Life in Norway so far

I’ve now been in Norway for about four months. So far so good. When I arrived it was wet, cold, and dark, now it’s wet, cool and light. I’ve actually found the weather to be quite agreeable and not at all as miserable as I’ve been led to believe.

A rare day of sunshine in January, with an icy harbour

Norwegians take a keen interest in the weather, for they love the outdoors and positively gorge themselves on sun. When the sun is out it seems the city’s population trebles. We had the first weekend of sun a couple of weeks ago and on the Monday the evidence was burnt on to many faces.

Ullevålseteren at Easter

Everyone is a-chatter about the coming Best Summer Ever, which is supposed to be hot and dry. It’s a stunningly beautiful country, so in a way it is a shame that there are not more days of sun for it to be enjoyed. Bergen, for example, is supposed to have on average only 60 sunny days a year. Perhaps it is just as well, because the fewer fine days drive people to make the most of it even more. Certainly coming from Brisbane I took the sun for granted. There, weather is a bit of a non-issue and one would only really be concerned during the height of summer, whether it might be too hot that day. Now I find myself somewhat obsessing about weather.

Akershus Fortress

I’ve had a few firsts in Norway. I’ve finally fulfilled a life-long ambition to try curling, which is akin to lawn bowls, but on ice. Although curling is infamous for it’s rotund, beer-swilling players (like its lawn-based cousin) there’s decidedly less beer involved than lawn bowls, regrettably due to over zealousness fear of spoiling “the sheet”. It’s quite a bit harder than bowls and a lot of fun. I also travelled across my first frozen lake, which was nowhere near as exciting as I had hoped. Perhaps I should try again early spring during the melt. Still to cross off my to-do list is to participate in a whale slaughter, eat a lamb’s head, hunt a moose and brew my own moonshine.

The curling battlefield

Enroute to Tjeldbergodden

Norway has a very high level of niceness about it. The people are nice. The cities are nice. The language is nice. Sometimes this general niceness can come across as blandness. But overall, the quality of life here is very high, and any complaints I can come up with are fairly trivial ones (like for example the price of booze).

Now to find some beach volleyball action in Oslo, and my life will be complete.