Tag: Nordic

MostNorthern Shop Is Live!

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I didn’t know a MostNorthern art and design shop would be happening until the day before yesterday. Once the idea sprouted, I couldn’t keep it contained, and, well, voila! HERE IT IS!

The premise of the shop is the same as it is here – to celebrate the north and raise awareness about climate change in the Arctic.

Below are a few of my designs on tote bags, because I love totes as much as life itself, plus, they’re one of the best answers to combating the environmental terrorist that is the plastic shopping bag.

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Your Daily 5 Nordic Facts : Finland

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  1. For some bizarre reason, there isn’t a single payphone in Finland.
  2. Sauna is the most used Finnish word outside of the motherland.
  3. I thought it would be Sweden, but apparently Finland has world’s highest annual consumption of milk per capita – around 1 litre per person every day.
  4. The blue of the Finnish flag represents the water of the thousands of lakes in the country, whereas the white represents snow, of which Finland sees a shit ton of in winter.
  5. Despite being the eighth largest country Europe, it’s the most sparsely populated country in the European Union.

 

Sources that helped me find this stuff: FactRepublic.com,  LandLopers.com, Quora

Your Daily 5 Nordic Facts : Iceland

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  1. At about 39,000 square miles, Iceland is the same size as Cuba.
  2. There’s a volcanic eruption approximately every 4 years.
  3. Icelandic horses have two additional gaits as compared to all other breeds.
  4. Iceland was one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans.
  5. Raw puffin heart is an Icelandic delicacy.

Sources that helped me find this stuff: FactRepublic.com,  LandLopers.com, Quora

 

 

Your Daily 5 Nordic Facts : Norway

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  1. On the island of Svalbard, carrying a gun outside populated areas is required by law because of the high chances you might find yourself face to face with a polar bear. If you don’t have a gun license, you’re not permitted to leave the settlement areas alone.
  2. Norway is just a bit bigger than the US state of New Mexico.
  3. If you publish a book in Norway, the government will buy 1000 copies (1,500 if it is a children’s book) and dole out them to libraries throughout the country.
  4. Linje Akvavit is a Norwegian flavoured liquor, and it’s production is a bit bloody weird. It’s shipped in oak barrels from Norway to Australia and back before being bottled. Apparently the constant movement and fluctuating temperatures give the liquor it’s special taste as well as accelerating its maturity.
  5. The US has more people of Norwegian descent than Norway.

 

Sources that helped me find this stuff: Sysselmannen.no, FactRepublic.com, Quora

Your Eyes In The North

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I am going to assume that, if you’ve picked this blog to read from the other 37 million sites that are hosted by WordPress, then you’re northerly obsessed.

I’m also going to assume that you can’t go a day without thinking about the most northerly places on our planet, and you have, within your soul, this insatiable hunger for pretty much everything to do with the Nordic countries and the High Arctic.

For the record, the above paragraph is me in a nutshell. If it’s you too, then I hope MostNorthern will be able to satisfy your hunger. At least for a little while.  If we’re alike in our obsession, you’ll know it’s only a matter of time before you need your next northerly fix. And that’s where I come in. To try and provide that, to try and be your eyes in the north.

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In case you’ve skipped over the About page, my name is Katie Metcalfe and I’m an English writer, blogger and poet living in Sweden.

I’ve been writing on the subject of ‘North’ for over a decade, and have a solid portfolio on writings about everything northerly, from the life of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, to the mythology of the Greenlandic Inuit, from the experience of dining on the Icelandic delicacy hákarl (fermented shark) to not being allowed to die in the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen.

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MostNorthern was established because, to put it quite bluntly, I wasn’t able to find another blog out there that could successfully satisfy my northerly needs. (Please do shout if you are able to recommend blogs I may have missed…)

It exists  to celebrate everything Nordic, with a special focus on raising awareness about the Arctic, and the current climate crisis going on at the top of the world. I really hope, that, while satisfying my curiosities and interests in all things northerly, I’ll satisfy yours too.

If there’s anything northerly that you would like an insight into, or if there is a northerner who you have been itching to learn more about through an interview, or even if you want to make a suggestion on how MostNorthern can be improved, please leave a comment below or email me at: mostnorthern@hotmail.com

Katie – Your Eyes In The North