Svein Rune Berg in Dovre, Norway
The Place: Dovre, Norway
Travel to Dovre, and the rest of the world suddenly feels like it has melted away. Nestled in a valley under an almost intimidating ring of vast, green rocky mountains that tower over you, Dovre gives off vibes that are both dramatic and somehow quiet. Countless waterfalls seamlessly pour down the mountains, feeding into the Gudbransdalslågen river (it’s a tough one to say without stumbling over it’s many syllables); its icy glacier water rushing across the valley. Dovre is a small town with a big sense of place. Take a drive up to Snøhetta mountain, where you’ll see incredible views and, if you’re lucky, a muskox. The town itself isn’t the most happening part of the world you’ll ever see, but you’ll find a quaint antique shop hidden behind some trees at a local’s home, and some stunning churches that are pretty unique to the area. The Rauma railway line, named the most beautiful railway journey in Europe, stops at Dombas, a village around 15 minutes by car from Dovre, and is definitely worth taking down to Andalsnes through one of the most incredible valleys you’ll ever see.
The Person: Svein Rune Berg, 49, Photographer
It’s hard to say this all in English. This place is called ‘Dovre’, and the people that live here are called ‘Dovring’. I am a husband of Berit, a father of two, and am lucky to still have both of my parents who live just next door. And my parents-in-law are also in Østfall. So I have a lot of family around. I’m a photographer, and run my company ‘Iguan Design’. I would love to be travelling but I don’t have the money for it right now. I like to have visitors like you, so this is a perfect evening. I’m so glad you stopped by (we knocked on Svein’s door asking to heat up some food). I was raised in this house, which is actually from 1928 and was built by my parents; we renovated it but there is some history behind it. There was actually a fight in WWII between some German soldiers up in the hill and some Norwegians here. They hit the roof of the house, and so we found a bullet hole in the stone in the roof from that shootout. And many years ago my brother and I were playing and found an ammunition belt from the war, so that’s how I ended up in the newspaper!
- What is home to you?
“I guess this very moment is the answer to that…”
See Svein's Full Answer “The language; the dialect. It’s very powerful…” See Svein's Full Answer There is a sentence we use in Norway: “Enige og tro inntill Dovre faller”. It is written in the national law; the constitution. The mountains in Dovre are big, solid, and strong. It means “Be true to your country, as long as the Dovre mountains are standing.” So that’s a really cool thing about the significance of Dovre too. And we also have musk ox! It’s related to the American bison, and was brought over from Canada. You only find it here on Dovrefjell and a little into Trøndelag. They have a lot of hair and they run up to 60km/hr. If you piss them off, you run! So that’s really special for Dovre. You sometimes see them by the road in the mountains. We had 200 but last year many got sick, so I think now it’s just 100-150. “…there was only a very small community of Christians around, so that was difficult…” See Svein's Full Answer We are Christians, there was only a very small community of Christians around, so that was difficult. And in school, it was very strange to be Christian. Most people I knew didn’t feel that Christianity means something to them. Now it’s an even smaller community, but we’re grown-ups so it’s not a problem any more. In my class at school there were no other Christians like me. I was actually scared to tell them, because I thought if they heard they would bully me. But I don’t know that they would have and I’ll never know, because I never told them. But I thought they’d say I was crazy. “to go to Tenerife… wow. Sun… beaches…” See Svein's Full Answer “…people see us as a special part of the world…” See Svein's Full Answer Aside from that, I guess that people see us as a special part of the world, in a good way. That’s a good feeling. It’s the country a lot of people want their country to be like. “…we have a problem. We need more people moving into the kommune.” See Svein's Full Answer “Going over Dovrefjell is like the route 66 of Norway.” See Svein's Full Answer “…what we can do tomorrow, we do tomorrow…” See Svein's Full Answer “That would be the name of ‘Dovre’…” See Svein's Full Answer “…you put lutefisk in the lefse, and you wrap it up and eat it with the milk soup…” See Svein's Full Answer [/read] “Many people eat Grøt on Saturday.” See Svein's Full Answer Many people eat Grøt on Saturday. Some on the farms have it every Saturday. Maybe not so much anymore. But for me, I love chicken. As long as it’s chicken it’s ok. I also love the Lutefisk. I’m not sure we eat so much Norwegian food. There’s something similar to kjottkakke (like meatballs but bigger) called ‘mediste’ – another type of meat. It’s much, much better and is a very common dinner. You have it with potatoes, brown sauce (not the type you have in England; it’s butter, stock, flour and seasoning) and vegetables. “…the head of a sheep with the eyes and everything.” See Svein's Full Answer Reccomendation: The cinnamon balls are very popular in Norway. Everyone in Norway does it the same way. You roll out dough like a pizza, and you have sugar and cinnamon inside, and then you roll it from the longest side. Then you cut it, and turn it around and sprinkle big sugar bits on the top – ‘pearl sugar’. You have to put egg on it before the sugar so it stays on. It’s really simple but it takes time because it has to rise. You actually leave the dough for 45 minutes before you roll it out. Then you leave it again for 30 minutes before it goes in the oven. If there’s one thing most people can agree on, it’s cinnamon rolls. Even the fussiest eaters don’t have it in themselves to turn down a ball of cinnamon-sugar doused dough. Norway is no different. Nearly anywhere you turn, whether it be a bakery or a gas station, cinnamon rolls are sold, and it’d actually be fairly difficult to travel to the country and not try them. It’s not hard to determine why, either. The first bite is fluffy but satisfyingly dense. The stickiness of the sugar clinging to the dough and the flakiness of the pastry might be messy, but all part of the experience. The cinnamon melts between the rolls and twists of the bun, so some bites explode with flavour more intensely than others, providing variation in what might be too much intense sweetness to some. Interestingly, in Norway, the cinnamon rolls rarely have icing on top. Frosting fanatics may not be entirely satisfied with this, but it does cause the cinnamon to stand out more, which is kind of the point. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with our blog. If you want to see more of the cycle touring side of our adventure, you can also have a gander at our YouTube channel! If you want to see how we’re doing on our journey, check out our Live Updates page.
The Plate: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Watch part of our journey through Central Norway below:
Tieran Freedman
Attempting to cycle from Tromsø in Northern Norway to Baku, Azerbaijan while interviewing locals en route. Despite my chequered history with bikes, here’s to me returning home with an intact facial structure and at least as many body parts as I left with.
An idyllic way of life….if with regular income….but Dovre could lose its community over time, particularly without a school.
This sounds idyllic – for holidays. So sad that the community is shrinking. I am curious as to the main religion in Dovre seeing that Svein, being a christian, was very much in the minority.
I believe that in Dovre, and Norway as a whole, the dominant religion is Lutheran, but there are a lot of people that do not identify with a particular religion.
It was nice to finally “meet” your friend Sven. Miriam must have longed for some frosting for those cinnamon rolls!