Lost luggage and heavy rain and generally in a bad mode I finally got on the “Hurtig-boat” in Brönnöysund, heading for the island of Vega, the largest island in the Vega archipelago. Once out on the sea, the sun broke through the clouds and the harsh and rugged beauty of the 6500 island suddenly became friendly and inviting. My first stop before heading further out in the archipelago was my hotel, the Vega Havhotel, a hotel that turned out to be a virtual gastronomical paradise with guests from all over Norway and from abroad. So visiting Vega without staying at Anna and Jon Aga’s Havhotel would be a major loss.

Having chartered a boat, I proceeded out into an archipelago with its flat, small island without almost any vegetation, making me wonder how people actually have survived out here. But so they have for over 1500 years, fishing, hunting and also harvesting the down of eider ducks. Even though the outer islands of the Vega archipelago is only inhabited in the summer time, the harvesting of eider ducks is still done today but you will have to be ready to pay some spare 7.000 dollars if you want to take a pillow with you home.

If you want escape civilisation for a weekend and feel the beauty as well as the roughness of northern Norway’s Atlantic landscape paired with brilliant food and wine, Vega is the place for you.