legally enter forests, pick mushrooms or berries, and even pitch a tent — as long as you respect nature.

🌈 Fjords smell like rain and salt.
It’s the mix of fresh water from the mountains and salty ocean water. That’s why their color shifts with the weather — from steel grey to deep emerald.

🌧 And rainbows?
You don’t have to look for them long. With such moody weather, they appear often — sometimes even several times a day. Locals joke it’s Norway’s way of communicating with tourists 😉

⚙️ Oil platforms — the steel giants of the fjords.
They may look like spaceships, but in Norway they’re a pretty common sight. One stood not far from us — massive, majestic, and at night lit up like a floating city.
A bit of an industrial contrast to the quiet of the fjord, but that’s part of Norway’s charm — nature and technology somehow live side by side in harmony.

🌿 Reindeer lichen — my favorite little detail of the North.
Soft like a carpet and lighter than moss, it grows in every corner. Norwegians use it for decoration, and reindeer… for lunch 😉
For me, it’s a symbol of this place — quiet, delicate, and beautiful in its simplicity.

🍺 Norwegian beer — only until 6 PM!
Yes, it’s not a joke 😅 Alcohol in Norway has its own schedule. You can buy beer in regular stores only until 18:00 (on Saturdays until 15:00), and on Sundays… the shops are closed.
We found out the hard way on a Saturday evening — the fjord was glowing, the sunset was in full swing, mushrooms were sizzling in the pan… and we ran out of beer 😫😅

And it was among landscapes like this that our first day in Norway came to an end — scented with rain, wood, and mushrooms, with the fjord as our backdrop and a plan for tomorrow.
Because tomorrow… was going to be loud 💦

→ Onward: Norwegian waterfalls that make noise and stay in your mind long after 💦