You have searched for… #3

It’s been a long time since I updated this page, but I see it’s still in use by some =) I’m happy to help! Here are a few searches that has taken people here:

roads closed norway – This is info you won’t get in English (that’s quite embarrassing really…) But you can find it here: http://www.vegvesen.no/Trafikkinformasjon/Reiseinformasjon/Trafikkmeldinger in Norwegian, hopefully Google Translate can help with translating the site.

ski norway vs sweden – NORWAY RULES! *ahem* Well, we have been better at least. And if you want to go skiing I’d go to Norway, since we have more mountains and therefore more snow.

living in norway and shop in sweden – Good idea. Norwegians does this too. Move to Halden or Kongsvinger!

kinder chocolate norway – Available everywhere! Shops, gas stations, kiosks.

what village in norway do the hansen brothers deadliest catch ancestors come from – Karmøy!

norwegian chocolate makers – Freia, Nidar and Hval are the most prominent. Freia is the oldest one, the one with the yellow wrapped Melkesjokolade we all love so much =)

does norway have dollarstore? – No.

20th of may is a day off in norway ? – No. The 17th is!

% of norway habitable – Uhm, well… that depends, are you Norwegian or not? It seems like Norwegians can live anywhere. Others, not so much I guess ;P There is still room for a lot more people here ;P

can i get american tv in norway – No. But lots of the US series are sent on Norwegian TV, and there is always Netflix =)

rich voman for poor man in norway – Good luck? ;P

why can’t i buy wine or beer on voting day in norway – Good question! Hopefully we’ll get rid of that silly rule soon with the new government.

Bomb and shooting in Norway

A short recap of what has happened in Norway today:

A (car) bomb went off in Oslo at 15:25, targeting government buildings. The official numbers are 7 dead and 15 badly injured, plus a huge amount smaller injures. One of the closest buildings where the office of the Prime Minister, but he was not there, neither was any other public figures, but some government staff are confirmed dead. Windows exploded up to 1km away and Oslo looks like hell on earth.

Then a guy dressed in police clothing started shooting people at Utøya (an island one hour by car away from Oslo), at a politic youth camp, kids that support the same political party that is (mostly) in charge in Norway. 10 are confirmed dead, some are missing in the water around the island and many are badly injured.

The shooter at Utøya used the bombings in Oslo as a reason for him to get on the island. The police have apprehended him, he is currently being questioned. The arrested man is confirmed to be Anders Behring Breivik, 32 years old from Norway. The company he ownes lets him easily access to fertilizer, that can be used to make bombs like the one that exploded in Oslo. He is a Freemason. His political views are to the very very far right, and he is a Christian.

Facebook account: http://nb-no.facebook.com/people/Anders-Behring-Breivik/100002651290254?sk=wall

Twitter account:http://twitter.com/#!/AndersBBreivik

Both with no friends or followers, made July 17 this year.

A Norwegian Anti-Fan page has been made on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antifanpage-Anders-Behring-Breivik/223142264397847 This group will probably be removed quite soon.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik

I post news as it happens (if I’m awake) on Google+
https://plus.google.com/110377574376023356069/posts

Eurovision 2011

The artist representing Norway in the Eurovision final in Düsseldorf, Germany, this year is Stella Mwangi, with her song “Haba Haba”.

You have searched for… #2

Here are some answers to search strings that bring people to this site, when the info they are searching for is not present.

“education program in norway called russ”
It’s not an education program, it’s … well, the opposite really. Read about the celebration we call “russefeiring” here =)

“what happens if i don’t pay the bill from nrk and move?”
If you move inside Norway they will hunt you down and make you pay. If you move out of Norway I’m not sure. I’m quite sure they will go after any Norwegian citizen as much as they want, anywhere in the world, but probably not others. Probably…

“Maria Amelie” (still hot news)
She is in Russia, trying to get her legal papers in order there so she can come back to Norway. Iceland is working on finding a quick fix for her, where she can go back via Iceland as an Icelandic citizen. She is currently working on a new book about her experience.

“visiting norway with us dollar”
Wouldn’t recommend it. The Norwegian Kroner (NOK) is our currency, and you won’t be able to pay with your dollars anywhere but in a select few tourist magnets. Euro and GBP is just as useless.
There is not a lot of places to trade your currency into NOK either, tourism isn’t very big business in Norway!

“sporting good store in andalsnes”
There is one store with sporting goods in Åndalsnes; Intersport. Åndalsnes is very small, so finding it will not be a problem. There is also a G-sport somewhat close by, just north of Åndalsnes, but even though I’ve been to Åndalsnes several times I have no idea where it’s located, and the map I’ve found is no help, it locates it in a place with no roads close by.

Visiting Kristiansand

Kristiansand is a city with almost 70,000 inhabitants located on the southern tip of Norway, in Aust-Agder county. If you visit Kristiansand you may want to visit these attraction:

– The previous Coastal artillery Fortress Odderøya

– Quart music festival in July, if it’s not bankrupt (again)

– South Norway’s Art Museum, in the city centre.

– Lindesnes lighthouse

– Dyreparken, the Zoo, wich has a large selection of animals, in very large enlosures, along with other attractions and rides. It is the second most visited theme park in Norway.

Lompe and lefse

Lefse is a soft flatbread that is a big part of Norwegian food heritage. Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream (or lard) and flour, and cooked on a big hot slab called a griddle. You need special tools for lefse baking, long turning sticks and rolling pins, made from wood.

Lefse comes in several thicknesses, and is usually served with butter, cinnamon and sugar between the layers. Lefse is also traditionally served with lutefisk, you roll up the fish in the lefse. It’s also served with sylte, a traditional Norwegian and Swedish Christmas bread spread, which you don’t want to know about what really is, and I don’t want to think about how it’s made, because I eat it. You can also use lefse as a tortilla.

A special type of lefse is “lompe”, a small and thin version of lefse witch is rolled around a hot dog, in stead (or together with) the regular hot dog bun. This is the customary way to eat hot dogs in Norway, especially on 17th of May. You wrap your sausage in them together with ketchup and mustard, and I personally think it’s very strange that lomper is not something that have caught on in other countries. Sausage in a bun is good, and we do have buns in Norway too (very good if you want to put a lot of relish on your sausage), but lompe has a great taste that goes very well together with a sausage.

Birken

Birken, or Birkebeineren are three annual sporting events, mostly for regular people, a run, a cross country ski race, and a mountain bike race, that are made to honour an historic event, the rescuing of the baby Haakon Haakonsson from rivals in the Norwegian civil war area. Therefore the participants have to carry a weight of 3,5kg (about the size of a small baby). The ski and bike race start in the city of Rena, and all the races end in Lillehammer. (LINK)

The events are very popular, and the ski and bike races are usually fully booked just minutes after the release of the tickets. Thousands compete mostly against them selves to get to Lillehammer as quickly as possible. It’s become a very popular event for office and management employees, and it’s said to be a great thing to put on your CV. It’s not short races, so to participate and actually finish you have to put a lot of time and effort into getting ready.

The run is hardly mentioned in the press, but the bike and ski races are followed by the media. The bike race is in August, and over the last two years the weather have not cooperated, with rain and mud, making the participants soaked in mud and sheep droppings, making people sick because they get this lovely slush in their mouth too. The ski race is in March, and is followed by NRK with both cameras on the ground and helicopter. Professional skiers start first in their own heat, with lots of honor in winning. The run is in September.

I have never participated, and I never will, but I’ve watched some of the bike race, since I live very close to the track, and our “hytte” is even closer.

You have searched for…

The search engines have found this site, and I get a lot of traffic from them now. Mostly people have searched for info about Maria Amelie, which is still in Norway (probably being sent out tomorrow or the next day though), but also about other things. Here are some of the search strings:

“what norway gov provides for the people”
Well, high taxes? No, really, the most important thing is health insurance. I have no idea why this is regarded as a bad thing in so many places in the world. EVERYONE is insured. The most you can use on life saving or life time medicine, doctors visits and traveling to and from doctors/hospitals per year is under 350 US dollars. After that you get refunds, or use your frikort/”free card”.

“norwegian bunad postcards”
Sorry, can’t help you there. Haven’t seen one ever. There are so many bunads, and so few Norwegian postcards for sale.

“nkr 2011 tv lisens”
About 450 US dollars. Want to pay mine? Just got the bill…

“why don’t shops open on sunday in norway”
Religion. And labor unions. Having a day off is a big deal in Norway. We have the “hytte” to go to!

“living in norway without a car can you”
Yes you can! Just not outside the larger cities.

“sport lunch norway chocolate”
The original is called Kvikk Lunsj, and it’s much better than any copy! No need for Kit Kat here.

TV License

EDIT 23 November 2013:

This system has changed. You now need a decoder to watch any Norwegian TV channels. If you have a TV decoder in your name, you’ll have to pay up, no way around it. The radio signals are moving to DAB(+), but slowly. You can still listen to radio for free, but try finding a car with a DAB radio in it… Also the DAB signals are supposed to be sooo gooood, but I can’t even get signals in my own house.

You can watch NRK TV for free online with a Norwegian IP address, and that works very well, even when half the country is watching.

Original post:

A TV License is a tax that Norwegians (and some other unlucky citizens) pay to watch or own a television. It is used to pay for the national “public broadcaster”, called NRK in Norway, which is similar to the BBC in UK.

WHY?! Yes, we ask ourselves this too. Why not give NRK the rights to fund their programs with the help of commercials, like everyone else? Nooo… the government want to control what Norwegians watch, and what programs are available for us. Even the other big company that delivers lots of TV channels in Norway; TV2, has to follow rules the government set, like where their main office is, where they send their news broadcasts from and even how much Norwegian programs they have to show. And for this TV2 gets a big fat nothing, they have to fund all this with commercials. It’s quite insane really.

Insane is also the amount of money you have to pay to have a TV, tuner or TV card for your computer. Every year you pay about 450 US Dollars. Yes. I repeat; 450 US Dollars, just to OWN equipment that may or may not be used to watch NRK.

The money is also used to fund a number of radio channels run by NRK. Nevertheless, the government also meddle in what other radio channels broadcast, and if they are allowed to keep their frequency on the FM band. DAB, Digital Audio Broadcasting, is a digital radio broadcasting system the Norwegian government is trying to force all channels and all listeners to use. Some “tiny” problems with this is stuff like that no new cars are delivered with a DAB radio (and there is just one car radio you can buy with DAB, not one brand, but one -product-), the quality is worse than the FM band, the DAB radios cost a lot so hardly anyone has bothered to buy one, and Norway is the only country that wants to implement this very old technology, everyone else in Europe has opted for a newer version.

Norwegian ownership

The Norwegian government has a huge fund, which is best known as “oljefondet”, that translates to “the oil fund”, but really has the really boring name “Statens pensjonsfond”, which translates to “Government Pension Fund”. What it does is not so boring; it invests in all kinds of things both inside and outside of Norway.

As of 19 October 2010 its total value is NOK 3 trillion ($512 billion), 1% of global equity markets. With 1.78% of European stocks, it is said to be the largest stock owner in Europe. It also owns 25% of The Crown Estate (lots and lots and LOTS of property in inner city London), and is currently investing in properties after the OK was given to do so in 2010.

The point of this Pension Fund is, logically, to be able to pay our pensions in the future. Even though this fund is making money like there is no tomorrow (even in the finance crisis) it’s not a real part of our budget, and only a tiny piece is used as an extra supplement each year.

The fund has it’s own ethical council, to prevent investing in harmful businesses such as arms production and tobacco, and breaching of human rights and labor rights. It also tries to prevent environmental damage. Some times the council tries to right the wrongs from the inside, as an owner, but other times they just sell out.