Sitting on the suitcase might just work...

What does one bring with one to Norway?

I've lugged my impressive purple suitcase out from the top shelf in the hall and started throwing things at it. Packing has never been my strong suit. I hate to fit myself into the stereotype of 'haha... man + organisation' that is too often conveyed, but stereotypes sometimes have a good reason for existing. I refuse to fold clothes neatly, then get stumped why they don't ****ing fit. Why does folding them take up less room then tightly shoving them in?! Stupid compression, it always reminds me of the difference between saving pictures as .JPG or .PNG. Roughly the same effect, but .PNG files are bigger than you.

There's always the nifty modern approach of using vacuum packing. You stick all your stuff in a plastic bag then hoover out all the air. It has the added benefit of it being ridiculously fun to see what things look like in a 'vacuum'.

Regardless of how much effort I put in tonight, I'll forget something I'll regret. If you don't see another few blog posts in the coming week you can bet I forgot my laptop charger. You've really got to watch out for accidentally leaving suspicious items in your handluggage. A razor, a large bottle of shampoo, or in Norway's case: a potato. Bizarre importing rules specify that Norway wont allow any potatoes to be brought into the country via the medium of folk's luggage. My Norwegian hostess Mia came to the conclusion that their government is worried our potatoes might be better than theirs (presumably resulting in widespread public revolt?) or that ours might make theirs sick (widespread revolting. No? Oh fine, I'll leave the puns alone).

This guy will mess you up if he finds a single spud in your luggage.

Gifts for my hosts are always a first priority, so they go in first. One of the best parts of any country is the spectacular differences between its food and that of other places. Mia loved sausage rolls of all things... I can't help but feel our cultural preferences let her down with that one. "Haggis, Mia?" "Aaaaaaagh neeeii! Takk....men nei..." Norway is famous for bankrupting its citizens with the price of alcohol, so another good gift would be beer. Lots of beer. Hopefully Jørgen will be pleased.

Clothes, warm clothes, more warm clothes (can I pack fire?). Laptop and laptop accessories (make laptopless people jealous at airports). Norwegian Krone (I'm particularly fond of the femti Kroner note. It's green with lillypads on the back; I don't even think we get lillypads in Scotland). Ach, the list goes on. I'm incredibly excited to get on the plane and explore Trondheim, even if I have to do it naked and without internet.

Huzzah.