Fun Facts about Norway

As I've been in Norway for sometime now I've learned many interesting things about Norway. Most come from my uncle and others I've picked up along the way,

Geographic & Demographics 

• It's official name is the Kingdom of Norway
• Norway has 22,000km (13,500 miles) of coastline through the fjords/islands. That's twice the length of the earth
• There are over 50,000 islands!
• Norway's furthest east border is Russia (yes it actually does go that far east) and is actually further east than Istanbul
• If Norway was flipped upside down it would reach Rome (I didn't realize it was so long!)
• 1/3 of the country is in the Arctic circle hence the nickname: "Land of the Midnight Sun"
• Oslo is considered south Norway and yet it is the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska & Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Norway is part of Scandinavia along with Sweden and Denmark (though only Norway & Sweden make up the Scandinavian peninsula). Finland and Iceland are NOT considered Scandinavia but are put in the concept of Nordic countries.
• Currently there are more Norwegian descendants living in the USA than there are Norwegians in Norway (6mil to 4.8mil)

Sayings:

• "When a stranger smiles at you, you assume that: A. He's drunk. B. He's insane. C. He's American. D. All the above.
• "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing"
• "American football is idiotic" 

Culture & Lifestyle:

• They use 00-24 time instead of AM/PM (referred to as military time back home)
• Women in Norway get 44 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and men get 6 weeks of full paid paternity leave
• Norway invented the cheese slicer which they are very proud of. And since it's nearly impossible to buy pre-sliced cheese in Norway it's pretty necessary too.
• The most popular cheese is brunost (brown cheese). It's a very sweet cheese that's actually not really cheese. It's made by evaporating most of the water in left-overs of ordinary cheese production and cream is added. 
• As a child I hated it, but I've grown to love it, particularly with raspberry jam on Norwegian waffles! yummm
• Norwegians eat tiny breakfasts and lunches but dinner can be so massive, with so many servings I can barely keep up. And they say Americans eat too much!
• Norwegians close to Sweden go there for groceries - much cheaper
• Norwegians love frozen pizza!! Grandiosa is the most popular brand and they advertise "American Bacon!" on the package.. though as an American I must disagree!
• Roller skis- cross country skiing is so popular in the winter you see people all over town in their skis. And now that it's spring and there is no snow... people are roller skiing around town.. yes it's true
• Food stores are not allowed to be open on Sundays (so go to a gas station if you need something)
• Liquor stores close at 3:00pm on Saturdays, not open at all on Sundays (beer sales in grocery stores stops at 6pm on Saturdays)
• People generally refrain from drinking during the week but once it's Friday night.. they like to "let loose!!" 
• Dialects - Norway has two types of Norwegian - bokmål & nynorsk (bokmål is most widely used) and yet people in different parts of Norway sometimes have a very difficult time understanding each other. I've even heard of Norwegians switching to English to talk to each other because it ended up being easier. One way I heard it explained is to think of it not as the different American accents (southern/Midwest/Boston etc.) but as American, British, Scottish, Irish, Australian etc.. Somethings are very difficult to understand even though it's all "English" 

Politics & Economy:

• The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo 
• Norway is not part of the EU - they've rejected membership twice though they have many agreements with the EU that they sometimes seem to be part of it anyways. 
• Income tax is around 25% and yet I've heard from many people: "we believe in paying taxes, so we don't mind" - what a different mindset then in America
• Immigration rate is around 22%
• Education is completely free including college (which is why I can go here)

Pop Culture

• They are very proud of the band: A-ha - Norway's only international music success (they claim they had 10 top hits and yet the only song I knew was 'Take On Me' (see music video below)
• Alt For Norge- mentioned before, this is the reality TV show where Americans go to Norway and do a bunch of tasks, the winner gets to be reunited with their Norwegian family.
• American TV - almost any show back home is shown here, in English with Norwegian subtitles (which is perfect for me!!)

Random

• Prostitution- it's illegal to buy sex but ok to sell sex.. so the man who buys a prostitute can be prosecuted but not the girl selling herself.. odd
• It's actually very likely that Vikings did not use helmet at all. Only 1 helmet has ever been uncovered, the Viking helmet is sadly a legend