Living In a Box Leads to Thinking Outside the Box

This narrow box is my Arctic home away from home the or the next three weeks.

It's about 45 minutes on the high speed ferry from Bodo, Norway out to Fleinvaer and The Arctic Hide

Arriving by ferry at The Arctic Hideaway.

In mid May the sun never fully sets this far north. Cheers to the Arctic light at 11 p.m.!

I’ve been asked why on earth would I spend five days traveling by car, bus, plane and boat just to spend three weeks living in a box above the Arctic Circle. To that I respond, why on earth wouldn’t I?

Given my love affair with all things Arctic and Nordic Scandinavia, spending three weeks on a small Norwegian island is really my idea of a tropical vacation. The daily weather so far has been stormy with high winds, lashing rain and even a bit of snow. Every so often the sun does manage to peek out for a bit before the next round of rain rolls through. I’m here to write and the Arctic Hideaway is perfect for creatives like me. In fact, I’m currently here with a painter from Norway and three graphic artists from the United Kingdom. 

Here we find space to work and think in solitude or quietly in each other’s company in the common studio area. I’ve not trudged up the hill to it yet, but the tower house, built in the style of a traditional Sami Njalla — a raised food storage building —  is the prime spot to sit and simply take in the views of the surrounding islands and waters.

At first sight the Hideaway looks like a collection of blocks tumbling down a hill. Each of the dozen buildings is a “room” with sleeping cabins, the bathroom/shower building, kitchen/dining area, sauna and the studio. Tucked in under a downy quilt up in the sleeping loft of my little cabin, I sleep better here than almost anyplace else.

Meals are provided with fresh baked bread appearing out of the oven every morning, plenty of coffee and choices of eggs, yogurt or different grains to prepare. Lunch is on our own and we have free run of the supplies in the kitchen and storehouse.

Dinners are a social event. We take turns cooking and it’s so much fun to see what people come up with working with the ingredients on hand. Fresh fish figures in many dishes as does moose and reindeer meat. I’m in charge of dinner later this week and it’s been suggested I try to come up with some version of American barbecue. Stay tuned!

The crisp salt air and slow pace of the island does wonders for my creativity both in writing and photography. Walking the trails around the Hideaway I see countless nesting sea and shore birds. Yesterday I watched as a crow tried to steal a free meal from two sea otters who were having none of that. As I write this I can look up and see massive waves crashing into the outer islands from the open Norwegian Sea.

Arctic island life is certainly not for everybody but for creative souls that yearn for a connection with nature and the space to tap into those inner places often hidden behind the chaos of everyday life, it’s more than worth days of travel to live in a box.