10 Sept 2009: Norway First Impressions

From Norway

Kongsberg, Norway is my home for the next 7 weeks. I arrived at the hotel past midnight last night. It was smooth flights overall, including 6 hours of sleep on the big flight. I’ve finally perfect that snooze recipe. The key is to turn on the favored movie immediately & watch it during the multi-course meal (I <3 business class). Once through dessert start reading until the eyes start to crawl behind their lids. Plug up the ears and cover the eyes = dream’in. The lay over was in Munich (beautiful airport).
Upon arriving into Oslo, there was no immigration so I lack a Norway passport stamp. Darn. Upon arriving in the baggage claim area, 60-70% of my flight comrades veered into the Duty Free shop. Crowded Duty Free in baggage claim? Yep! It took me about 20 seconds to figure it out. I had read that Norway has extremely limited alcohol regulations. They have zero tolerance for drinking & driving, only Vinmonopolets (read: Wine Monopoly) sell alcohol, they are all closed on Sundays (all but 5 towns in the whole country are also closed on Saturday), wine/beer age is 18, and the spirits age is 20. You can imagine the alcohol is expensive w/ extra taxes too. Hence, everyone was quadruple fisting bottles out of this Duty Free shop while awaiting the baggage on the carousel. What’s a tourist to do? Act like a local of course! I bought 4 bottles (BTW, 3 are from NorCal) for $57. Not bad!
I have not been in Norway for 24 hours, and here are my first impressions:
- The area is a hybrid between the Adirondacks in New England & Oregon
- Norwegians appreciate cologne and perfume
- They are super friendly & know English very, very well
- Proud of their trails, hiking and hunting (the couple weeks of open season for grouse & moose just started)
- It’s difficult to withdraw cash. I spent 20 minutes walking around town and finally had to ask someone where the nearest ATM is located.
- It’s easy to get rid of the cash… food is pricey. The bruschetta appetizer and green veggie salad was over $30. It did come w/ some slices of bread and the waiter made the mistake of setting two 12” bottles (of olive oil and balsamic) on the table. Yum. That being said, the menus in town are quite impressive/fancy. So, at least they try to live up to their prices.
I will upload pictures later (from the hotel) regarding the hotel room (modest size), the crazy curved glass wall/door hinged to the wall, and the lovely town & "mountain" view out the window. Quite lovely.
Oh, and my first day of work was great. Very interesting, fun, and a little challenging!