On Norway
I would like to spend about a month touring Norway.
You might think that this wish comes from some longstanding interest in the history and culture of Norway. Actually, the opposite is true. I have never met anyone from Norway. I have never read a book or seen a documentary about Norway. I know almost nothing about Norway. What I do know about Norway could be summed in about three sentences.
1. Norway is a country in northern Europe.
2. People who live in the country of Norway are called Norwegians.
3. Norway has fiords. (I have never seen a fiord.)
That’s about it.
This almost complete lack of knowledge is the main reason that I want to visit Norway. I am old enough to have heard something about just about every other place on the planet. Some of what I know may be untrue, but I would still be saddled with my preconceptions if I ever visited any of these places. Norway is a blank slate for me. I could visit and meet the people. I could experience an entire country and culture that is presently a total and complete mystery to me. I could actually write about something in this blog that had an immediate impact on me without it being colored by any earlier life experiences or hearsay.
Who knows, I could fall in love with the beauty that is Norway. Or, I might just find out that Norway is simply the Wisconsin of Europe: cold, bland, snowy, populated by people who talk funny and have an unhealthy preoccupation with cheese.
You might think that this wish comes from some longstanding interest in the history and culture of Norway. Actually, the opposite is true. I have never met anyone from Norway. I have never read a book or seen a documentary about Norway. I know almost nothing about Norway. What I do know about Norway could be summed in about three sentences.
1. Norway is a country in northern Europe.
2. People who live in the country of Norway are called Norwegians.
3. Norway has fiords. (I have never seen a fiord.)
That’s about it.
This almost complete lack of knowledge is the main reason that I want to visit Norway. I am old enough to have heard something about just about every other place on the planet. Some of what I know may be untrue, but I would still be saddled with my preconceptions if I ever visited any of these places. Norway is a blank slate for me. I could visit and meet the people. I could experience an entire country and culture that is presently a total and complete mystery to me. I could actually write about something in this blog that had an immediate impact on me without it being colored by any earlier life experiences or hearsay.
Who knows, I could fall in love with the beauty that is Norway. Or, I might just find out that Norway is simply the Wisconsin of Europe: cold, bland, snowy, populated by people who talk funny and have an unhealthy preoccupation with cheese.
posted by HCaldwell | 6:03 AM
5 Comments:
You are welcome. I don’t find Norway so existing or exotic sins I live here but I do know that it is a beautiful country and a good country to live in :-)
Stein
Thank you, but the real question here is, "Have you ever been to Wisconsin?"
No, I have never been to Wisconsin. As a matter of fact, I have never been to the US.
Would like to though but I never “gape over more than I can swallow” as we say and the US is just too big or me and my wife at our age. We would have to spend several monts there just to get a taste of it.
We do not have an unhealthy preoccupation with cheese as far as I know. Jarlsberg is a norwegian cheese but I know of many Norwegian cheese’s that taste better but than again, it is all a matther of taste :-)
Stein
Stein,
If you do visit the US, you can skip Wisconsin which would make it slightly less of a "gape". I now have to change my assertion that I have never "met" anyone from Norway.
Personally, I would like to see a fiord. Just so that I can say that I had seen one.
Honestly, you don’t need a month to see a fjord just to say that you have seen one and I wouldn’t travel that far just to say that I have seen one neither.
However; you will be able to explore many of the fjords in a month but I would also recommend you to climb some mountains and valley, see the fjords from the big heights.
One thing we (fortunately) can’t offer you is places like Las Vegas or Los Angeles :-)
I would also recommend you to study the price level we have.
Stein
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