Små ting or small things that I noticed in my six months of continuous living in Oslo, Norway.
1) Entrance doors usually don’t hold the names of the people living in the flat. Nor do Norwegians have a habit of leaving their real names on the door phone. So we had the opportunity to live next to someone called La grande bellezza. How cool is that?
2)
A large number of windows and door open to the outside. Which is quite confusing for me because I’m not used to that. But there is a good reason for it: the majority of houses were and still are made of wood. Wood – heat – fire! This city burnt down to the ground more than once and in case of fire it’s always easier to escape opening the door outwards. Oh, yes, and there is snow. It’s likely that snow will not fall into your house when you open the door. If you manage to do that, at the end.
3) In the land so rich with oil we use electricity for heating and cooking. I haven’t seen anyone using gas, but the wind, sun and water are the most common sources of power.
Speaking of water, vannet is drinkable everywhere and in a restaurant you get free water. Not complementary, but zero, nada-money-to-pay-water. Oh, yes, and the water doesn’t have limescale.
4) You can buy alcohol only in specialized stores, Vinmonopolet, that are open daily ’til 18h, and on Saturday ’til 15h. Sundays – closed. Beer can be bought in regular stores, but only ’til 20h no matter that the store works ’til 23h. Sundays – closed. Speaking of Sunday, the majority of stores and shopping centers are closed on a Sunday. The exceptions are small clothing stores within Grünerløkka, groceries stores within Grønland and kiosks like Narvesen and 7/11 where you can buy everything from yoghurt to newspapers.
5) If you ever wondered why you should be grateful to Norwegians, just think of that no-one-knows-what’s-called-thing that you use for slicing cheese. Yes, a Norwegian businessman and inventor, Thor Bjørklund, patented ostehøvel in 27th of February in 1925. And made your life a bit easier.
6) Restaurants don’t have delivery but they use the Foodora app that serves as a mediator between you and your food. Using the Foodora app you order the food and one of the many Foodora cyclists brings it on your doorstep no matter the time or weather. Fun fact: Foodora operates in more than 10 countries all over the world.
7) The majority of people uses a card when paying for something. Cash is used mostly by tourists and employees of hospitality industry. One word. Tips.
8) Norwegian standard language knows two types; bokmål and nynorsk. Bokmål (literary language) is adjusted Danish, since Norway has been in union with Denmark in the past. Today bokmål is used by 85-90% of the population in Norway. The rest of the population uses Nynorsk (new norwegian) that emerged in the mid-19th century on the ground of older dialects. Its creation was contributed by Ivar Andreas Aasen, author of grammar and dictionary of Norwegian dialects.
Riksmål is a more conservative written forerunner based on written Danish and spoken Norwegian-Danish, but after numerous reforms, two languages do not differ significantly.
Both versions are written languages, but most Norwegians use some of the many dialects that are more or less different from the written language.
9) Norwegian grammar knows three genders and articles for male and female gender, but if the noun is of female gender you can use both articles. Given this rule all of the professions are in one unified form. And everybody’s OK with that.
National TV has to have a variety of programs with all of the Norwegian dialects and it’s not unusual to listen to a radio station based in Oslo with news presented in Bergen dialect.
The word gift doesn’t mean what it means in English but something completely different – married. The same word is used for – poison.
On the other hand word skilt means divorced and sign.
Kjærlighet means love while kjærlighet på pinne (love on a stick) is lollipop. Logic, right?
10) Dugnad or communal work is unpaid and voluntary work that an individual or group of people make for the benefit of the community. So when the hedgerow or grass needs to be cut in the common gardens/yards, or a hall that children use as a gym are cleaned, then everybody comes together to get the things done.
Btw. the word dugnad comes from old Norse, meaning help / good work force. In 2004 the word was voted the Norwegian national word. I think this tells a lot about Norwegian mentality.
11) Public traffic is fantastic and there is no need for using cars if going to work or school downtown. Cars will always stop for pedestrians and car horns are basically used very rarely.
12) Gambling games are controlled by the state and all the profit is distributed for culture or sport
13) Norwegians read a lot. Like really a lot. I guess that has something to do with long, dark winter nights but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that has something to do with not paying tax on books.
Thrillers, detective and crime stories are very popular specially during the Easter. Easter? You sad Easter? But only one crime was committed at that time, right? What does Jesus, eggs and crime stories have in common? Well the interesting part of this story lies in a tradition that began way back in the beginning of the 20th century when a crime story was published in newspaper just before Easter. The Norwegians liked it very much and the tradition continues not just as a story in newspapers but also on the TV or as a radio-show.
SITNICE
Ovo je samo dio ledenog brijega što me čeka. Sitnice koje sam uočila u prvih pola godine u Oslu.
1) Norvežani na ulaznim vratima rijetko kad stavljaju ime i prezima, a isto vrijedi za portafon.
2) Na velikom broju kuća / stanova vrata i prozori otvaraju se prema van jer je drvo bilo jedan od najčešćih građevinskih materijala, a drvo znači i češće požare, pa je vrata/prozor u tom slučaju lakše otvoriti prema van. Smart
3) Kuha se i grije na struju (strujni radijatori), a najčešći izvori električne energije su voda, vjetar i sunce dok se plin jako rijetko koristi.
Voda je posvuda pitka i besplatna u restoranima, a dolazi iz najvećeg jezera u blizini; Maridalsvannet. Eh, da, i nema kamenca.
4) Alkohol se prodaje u specijaliziranim (državnim) trgovinama, Vinmonopolet, koji radnim danima radi do 18h, subotom do 15h, a nedjeljom je – zatvoren. Pivu možete kupiti u običnim trgovinama, ali tokom tjedna samo do 20h, a subotom do 18h iako trgovina radi do 23h. Nedjeljom? Noup. Ikke. Stengt. Closed. Zatvoreno.
Kad smo već kod nedjelje, søndag, većina trgovina i šoping centara je – zatvorena. Norvežani vikende ionako provode u prirodi ili se oporavljaju od subote. Izuzetak su Narvesen i 7/11 kiosci koji prodaju i sendviče, kavu, jogurte, bonove, cigarete….
5) Ako ste se ikad pitali na čemu možete biti zahvalni Norvežanima, sjetite se onog što nitko ne zna kako se na hrvatskom zove. Rezač sira? Špatula za sir? Sirna hobla? Enivej, Thor Bjørklund, norveški biznismen i inventor patentirao je ostehøvel 27. veljače 1925.
6) Restorani nemaju dostavu svoje hrane, nego je sve organizirano preko Foodore, tvrtke koja je posrednik između vas i vaše klope. Koristeći Foodorinu aplikaciju naručite hranu koju onda doveze netko od Foodorinih sirotih biciklista koji su na bajkovima u bilo koje doba dana, ali još gore – po bilo kojem vremenu. Oni bolje informirani, znači ne ja, znat će da Foodora operira u desetak zemalja diljem svijeta. Opla!
7) Većina koristi kartice za plaćanje, a minusa na tekućem računu nema. Keš, uglavnom, koriste turisti i ugostitelji. Jedna riječ: napojnice.
8) Norveški standardni jezik poznaje dvije vrste; bokmål i nynorsk. Bokmål (knjiški jezik, u slobodnom prijevodu) je prilagođeni danski književni jezik, jer je u prošlosti Norveška bila u uniji s Danskom, a danas se njime služi 85-90% stanovništva u Norveškoj. Ostatak stanovništva služi se nynorskom (novonorveški) koji je nastao sredinom 19. stoljeća na temelju starijih dijalekata. Njegovom stvaranju doprinio je Ivar Andreas Aasen, autor gramatike i rječnika norveških dijalekata.
Riksmål je konzervativnija pisana preteča bokmåla temeljena na pisanom danskom i govornom norveško-danskom, ali nakon brojnih reformi dva jezika ne razlikuju se značajno.
Obje verzije su pisani jezici, no većina Norvežana govori nekim od brojnih dijalekata koji se više ili manje razlikuju od pisanog jezika.
9) Norveški jezik poznaje tri roda i zasebno članove za ženski i muški rod, no ako je imenica u ženskom rodu slobodno se mogu koristiti oba člana, tako da su sva zanimanja uglavnom u jednom unificiranom obliku. I nitko ne drami oko toga. Dapače, namjera je bila, ako pobijedi ljevica na nedavnim izborima, da se u službeni jezik uvede i zamjenica za transrodne osobe. Pobijedila je desnica, ali you get the point.
Kjærlighet znači ljubav <3, a kjærlighet på pinne (ljubav na štapu) je lizalica. Logično, zar ne?
10) Dugnad ili radna akcija u Norveškoj je neplaćen (volonterni) i dobrovoljni rad koji individualac ili grupa ljudi napravi za dobrobit zajednice. Znači kad treba pošišat živicu ili travu u zajedničkim vrtovima / dvorištima ili počistit prostorije koje djeca koriste kao dvoranu onda se male ruke slože i sve se može, sve se može.
Inače riječ dugnad koja proizlazi iz staronorveškog, a znači pomoć/dobra radna snaga proglašena je norveškom nacionalnom riječju 2004. godine. Mislim da to sve govori o norveškom mentalitetu
11) Javni promet je fantastično usklađen i nema potrebe za korištenjem osobnih vozila za obavljanje svakodnevnih radnji (posao, škole, izlasci). Ono malo automobila što se kreće po gradu redovito stane pješacima na zebri, a u najvećoj gužvi i kvazi krkljancu nećete čuti mahnito i živčano trubljenje
12) Igre na sreću i klađenje kontrolira država, a sav profit uplaćuje se za kulturu i sport.
13) Norvežani čitaju više knjiga nego bilo koja druga nacija na svijetu. Rekla bih da to ima neke veze s dugim i mračnim zimskim večerima, ali možda sam u krivu. Možda je to zato što se ne plaća porez na knjige.
Najviše se čitaju trileri, detektivske priče i krimići koji su posebno popularni za vrijeme Uskrsa. What, what pitate se? Krimići za Uskrs? Pa tad je počinjen samo jedan zločin, zar ne? No, izgleda da to nije bilo dovoljno ovoj hladnokrvnoj naciji, pa Norvežani već skoro sto godina uoči Uskrsa objavljuju krimiće koji nisu rezervirani samo za tiskana izdanja već i radio-prijenos ili TV. Najpopularnije štivo su, dakako, klasici: Sherlock Holmesa od Arthur Conan Doyla, Hercule Poirot i Miss Marple Agathe Christie, filmovi Alfreda Hitchcocka i domaći Jo Nesbø
