北歐小品

時近夏末初秋之際，鄰近北極圈的國家最近開始熱鬧了起來，

由於太陽風暴的影響，各地陸續可觀賞到美麗璀璨的極光，

宛若一場盛大的極光秀。

挪威有將近一半的國土在北極圈內，因此也是攝影熱愛者追極光的聖地，

除此之外，全球100個必去景點--峽灣也在挪威的國境之內。

(先分享一張肝很渴成員去年去挪威照的照片)

接著聽聽來自挪威的朋友給我們說他的家鄉--

My hometown, Bindal
If you were to cut Norway in two pieces, my hometown is where you’d cut. Located a few hours drive south of the Arctic circle, Bindal can barely be called a town. It’s a very sparsely populated municipality on the Helgeland coast. How sparsely populated? At 1,285km2, it’s about the same size as Yunlin County in Taiwan. But while Yunlin County has over 720,000 citizens, Bindal only has 1,800. It’s the kind of place where the streets have no name. but since the postman knows everyone, he knows where to deliver the mail.

我的家鄉--賓達爾

如果你要把挪威切成南北兩段的話，你一定會切到我的家鄉賓達爾。

位於離北極圈只有幾個小時車程處，它是鄰近海爾吉蘭海濱的直轄市，

但這裡人口稀少的幾乎不能稱得上是一個城鎮，

他大概跟雲林縣差不多大，但人家雲林縣有72萬人口，我們只有1800。

在這地絕人稀之處，路幾乎都沒有名字，

多虧郵差認識所有的人，就算沒有路名還是知道信要往哪兒送去。

Bindal has through its history been shaped by its two natural resources. Large forests and the Atlantic Ocean. Combine the two and you get an excellent location to build wooden boats. The area is known for the Nordlandsboat, and there is still an annual race being held for this kind of boat in Bindal. Today, few people want to buy a wooden boat. So there is only one workshop left building the Nordlandsboat. The wood from the forests are now instead being used to make wooden doors as the biggest employer in the area is wooden door manufacturer.

賓達爾的地茂特色以廣大的森林地與大西洋為主，

也因此成為建造木船的最佳選擇，這裡以諾德蘭船製造(如下圖)而聞名，

至今還會舉辦年度划船比賽，可惜時至今日，幾乎沒有人想買木船了，

所以現在這裡只剩下一間製造諾德蘭船的工作室，

森林裡的木頭則改用於製造木門，因而此地主要的職業就是木門製造工。

The Nordlandsboat was used by fishermen all along the coast of Norway. And pretty much every male living in Northern Norway was a fisherman. You’ll understand why so few people live here when you see the place. There is very little arable land, so no one could manage to live as a fulltime farmer. Instead they’d be part-time farmer and part-time fisherman. Looking back on my family tree, pretty much everyone was fishermen, and almost all of them drowned! Today, fishing is done with large fishing ships that are based in the larger cities, and instead we have gotten sea farms. So the second biggest employer in Bindal is now a sea farm that breeds salmon.

挪威海岸沿線的漁夫是諾德蘭船的主要使用者，而多數挪威男人是漁夫，

你就能了解為什麼這麼少人住在這裡，

這裡很少耕地，所以沒有人能夠靠當全職農夫自給自足，

轉而以通時兼職農夫與漁夫來過生活，

回頭看看我的族譜，絕大多數是漁夫，而且大部分都是淹死的(驚!)!

現在主要的捕魚工作都是由大城市派發大型漁船去完成，

我們不是那樣的大城市，轉而發展出於海上農場，

因此這裡第二大宗的職業就是在海上農場養鮭魚。

Growing up so close to the nature meant that the nature was my playground. The forest was my backyard and the ocean was in right in front of my house. I can hardly think of any better way to grow up as a child.

在這麼接近自然的地方長大，也就是說，這片大自然就是我的遊樂園，

森林是我的後花園，而我家前面不是小河是海洋，

我幾乎無法想到任何比這裡更適合養小孩的地方了!

~The End 本文完~

看完John的敘述讓人更加嚮往這樣的地方，

肝很渴成員去年夏天也有撥出幾天從Umea開車到挪威玩，

真的是隨便找一個海岸都好漂亮，

真的不愧是這輩子一定要去的100個景點之一，

回來之後不斷的跟親友推薦，

在離開人世之前請先留一個禮拜去挪威玩!!