Welcome to my new weekly column: Living Norwegianly

I am asked this question by every Norwegian I meet:

How did a London girl end up in Norway?

Every Norwegian is perplexed as to how on earth a girl who spent a lot of her twenties in London, ended up in Norway outside of Bergen and Oslo.

Most people move to Norway (usually Oslo or Bergen) because their partner is Norwegian, or as a Swedish or Dutch couple they want a safer environment with more mountains.

And most people avoid Norway because they hear it’s terribly expensive!

Very few move from a city of almost 9 million to a tiny remote village of about 3,500 people on their own without a Norwegian based job.

A few years ago that’s exactly what I did.

Has it been easy?

Far from it.

I’ve actually moved back to the UK twice - once I got stuck at home due to C*vid. The other time I had a breakdown due to the most horrendous experiences with Norwegian flat mates and landlords.

I’ve been bullied to the point of panic attacks, illegally evicted within 24 hours, unwittingly signed illegal rental contracts which inevitably went very wrong, had my landlords steal my mail, heating turned off in -30, mis-sold cars, and had my life threatened by the landlord’s other tenant who we’re 99% sure was a drug dealer, and spent a lot of money getting myself out of these various situations. Some of my friends have said I was cursed because of how crazy this stuff has been.

I’ve fallen in love, had my heartbroken. 

And my hormones plummeted to almost menopausal levels, resulting in suicidal thoughts, extreme pain and fatigue for 2-3 weeks of the month for almost 2 years.

And this isn’t even all the stuff that’s happened.

So why have I kept coming back and stayed?

Well, the strange thing is, because of all this sh*t, I now KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that I want to call Norway my forever home.

Although some of the worst things in my life have happened in Norway and I’ve encountered more unpleasant people here than anywhere else, I’ve also experienced the very best.

In one season here, I live a life time of pure magic.

Living in Norway means that I can cross-country, alpine or rando ski every day during the winter. Or hike and bike in the summer. I can see the northern lights in my backyard on a random Tuesday night. I can grab my sleeping bag in -20 and sleep under the stars at the top of a mountain on a Thursday. At 5.30AM I can ski to a summit in just 1.5 hours with a friend and watch the sun transform the snow into purples and oranges before work. I can go to a adventure music festival with my dog and friends in the middle of nowhere for a long weekend, and so much more!

And I’m gathering friends who are as adventure crazy as I am. Every week I recieve messages like;

“Hey, do you want to go biking, hiking and then bum board down this mountain this weekend?”

“Hei, want to go biking, hiking and skiing all in one day in shorts and tee on Sunday?”

“Hei, I have a spare ticket to a music and adventure festival in the mountains next month, wanna come?”

“Want to join us on a cabin to cabin trip in Jotunheiman in July? We’ll pack fast and light”

“Hey, the weather looks good Monday, want to bring Woolfie and SUP?"

This May, we even skied amazing slush and then headed down to my friend’s farm by the fjord where it was 26o. We sunbathed, watched their sheep and ate amazing food together until the sun went down.

This life I’m living right now, with all these mind-blowing experiences, wonderful friends, and abundant feelings has been on my manifestation board for years - and not only is it manifesting in ways better than I expected, but in the last few months it just keeps getting better and better.

And what makes it extra special is I’m now doing it with my husky, Woolfie. Something I’ve wished for since I was 4 having watched the Disney film Balto. I watched it so many times, I’m surprised the tape didn’t wear out.

Does this mean everything is now easy and in place? Well no…

I’ve not worked full time on my business for almost 2 years because of the hormone issue. This is now changing and The Wild Collective is awesome - I am so psyched by what I’m now creating and how it’s supporting my clients!

My hormones are still in the tank, but we have a plan and I should start to experience a signficant shift soon.

I’ve managed to keep most of my strength and fitness from my Ironman days, so that’s cool.

And I’ve been in therapy for 8 months. I no longer have suicidal thoughts, which is my biggest win. I’m on a break now, as my coach is on maternity leave, but you bet we’ll be starting again when she’s back, so I continue to grow, heal and live my best life. It’s the only way.

ALL of this has made me a better human being and coach/psychologist. I’ve delved deep into my shadows and healed on a level and in ways I didn’t know existed.

So why am I writing this weekly column called Living Norwegianly?

I read a book about 10 years ago called ‘A Year of Living Danishly’, a funny glimpse into uncovering the Dane’s secrets of living happily.

And I knew then that I wanted to write something similar.

A lot of the content produced on living in Norway I can’t relate to. 

It’s always around Norwegians being unfriendly (I can relate partly to this!), not having anything fun to do, dark sad winters, loneliness, expensive (don’t get me wrong, it’s not cheap, it’s basically London prices which I’m used to), bad food (more valid than these other points) and a sucky dating life (I feel this isn’t isolated to Norway from chatting with my girlfriends!).

The filter I experience Norway through isn’t quite like this. 

Living Norwegianly is my unique experience on living, funnily enough, in Norway - it will be a honest, raw and hopefully humorous account on my day to day life here, as an adventurous single woman, running her own online coaching business, with a badass husky as her best friend - although fingers crossed I find a hunky, mentally healthy viking soon - if you know of any send them my way!

This will be a weekly column, but if you want to see what else I get up to and my work, give me a follow on Instagram: @Adelaidegoodeve

I’m looking forward to sharing my adventures with you :)

Snakkes (chat later), Adelaide x