Last June I’ve been on a very short trip to Kristiansand, my first time visiting Norway! Lasted one day but felt satisfaying to have added one more country to my visited ones..!
The Cruise was offered by Holland-Norway lines, and was first supposed to happen in February – but due to bad weather and various issues it got postponed, ending up in the best season for it!! The ship left from Emden, in Germany’s Ostfriesland region, so we also managed to see a piece of Germany. Pretty funny that I had a (Dutch) Friesland hat!
We then boarded, ate and assisted to a cover band, the ship also had a shop with Nordic chocolate/candy and souvenirs (read further to see what I got).
Kristiansand centre: Cathedral, Posebyen, Skolekorps event
The following morning we were in Norway, welcomed by lots of rocky islets and perfect weather in the Kristiansand harbour.
Although the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, Kristiansand was founded by the Dano-Norwegian King King Christian IV in 1641, with -sand referring to the sandy headland.
We first got to the square with Kristiansand’s cathedral, from 1885 and one of the largest cathedrals in Norway. there were a few people selling thrift stuff.
Then we proceeded turing around town, seeing all the lovely white wooden houses in Posebyen, the old town – the only part of Kristiansand surviving a great fire in 1892
We then crossed the bridge and got to another part of the town. At some point one man cycling by said ‘du mistet papiret!’ (you missed a paper piece). My first Norwegian interaction..
Then we happened to run into a skolekorps event! Kind like marching bands?
On the way, I saw some funny signs:
beware of (hungry) seagulls, bikes LOVE to stay together and just an invite to throw rubbish in the bin written in (I assume) Kristiansand dialect (dæ instead of deg)
We got into various supermarkets: Rema, Kiwi, Xtra.
Norwegian Supermarket, souvenirs and a small hike
Of course, I had a few things to get from Norwegian supermarkets and bring home. Among these were Brunost, the beloved Norwegian brown goat cheese, and the iconic hiking chocolate Kvikk Lunsj, the latter mostly to be able to say I had tried it (Spoiler, it is basically the same as a kitkat with tips for a safe hike, sorry Norwegians).
I had already tried brunost during my Denmark workaway trip, knowing it was delicious, and was looking forward to eating more. I am sweet tooth and got a skolebrød as well.
Besides supermarkets, I of course did some souvenir shopping: a skiing/moose keychain and a flag, with a long stick, like those people wave in their hands on 17 Mai!
At a bookshop i got a postcard of Sørlandet and an art card depicting women in bunads.
The shop was also selling of characters with bunads of given areas by Garbeez, didn’t get any but the idea is really cute!!
You can read about Norwegian bunads, Norway’s national dresses and how each district in the country has its own costume
Doesn’t really count as souvenir but I had to get a couple of these lovely Moomin cards!
They say ‘have a nice journey’ and ‘I’m rooting for you!’
One thing I’ve been low-key obsessed about is checking out other countries ‘custom’ Mcdonald-s things – in Norway i found the sour apple milkshake, absolutely delicious! Also got sweet potato fries and their apple pie (which is more like a strudel). Nothing very Norwegian but I had not tried them before.
Then walked up finding another cute neighbourhood, from which you could enter the forest.
We took a path in the forest, and found a nice lake with people bathing as well, great place!
I also purchased a few things on the ship on the way back: Finnish chocolate Geisha, Norwegian Sørlands chips, Swedish gifflar (sort of mini cinnamon buns), and moomin candy.
That was all for my first Norwegian adventure, Ha det!
See also my latest Travels in Scandinavia
a Polyglot illustrating Scandinavia 