There. I’ve admitted it. My dirty little secret. I love porn. Norwegian Property Porn.
It all started during my 2013 visit to Norway. I’m a sucker for wood, stone basements, and triple glazed windows. And gardens with birch, lilac and apple trees, raspberry bushes, and dandelions. In 2013 I spent a lot of time walking the streets around Berg, a suburb of Oslo. I liked to admire the neighbours’ gardens and their wooden houses.
And so it was in 2013 that my Norwegian Property Porn addiction climbed to a whole new level. I discovered the Norwegian equivalent to realestate.com.au. But bigger, classier and full of wood, stone basements and triple glazed windows.
My preferred website for such viewing is Finn.no. It’s like Tinder, but for things. And there is a subcategory called Eiendom (“property”). One of my favourite past times is scanning the eiedomsmegler (real estate) pages. Add a kanelboller to the equation and I’m in heaven.
There has been an unexpected side effect of reading the eiendom porn pages for the past five years. My Norwegian vocabulary has expanded to include technical architectural and construction terminology. And I could draw a map of Norway with my eyes closed. My newly acquired skill set could easily see me get a job in Norway as a Real Estate Agent or a cartographer.
Cate Uí Néill 