NORWAY

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We got back to Spain on Wednesday after a really nice week in Norway. I'll let our (far too many) pictures tell the story of our adventures, but a few random observations:

  1. The Norwegian Krone will crush your soul. Currency exchange rates always have the potential to blow your mood. Between the continual mental math that takes twice as long as you're sure it should, and the deflated optimism when you realize how much you're actually paying, it's not always a joy to spend in foreign markets. But nowhere has that been more true than in Norway. Holy expletive. First of all, one U.S. dollar buys multiple kroner, which means even the cheapest items feel absurdly expensive to start with — almost all prices have 3 digits. Couple that with the fact that things are actually absurdly expensive, and you'll want to permanently lock your wallet. Either that or dump out all your cash and credit cards and just get it over with. Examples:
    • We took a 1.05 mile cab ride (yeah yeah, we could've walked...but it was pouring; see Point 2) that cost 175 Kroner...a whopping $26.
    • Our first night in Oslo, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant (see Point 3) that consisted of 2 margaritas, 6 tiny tacos, and chips & guac, which rang in at 945 kroner...or $115. Because we were all still starving after eating the world's most expensive appetizer, we walked around the corner to top-off at a fast food Chipotle-equivalent, where we plopped down $50 for two burritos and two beers. 
  2. The people of Bergen are in a necessary state of denial about their weather. Among other things, Bergen is known for its rainfall. Situated on Norway's North Atlantic coast, it racks up more than its fair share of precipitation — about 89 inches a year with an average daily chance of rain bouncing between 60% and 80% — so we weren't surprised to be greeted by a heavy downpour when we arrived on Friday night. Our AirBnB hosts quickly assured us that there was no rain in Saturday's forecast, which came as a welcome surprise. ...So we were puzzled when we ventured out the next morning to find constant, day-long, spitting drizzle. Maybe they'd gotten the forecast wrong? Nope. A grocery store clerk clarified it for us later in the day, when — as I stood in line in a dripping raincoat with a wet umbrella — he, too, told us we were lucky we'd come on a day it wasn't raining. (What?!) When I took issue with his meteorological assessment, he simply replied: "Nah, that's not rain." 
     
  3. Norwegians have an unexpected affinity for Mexican food. I'm not sure why this struck me, but for a country whose gastronomic specialties include reindeer and whale meat, I was taken aback by the amount of grocery store shelf space devoted to Old El Paso. Literally, half an aisle. Sometimes when you're shopping with a grocery list in one hand and the Google Translate app open in another, you welcome those little glimpses of home. (Of course, between the import premium and the exchange rate, you couldn't leave with tortillas that cost less than $8.)

All in all, it was a great trip. But maybe one of the most surprisingly nice parts about it was coming home — not because we didn't like Norway, but because it was the first time we'd left Barcelona and come back...to a house that's set up and streets that we recognize and a culture we're starting to understand. Even the Spanish sounded a little more familiar. (Ahh, if only familiarity led directly to fluency...)