Von Æ über Ø nach Å

Since I went to bed early yesterday, I'm already up at four today. That means I can drink coffee by the river without being breakfasted by the local mosquito community. After the caffeine battery has been charged, I zoom on with a speedy 60 km/h into the valley. It goes along the Sanda and finally a good way to the west where I actually wanted to catch the ferry to Moskenes at eleven.

Five minutes past eleven, a sad German stands at the harbor and looks after an even sadder ferry. Well, you have to be able to lose with dignity. The next ferry leaves at four. So it's time to deal more intensively with the Norwegian language. In the last few days I noticed again and again that the German tourists mostly speak of 'die Lofoten' (pronounced something like Lofohten), while the locals emphasize the whole thing more like Luhfuttn. Strange. Well, I have time, so I let a nice local explain the peculiarities of the language to me. The whole thing takes about an hour and the following has stuck: The 'O' is mostly pronounced as a German 'U'. Except when it is at the beginning of the word or is not pronounced as 'u', then it is pronounced as 'o'. The 'Æ' is quite similar to the German 'Ä', so no problem for a Swabian. It gets more difficult with the 'Ø'. Depending on the region of the country, the pronunciation goes from the German 'Ö' to a strange sound that I can't even come close to reproducing with my tongue. It sounds a bit like a reindeer in rutting season. However, the absolute disaster is still waiting with the 'Å'. Whoever expects another well-meant 'Ä' behind it is far from it. Somewhere between the 'A' and the 'O' there must be a sound that the Norwegian hits impressively well, but my Central European tongue completely refuses. The attempt leads to a sustained fit of laughter from my counterpart, but nothing more. I'm sure there will be an opportunity to practice that on the next thousand kilometers.

Oh yes... it's also not called 'die Lofoten', but the correct term is 'der Lofot'. The attached '-en' is a definite article in Norwegian and not, as in German, the plural form.

We learn so much here...

In the evening, I get to enjoy the midnight sun in a completely lonely bay.

UNIQUE !!!