Norway is often referred to as among the world’s wealthiest, and the best place to live, but let’s consider some demerits and problems appearing in this “pink” country. First of all, Norwegian industry and actually whole economy is dependent on oil and gas. What if oil and gas will be gone? The country income from that source is a lot higher than the national budget. The excess money Norwegians keep in Oljefundet to save money for future generations when the oil won’t last anymore. On the other hand, a lot of the jobs and services are currently related to the offshore industry, what about them?
Next point is the perfect Health Care System I have described recently. It is free for everyone, but this commonness makes problems with cutbacks. There is never-ending waiting list for non-emergent operations and some hospitals have to little capacity and are forced to place patients in the corridors. Furthermore, there is a sickness absence among Norwegian employees. Recently the rate of absence due to sickness has been very high in Norway. Almost 10% of the total work force was absent due to sickness last year.
Maybe this absence is not caused by convenient Health Care benefits, but by mentally illness. It is said that 25% of the adult population in Norway falls mentally ill every year. Norway seems to be offering libing proof that money can’t buy happiness. Maybe this horrible sickness such as depression happens due to long, dark winters or just living without a social network.
Fourth problem raised in Norway recently is integration of immigrants. This occurs not only between Norwegians and immigrants, but also between immigrants themselves. Try to image Palestinians and Israelis living together in the same street or even building. That tensions are the soil for social malaise and protests.
One Norwegian told me that the cruise tourism causes a lot of pollution in fjords and cities. He concluded that there is a lot of black smoke coming out from the chimneys and leaving a haze around the whole area as the mountains block it from getting out. Well, I haven’t seen any haze, but I saw the movie and pictures from the BP catastrophe and that makes a difference.
Bergen is the kingdom’s second largest city and just after Oslo is the most important, with over 250 000 inhabitants only! Bergen is situated at the west coast of Norway where the Norwegian Sea meets the North Sea. The year of the foundation is estimated to be 1070 and it is a World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO. What is characteristic for Bergen? Rain! Almost 220 days in a year it is raining here. Once, I heard, it was raining continually from February to May. That's why in this city one set first in the world the umbrellas’ machine.
I have visited Bergen with my beloved fiancé in May and it strikes me more than Oslo. First of all, Bergen is full of history and tradition of an international city with charming and small town atmosphere. Heritages such as Bryggen (Norwegian for the Wharf) or Bergen Fish Market and the possibility of trip to the fjords attract tourist, especially from Spain. I don’t know why, but I met many Spaniards there and there are many Spanish clerks in souvenirs shops. Furthermore, in Bergen nature blends with culture and city life is thrilling – every evening parties in the seaport lasting till morning. In May, there was light even at midnight, so the climate is specific, as it would be evening all the time. During the day, it is worth to see Bryggen, which is also displayed in the top of my blog, it is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord.Bryggen was built thanks to the merchants from the Hanseatic League, who arrived here around 1360 and developed the town into an import ant trading centre. These warehouses were filled with foods such as fish from Norway and wheat from Europe (including Poland). Apart from Bryggen, I also recommend to do unusual shopping in the Torget i Bergen (Fishmarket In Bergen), where you can fresh seafood and seafish every morning. Furthermore, numerous wooden houses all-around the city from the 18th century and many amazing museums are the must-sees. Amongst many of the museums, the Old Bergen Museum is a place with more than 40 wooden buildings constructed in the style of the architecture of Bergen from the 18th and 19th century. Moreover, in this museum a beautiful guide will tell you interesting stories about the past inhabitants of these colourful houses. The latest attraction, we visited, is the Bergen Science Centre Vilvite. Vilvite is a centre of science and technology for tourists, where you can embark on a journey with almost 100 different instruments, perform experiments, to feel the force of gravity while riding in a large circle, to make a rig for oil, to stand behind the stairs of the ship or submarine or see yourself jumping very slowly as below.
As I mentioned in the title of this post, Bergen is truly a gateway to fjords. From here you can choose amongst many tours offers a unique experience both for those who have time only for short visit, and those who want to know precisely the region. We have chosen a short 4-hours trip to the closest fjord by MS White Lady and the views were breathtaking. If you want to see more spectacular landscapes from Norway I personally recommend a journey from Bergen to Oslo by train. In various rankings railway lines from Oslo to Bergen are considered the most beautiful and exciting route in the world. The American journalist-explorer Gary Warner writing for a newspaper The Chicago Tribune put in on his list of favourites rail routes. I have added as well! As a tittle-tattle I can tell you that it is possible to see snow on this route even in May, because its highest point is in the Finse peak 1222 meters above sea level. The whole journey takes approximately 7 hours, but it is absolutely pleasure to deal with it.
It is surprising that such small country with nearly 5 million population and only 200 years history of independence would be a womb of 11 geniuses awarded by Nobel Prize Committee, huh? My country is famous from intelligent people and truly it is a womb of many geniuses, but many of them or their ancestors unfortunately left Poland and their output contributed in foreign countries e.g. physicians such as Józef Rotblat and Georges Charpak, chemists such as Maria Curie-Skłodowska, and Roald Hoffmann, biochemists such as Andrew Schally and Tadeusz Reichstein, writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, biologists such as Jack W. Szostak and Stanisław Kaczmarczyk, who recently invented a method to restrain cancer cells in our bodies and many many other brilliant people, who left my country for better life. Anyway, the topic of this post is to introduce the most famous Norwegians who had or have a significant impact on human thought within Norway as well as globally. To begin with, Nobel Prize Winners, they have an impact for sure.
Chronologically:
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (Literature). Bjørnson is celebrated for his lyrics to the Norwegian National Anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet", which means "Yes, we love this country".
1920 - Knut Hamsun (Literature) – awarded for the epic “Growth of the soil”.
1921 - Christian Lous Lange (Peace Prize) – a noted pacifist.
1922 - Fridtjof Nansen (Peace Prize) - for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner.
1928 - Sigrid Undset (Literature) - experimented with modernist tropes such as stream of consciousness in her novel.
1968 - Lars Onsager (Chemistry) – as many genius he went to the USA.
1969 - Odd Hassel (Chemistry) – he investigated the structure of charge-transfer compounds and set up rules for the geometry of this kind of compound.
1969 - Ragnar Frisch (Economics) – He was known for econometrics and formalized production theory.
1973 - Ivar Giaever (Physics) - for his discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in solids.
1989 - Trygve Haavelmo (Economics) – known from probability approach in econometrics and balanced budget multiplier.
2004 - Finn Erling Kydland (Economics) - for his contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.
Three Nobel Prizes in Economics Sciences!? I’m impressed. Furthermore, those who study economics should know Veblen’s goods, so their inventor - Thorstein Bunde Veblen had Norwegian roots.
Let’s come back to the very beginning, to the Vikings’ age. One of the first Christian Norwegian, son of the Erik the Red, Leif Eriksson that became famous because of his virgin journey to the West, where he discovered a rocky and salmon-rich land, that is called nowadays Canada. According to Groenlendinga Saga he discovered the North America AD 1000. From that time for hundreds of years it has been doing nothing on the Norwegian land that was once in the Danish hands and once in the Swedish hands.
The state of inaction has been lasting in Norway until 1850 when Henrik Johan Ibsen moved to Christiania, where it was his stage debut – at Christiania Theater staged Kjæmpehøien (Tomb of the Huns). Ibsen is the most famous Norwegian dramaturg, the author od such masterpieces as Vilanden, Når vi døde Wagner or Peer Gynt. Peer Gynt contains philosophical Messager of criticism arising from the attitudes of Norwegians staring AT themselves and spirituals neuter. The title is the name of the main charakter – slothful and selfish peasant. Ibsen commisioned Grieg to compose music for Peer Gynt that Has made this work famous. Edvard Hagerup Grieg was the most famous Noregian composer, pianist and conductor with Scottish origin. Moreover, he was a founder of the Norwegian national music school. Apart from Ibsen, the next famous novelist and playwright was Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie. In his works, Jonas Lie often sought to reflect in his writings the nature, folk life, and social spirit of the nation of Norway. Jonas is considered to have been one of the Four Greats of 19th century Norwegian literature, together with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and Alexander Kielland. Among Kielland’s most famous Works are the trilogy Gift, Fortuna and St. Hans Fest. In this trilogy, Kielland satirizes the hypocrisy of Norway’s clergy including debate about the hunger for Latin chich Norwegian teachers had AT this period of time.
Let’s have a look at Norwegian artists. I know at least two of them – Edvard Munch and Gustav Vigeland. Munch was creating a symbolic figure compositions, giving vent to them in expressive erotic obsessions, feelings of loneliness, depression, fear of illness and death. He became a famous painter because of his picture The Scream. On the other hand, Vigeland, sculptor, whom building of park complex in Oslo brought a fame. Works on the Vigeland’s park started in 1907 and were continued after his death until the 1940s. Gustav was actually only a designer of sculptures placed in the park – all the sculptural work was performed by his team of hired masons, foundry and blacksmiths.
Before I’ll move on to the present times, I’d like mention about Roald Amundsen, another famous Norwegian. He was a polar explorer and the first winner of the South Pole. In my opinion he was also a hero, because in 1928 he went down to help Nobile Umberto, who disappeared during a zeppelin flight Italia in Arctic. Nobile was found, but Roald was never found. Now, in scope of my favourite contemporary Norwegian musicians are Jan Garbarek, Erlend Øye from Kings of Convenience band. Garbarek is a high class Norwegian jazzman with Polish roots and he is regarded as one of the most import ant contemporary jazz musicians as well as the father of Scandinavian jazz scene. Another Norwegian I like is a film direktor Joachim Trier who received several national awards for his debut film Reprise from 2006. Meanwhile, one Norwegian I admire is Erling Kagge, a lawyer, publisher and explorer. He is among Norway’s most acclaimed polar explorers and one of the greatest adventurers of our time. Erling was the first person to surmount the three poles – North, South and the summit of Mt Everest.
For more information about famous Norwegians go to wikipedia
There are two main ways to obtain Norwegian citizenship:
(1) Descent from a Norwegian parent. A child (born in Norway or elsewhere) acquires Norwegian citizenship at birth if the father or the mother is a Norwegian citizen and it isn’t necessary the father to be married to the mother. Furthermore, a child under 18 adopted by Norwegian citizens acquires Norwegian citizenship automatically.
(2) Naturalisation as a Norwegian citizen. In principle, it is possible to naturalise as a Norwegian citizen after residing in Norway 7 years over the last 10 years. There are several additional rules to the naturalisation:
- it is necessary to not have a criminal record.
- citizen of the other Nordic Council countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden) may naturalise after a two-year residence.
- a person married to a Norwegian citizen may naturalise after 3 years residence during the last 10 years, provided that the total period of time resident in Norway plus the total period of marriage equals at least 7 years. The time of residence and marriage may be earned at the same time e.g. foreigners married to Norwegian citizens can therefore obtain citizenship after 4 years if they have been residing in Norway for at least 3 years. What is more, this rule also applies to non-married cohabiting partners and homosexuals in civil unions.
- an applicant for Norwegian citizenship must also give evidence of proficiency in either the Norwegian or Sami language or give proof of having attended classes in Norwegian for 300 hours, or being proficient in one of the Scandinavian languages.
- persons becoming naturalised Norwegian citizens are after acquisition of citizenship generally expected to prove they have lost or renounced any foreign citizenship they have.
Since January, when I posted about a bunch of strange and weird things about Norway, I’ve discovered more stuff like this:
(1) To begin with, social life. It is very common and socially approved that families are breaking apart, people divorce and remarry. Many live together while not married, they are called samboere (i.e. concubines). Samboere is legally equivalent to marriage. It is next prove for individualistic society: only you cont, not the group (family, friends).
(2) Studies. Much different from my school and I will develop this topic in the following posts. Good thing is, that teachers generally treat me as if I were on the same ‘level’ with them. Norwegian students seldom have and even show an awful lot of respect for their teachers. Every time when the course is finished the teacher receives a ovation. That is beautiful thing which is lacking in my country.
(3) Attitude towards foreigners. I mentioned that they are polite. It was just a first delusion. Never expect them to talk to you first, expect a lot of prejudice and ignorance about you, your country and your culture instead. That sad truth, but I have to write about it, because I experienced and witnessed many cases of Norwegian’s ignorance towards foreigners. They are ok with you when you speak Norwegian, even English is sometimes not enough. English revealed that you are temporarily in Norway and they feel like you are stealing their education or workplace. They are some exceptions towards low-qualified workers, which are necessary in this country and share respect. Generally, Norwegians are rather closed society and don’t want to anybody to intervene in their culture. They are several levels of closeness in a friendship. It might take a while before you get deep friendship with Norwegian. I recommend to be sensitive as to how much time both of you want to spend together. Remember, Norwegian men very rarely shake hands, unless they are gays. Interesting situation I experienced is when Norwegian woman looks straight in my eyes and talks to me without wanting anything else than a chat. That’s nice and unexpected. In Norway a woman can do everything that a man can do, going out alone, talking to strangers, having male friends in addition to her husband. Some woman will be insulted if you open the door for them, check it out!
(4) Politeness and manners. First of all, remember about directness, the polite form De (i.e. You) isn’t polite anymore. The prime minister is referred to as ‘Jens’. Say ‘yes’ if you want to come and ‘no, I’m sorry, I’ve got other plans’ if you don’t. Never say ‘yes’ and then not show up. Anyway, you are not required to refuse the first time to be polite. Most things in Norway similarly as in Germany begin exactly at the time given. Don’t be more than ten minutes late to a party. If you are late on classes, you will kiss a handle of the door (the Polish proverb!). What a irony when the bus and metro drivers are always late in this country, for f…’s sake!
(5) Sports. Norwegians have a craving for, which I like very much! When you are in Norway try to experience skiing, ice skating, cycling, running to Bergen or just throwing snowball. If it is so cold you have to move a lot, I’m not talking about your fingers and toes, I’m talking about whole body. I use swimming pool and gym very often and I appreciate this time. When I decided to rent skis for cross-country, it was too late and there were no more skis to rent. That’s a pity!
(6) Dress code. Imagine jeans and t-shirts in work. In Norway is possible, except jobs which require uniforms or suits. On the other hand, you should be more formal at parties. That’s ridiculous, totally different than in my country. Once, I felt really bad when I went to a party with jeans and my favourite polo t-shirt.
(7) Savoir vivre. Sometimes I really believe that Norwegians have a barbarian Vikings as their ancestors. For example famuous Norwegian Reach, which means just grab what you want on the table. They often serve alcohol in a Norwegian home – and definitely at a party – but it is okay to refuse. Alcohol is very expensive here, so they don’t be angry in case of refusal. Never expect that Norwegian buy you a beer in the pub, it’s expensive even to him. Otherwise you can expect that someone will steal you a beer if you don’t protect it.
(8) Norwegian sarcasm. Norwegians often say the exact opposite of what they mean, you have to listen to the intonation to get true meaning. That’s annoying, I would never know how it is, because usually I’m sarcastic.
(9) Special social skills. It’s good to say ‘ja’ while inhaling air instead of simple ‘yes’. I was forced to learn saying ‘mhm’ at the right places.
Finally, I must say that both me and my country have already changed with respect to my exchange programme.
As I mentioned before, you can hear three official languages in Norway at once. The Norwegian Language Council approved two languages - Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk. Sámi is a language of indigenous Sámi people, which are protected by law. While Bokmål and Nynorsk are regarded as Scandinavian Languages, Sámi is a group of Uralic languages. To make the life for foreigners more difficult, the most Norwegians speak their own dialect in all circumstances. But if you have a good command of Norwegian, you will be able to understand Danish, Swedish or even Icelandic. Great! I wish I could understand my Czech, Slovakian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian or even one of these: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovenian and Serbian fellows. The life in Slavic world not suppose to be as easy. Move on, back to Norwegian, for Norwegians the dialect makes up an important part of their identity, and by listening to a person's dialect they can in most cases determine with good accuracy from which part of the country he or she is from. Scandinavian Languages developed from Old Norse language. Vikings were the ones who spread this language across the Europe and even into far Iceland and farer Greenland as well as deep Russia, making Old Norse one of the most widespread languages for that time. Christianity’s contribution into Old Norse around 1030 was Latin alphabet. Almost 150 years Norway was unified with Denmark and Sweden under Kalmar Union established in 1397, which means that the language in this union didn’t varied very much. Furthermore, between 1536 and 1814 Norway was subordinated under the Kingdom of Denmark – Norway, so Danish was commonly used by Norway’s literate class. After the end of this Kingdom the Dano-Norwegian koiné (About koiné language) had became the mother tongue of Norwegian elites. In short time Norway was forced to enter a personal union with Sweden. This time Norwegians wanted to declare their independence, they even proclaimed a constitution in Syttende Mai (17 May 1814), which day is now called Norwegian Constitution Day and is celebrated every year. In order to show Norwegian sovereign the nationalist movement started to exist and its action was directed, among others, towards the development of independent Norwegian language. The movers had to choose one of three paths due to develop independent language: (1) Do nothing (remained with Danish, which was already different from Swedish) (2) Norwegianise Danish language (3) Build a new national language based on local dialects. They went through all three paths. Some movers did nothing, Knud Knudsen (About Knud Knudsen) tried to Norwegianise Danish using Dano-Norwegian koiné and Ivar Aasen began to create a new Norwegian language. Ivar was the most stout-harted, he traveled around the country and spoke with locals, examined Icelandic as well and the fruit of his labor was Landsmål (About Landsmål), meaning national language. Nowadays, Landsmål is interpreted as farmers language, which wasn’t Ivar’s previous intention. As an effect of Knud Knudsen work Riksmål (About Riksmål) did borned, which means state language. In 1929 Riksmål was officially renamed to Bokmål (Book Language) and Landsmål to Nynorsk (New Norwegian).
Today, the majority of the people in Norway are using Bokmål (85-90% of the population in Norway). But in areas in the Northwestern part of Norway and in the very south, Nynorsk is used (above 10% Norwegians use it as their primary written language). However, it should be noted that Bokmål and Nynorsk are not classified as two different languages where you have to learn the other as a foreign language. In short one could say that they are more two different written norms. Thus, text written in Bokmål is perfectly understandable for a person using Nynorsk, and vice versa. What is more, it exists also a conservative version of Nynorsk called Høgnorsk (High Norwegian) and in Norwegian language courses they taught foreign students Standard Østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian). Great! If you really want to develop on the languages field, come to Norway!
Let’s have a good start, here you can find survival phrases with pronunciation (just click on the word, it's working in IE):
The most commonly used words by me in the first days in Oslo were strange and weird associated with behaviour, food and rules. I mean strange and weird in a positive sense, sometimes funny. I’ve listed some of the strangest and weirdest things in Norway. Let’s see how it looks:
(1) People. In Norway in 2009 lived 508 000 immigrants (Statistics of Norway), which means 10,6 percent of the whole population. I wasn’t surprised when I transferred it to reality, because 1 per 10 citizens in Norway truly comes from Africa, Asia, Americas or other European country. The most apparent amongst them are Black Africans and Indians. Just imagine them living in this snowy and cold country. Surely, they must be attracted by something here, what let them live in this climatic conditions.
And now, focus on Norwegians. Norwegians are friendly, they smiling very often and are happy all the time like in Truman Show, but reserved, while in my country they would be seen as simply retarded. However, you will often get a rational and positive response if taking initiative. By taking initiative you must remember that they seems to be easy going and informal. If you want to see how they show astonishment, just call one male Norwegian Mr. and try to shake hand with him. In response to him don’t show your astonishment because of their directness, they usually say what they think without unnecessary words. One more advice, be discrete when looking at Norwegian and don’t stare. To sum up, Norwegian don’t seem to have a craving for blood, fire, pillage and conquest as their famous ancestors – Vikings.
Why aren't they plundering now? Maybe the answer lies in their wealth. How did Norway become a rich country? Mostly due to petrol and natural gas from the North Sea, but other industries connected with the sea or water make up an important part of the income. Before Phillips Petroleum Company discovered petroleum resources at the Ekofisk field in 1969 (About this discovery) Norway was poor fish & ship seller.
(2) Prices. Incredibly high. Especially alcohol, while wine (bottle of good Spanish wine costs ca 100NOK) and hard drinks (vodka costs ca 300NOK) may be only bought in state-owned Vinmonopolet when you are 20 or more. That's why Norway is called "dry" country. I think Norwegians don’t matter about prices, because they average yearly income is somewhere in the region of 220000NOK (USD36 600). Income tax is somewhere from 28% to 49% with more tax paid if you earn more money (health care and pension funds make up a flat 7.8% of your tax) (About incomes in Norway). So it still left enough money to deal with high prices. One special thing is that service and tax are included in all prices you see (What You See Is What You Pay), so tips are not expected here.
(3) Food. There will be separate post about it.
(4) Language. Sounds absolutely strange for me, like a jabber. It is quite similar to German, but in writing to Danish. Norwegian language has three special letters:
Æ as in mad, Ø as in blurt, Å as in hall
Norway has three official languages: Bokmål, Nynorsk and Sami. Bokmål stems from the written Danish introduced during the Union of Denmark and Norway. On the other hand, Nynorsk was created as a written language by the language scholar Ivar Aasen (About Ivar Aaasen). Sami, a member of the Finno-Ugric of languages is a minority language used by the indigenous Sami people. Two famous words Norwegian has exported to other languages: ski and fjord. While fjord is simply a sea intrusion into the land, formed by glaciers, skiing is their national sport. Norwegians will actually get orgasmic telling you how much they love cross country skiing and they will encourage you to try this. They absolutely love it!
The good thing for foreigners is that every Norwegian independently of age have a very good command of English.
(5) Drivers’ politeness on the street. It’s not a joke, what is unbelievable in Poland comes true in Norway. Drivers in Oslo drive their vehicles like they were made of porcelain. Maybe it wouldn’t be as surprising as I had known fines ranks. What is more shocking, they always let the pedestrian cross the street on the pedestrian crossing.
(6) The next, but not last weird thing I've noticed in Norway are slippers of my Norwegian roommate.Well, I think these are traditional Norwegian slippers and suppose they’re itching and I’m sure they’re stinking.
