The cultural island

The next stop in our journey north was Hamarøy, also known in Norway as the cultural island because it was where the contraversial writer Knut Hamsun lived and also because of the art museums here. The most famous one is the Hamsun Centre which hosts art exhibitions that mainly has some connection to Hamsun and his works. 

Hamsun was a celebrated writer who won the Nobel prize in literature in 1920 for Growth of the Soil. His breakthrough book Hunger in 1890 earned him the title father of modern literature. Hamsun however turned out to be a Nazi sympathiser and even travelled to Germany to personally meet Hitler. His political alliances disgraced him in his home country, and from previously thinking of him with pride, he remains to this day a sore spot for the Norwegian consciousnes. So much so that when it was recently suggested that a new road in Oslo be named after him, it was met with great resistance and discarded.

The Hamsun centre was easy to spot as its modern design didn’t quite fit in with the landscape. The building has won five architectural prizes, but the centre should be glad Berit was not on any of those judging committees as she gave it a thumbs down. 

The centre was closed so we couldn’t have a look at any of the exhibitions but the lady at the reception allowed us to have a quick walk around. Outside the centre there was a sign advertising their menu; whale stew and cod tongue. This is clearly not the place for vegetarians!

We then followed the road north of the island which called Tranøy. Hhere we stopped at the tiny Hamsun museum to have a look. That was closed too, but hearing Andy was from London the lady said we could have a look anyway. Taking a peek inside and discovering the exhibition was 'some modern art rubbish' and not Hamsun related, Morten wrinkled his nose and we decided not to have a look. Instead we took the little path leading from the museum towards the sea. 

There in the bay we had great views to the Lofoten mountains, nicknamed Lofotveggen (the Lofoten wall). They’re called this because when you see them from a distance they look like a wall, despite all being on separate islands. 

Behind us we had another mountain range where one of the mountains is so narrow on top there’s only room for one person to stand there.