Some peculiar facts about Norway and Norwegians

Day 1,448, 08:29 • Published in Norway Norway • by Per Jostein



Some peculiar facts about Norway and Norwegians:


Food stores are not allowed to stay open on Sundays, but petrol stations and kiosks selling groceries are.

This means that you are free do your grocery shopping in ordinary food stores from Monday to Saturday, but you have to go to a petrol station or a kiosk on Sunday if you want to buy groceries


The Swedish border trade

Because food prices in Norway are amongst the highest in the world many Norwegians living close to the Swedish border travel to Sweden on a regular basis to buy groceries there. Estimates indicate that this border trade amounts to roughly US$ 2 billion each year. Needless to say, prices are a lot more affordable in Sweden.


Norway has some of the highest petrol prices in the world, even though the country is one of the biggest oil exporter in the world.

This is a sore issue with the average Norwegian, and they will go on for hours complaining about the useless politicians that are robbing them blind. But then again they keep giving their votes to these same ‘useless’ politicians in every General election.


DUI offenders have to go to jail.

People that are caught driving under the influence are sent to jail for 30 days, have their driver license taken away from them and have to cough up a hefty fine of 10 percent of their annual income. They are allowed to get a new licence after a year, provided they pass the propper tests and exams which in some cases will knock them back another US$ 5000 – 7000.


Norwegians love frozen pizza.

The Grandiosa frozen pizza is unofficially named as the Norwegian national dish and each year Norwegians consume 20 million Grandiosa pizzas in addition to all the other frozen pizza brands on the market.


Lutefisk.

Traditional Norwegian seafood dish, and by some considered a delicacy. This delicacy is basically a fish that has been immersed in lye and rinsed in water.


Norwegians love telling Swedish jokes

Norway used to be under Swedish rule, and the Swedes are by many Norwegians viewed as the ‘impolite’ big brother that always thinks he knows best. The Swedes on the other hand sees Norway as the dimwitted little brother. As a result a rivalry has developed between the two Scandinavian nations. For Norwegians this involves ridiculing Swedes in jokes, celebrating when Sweden looses a football match, fails to win any gold medals in the winter Olympics, and most importantly, celebrate when Norway beats the Swedes in the annual Euro vision song contest.


Roller skis.

Because the winters can be quite cold and snowy in Norway, many Norwegians are passionate skiers. Cross country skiing is considered a national sport both among the old and the young. Some people take it one step further and buy roller skis, so that they can ski even in the summertime. Seeing people roller skiing along the roads in Norway in the summer months is quite a normal sight.


Weird dialects.

For the hopeful foreigner who has learned some Norwegian and wants to practice their skills while on a trip to Norway, dream on. The hundreds of different dialects in Norway are so totally different to written Norwegian that even natives sometimes have difficulties understanding people from different parts of the country. Norwegians will also automatically switch over to English if they suspect that they are faced with a native English speaker trying to speak Norwegian.


TV Licence.

People that own a TV have to pay a yearly licence fee of approximately US$ 300.00. Failure to pay this fee will result in a hefty fine.


Prostitution.

It’s illegal in Norway to buy sex, but not to sell sex. That means that a female prostitute will not be prosecuted for selling sex, but a male customer will.


Boxing.

Boxing was banned on TV up until the late eighties, because the director of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation at the time, Bjartmar Gjerde, considered the sport immoral.


Satanic rockers.

Satanic rockers torched several churches in Norway in the early 90’s. All in all 7 churches burned to the ground in these attacks.


National self esteem.

Most Norwegians love to talk about Norway to foreigners, and anyone who don't agree with them that Norway is a beautiful country are considered to be either weird or slow or a combination of both.


The original article is here (it wasn't written by me): funnynorwayfacts

I hope you have enjoyed the article. These facts are really interesting. Which one did you like the most?