15 Facts about life in Norway that will change your view of the country

The country of trolls and fjords will not leave even the most experienced tourist indifferent. Here, penguins can command people, who in turn collect snow and store it in special hangars so that it does not melt. In addition, in the country, movie sessions on high rocks and concerts inside caves are a normal event.

O awesome.club made an unforgettable trip to Norway and compiled for you the most surprising facts about this mysterious Nordic country.

That could only happen in Norway, where animals trump politicians and monarchs in popularity. Sir Nils Olav is the most famous penguin in the world: he is Commander Emeritus and Talisman of the Norwegian Royal Guard. In 2008, he was knighted, and in 2016 he was promoted, rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

Men can easily take paternity leave and continue earning their salary, but not for more than 3 months, while mothers have just under 11 months of paid maternity leave. Parents also get two weeks of fully paid vacation to stay home with the family after the baby is born.

Furthermore, women in Norway, on equal terms, have to do military service just like men.

The State appreciates any help from its citizens. For example, when, on your own initiative, you helped to fight a forest fire together with your neighbors. This action will not remain without the attention of local authorities, who will gladly pay you compensation for the time spent. This amount can be several thousand Norwegian kroner (a few hundred dollars).

If you live in a small town and all of a sudden bad weather leaves you without power for a few hours, public services not only quickly fix the problem, they also pay you compensation for the inconvenience caused.

Some Norwegian schools have their own esports teams. That is, you can be the professional video game player you dreamed of.

In many Norwegian stores, you can find machines that take plastic bottles, glass and aluminum cans. In return, you will receive a ticket with an amount for the delivered bottles, which you can use instead of cash to pay at the register or in the store.

Low-budget tourists share their experience, because for a few minutes they could easily gather and hand over a fair amount of bottles to offset the cost of products.

In winter, so much snow falls that small houses in villages can easily disappear under it. However, Norwegians collect all this snow and store it in large hangars during the summer to use it when making ski slopes in October, when the weather is still warm (by Norwegian standards), but people already want to go skiing. skiing.

Since the ski season starts in October and continues pretty much until May, you can sometimes see how Norwegians combine their favorite sport with sunshine in a warm climate.

The sun in northern Norway is an unusual pleasure, especially during the cold season. In some villages, due to the specificity of the landscape, it may simply not appear. Thus, between September and March, the city of Rjukan is in the shadow of the mountains that surround it, which completely cover the sun. To light up the city, in 2013, 3 giant mirrors were placed on the top of the mountains, worth 5 million Norwegian kroner, which reflected sunlight in the central square.

There is no nuclear power plant in Norway: virtually all electricity is obtained from a hydroelectric plant. Here, on the streets of big cities, you can easily find chargers for electric cars: in Oslo alone, the capital of the country, there are more than 2,000 of them.

Norway ranks first in the world for the number of electric cars per capita. In addition, the state gives bonuses to drivers of green cars: exemption from paying taxes on the purchase of this type of vehicle and free parking spaces in public parking lots.

If you visit Norway, pay attention to the bus stops. They can be designed in a very welcoming way. But tourists are not only surprised because of the design, but also because people don’t take home the decoration objects, just as no one will steal your phone if you leave it on a stool near the shop in a small Norwegian town, which was precisely what happened. that the author of this post did. In small towns it is not customary to lock cars and house keys for guests can be placed in the mailbox, without the fear that someone might take them.

Norwegians are so sure of each other’s ethics that in small villages you can see the following picture: near the farm there may be a “self-service” table with bags of packed potatoes and a table with the price. Near it there will be a box to pay for purchases, and there are no boxes and no hidden cameras. None of the local people would even think of stealing the goods or the money.

To see the biggest bonfire in the world, you can visit the Norwegian city of Ålesund, where in a few days they build a 40-meter tower from wooden pallets, which is then burned. With this original method, Norwegians celebrate mid-summer (June 24).

Weekends at the “country house” are part of Norway’s national culture. As soon as the family has free time or school holidays, Norwegians want to enjoy it in the forests and mountains. They love to spend their days in a lakeside house where there may be no electricity or cell phone reception.

Due to its fantastic natural landscapes, many film directors like Norway. In the country they filmed Harry Potter, Captain America, Thor and the new film of the saga Mission Impossible🇧🇷 By the way, they decided to shoot the trailer with Tom Cruise on a famous cliff at an altitude of 600 meters, where one of the most epic scenes of the film was also shot.

Musicians also like to shoot music videos against the backdrop of legendary Norwegian landscapes. For example, the metal group Shining played in the famous “Trolltunga” (Troll’s Tongue).

And here you can watch concerts in a cave.

Norway’s nature inspires not only filmmakers and musicians, but entrepreneurs as well. For example, the beds, closets and furniture in the aisles of IKEA stores are named after beautiful places across the country. Possibly you also have a part of Norway in your house.

What’s up? Did you feel like traveling to Norway? Or do you already know the country? Leave your answer in the comments section.