Family (and Fish)

Harstad. Wow. Where to even begin. This has been maybe my [M] favorite leg of the trip so far. It has been the epitome of traveling in a way that gives an inside taste of local culture, traditional experiences, etc.

We stayed with Aase, Nikolay, and their kids Tilde and Teo for most of our time up north.  Their family was such a pleasure to spend time with.  Aase and Nikolay are incredible parents, and it shows. From day 1 I [M] fell in love with their kids.  Tilde is 7 and Teo is 4. They play together so well. Teo clearly admires Tilde, and Tilde is a wonderful big sister. Tilde loves dancing – and is really good at it! She danced for us to her favorite song, and it was like a real choreographed show. Teo was quite shy when we first arrived at the house, but he warmed up quickly, and soon enough I [M] was picking him up, swinging him around, and tickling. Neither of the kids speak English. But they know a few words and phrases, and they were eager to use them and learn some more. The six of us when to a climbing wall; Aase and Nikolay recently started climbing and Nolan and I have been wanting to get into it ourselves. It was a blast. Tilde is a natural athlete. She has a broken arm right now, but she still climbed up the wall!

Additionally, they have THE most beautiful view either of us have ever seen from somebody’s house before. No question. It perfectly overlooks the ocean without anything in the way. They already have huge windows on that side of the house, but Nikolay being a carpenter, they’re always making improvements. So they’re going to replace the entire sea facing wall with glass.

They also built a little house / room in their backyard (with the same perfect view): the beer cottage.  Every Friday they have a get together with their friends in it, so we joined them for that this week. This Friday featured tolfisk, a Norwegian specialty. It’s dried cod, and is an acquired taste for most foreigners. But we enjoyed it right away. We also ate reindeer heart jerky – another first for us.

We also stayed one night with Halvdan and Anita. Halvdan took us on the adventure we’ve (particularly Monisha) been craving in Norway: going fishing! The weather was perfect that day. We headed out in Halvdan’s small boat well equipped for the day. We first made a stop at Grasholmen and walked around the island. It has a lot of historical significance for Nolan’s family. His great grandfather was born and grew up there. The foundation of his house still exists on the island and we got to see it. Halvdan’s brother and a whole bunch of Nolan’s other relatives were having a BBQ on the island so we got to say hi to the lot of them.

 

Fishing: unbelievable. Halvdan navigated us to his favorite secret fishing spot near the island. When fishing in the Norwegian sea, you don’t often use a rod and reel. Instead you use what’s called a jukse; it’s a wheel with a very long line holding up to 20 hooks. Monisha got the first crack at using it that day. She lowered it down to the bottom of the water and soon enough, felt a bite! The first one got away, but the second was a catch! She reeled in a big ol’ pollock, aka ‘sei.’ This is the kind of fish Halvdan was hoping for, so a definite success. Nolan told her to give it one more go. Again, she let the line out to the bottom. The line began to wriggle…harder this time. “I think you got a big one!” As she reeled it in, carefully keeping constant tension, Halvdan began to predict. “It might even be two fish on that line!” “Or maybe a big cod.” Monisha had to reel the line out a little bit several times so it wouldn’t break. She did not want to lose this one. Finally, a fish was visible in the water. Halvdan exclaimed, “Holy fuck!” We could see two BIG fish in the water. Halvdan pulled them on board, but the line was still taught. “THREE!” Another big fish on board. “No… FOUR?!” “FIVE!” Nope, not five. SIX. Monisha’s third try, second catch, and she pulled up six BIG fish: two pollock and four cod.

We had to give Nolan a shot too, so he got to catch two pollock and a cod as well. But we had to stop pretty soon because...well, we had too many fish. We literally couldn’t handle any more.

   

Like every fishing adventure should, the day ended with cooking and eating fresh fish. Pollock, boiled potatoes, sour cream, and….mølje. Mølje is a traditional Norwegian specialty…we’ve been eating a lot of Norwegian specialties on this trip. :)  This one is fish liver. Halvdan makes it with his own special twists. A lot of Norwegians we’ve spoken to since actually aren’t big fans, but we both enjoyed it, and Monisha LOVED it. Like mother, like daughter. To go with the meal, we had akvavit, a classic Scandanavian spirit. Apparently, it cuts the fat in the liver so you don’t feel weird the next day.

Halvdan wanted to cook us a special dinner the next day before he left. He prepared a feast of reindeer steak (!!) with an awesome homemade gravy, lingonberry sauce, creamy mushrooms, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, and boiled potatoes. It really was special. The reindeer has a very distinct gamey flavor, and he made it so nice and tender. With the meal we had his favorite wine. It was an really nice Spanish wine, and was definitely a treat.