Stavanger-I´m Not (all) There
Arctic Circle · Norway · Field Notes
The Persistence of Norway
Fjords, waterfalls, Viking land, and the trained eye: a cinematic archive of learning how travel changes not only where you go, but how you see.
Learning Journey
Norway Through Ed’s Eyes
The original interactive course has been rebuilt as a stable, Blogger-safe sequence: no hidden modules, inline handlers, or lightbox scripts.
Module 01 · Begin
Ed’s Norwegian Adventure Begins
Watch the journey that started it all—Norway’s breathtaking landscapes through Ed’s eyes.
- The fascinating story behind Norway’s colorful houses.
- Ed’s cliff-jumping philosophy in Stavanger.
- Viking-land adventures in Narvik.
- Nature’s living mirrors: the majestic fjords.
Module 02 · Red
The People’s Choice
Made with ochre and cod liver oil, red was the most affordable color. That is why so many red barns appear in farming and fishing communities.
Module 02 · Yellow
The Middle Ground
Also made with ochre and cod liver oil, yellow was slightly more expensive than red—a sign of modest prosperity.
Module 02 · White
The Luxury Option
White required expensive zinc mineral. White houses became visible symbols of wealth and status.
Module 03 · Stavanger
Jumping the Shark
“Why climb a mountain? Because it is there. What I would really like to do is bungee jump off this cliff—because I am not all there.”
The Philosophy of Adventure. “This would be my version of Happy Days, when Fonzie jumped the shark.” Sometimes the best adventures happen when we let go of our everyday minds.
Cruising with Holland America. “Norway is a lot like pizza—when it is good, it is really good. When it is bad, it is still pretty good.”
Nature’s Living Mirror. Water—still or in motion—turns the fjords into the perfect landscape partner: H2Ooooooooh.
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” — John Muir
Module 04 · Narvik
Coming To in Viking Land
“I did not wake up this morning. I came to—here in Viking land, home of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Nobel Peace Prize Country. A perfect world where chickens cross the road without having their motives questioned. Though, “I’d kill for one”—which might disqualify me.
Rewriting the Dictionary. Magnificent, stunning, breathtaking, spectacular, and awesome just will not do. Regular words cannot capture Narvik’s beauty. Also, the water is too cold for swimming.
The Bike Adventure. I found a bike with no brakes. After a little tweak, they worked. It was a bit small, but it cut the travel time into downtown considerably.
Journey Map
Stavanger
Cliff contemplation and pizza philosophy.
Journey Map
Narvik
Viking land and bike adventures.
Journey Map
The Fjords
Nature’s living mirrors.
Journey Map
Colorful Villages
Houses with stories.
Photo + Video Gallery
Water, Silence, and Arctic Light
“The fjords are nature’s own work of art, carved by ice, decorated by waterfalls, and preserved in silence.”
“Intoxicating—but I swear to drunk I’m not God. On our way to Norway’s most famous waterfalls: Vøringsfossen and Måbødalen.”
“If Hollywood is loneliness beside the swimming pool, then Norway is solitude by the fjords.”
Archive Video 01
Fjords and Cascading Waterfalls
Archive Video 02
Summer’s Finest: Arctic Landscapes
Completion
Gratulerer
The learning journey closes with five signals:
- The economics behind Norwegian house colors.
- A philosophical approach to adventure travel.
- Meaning found in unexpected moments.
- The beauty of Norway’s fjords and landscapes.
- Why going “out of your mind” can bring you to your senses.
Audiobook Production Script
Red, White, and Yellow Houses
Chapter 8 · Runtime 8–10 minutes · Approximately 1,500 words · Gentle, appreciative, visually poetic · Relaxed pace with moments of wonder.
Opening: The Art Of Noticing
(0:00 - 1:15)0:00 Sometimes the most profound travel moments aren't the grand vistas or famous landmarks. Sometimes they're three simple houses in a Norwegian village—one red, one white, one yellow—that teach you everything you need to know about beauty, simplicity, and the art of paying attention.
Welcome to Chapter Eight: "Red, White, and Yellow Houses." This is about what Fair Isle's clarity taught me to see, and how solitude trains your eye to find extraordinary meaning in ordinary moments.
After learning to strip away distractions, you start noticing things that were always there but somehow invisible. Colors become more vivid. Simple arrangements become profound. Everyday architecture becomes poetry.
This is the story of how travel changes not just where you go, but how you see.
1:15
The Three Houses
(1:15 - 3:30)1:15 Picture this: A small Norwegian village, the kind of place you pass through on the way to somewhere else. Traditional wooden houses scattered along a quiet street. Nothing remarkable by tourism standards—no UNESCO heritage designation, no Instagram hotspot status, no guidebook mentions.
But there, arranged as if by some unconscious artistic instinct, stand three houses in perfect sequence. Red. White. Yellow.
Not bright, aggressive red—the deep, warm red of a barn that's weathered decades of Nordic winters. Not stark white—the soft, cream white of fresh snow touched by afternoon light. Not electric yellow—the gentle, butter yellow of summer sunlight on wooden walls.
I stopped walking. Not because I planned to stop, but because something about the arrangement demanded attention. The way the colors worked together. The way the proportions felt exactly right. The way simplicity revealed itself as sophisticated design.
These weren't houses built to impress tourists or designed by committees to maximize aesthetic impact. They were homes built by people who understood something fundamental about color, space, and the relationship between human beings and their environment.
Standing there, I realized I was seeing not just three houses, but three different approaches to being beautiful without trying to be beautiful.
3:30
The Language Of Color
(3:30 - 5:45)3:30 Each house was speaking a different language of color, but somehow they were having the same conversation about how to exist gracefully in the world.
The red house spoke of warmth and groundedness. Not demanding attention, but impossible to ignore. Strong enough to stand alone, confident enough to be part of a group. It reminded me of poker players who project quiet strength—not aggressive, not weak, just solidly present.
The white house spoke of clarity and possibility. Clean without being sterile, simple without being empty. It was like the blank page that contains infinite potential, or the silent moment between hands in poker where anything can happen.
The yellow house spoke of joy and optimism. Not forced cheerfulness, but genuine contentment. The kind of happiness that doesn't need to convince anyone it's happy. It just is.
Together, they created something more beautiful than any one of them could achieve alone. They were demonstrating the art of complementary existence—distinct identities that enhance rather than compete with each other.
I stood there for twenty minutes, not taking photos—phones somehow felt inadequate for this—just letting my eyes learn what these houses were teaching about proportion, harmony, and the way simple things become profound when they're arranged with unconscious wisdom.
5:45
Trained Vision
(5:45 - 7:30)5:45 Here's what I realized standing in front of those houses: Travel had trained my eye to see differently. Not because Norway was exotic—it's not particularly exotic for someone used to traveling. But because the accumulated experiences of paying attention in unfamiliar places had sharpened my ability to notice what was always worth noticing.
Fair Isle had taught me to see without distractions. Alaska had taught me to find beauty in unexpected places. Europe had taught me to appreciate sophisticated simplicity. Disney had taught me to recognize intentional design.
All of those lessons converged in front of three Norwegian houses. I was seeing them not just as buildings, but as expressions of cultural values, design philosophy, and the human impulse to create beauty in daily life.
This is what good travel does: It doesn't just show you different places, it teaches you to see your own place differently. Those houses weren't remarkable because they were Norwegian—they were remarkable because travel had taught me to recognize remarkable things that had always been there.
When I got home, I started noticing the architecture around me with new eyes. The way light hits buildings at different times of day. The subtle differences in how people choose to present their homes to the world. The unconscious design decisions that reveal cultural values.
7:30
The Beauty Lesson
(7:30 - 10:00)7:30 So what did three simple houses teach me about travel and life? They taught me that beauty isn't about grandeur or expense or trying to impress anyone. Beauty is about harmony, proportion, and the confidence to be exactly what you are without apology.
The extraordinary is often hiding in plain sight, waiting for eyes that have been trained by solitude to see clearly, by travel to appreciate difference, and by experience to recognize quality over flashiness.
Those Norwegian houses weren't trying to be beautiful—they were beautiful because they were honest expressions of their purpose, placed in thoughtful relationship to each other and their environment.
This lesson applies to poker, to travel, to life decisions. The best choices aren't always the most dramatic or expensive ones. Sometimes the best choices are the ones that work harmoniously with everything else you're trying to accomplish.
Red, white, and yellow houses taught me that travel isn't just about seeing new places—it's about developing new ways of seeing. Every destination is a classroom if you're willing to be a student. Every moment of beauty is a lesson if you're willing to pay attention.
In our next chapter, "The Beautiful War," we'll explore how this trained vision helps you see life itself as something worth fighting for beautifully—how the same appreciation for harmony and proportion applies to the larger challenge of living magnificently.
Because once you've learned to see beauty in simple things, you start to understand that life itself is a work of art worth perfecting.
But that's a story for next time. For now, remember: The extraordinary is often hiding in plain sight, waiting for eyes that have been trained by travel to see clearly.
Travel well, and prosper.
10:00
Production Notes
Visual Poetry
Paint the scene slowly and vividly. Let listeners see the houses.
Beauty Moments
Treat these sections with special appreciation and wonder.
Color Descriptions
Take time with the color descriptions; they are central to the story.
Gentle Pace
Use a relaxed delivery throughout, with pauses for visual absorption.
Connecting Themes
Link to earlier chapters about clarity and noticing.
Transition Setup
Build toward the more serious themes of “The Beautiful War.”
Original Archive
The Field Notes, Preserved
The original Blogger narrative, images, quotations, videos, and companion links are retained below in a cleaned, responsive archive.
Open the Complete Original Norway Field Notes
Rudyard Kipling once said Milford Sound is the eighth wonder of the world. National Geographic Traveler Magazine selected Norway as the top natural tourist attraction in the world. After visiting Norway in 2010, and the Milford and Dusky Sound in 2011--it's Same Same--- only different. All that remains is- The Persistence Of Norway. A good blog post should include a waterfall. So Norway's fjords are blogs, or literature in a hurry, Norway's ecstasy. The definition of ecstasy is that you are not doing your ordinary everyday routine....essentially stepping into an alternative reality.This is the second time I have sailed in these fjords. It's like opening a door in the middle of nowhere and all you have to do is go and turn the handle and open it and let yourself sink into it, and just float..
“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell
The Geirangerfjord-Mother Nature and Father Time Are Effing Special...
I'm past the point of no return. I'll just concern myself with the best way of moving forward.
Today as I kayak in the fjords and observe the sun, the water, the green and everything in flow, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all this belongs to me!". and, more than that,I play a role in its appearance.As I get a glimpse of the deeper, random, chance encounters of my 3 pound universe (brain), with Mother Nature and Father Time being demoted from actual reality, to my mere subjective experience of my consciousness, I feel immortal.
Although our body may self destruct, the 20-watt fountain of energy operating in the brain. doesn’t go away at death. Father Time simply reboots. The universe is in our head,and not out there separate from us. What the bleep?Grass Roots
The grass was greener where you watered it, now I have reconsidered: It IS greener in Norway.In fact, this infinite landscape has such lush and hearty grass, it is good enough to eat.The sod and grass turf roofs symbolize the Norsk love of nature; sustainable and energy efficient, the old has become the new.
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D. H. Lawrence
High on this mountain,the clouds down below, Im feeling so strong and alive. From this rocky perch Im beginning to search for the wind and the snow and the sky-Dan Fogelberg Nether Lands
Flåm- Enriched by a Wonderful Osmosis
Narrow Road To The Interior... Frozen water once, Now melts into my heart. Joy comes dancing lightlyStavanger-I´m Not (all) There
Why Climb a mountain? because it is there.What I would really like to do is Bungee jump--- dive off the top of this cliff because I am not all there, This would be my version of Happy Days, when Fonzie jumped the shark. That defining moment when you know your favorite TV program has reached its peak.Jumping The Shark In Norway
If Hollywood is loneliness beside the swimming pool, then Norway is solitude by the fjords.What's on Norway? Ed TV... Time to change the channel.
Here are my top posts from this awesome place.
Oslo-You Know Where It's @
As Allan Watts said, Everyday, you have to go out of your mind in order to come to your senses. A fool, after all, who persists in his folly, becomes wise. I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list. After all, when you come to a fork in the road, take it.
