Introduction to Norway

I have an eight hour layover in the Oslo airport and nothing much to do.  I'm quickly learning a bit about the Norwegian mentality.  Even though I paid for a first class ticket, there is no first class on domestic flights, only international, but I was assured that I will receive first class service!  That also means no first class lounges--again, they are only available for international flights, but internet is free to anyone in the airport.  Internet access cards with username and passwords are readily passed out and are good for one hour on the internet.  There are plug-ins available for anyone.  The airport is modern, clean and provides for a myriad of shopping opportunities, banks, and restaurants. 

My ATM card doesn't work here because it doesn't contain a smart chip, so I had to go to a bank to exchange money.  Apparently, E. Europeans were running a credit card scam at ATMs that has been stopped with the smart chips.  The exchange rate was much higher than listed on currencyexchange.com--I got over 6 NOK (Norwegian kroner) for a dollar  instead of the 5.42 listed on internet sites --go figure!

Even flying at 35,000 feet it's obvious that Norway is densely populated with an interior of rugged mountains, snow, ice, and lakes.  We flew over Oslo before landing.  It's a beautiful, sunny day and Oslo is a small, compact city among lots of water and surrounded by dense forest.  The countryside looks like a painting with small, neat farms of white-painted house and all the barns and outbuilding are barn red with white trim.  Kinda like being in a suburban development where you can only paint your house certain colors, but the look is charming. 

You don't go to Norway for the treasure filled cities and the long artistic history of other parts of Europe, but for this spectacular scenery and the great outdoors.  The wooden stave churches built by zealous Lutherans have mostly burned, World War II destroyed many Norwegian towns, but what remains is rugged mountains and glaciers, isolated islands, peaceful fjords and modern cities that are small compared to ours.  Although over a 1000 miles north to south it is rarely more than 60 miles wide and acts as a cap over Sweden and Finland to border with Russia way above the Artic Circle.  That's my destination, Kirkenes.  The entire population of Norway is 4 million with the majority living in the south where the weather is more hospitable.  There are no big cities and Oslo's population is less than half million with the second largest city, Bergen, having 210,000 inhabitants.  Immigration is strictly controlled and Norway does not want to be a melting pot!

Norway is a constitiutional monarchy.  Even though political power is in the Parliament, the royal family is very popular.  Women play a major role in government with 40% of all elected officials being female.  Many industries are state controlled including oil from the North Sea, which is a vital resource.  Most agriculture, fisheries, the Lutheran church and all cultural activities are government subsidized.  Norwegians are among the best educated in the world with 90% of students taking a 3 year course in higher education or vocational school after completing their compulsory education.  90% also belong to the national Lutheran Church which has given Norway excellent records on births, marriages, and death since it displaced the Holy See in Norway with the reformation in 1536. 

There are two official languages and plenty available to read about the language debate that has pretty much died down since the 1980s.  It is a result of Danish rule between 1439 and 1814 when the Danish language was used for government, schools and the church and after independence Norwegian nationalist  tried to create a distinctly Norwegian language from all the dialects.  As my father left Norway in 1928, bokmal ("book language" and Danish) and nynorsk ("new norwegian", but really old Norse language that Nationalist hope would catch on) were recognized as dual official languages.  There has always been a hope that the two languages would merge into one national language.  Instead the regional dialects have grown stronger and people seem to assert their individuality by their dialects. 

I just realize that spell check doesn't work--it thinks almost every word I'm writing is wrong. Obviously, it's geared to Norwegian, not English!  Afraid that my spellling has gone downhill with the  advent of spell-check, so guess I'm on my own again-at least temporarily!