So here is a map to show you where I will be for the next 2 weeks. I'm currently killing time at Oslo airport waiting for my flights to Leknes, the closest airport to Lofoten. I am sure many, if not most of you, will have seen those iconic pictures of a little fishing village with red buildings perched between majestic mountains and the edge of a fjord.  That is Loften.

We become familiar with our local airlines & can easily  get tripped up when dealing with other countries. For example, I absolutely know that I can take my over weight camera bag as a carry on and if it gets weighed (god forbid), I can put the heaviest camera/lens combo round my neck, smile sweetly, and march onto the plane without a backward look. 
But I had a minor moment this morning when navigating my way through the Oslo check in. It all turned out fine, the self check in machine and the automated self bag drop machine do speak English & yes it turned out that I could have 1x carry on bag plus an "under seat bag".  Now that is a good way of defining it. Everyone knows exactly where they stand & the ominous 1 bag only messages Air NZ uses are unnecessary & misleading.
In the interests of trying to comply with airline weight restrictions, which photographers have immense difficulty with, I did not bring a physical book with me & have an e-book on my phone. Unfortunately, that plan fell apart when I couldn't access wifi on the smaller airlines. So what do you do when you have 2 flights, cannot read a book, can't do anything else that requires internet access, have no airline magazine to read, can't look out of the window coz you are stuck in the middle seat & neither you nor your your fellow prisoners feel like talking. So I listened to music on my (now) old fashioned, tiny wee ipod that is still going strong.  There are one or work colleagues that have made fun of my little pink ipod.  Yes it's pink. Believe me, it's a life saver when you are bored rigid in yet another tin can with wings.
Today I experienced something new, no assigned seating on the small prop plane between Bodo and Leknes. It's a bun fight, a free for all. First in get the best seats. I expected the Norwegians to be polite queue-rs, like the Brits.. Nope. Bun fight!  And Norwegian pilots, bless them, fly in complete whiteout that would totally ground NZ planes.
I also saw something that would give NZ security a blue fit. A lady in front of me was knitting a complicated pattern that involved 6 knitting needles. Remember when NZ airline security first got ramped up? No knitting needles, no nail files, no real cutlery, unless you were flying business class or upwards, because of course we all know that terrorists don't fly business or first class!  Anyway, the Norwegians obviously don't consider knitting needles a weapon.
Well, this turned into a long ramble about the vagaries of travelling.  Tomorrow I meet my fellow photographers and off we go!
Sees senere (see you later in Norwegian)