Norway in a nutshell
The tourist season has really started over here in Norway, and I am just as surprised each year by how interesting the tourists find this country. Sometimes it’s quite incredible what they are fascinated by, they buy t-shirts with stupid drawings of elks on them and woolen sweaters in the middle of summer, I even saw one tourist taking a photo of a manhole cover. Still, when you are new to a country, it is perhaps logical that it seems more interesting than if you have lived there your whole life. Now, since most of the people reading this post are not from Norway, I thought that it would be interesting to present some (random) facts about Norway. Here we go:
Cheese slicer, the Norwegian specialty
Yes, this interesting little artifact was actually invented in Norway, and is still used frequently today, it also fits very well with the famous Norwegian brown cheese. My theory is that it was invented because food is expensive in Norway and so people wanted to make thin slices, but that’s a another matter.
The petroleum industry
The petroleum industry in Norway accounts for about 25% of the GDP. Without all this oil and gas, we would be in big trouble, because we have already gotten used to having lots of money without having to work very hard for it. This industry is also one of the reasons why I don’t want to stay in Norway if I do study something scientific, because then there is a good chance that I’ll end up with a job that deals with developing oil wells, which is not exactly my dream career.
Trolls
Trolls are big, stupid creatures that tend to appear in Norwegian fairytales; and in Harry Potter too, is seems. They appear in the play Peer Gynt, (which is by the way a brilliant play), where they live inside a mountain, and there seems to be this general belief that they can’t stand sunlight, they explode if exposed to it. I have never seen a real troll, but they are very commonly found in pictures on souvenirs in tourist shops.
Geography
Norway is an extremely long country, in fact, if you rotate it around its lowest point on the map, the other end would actually reach Rome. Most of Norway consists of mountains, which have a bad habit of standing in the way. Because of the mountains, we have many tunnels, some roads even exceed 40 tunnels per hour of driving. The weather is generally cold and rainy, but we do have about 20 hours of sunlight in the summer (and 20 hours of dark in the winter).
So, after presenting these more or less interesting facts, I just want to make it clear that this is in no way some sort of endorsement of this odd country I happen to live in, there are many better places to go to if you want to go on holiday. However, if you ever want your cheese sliced thinner, you are welcome to visit, just remember to bring lots of money, a set of rain clothes and possibly some skis and an ice axe.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
LOL! I just feel like I’m concerned by your post. I live in France, and I guess you don’t know since you live in Norway, but as for me, I love Norway even if I’ve never been there, even if I’ve never known much about Norway. It’s a country which people want to visit.. I donno. Norway is appealing XD
Do salmon is popular in Norway? Because I heard that some of them were coming fromNorway.
Ps. I love salmon lol
June 28th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I would love to visit Norway one day
On the map Norway seems so interesting with all the fjords.
And I think the troll on the picture is very sweet, It’s sad he is stupid lol.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I have a little imput about trolls. They do not in fact explode in sun light, they turn into stone. I myself have seen loads of trolls, and you have probably too. You just haven’t looked properly. They like walking around in the forests when it’s foggy and misty
June 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Them trolls are weird looking
June 28th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Being from Scandinavia as well (Finland, to be exact) I can relate to your post very well
Silly tourists seem to think Finland is a very exotic place to be and come here to buy woollen cardigans in June.
Oh, and cheese slicers are such a great invention. Sometimes I find hard to think that not everyone is even aware of its existence
June 29th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Haha! I laughed when I read this entry, because everything is so true. Actually, I have a job at a aluminium factory (hydro), I work in the canteen there. Which btw, is also a huge thing for Norway including petroleums technology. And let’s not forget that fish from Norway is huge abroad, but here, most of us hate fish. xD Including me!
June 29th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Haha, i love this entry! Very informative :-p
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:35 am
Ugh. I don’t like trolls. XP
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
My friends are in Norway now I think. I want to go once, since my whole family on my father’s side is Norwegian, and I still have to find out what our family’s last name was before my great-great-great grandparents came to the US where they changed the name. My parents named me Liv because of our Norwegian history, but personally I think it’s just an attempt to torture me, since no one here can say it right.
I had no idea that cheese slicers came from Norway XD
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Haha, that’s pretty cool. Except I don’t like cheese =P
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I’ve always been facinated by Norway, but have never been there.
Funny how tourists take pictures of strange things, like manhole covers. Haha.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Those are some interesting facts. I live in the USA and when I was in scouts I remember we had the country Norway for this annual around the world thing.
I wouldn’t take a picture of a manhole, I wonder why they took a picture of that.
July 4th, 2007 at 8:36 am
How did people slice cheese before the cheese slicer? Probably with a knife. I’ve sliced cheese with a knife before. Very uneven slices, very unsafe.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Whale Slaughter, Wow.
Ive always wondered what it tastes like