Visiting Norway (Oslo and the Lofoten islands)
Norway doesn’t have a great vegan friendly reputation… Puffin eating and whale meat in schools being some of the stories people rush to tell you when you first say where you’re going. So I was a little apprehensive, especially as we were visiting the semi-remote Lofoten islands. A place which showed one place on Happy Cow, a four hour ferry ride away.
Oslo
Before heading to Lofoten, we stayed in Oslo for a couple of nights. We arrived quite late so headed to a nearby supermarket (Coop Mega) for a hotel bed picnic. Being a big city, the supermarket had a fairly good range of ‘free from” products and Alpro milks/yoghurts. Strawberries were also in season and we had some delicious Norwegian fruits.
We were staying at the Scandic Vulkan and they had a big breakfast buffet in the morning which had fruit, bread and cereals. Everything was well labelled with allergens and there was a little gluten free section with some dairy free margarine (although the peanut butter had milk in!).
We only had one day in Oslo, so heading out we went on a whirlwind tour of the sights, starting at the Opera house. We also decided to cram in as many vegan places as we could, taking in 3 restaurants (cake is definitely a meal of the day) and a cafe.
First off we headed for coffee at Tim Wendelboe, described in some Google reviews as “the best coffee I’ve ever had”. It is a tiny cafe with its own roaster and the coffee was indeed very tasty! We had an ice coffee and a pour over. They didn’t do any plant milks but the coffee was very much the sort you drink black.
Next stop was Funky Fresh Foods, a small fully vegan cafe next to a library. The Google map directions aren’t great for this one, but if you hit the river you’ve gone too far. We weren’t actually very hungry at this point so went for a raw cake, some energy balls and some drinks. Pretty tasty in a relaxing space by the river.
After a lot of walking around, we were genuinely hungry and headed to The Fragrance of the Heart which is located next to the beautiful (and free) Town hall. This is a vegetarian and vegan cafe and ingredients are listed in Norwegian but it’s not clear quickly what is and isn’t vegan. Food is filling but very much “stereotypically vegetarian” with no particular flavour strengths. They do have home made kombucha though which was delicious!
We continued with more tourisiting and a stop at a convenience store for a snack (bananas, but they did do very expensive Nakd bars). We then headed to a health food store. We wanted to buy vegan sausages to take up to Lofoten with us so we’d have some “treat” food! Røtter had a fairly good selection (very expensive, but typical for Norwegian prices).
Our final stop was Green Village, a little cafe with a range of pretty tasty burgers, selection of teas and Club Mate. We went here on the way up to Frognerparkern, and it was only open until 8, so definitely one more for lunch or an early dinner.
An excellent app we used during our time there was Vegan Norway.
Lofoten (and nearby)
It was quite a long trip up to Lofoten, involving a flight and a ferry. We arrived in Bodo where we would catch the ferry and had some time for a lunch. Bodo is the location of the closest vegan friendly restaurant to Lofoten — Kafe Kafka. When we visited, they had a well worn allergy menu and were happy to discuss what could be made vegan. However, the best option was clearly the all you can eat soup buffet which on that day had two vegan soups and bread. It was very delicious and warming.
After lunch, we headed to a supermarket (REMA 1000) to stock up on some food before the journey (and ferry snacks). We were self catering on Lofoten and were buying a first few dinners, breakfast and lunches. Some key finds:
- Oatly (a Swedish company so widespread in Norway, including the illusive Oatly ice cream!)
- Puffed rice (and wheat) — large bags of just puffed wheat/rice, great for breakfast
- Vegetable paté in the “free from” section
- Amazing in season strawberries
Price expensive as usual! In the end it became not worth commenting on but for reference the paté cost £5…
No snacks on the ferry but a constant smell of sausages which was unpleasant to say the least!
Arriving at Lofoten we collected our camper van for the next week and got driving! We were self catering so continued to stock up at supermarkets around the islands. They all had a small but adequate selection of vegan products and we easily able to get plant milk and soya yoghurt. Otherwise we mainly stuck to whole foods which were easy to come by.
However, there were a few other discoveries:
- Accidentally vegan ice lollies (Paere Saftis by Diplom-Is) — a sort of pear sorbet with a chocolate casing. They were available in gas stations and ferries so a good anywhere treat!
- Some sort of vegan schnitzel. I hadn’t seen the brand before but a few supermarkets had some fake meat vegan products in their freezers. They were usually clearly marked as vegan.
- Plamil vegan chocolate! (chocolate was the main difficulty, there was no milk free dark chocolate in any of the shops we went to)
- A tiny health food shop which had some tasty magnum style ice creams and other vegan products. (This was not in Lofoten proper, instead in Harstad in the Rema 1000 on the way out of town)
Lofoten is an amazing place to visit and although vegans should probably consider self catering, it is definitely easily doable (though pack some vegan chocolate!).
