Oslo in 'winter' ...

...is warm and cold and cold and warm. There is snow which melts and freezes and sometimes I wonder if it is safer to ice scate to work than to walk. The sidewalks are covered with a thick ice sheet and the little gravel thrown on it doesn't really help that much.

Forgotten

Pro Norway:
- you can watch movies in the original version (since most movies are English that is really fantastic for me)

- shopping until 23.00 is really handy with my working hours and some shops are also open on Sundays

Pro Germany:

- BEER

Anniversaries

First of all - I missed the 1st anniversary of this blog - it was in March but that is not so important.
Second: I am one year in Oslo now. Exactly on the 10th of April, I moved into my room in the student dorm. On the 9th in the evening, I arrived in Oslo - the day before I stayed in Tanumshede in Sweden and it was snowing like crazy - what a climate warming - ;). One year ago I was so full of expectations and then there was this time of a lot of disappointment because at the beginning many things just didn't work out . BUT that is usually the case and even with a lot of planning, there are some factors you cannot control. So it was absolutely worth it, not to give up and to get over that phase. Now everything is going well and it was a good decision to come here. The 1st anniversary is a good time to compare countries and here is a list of personal likes/dislikes of Norway (naturally what I like in Norway is mostly not available in Germany and vice versa for dislikes):

positive:
- fresh air - yes the air is completey different than in Germany and you can feel it even in the city (although they say that they have a problem with dust in the air)

- landscape and nature - although I live in the city, I can be out in the woods within a very short time and doing lots of biking, hiking and (if there is snow) skiing without using a car (especially nice during the week after work)

- non-smoking inside - just everywhere and there is not a huge discussion if there should be special rooms or not - smoking inside is just out of the question and it is so nice to go to a pub and coming home without that nasty smell on your clothes

- more hiking and biking trails and ski slopes with light (perfect if you want to go skiing after work)

- the right to camp and hike everywhere (if is it not private property)

negative:

- the alcohol policy - first of all it is too expensive (however, it doesn't really seem to keep people from drinking), second: it is so studid that even for a bottle of wine you have to go to the vinmonopolet, third: no beer sold in the supermarket after 8 p.m.(6 p.m. on a Saturday). I still don't understand why - all people know that and buy more beer before. Fourth: after 10 p.m. you are not allowed to drink beer in the outside area of a pub (what is that good for?).

- the taxes - having to pay around 5000 - 6000€ for your 8 year old car which is not even worth half the price in Germany is just idiotic (taxing new cars - ok debatable but old cars?). And you even have to tax presents - just happened recently when I got my birthday present sent - payed about half of the price of the present as tax. A PRESENT come on guys - I didn't order anything from any company because I know that I would have to pay so much more.

- the lack of biological/organic food - well some people might think that this is stupid anyway but personally I think that it tastes much better and I would at least like to have the choice to buy some

- the lack of choice for many other products - I agree that one should support the regional production but sometimes things from the original country are just better

- this fødselsnummer (something like a social security number): you cannot do anything without that - sometimes it is quite practical but I just feel too much controlled

Of course there are many small things I don't want to mention right now but these are the major ones.

Talkative

In order not to forget it: there is one time when Norwegians become really talkative - that is when they see you walking around with skis. Then they are interested where you are going, how much snow there is and how the conditions are. But of course that won't really work in summer ;)

Suicidal ...

... to walk in Oslo just before 9 am. Usually I am not doing that because a day started at that time is lost for me but from time to time I have to because there are meetings and there is no choice. Anyway I tried to use a pedestrian crossing and even if one car going in one direction was stopping(which maybe happens every 50 cars) then the one going into the other direction is just passing through and almost running over your feet not even paying attention that you are crossing.
And: I checked both directions but they are driving so fast that this doesn't help. So it is either not crossing at all or taking the risk of being run over.
I start to wonder why they are so impatient here - they have this nice peaceful country with so much nature and even Oslo cannot be called big ciry and still they cannot even wait for a few seconds for somebody to cross the street? And that is not only during the rush hour in the morning - no at anytime. The longer I live here the less I understand the people.

Pity

They didn't make it by only one point but it was almost settled last week when Norway lost against Turkey in the qualification for the European Championship. And I was so much looking foward to watching them like that:


Picture from: www.spiegel.de (sometime in October I think it was the game against Moldavia).

Schade - sie haben um einen Punkt die Qualifikation für die EM verpaßt aber das war ja vorauszusehen, da Norwegen letzten Samstag gegen die Türkei verloren hatte. Und ich hatte mich so auf Momente wie den oben auf dem Bild gefreut.

Water can be consumed again.

Obviously it is safe again to drink the water without boiling - so we just do it again ;)

Anscheinend kann man das Wasser wieder trinken, ohne es abkochen zu müssen - also trinken wir es wieder ;)

So...

... I write just a few lines about this water problem in Oslo and I feel like I hit the keyword jackpot or something like that ;)That is what people looked for recently:

2 tab water oslo
2 two days in oslo
2 impressions of norway museums
1 oslo ju
1 oslo in two days
1 http://oslo-ju.blogspot.com/
1 oslo parasiten
1 parasites in oslo water
1 it's getting cold and
1 what do norwegians look like?
1 red hair vikings
1 problem with drinking water oslo
1 how do norwegians look like
1 water tab oslo
1 germ water oslo
1 odysseye
1 giardia lamblia in oslo
1 andersnatten anders
1 oslo drinking water

Well I am not really a good source of information in that respect but I would refer to the wikipedia entry from the last post and in addition the following links:
in english:

http://www.vann-og-avlopsetaten.oslo.kommune.no/
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2052645.ece

norsk:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article2052121.ece

und Deutsch:
http://www.heute-online.ch/news/oslo-parasiten-im-trinkwasser

P.S. For the person who really wants to know how Norwegians look like - maybe like read hair vikings? (just a thought).

Ikke drikk vannet i Oslo...

... don't drink tab water in Oslo was todays warning in the newspapers and at every public place (I guess also on TV but I don't have one). These suckers (Giardia lamblia) were found in the Oslo drinking water. The only effective way to get rid of these complete needless organisms is to cook the water for at least three minutes. Even all the coffee machines cannot be used anymore because most of these machines don't boil the water but just heat it up to 70-80°C which is not enough. Of course there is also the possibility to buy water but the Norwegians in general do not really buy a lot of water - they usually drink the water out of the tab. So naturally there are no bigger water bottles avaiable in the shops and all the supplies od smaller bottles seemed to be enough for only a day - almost everything sold out. The only way to get those parasites out of the water is by radiation (as far as I am informed) and there is a special water treatment facility in construction here in Oslo but it will not be finished until next year (but the year is long). So I wonder for how long we have to boil water. For those who ask why Norway has this problem: most of the drinking water is stored in lakes as surface water where these protozoans can grow fast. Unfortunatley there is not much deep ground water available in Norway.

17th of May

Well, in Germany today is the usually holiday but it was by chance at the same day of the Norwegian National holiday. Actually I don't like masses of people but for the first time I thought I really should go downtown and see what is going on so I met there with Luiza (from Romania). I think I never saw that many German flags in my life compared to the Norwegian ones I saw in just one day ;). It felt like whole Norway was on the streets but luckily there was no rush. They have some of these parades (and I am not really a fan of this) but we watched for some time. Then we wanted to check if the Royals really stand on their balcony and wave and they really do (although we didn't get too close to see faces ;)). Luiza took more pictures than I did and I am not really satisfied with what I got on my camera (just not really used to take pics of people).
But I also wanted to put in a few impression of Kongsberg which was THE silver town of Norway. The second evening we even ate in one of the mines called the King's mine. The whole Kongress was in the Mining Museum:


The third evening we could get a glimpse on the silver collection in the museum and they also have a very nice mineral collection (have to go there again very soon ;))





I know that the first pic is a little defocused but it was hard with the glass around and the light and I wanted to put it in anyway.

Do I look like a local?

Funny, I can't say that I am here quite long and I have been addressed at least three times by strangers. The first ones were tourists downtown (ok that was on my first visit in Oslo) they wanted to go to the National Gallery so it wasn't too hard to tell them how to get there. The second one was a woman she talked in Norwegian and I still have some problems to understand that ;) so she tried in English but she was looking for a certain street ...well I was lost. Third one was an older guy with his wife and I was just passing by and he suddenly talked to me in Norwegian - well he must have realized that I didn't really understand so he said (in really good English) oh you are English speaking sorry I thought you were Norwegian.
But I am starting to make a list of thing you would never see in Germany (it's not very long right now but still the details are funny):
1) Two fathers with baby carriages - ok sometimes they are also alone ;)
2) People running around with skis downtown (and often with their complete ski outfit)
3)A Porsche with roof racks.
4)A whole T-bane full of kindergarden kids and some still in pushchairs.

In addition I always thought that Germans are cellular phone freaks but Norwegians are worse - you cannot be anywhere without at least one Norwegian around you hanging on a phone for hours ;)