Norway! Don’t try and play the ‘hold your breath while going through a tunnel’ game. The tunnels can stretch thousands of meters and then some! After two weeks here & 10 shows the words that come to mind as we recap our magnificent experiences are: Steep rocks, mountains and fjords (we hiked leaving us breathless & breath-taken), thick thick moss in the woods, Moose, Moose hunters, gutted & dragged moose pictures taking up most of the daily papers, Metal music (not as prominent as in Finland) but still makes the covers of newspapers, toll charges on highways (some are automatic as your license plate is recorded while you cruise at 100km/hr down the highway, others taken a man behind the window in a booth), there are warning signs before a speed trap camera appears (strategically about 2km apart...so don’t forget the warning!), there are no so called post-offices (find them in grocery stores), ferries everywhere (and we haven’t seen one the same as the other), Geographical highlight: Trollsteigen (steep winding road that used to make a traveller on horse go from being a boy to a man!), we see roller-skiers and roller-skaters with hiking/ski-poles using the bike lanes along the highway, SNUS is popular (nicotine packets & loose leave style that tucks under your upper lip for about 30 mins), there is space between every house, there are no typical centrums or centers (as in Denmark/Germany/Holland), their national speed skating team have thighs the size of my waist (we watched shared a hotel with them & then watched them skate in Bjung), many words contain a ‘j’ (like Sjokalade or Recepsjon) people seem to love with they ‘do’ here & are generally tall and proud, we are mistaken for Germans because of our license plate & we don’t mind (sometimes we just go with it!), most Norwegians speak English & German well, fashion & pop culture seems less important here than in Sweden, people are curious here & they are not shy to stare & stare for a long time, a typical bar gets going closer to midnight (regardless of they day of the week), the sense of humor is quick-witted loaded with tasteful sarcasm & a willingness to poke around, winter sports are ‘big’ here & it was fun to speak about our Vancouver Olympics 2010, small white fish with onions added is on every breakfast table, if you are paying for parking be prepared to use your entire paycheck, if you are buying beer in a bar say goodbye to your budget. Torkel, we loved your local touring, Randi (female) & Tom & Trond we loved you giving us a late night out, Helge & Helge thanks for reminding us to promote Fantasy, Humour, Faith & Madness (All in all: getting NOK’d up in Norway was a thrill!).
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