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We traveled to Norway with one purpose in mind, and that was to see the Northern Lights.  Hurtigruten Review with Kids: MS Kong Harald  Northern Lights Cruise When we first started planning, the first result that popped up in Google was for the Hurtigruten Northern Lights Cruise. The advertisements for the Hurtigruten were compelling, enticing, and romantic. We were desperate to see...
Surf and Turf, Kirkenes, Norway, Restaurant, Seafood, American, Winter in Norway, Christmas in Norway, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, traveling with kids, creating family memories, family travel, misadventures flying standby
During our entire eight day trip to Norway, we only ate at three restaurants for a total of three meals. Everything was either closed, insanely overpriced, or unappealing. That means we lived off of snacks and were starving the majority of the time. We devoured our meals on the Hurtigruten, and Pepe’s Pizza at the airport filled a very...
Scandic Hotel, Kirkenes, Breakfast Buffet Scandic, Hair on Fire, Snow, Winter in Norway, Norway, diapersonaplane, Diapers on a plane, creating family memories, family travel, traveling with kids, misadventures flying standby,
Nothing happened according to plan this trip to Norway. And I mean that in the most literal sense. When we arrived at the Scandic Hotel, chosen because of how often we’d seen it pop up in search results in Google and we just wanted a sure thing, it was early in the morning after our Hurtigruten cruise. We couldn’t...
Best Treats in Norway
With the exception of our two night Hurtigruten Cruise we spent a huge majority of our time eating items from the local 7-11, or Norwegian equivalent Narvesen, during our two week Christmas trip to Norway. We found all the best Norwegian Candy, and not because we love "food-like" items that never have an expiration date, but because most of...
Northern Lights, Viewing the Northern Lights in Norway, Seeing the Northern Lights as a Family, Norway, Kirkenes, Russian Border, Family Adventure, Diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, misadventures of a standby traveling family, family travel, traveling with kids
Seeing the Northern Lights is nothing short of becoming a witness to celestial splendor. It is emotional and spiritual and supernatural. When we first stepped out off the bus there was no mistaking the arched halo that formed a bridge over the horizon. The sky was no longer dark, as the lights fanned into the sky brilliantly like a...
Airport Food, Pepe's Pizza, Oslo, OSL, Norway, traveling with kids, family travel, misadventures, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories
All things considered, during our eight day trip in Norway we actually spent a majority of our time at the Oslo Airport, OSL. Three of those eight days were spent at the Oslo Gardermoen Airport in fact. We had zero success getting on a flight to Tromsø for Christmas, and we had zero success getting on a flight out of...
Olso, Norway, Radisson Blu, Olso Airport Hotel, creating family memories, misadventures traveling standby, family travel, traveling with kids, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, breakfast, hotel breakfast airport hotel
Flights didn’t look good departing from Oslo to Amsterdam on December 30 but if nothing else we are risk takers. What do a couple too few seats even mean to a standby traveler? Anything can happen. After all, we made it on a flight from Kirkenes to Oslo that morning when the odds were against us, and not just...
Christmas in Norway, Winter in Norway, Norway, Oslo, Scandinavia, Europe, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, family travel, traveling with kids, misadventures traveling standby, Christmas, Scandinavian Christmas
Across town, in the opposite direction of the graffiti and promiscuous pictures was where we found our home for Christmas. This darling airbnb, with red cupboards in the kitchen and four single beds laying side by side each other in the bedroom, was perfect for our celebrations. Though we longed to be in Tromsø, we were finally in a...
Kirkenes, Norway, Christmas in Norway, Winter in Norway, Russia, Northern Lights, traveling with kids, family travel, creating family memories,
We found ourselves in Kirkenes after debarking from our two night cruise on the Hurtigruten. Kirkenes is a tiny little town of only 3,000 inhabitants on just over 500 acres, and was upgraded from a village just 20 years ago! The peninsula is sandwiched between the Bøkfjorden fjord, and the Varangerfjord fjord that borders Russia, and the city is...
bad airbnb, oslo, norway, bad host, bad experience, christmas in norway, winter in norway, stinky airbnb, dirty shoes, dirty laundry, diapersonaplane, diapers on a plane, creating family memories, traveling with kids, family travel
We knew it would be an adventure to travel for Christmas, especially through two different climates and with a suitcase full of Christmas presents, but we didn’t quite anticipate everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. On our first leg of the trip from Salt Lake City, Utah to Galveston, Texas one of our bags of luggage was...