American Reacts to Unusual Norwegian Habits
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 12. 2022
- Habits are things that you do on a regular basis, and more often than not you probably take them for granted. Well today I am excited to take a closer look at unusual Norwegian habits. "Unusual" from my American point of view that is. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
Mailing Address:
Tyler E.
PO Box 2973
Evansville, IN 47728
In my more than half a century long life, NO baby has been harmed (or worse) from being left sleeping outdoors in the fresh air (during winter). The babies/toddlers are always well dressed and either inside a puffybag (like a sleeping bag, a sheeps wool bag or a very warm duvet). Never heard of even one injury, or kidnapping for that matter… 🤗💓
I think most people just skip over the fact that fresh air is healthy, they just hear "LEAVE BABIES OUTSIDE?!?!" and ignore all the factors that make up why it's a positive.
I have heard of one case where a baby died, but that was because a cat decided to get in with the baby and ended up suffocating it by laying on it's face or something. But that's a VERY long time ago, never heard of anything else happening.
@@alftuvik3820 And it's usually referred to as a myth. Or did you actually know someone 1st hand this had happened to? It's very common to warn about "cats wanting to snuggle up to a warm baby" but afaik it's a busted myth that it actually happened
@@norboost I remember reading about it in the news, I looked it up, it happened in 2009.
@@alftuvik3820 Sure, but I don't see how it is really related to babies sleeping outside anyways. Couldn't that just as well happen inside?
I think it’s fair to say her view is shaped by the fact that she works in a relatively independent area where you are responsible to get your work done, but it’s rather flexible on when and how. If you work longer the rest of the week, it’s ok to have a shorter Friday or take breaks to watch sports. It wouldn’t be as easy if you work in health care, in a store or as a restaurant server, of course.
She seems to live a kinda sheltered life if Norway. She has some nice outside perspectives, though, worth watching.
It's mostly office workers and people with flexible hours outside of the obligatory core time (usually 9 to half past two) who can leave early. Factory workers, hospital workers, people who work in shops and restaurants etc. can't just up and leave work early.. Imagine the chaos it would create if everyone did that!
Most of this is pretty accurate, but some of it depends on your line of work, how many friends you have etc.
In my workplace, we can't leave early on fridays. Sometimes it is possible, but usually when it's more quiet, like around christmas or easter, some people leave early, but most have to stay their full shift. It is quite common to take fridays off in general and it is possible to do so in most jobs, but not EVERY friday. It is usually if you are planning a trip or have something important to do during the weekend, and then you can use a paid vacation day or take a day off without pay (if you don't have vacation days left) for example. Also, if you have worked overtime/a lot of extra hours, you can use something called "avspasering" in some professions, which means you will spend those extra hours you saved up to take a day off.
Cake on fridays also depends on the workplace. A lot of office jobs will have this, but not all of them. Where I work, we do not have that. We do, however, sometimes get surprised by our boss with candy or hot chocolate in the break room, but that is not every friday.
Girls/guys trips depends on your circle of friends and how social you are as a person I suppose. I would say it is quite common, but not something everyone does, and definitely not super often. But a couple times a year, sure, some people do that.
Picking berries is very common, but it is not something everyone does.
Love watching you react to Norway/Norwegian things.
Godt skrevet. Jeg er enig i dette :)
I am from Canada but I have a Norwegian heritage. My father taught us many recipes from Norway. Last night I taught my niece how to make Lefsa. OMG it was soooo good. Today I am making potato dumplings and ham! Mmmmmmmm!!! 🇳🇴 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇨🇦
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed eating lefse. =)
By the way, just so you know, the "a" at the end of "lefsa" means "the".
"Lefse" would be the word if you just want to say the word without a "the" first.
Some other things you should try is Norwegian waffles with butter and brown cheese and "tilslørte bondepiker" (veiled peasant girls) a divine Norwegian dish.
And the Icelandic pancakes with brown Icelandic sugar on it then rolled together (there's a significant Icelandic community in Canada, if you're Norwegian Canadian you *probably* live in an area with some unless you've moved far away from where your ancestors immigrated, as nordic people had certain preferences to the places they moved to causing them to congregate there)
@@Luredreier that’s funny because we usually do spell it Lefse but my autocorrect changed it. 😂
We also make rommegrot every Christmas and my aunt used to always make the Norwegian Christmas cake (Kransekake).
The one food I am too scared to try is Lutefisk. I’m not much for fish in my diet to begin with but the salty fish would just do me in. Lol
My mom also learned Rosemaling, and we actually have rosemaling on her headstone. I have probably a good dozen pieces displayed in my home with rosemaling on it. ❤️🎨
Potato dumplings is the best! We used to have them with salted mutton from our own sheep :)
@@Luredreier im in canada and i dont think I have ever heard of "brown cheese"
@@conniestegen Rømmegrøt, is amazing. :-D
And it's good that you guys honoured our traditions with rosemaling.
I'm vegetarian myself so lutefisk isn't quite my thing.
Forresten, snakker og/eller skriver/leser du Norsk?
I was in the army for a decade in Norway, and all of us in my team lived far away from camp.
Instead of working mon-friday with normal hours, we made a deal with our boss that we would work extra on tuesday,wednesday and thursday, and take fridays off.
As long as there was nothing in particular going on, this was perfectly fine and we worked long fun hours while sleeping at camp monday-thursday, and be home with our families by thursday evening and have half of thursday, all of friday,saturday,and sunday with no worries.
Was great, miss it a lot
Foraging is very, very common in Norway. We make jam, juice or cake with the berries. A christmas dessert here is cloudberry cream that often is from handpicked berries.
Most common berries picked are blueberry, lingonberry and cloudberry in the forest.
We also happen to have the most tasty berries in the world, because they mature more slowly in the arctic climate.
@@DivineFalcon the blueberry jam is definitely worth the time if you don’t have to travel far to pick them. They are almost everywhere theres forest at least in a good season.
The blueberries are what they call bilberry (blåbær) in English. Much tastier than blueberries.
Picking berry is a great family activity. Fresh air, children playing and eating berries. In my family it is like a picnic
After all, this is not common - as it is probably less than 5% of the population who actually pick berries in 2020. In 1950, there were perhaps as many as 20%
@@lpdude2005 It is very common. More than 50 percent of the northern people of norway (grown ups) pick berries. In Oslo its closer to 40.
We have been doing this for generations in my family. We have a family story of my mom as a toddler sitting on her own little hill of blueberries and eating any she could reach. My mom did the same to me. I still pick every autumn with my mom.
*me watching this while my 6 month old is sleeping outside while its snowing*
Are you a man or woman? Men have half the parental leave 🎉
@@NA-lr5wb Woman! Women have 15 weeks, then there is 16 weeks where we can choose if the man or woman stays home, then there is 15 weeks for the man.
Berry trips and mushroom trips is a very, very big thing in Norway. But it's not strange that it's not common in America, because many places it would be illegal, while in Norway, it's illegal to forbid it.
Imagine banning something natural like berries.
Amazing stupidity is amazing.
@@OriginalPuro: No, I didn't mean that berries are forbidden, but that it's forbidden to pick them on other people's land. In Norway, you can't forbid people picking berries on your land.
Natural areas are treated so different here compared to the US.
When I read about American landowners who are put off by trespassers in their forest I can barely comprehend why that is offensive ,not to mention flat out illegal!
Norway have very good freedom-to-roam laws, which include the rights to forage almost anywhere.
As a Norwegian, I first thought you just had some random videos about Norway. But I see the whole channel is about Norway😂
We eat dinner early to give the body a chance to digest a heavy dinner well before bedtime. The evening meal (kveldsmat) is usually something light and easy to digest. And YES to the homemade jams!
Making liqueur from wild berries is the best use for them in my opinion. Fill up a big mason jar with berries, add sugar to the gaps 20 to 40%, then add 60% (120proof) alcohol until nearly full. put on the lid and mix it by flipping it a few times. Flip the jar every day for 60 days. Strain and bottle.
So in Norway, we mostly eat open sandwiches. Closed sandwiches are viewed as a quite American concept, and we're more or less only familiar to it from pop culture.
Every single grocery shop, gas station, and kiosk sells what you describe as "american" sandwiches, so its not true that its viewed as an american concept.
@@Andre1980stavanger True, but you would never in a million years make that at home and casually eat it? My guess is that they're sold that way mostly because it keeps the topping fresh longer, and the topping doesn't spill everywhere. The only place where you could get a home-style bread slice with toppings would probably be at a café because they freshly make everything.
@@Henoik I can buy open faced sandwiches at 7-11. Also heard of "ola-pakka"? Its a readymade matpakke you can buy several places. So both versions exist.
@@Andre1980stavanger I was just about to mention the Olapakka. However, as I said, the way you need to pack a matpakke like that to last longer and without toppings spilling everywhere (in a bunch of parchment paper) makes it look less appealing next to something that you actually can show off more. And, as said, you would never make a closed-faced sandwich at home. Open-faced sandwiches are infinitely more popular that closed-faced sandwiches over here. The exception may be a PBJ sandwich or a grilled cheese, which are...imported from the US.
I have made what u call closed faced sandwich my whole life in Norway, im 50 and dont feel that is american influence. Just more practical. I do it in matpakka AND at home. Im not the only one doing this.
Hi , I have been watching your channel and beeing a Norwegian you actually made me apriciate my country even more 😊. You are doing a great job and you really should visit us if you can. Fun fact ,most americans are easily reconisible having big cameraes around their necks. But they are very friendly 😄
Just found your channel today! 🙂So funny to see your reactions to how we live here in Norway. Yes, we (norwegians) can leave work earlier sometimes on Fridays....or other days. We just have to get a go from our boss of course. But if we do, we have to work longer the other days of the week. A regular week for us is working 37,5 hours. Getting our work done is the goal, no matter when, sort of. You all should come visit our country one day🇧🇻🙂
I would never leave my baby outside a shop. I know in small local places some would, but I don't think it is that common anymore.
And no, most of us do not visit our cabin every weekend. It depends on how long the trip to your cabin is. We visit our cabin maybe twice a year.
Well a lot of people visit the cabin more than twice a year. many people visit it monthly or every other month. Some people have cabins 1 hour away, so its not a long driving distance for everyone. I guess cabin life depends where you are in Norway
@@mari97216 I mean.. like you said: it depends how long the trip is
Our cabins are 2h away and 3h away
We go there any weekend when we feel like going.
I'd say Scandinavia, not only in Norway, regarding most things mentioned.
Total common to pick berries. We have something called "Allemandsretten". That means that even if someone owns the land you still can pick berries and mushrooms or what ever 🙂
Freedom to roam governs access to nature & natural resources in Norway (and Scotland) As long as you do not alter anything etc., one is free to camp, pick berries, and go hiking or swimming.
Where I live, we don’t go to Sweden to shop, it’s too far, but Denmark we’re real close to, in “airline” it’s just around 50 kilometers. We go by boat and can shop both onboard and on shore (some just go to party on the boat and buy cheap booze/cigarettes if you’re one of the few smokers left).
Why dont you just go to a shop in your Arya??? In your country.
About our 4 meals a day: Frokost / Breakfast is around 08:00AM (depending on when you start at work), Lunsj / Lunch about 12:00PM, Middag / Dinner about 04:00PM and Kvelds mat / Late meal about 08:00PM to about 09:00PM.
Happy new year Tyler😊 Been so much fun following your channel this fall/winter. Looking forward to more, maybe some taste tests eventually🤩.
We also have "madpakker" in Denmark, and it is NOT "supersanwhies" whit many layers, it is "smørrebrød", "madder" or "skiva" -open sanwhies- in both contries. 😊
For lunch, we usually have open faced sandwiches, so one slice of bread with spread/topping, then a slice of parchment paper (“in-between paper”, “mellomleggspapir”), then a new open face sandwitch etc. Then it’s all wrapped in parchment and/or a bag or put inside a lunchbox, depending on what you like… Some prefer to just take a salad or even some dinner leftovers and microwave them… 🤗
Snus is swedish, it doesn't have "deep" roots in Norway. Up until 20-25 years ago it was considered a very "hillbilly" thing to do, kind of like chewing and spitting tobacco, and there were like 4 different types you could buy. But after the smoking laws it really became popular in a very short while. They started making pink boxes and all sorts of flavours. 25 years ago, for some reason it was mostly popular in the middle part of Norway around trondheim called Trøndelag.
The story behind Harry-tur (Harry trip) is a very specific one. "Harry" is used to describe something tacky or sort of out of style/tasteless/rural, it's originally a negative term ... It's very hard to describe precisely. When I think of "Harry" I think of a guy in a leather jacket, 80's jeans, with a mullet driving an old rusty car with tinted windows blasting Def Leppard or Mötley Crue out the windows while thinking he's the coolest cat in town. Anyway, the story behind the term was a politician that held a speech about our shopping in Sweden. He said we should stop, and use the money instead in Norway to support our own economy. And he ended with saying "travelling to Sweden to save money in nothing short of being Harry!". The people reacted with protesting what he said, claiming it's perfectly fine since food especially is so crazy expensive here. And that if saving money is Harry, we don't mind being Harry, and we sort of took the term for ourselves. This is maybe 15-20 years ago, and today everyone knows what you mean when you say you're going on a Harry-trip or Harry-shopping. I hope I managed to clear it up a little :)
In neighboring Sweden, which is very similar to Norway, we generally have 8 hours of work per day (40h/week). If instead you work 9 hours Monday-Thursday, you can go home after half the day and still have your 40h/week.
The cake thing must be an office thing never heard of cake friday
It's an incredibly common office thing, yeah.
It's true..Even in my high school class when it was Olympics our primary teacher put the games on, so we could follow it while we worked with tasks.
MATPAKKE (translates to packed lunch) It's not a sandwich. Ofc it can be, but correctly a matpakke is a stack of bread-slices (often 2-4 slices or as many as you want) with (most commonly) ham/cheese, salami/cheese, liverpaste, etc.
Otherwise it would be NISTE, which is kinda the same thing, but more similar to a snack. NISTE actually translates to snack. It's more for when you're on the go (hiking, taking the train etc).
Niste is more a general term for whatever you'll eat as snack.
(An example: You're snack/Niste can be a packed lunch/Matpakke. But a matpakke isn't whatever snack/niste. Matpakke is matpakke).
To think that you heard of something like "kveldsmat" (evening meal) is mindblowing🤯
I like your videos very much, Tyler. They are good, and also great fun!
Leaving one's child sleeping in a pram outside shops and restaurants has become significantly less common. Have not seen it done in my city centre (Trondheim) in decades. Some do it, but it's not as safe as one previously thought; sadly there are people who oughtn't to have access to children.
Sleeing outside as such is a good thing ito. health, so it happens in private gardens and at nurseries, but there's supervision.
A packed lunch is fairly normal. You either bring slices of bread with different spreads on them in a pale or paper bag or you buy a loaf and said spreads and keep it in a communal fridge at work and prepare lunch in the kitchenette most offices have.
As for going to Sweden to shop, it's far more common along the border, but even people further west in Norway go sometimes.
And the Swedish custom of "fika" is lovely! They do coffee & pastries in their coffee shops that are heavenly!
Having a cabin is steadily getting more and more expensive so having one's own is less common,
however, the use of such a cabin is still pretty much like she described.
You should go to Norway. You could make one of those road trip documentaries in line with your other videos, and it'd be grand!😊
I am Norwegian, and did not know about friday cake. Nothing like that is common at my workplace.
It really depends on the work place. When I worked at Statsbygg, there were fredagskaffe with cakes officially in the calender. But where I work now, there's not, but we do have waffles in the cantina at lunch every friday. (Fredagsvaffel)
It has been common in periods at former workplaces of mine… We’ve also had Friday Breakfast… 🤗
Fruit, chocolate or biscuits from time to time, not cake.
That's a shame and you should start it! We always have treats on Fridays and make the Friday lunch especially nice :)
Snus comes from Sweden and the first brand that still exist is ”Ettan”. Translates to ”the 1” or ”no 1”
As a Norwegen this channel makes me appreciated Norway even more.
The video you saw was so accurate. We realy do this. But there is always som people that don't do all of them or do a variety of the habit.
You should tray living as a Norwegian for a while and see if you are happier.
We usually leave early Friday or take Friday off for a long weekend because we have flexi time, we can come a bit earlier every or some days, save the time and use it for time off like that… Happy New Year❣️ 🤗💓
If you ever feel like having all your questions answered; do one of these live 😊 that could be quite entertaining
You don’t usually leave work when there’s winter games like e.g. the Olympics, but a TV will be put up so workers interested can take breaks to watch…
We make both jaam and saft (which kinda juice, but more like berry syrup) to mix with water and drink it. It's a must. So healthy and so delicious.
We do guttetur regularly. Like, we take two days off and do a long weekend in Åre, Sweden, to just ski in the day and party in the night, and buy a little too much alcohol to bring home... Then, later we can do a one-week trip to Switzerland to ski during the winter, or Rhodos to Kite Surf during the summer. But it all depends on how much you invest in it, we sometimes just go to the cabin as well.
My brother has 2 places where he and his fam goes during weekends. Between Mai and October they go to a cabin in a forest with a lake. Where they go fishing and stuff. In the winter he parks his caravan/trailer with a tent or (spiker telt transl Nail Tent, because it is like a cabin connected with the trailer) up in the high mountain, where de go skiing, both downhill and Cross Country.
About leaving early depends on what kind of work you got. its freedom with responsibilities. You either make sure you do some extra hours earlier in the week or make sure to finish you tasks so you can leave early. for instance a factory worker on a an assembly line would not be able to do this.. but they might have an arrangement so they will work 30mins longer monday to thursday and then be able to go home 2 hours early on fridays
In canada my job ends earlier on fridays, usually closes at 4:30pm, but we get off at 2pm on fridy. It's not that we work less mind you, since monday-thrusday are longer work days, but we close early to beat traffic and to get a jump on weekend relaxation
The off early on Friday and desert on Friday is pretty typical in some areas of Canada as well. Everybody brings in treats on Friday.
About cabin life, if not every weekend so at least whenever we can. I try to go to the cabin at least twice a month in addition to holidays. You can connect the leaving early on fridays to cabin-life. Many of those leaving early or taking fridays off do it because they want to get to the cabin early or get on their way before rush hour (lots of trafic out of the largest cities on fridays).
And yes, we pick berries, Blueberries often when at our cabin. We pick blueberries (we call them blueberries but actually it's bilberries thet grow wild in Norway) to make jam. I also pick rasberries but the most important might be the cloudberries because we need them for dessert on christmas eve (krumkaker with cloudberry cream). CLoudberries is actually an interesting topic because noone will tell you where they found them, knowing about a great cloudberry spot is kept secret and to lie about the location is accepted because everybody does it.
I live in Arctic Norway. My parents were born in the hard 1930s. When they were kids WWII broke out. Autumn 1944 the Nazis were forced to retreat from the Red Army. Norway has a common border with Russia/USSR. The Nazis evacuated the all the civilians, shot the live stock and started the scorched soil tactics. What was not bombed to ruin, was burnt down as the Red Army had nowhere to seek comfort. Post war was reconstruction phase. My parents' generation in Arctic Norway grew up poor. The main resource were fish. They were experts in finding ways to survive. They were used to take advantage in what the nature gave like picking berries and make jam and juice out of it. It is pretty simple. Add sugar. Lots of. When fresh it is foaming and the sugar is a little crunchy. Especially if you piknik while picking berries because you might spend long hours picking. We brought sugar, made up camp fire and brewed coffee and added sugar and made jam. You won't find sweeter jam. Nothing compares to fresh homemade jam. Same piknik when we go fishing salmon and trout in lakes and rivers. In the winter we goes fishing on the ice. You can make a little effort on the piknik depending on what you bring. If you catch fish, you may fry the fish. You may bring sausage, bread dough, dried meat etc. And then its hunting season or cross country skiing with piknik.
Yesterday I saw a beautiful photo from Norway. The photo were taken in the winter of a little red house near the blue ocean and the sky above. It struck me why the little houses are red. There you had it. Red, white and blue. The colours in the Norwegian flag.
at my workplace a usual week is monday-thursday 7am-3pm, then friday you either work the full day for 3 weeks and take the 4th friday off or you work 7am-1pm every friday.
In my old workplace we sold "lottery" with the Friday-Cake. You pay 50 Norwegian Kroner (Kr.50,-) and you could win a bottle of wine. Everyone bought it for the lottery on "their Baking Day". The money we gathered through the year, we did spend on a trip or a party a foreign city for a weekend to socialize with your coworkers. It made the workplace so much better.
Many jobs all around Europe offer the employees to leave early on fridays. It's pretty common. Also in many countries we make jam at home with whatever berry or fruit happens to grow in our area. Anyway, I love Norway; hands down the best country I've lived in.
Leaving the stroller outside a restaurant or store, isn't that common in general, but for sure not unheard of.
For sure the weather is rarely the deciding factor, but rather considering the location- You wouldn't leave it if its a busy place, and you can't watch it through the window.
If you can just go inside, and order from the table by the window, I wouldn't think it's weird at all.
If its a busy place, and you cant watch it from inside, then I might consider CPS.
Every autumn we go mushroom and berry picking in the local forests. We normally end up with so much we end up giving away the surplus =)
Traffic is crazy on the Main roads up to the mountains every friday afternoon, so - yes, people go to the cabin most weekends
Where I work people make waffles for lunch all the time. And YES. Someone will always bring cakes fror Friday lunch. My family live two hours away from our cabin and we will go there every weekend if we have the time. Sometimes we will live there during the summer.
I worked for a huge Norwegian company with hundreds of employees and we started working at 8.00 but most of the workers showed up around 8.45. 45 Minutes late, as a Swede I found this to be strange. I wanted to be on time but it felt kinda strange when there was almost nobody there for the first 45 minutes. haha
We do not leave the stroller outside a restaurant….but in our own yard or on our balcony we do that. Unless when it is a lot of contamination outside.
Weekend cabins, hiking and picking berries is pretty common here in hyborean US aka Alaska. As well as smoking fish.
Usually on fridays people can leave work at 3pm. But it will depend on type of job. Mostly jobs in offices can do that. If u work in like a grocery store or clothing store etc, that won't be possible.
I go pick berries with my family and make jam with it and desserts, and sometimes I make liquor on it, but we don’t do it every year
We have something named fleksitid and avspassering. This means that if you work extra jobhours in the morning or evening, you can take this hours as freetime in for example Fridays or other days you need to leave early, but not every jobs have this.
Non of the places iv been working have had shorter fridays, BUT iv noticed when I drive home on Friday its waaaay less traffic than ANY other weekday. Back when I worked in public sector all weekdays ended at 15:15. But thats very uncommon, even here!
At my work place, we do not eat friday cake. We can leave early on friday though. We’d have to stay a little longer mon- thursday to get to leave early on friday
Yes its normal to go out in the Woods to pick berries when its spring/summer, and make jam
1:50 Where i work, Friday's are so busy, that i might leave 5 min after my shift, but that doesn't happening regularly.
Happy new year! You should react to our Kings 2022 New Year speach! It was a really good one! 💕
Not good at all. Woke crap.
Winter sports are also a really big deal here in Finland. I remember when I was in school, back in the eighties, sometimes when there was an important cross-country skiing event going on, we wouldn't have classes but instead, we went into one of the classrooms that had a TV in it and watched skiing.
Some time ago I was thinking that the biggest disagreements that Finland and Norway have tend to have something to do with the sizing of ski jumping suits. That tells a lot about both of our countries.
In Finland, too, picking berries (and mushrooms) is very common. It has been estimated that about 60% of people here pick berries, typically bilberries (=wild blueberries), lingonberries and cloudberries. I'm not sure if many people make blueberries into a jam though. I think it is much more common to just clean them and then freeze them as such. People eat them at breakfast with porridge throughout the year. Lingonberries are much more often made into a jam and eaten with many foods, such as reindeer and some other meats. Many people have redcurrants or blackcurrants growing in their own garden, they are usually made into juice or sometimes wine. Strawberries don't grow wild here, but people who farm them sometimes let buyers pick them themselves, which is then much cheaper for the buyer.
One more thing. Snus (snuff) is not legal in Finland but a LOT of people smuggle it from Sweden and then sell it to others. It is especially popular among young men who do sports. It gives the same "high" that smoking does but it doesn't hurt respiratory organs, so that it doesn't have an effect on their oxygene intake or fitness. It still causes cancer though, but typically in the mouth or jaw rather than in the lungs.
Regarding going to Sweden from Norway.
There's a lot of reasons for it.
- Imported products from other countries tend to be very expensive in Norway, Sweden doesn't have the same import taxes we do, so it's a lot cheaper.
- Norwegian and Swedish are closely connected on the language side, so we can mostly understand swedish and they tend to be able to understand us
- Sweden has products we simply don't have in Norway, and for a way cheaper price too. It is a prime destination to travel with kids
- We can drive to Sweden, no need to get plane tickets and deal with all of that, so it's pretty common to go camping with a caravan in Sweden if the family has access to a caravan.
- Sweden is familiar. It's not too culturally different from Norway as far as i'm aware, so a sense of familiarity and safety might just be a nice plus.
Every weekend is not normal, only if your cabin is really close to home.
But most go every vacation and long weekend.
My family owns a big cabin Close to a place called Folgefonna where we go skiing and snowboarding during the summer seasons
its very normal in the trades in norway too work extra and leave work at lunch time on thursday. for many years i worked mon-wed 0700-2000 and then from 7 to 11 on thursday. its a nice way to do things
About the berry picking. This is possible since in scandinavian countries: you don't really own the berries or fruit even if you'd own a lot of land, unless you have a farm. So it's allowed to go and pick mushrooms or apples almost anywhere if it grows in the "wild". If someone has a tiny garden with some berry bushes though it would not be ok to pick without asking. All this is based on the "freedom to roam" on land you do not own. It's common in European countries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
2:25 Depends on your job though.. Many people (truckers) work 6 day weeks.
"Matpakke" is much more than just pieces of bread, and it has been for decates. People bring homemade salads, leftovers from the dinner the evening before, or healthy wraps etc... Me and me collegues have been eating like this for decates! "Matpakke" the way she describes it was like that when I was a child, NOT NOW!
most of this apply to all nordic countries. and one off the cheat-codes is work half an h longer the first four days buys getting off early on friday, so you get out off town before commuter-traffic, so you get to the cabin in time to enjoy it
Not so much a cheat when almost everyone does the same thing!
it way over due that you react to norways winter games when it is such a huge part of our culture
I have worked in Norway for a few decades, I rarely had the luxury of "leaving early", well I can think of 1 or 2 times. Generally you have to work the hours you are meant to work, so if you get in early you can leave early, if it's not hurting the business.
Norwegian here.
Can confirm all...
Maybe not go to the cabin every weekend, that is individual...
My cabin is a sailboat, so I go to it atleast 30-40 weekends a year, give or take.
Another one is don't fucking bother me on the public transportation, I will kick your teeth in if you do..
And always, ALWAYS greet a fellow walker when you are walking the mountains or trails.
Our last Guttetur was to Austria and the Alps in March 2019 for about a week to ski...
You should watch "Tour de ski". It's on during the new years eve and the days around.
Norway has a lot of foreign workers from east europe and Sweeden. They often work long houres the whole week so they can take fridey off and go home to they're country and famely for the weekend. Norvegians allso works longer earlier in the week so the can take some houres off on fridays. But in many occupations this is not a option, like in hospitals and healthcares, fire/police departments, resturants and other works who needs to be operative.
Yes in Norway you dont get food at school. But in private schools (which Costa money) you get food. In regular Schools you bring (packed lunch/matpakke). Most bring (slice of bread/brødskive) with (toppings/pålegg)
In Norway school is free. And we're not Wearing a uniform❌👚👔we can wear whatever we want🙃👌🏾
It is true, it does happen and it’s kind of expected of people because everyone knows that a baby sleeps better outside in the fresh air, then inside of a stuffy café with a lot of noise
I leave my work ca 1340-14 on Fridays. Usually rush hour starts early then.
Many doesn’t have cabins. That is more for middle/upoer class. Many families doesn’t even come close to having cabins etc. and no, people don’t travel every weekend. More in holidays etc. Some might, but it’s usually kind of a long trip, so you would need longer than two days off if you want to ne able to relax. Bur our weekends are important. 🙂 And family time. matpakke is normal, but also because food is expensive. Sandwitch is not too expensive, and that makes all kods have the same food. No difference for them to argue or be sad about. So it’s for that reason too.
Compnies in Norway work couple hrs extra pr day and take friday Off.. u have flexitime.. as long as u work 37,5 hrs u choose.. normally that have hrs u «need» ti be there.. like 9-14 etc.. and the rest u deside
I'm an expat living in area with loads of Brits.
This made me think of a chat I had before I went to Norway in August.
I told a friend I was looking forward to picking mushrooms.
Friend was impressed and asked how much that kind of guided tour would cost.
Me:
No I just go to the forest.
Friend:
So there are guides there offering their service? How much do they charge?
Me:
NO! I just go into the forest and pick the chanterelles I find.
Friend:
Oh? But isn't difficult to know where you are allowed?
Me:
That's the beauty of the right to roam. I am allowed to forage pretty much everywhere in the forest!
Friend:
Ha ha you almost got me! Not falling for your tall tales!
Say a normal work week in norway we work 8-4 monday to friday. On fridays going 30 minutes or 3 hours early every once in a while is complete not surprising. Say a family parent is working a normal job like 8-4, then the family decided hey its warm this week, i will take friday off and we can visit the cabin this weekend. If they cant take the friday off going and hour or two earlier is totally normal.
Yes going to the cabin every weekend when it is good weather starting spring is very normal. it is usually 1-3 hours away from your house.
Matpakke - packed lunch. Usually kindergardens and elementary school, dont have a cafeteria so parents pack their lunch. It is usually 2 slices, u eat 1 at a time with some kinda spread.
After dinner(5pm) we have supper(7-8pm) usually 2 slice of bread or cereal.
I think snus is more common than smoking cuz a lot of places its restricted areas to smoke. Like trainstations, outside of resturants, malls, hospitals ect. It got signs that normally says where its illegal to smoke (normally where a lot of people walk - entrance, places where you are close to other people like trainstations). Might seem weird and stuff to others, but at least snus is only going out on themself and doesn't bother other people (non-smokers, with asthma, kids ect) with either inhaling cigarettes / viping smoke and ofc the smell.
Godt Nytt År! 🥳🎉(translated from norwegian: Happy (directly translated its ‘good’) New year!🥳🎉
The taxes are high in Norway and food is expensive. Going to Sweden doing grocery shopping saves me at least 40% on food. Harrytur was created when a politician thought it was "harry" (a guy with no style?) to go shopping at the boarder. I live 30 minutes from the boarder in the south. So I go once a month on Harrytur to Sweden. Since they are in EU the variety of food is wider, and special products for lactose residents and gluten residents about 50% lower price in Sweden. During 2020-2022 we could not travel and our money spent on food in Norway approximately doubled. So let's go Harrytur!🤣
Where i work we work 7am to 6pm monday to wednesday, then 7am to 3pm on thursday, then friday is off for us😁
The berry thing is pretty unusual, but my grandma does this sometimes.
The stroller thing is very normal. It's good for the immunsystem.
Norwegian construction worker here... we work longer monday to thursday.. and then leave 13.00 on friday.. we may have stay longer if its needed ofcourse... but we do what can to avoid overtime on fridays. Not sure how it is in other fields
I was twelve when my buds and I smuggled a box of snus to my room. Somehow though, my evil psychic step-mom knew all along, and decided that in stead of meatballs for dinner that day, she would serve my absolute least favourite dish, green pea soup.
I spent the rest of the evening with my head down the porcelain throne.
But I never had green pea soup or touched a box of snus ever again.
“Don't tell me in the comments this doesn't happen because I'm seeing it happens a lot of times.” 😂
Why should someone say it doesn't happen?
Back in time, people were smoking inside restaurants and cafeterias, and it was more healthy to let the children sleep outside. That could be the reason why this trend started.
I worked in a factory that produces seafood in norway, i had weeks where i worked from 08:00-15:30 the orher i worked from 14:30-23:00/23:30, when i worked late shift i did not work friday😅
-Leave early on Friday, yes for a lot of people cause a lot of people drive to their cabin or just want to get home early to relax. Or later discussed, called Hyttetur. Some visit them every weekend.
-Time off for winter sports? never heard of that ever, so i'd say it's false
-Baby strollers outside resturants etc. Sometimes yes, thought it's not normal or common to see strollers outside a resturant or cafe. No one places a baby stroller outside a store, they bring them with them. It's more normal to see it outside a house or outside a kindergarten since babies sleep better in the cold weather.
-Early dinner, somewhat true. Older generations eat dinner early, the newer generation eat dinner super late. Around between 5 - 8pm i'd say. Older generations eat dinner at like 1 - 3 pm. "Kvelds mat" is basically breakfast just before bed, you have a small snack 1-2h before bed. More commen for children, not so much adults.
-Matpakke is lunch, you bring your own lunch. Most schools does not provide lunch for you and you're not allowed to leave schoolgrounds to go food shopping. You gotta buy your own lunch at work/some schools or bring from home. Slices of bread with ham, cheese etc are stable lunch during all of your school years.
-Yes we do pick wild berries and make jams etc. or just eat it straight from the bucket.
-Snus is tobacco. Smoking and snus are both common and one is not more common than the other.
-We do drive to Germany, Denmark and Sweden to do shopping. Certain things are cheaper in those countries and it usually happen if we're on vacation to these countries or close to them.
-Jentetur is lowkey just a girls weekend. No men, no children, no family. Just a group of female friends going to like a cabin and having fun and relaxing.
Sorry to burst the bubble. From a Norwegian
Burst what bubble? you basically confirmed most of the video. And also, larger companies usually hace a canteen where you can buy hot and cold food for lunch. What Older generations are you talking about eating dinner at 1-3pm? People at retirement homes?!
Kveldsmat is usually just a sandwich or something like that, not like a dinner!
It's also common to fill up your tank with gasoline and than go in to the gasoline station and pay🇧🇻
Not only berries also mushrooms.. Snus yes very common not only Norway but Sweden Denmark packed with nikotin.
Happy new year
I don't really recognize going home early from work on fridays, or taking time off to watch the winter games, and not people leaving babies outside stores...I believe this depends on what work you have, and with the babies, where you live. But stealing babies in Norway is anyway hard, because you can't get rid of them inside Norway, and you'd have to drive pretty far in order to find somebody who trades with babies...but in America, it's so large and not really that controllable, so a baby would be more in danger there.
The food packs, or "niste" or "matpakke" are slices of bread with spread on that are stacked on top of each other with a separating sheet, and this is only in order to fit more slices of bread in a box.
It's true that we forage for berries a lot, I did that this fall. It's so common that it's weird to me that they don't do it other places. Why don't you do it? You don't know what berries to pick? Where do you live? Check out if there's blackberries there, they are awesome, and you can find them anywhere if they really grow there. Just stop on a rest stop and go looking around.
We also forage for mushrooms, I do that every year too. And not the psychedelic ones, we actually use them for food!
The Sweden trip called a "harry-tur" or harry-trip is because of the food cost in Norway, especially the meat is cheaper there. Or at least it used... The word "harry" is like a lighter version of "white trash". You imagine people with not much cultural education, middle class or lower class with bad taste in clothing doing this. It's like "cheap", not something a distinguished person would do. But everybody does it anyway.
Usually you leave around 1 pm or two usually on Fridays
The government I mean the Norwegian government have built a lot of cabins that they spread all over the map, it’s not a luxury cabins, but they have a lot of beds. Somewhere you can make some food and a fireplace and toilet bathroom facilities, these cabins are free for everyone to use. Anyone who is walking in the mountains can just go into whatever Kevin day happened to find and sleep there, or spend the day or the night for a couple of days.
Harrytur isn't specifically Sweden, it can be a trip to any country that is cheaper than Norway for the sole purpose of buying stuff for cheaper than what you can buy them in Norway, while sightseeing is just an added bonus and not the main purpose of the trip. The most common destinations for Harryturer are Sweden and Denmark, which is why - in the case of Sweden specifically - there are various shopping centers placed near the borders to Norway, because they know Norwegians love going into their country to buy cheap, and have decided not only to accept it, but rather embrace it and take advantage of it by making Harryturer for Norwegians more convenient.
In the case of Denmark, Colorline and Fjordline - the two major, if only, cruise/ferry (huge cruise ships that have multiple car decks able to store lots and lots of cars, trucks, busses, etc.) going between Norway and Denmark - offer special trip packages customers can buy, some of these packages are specifically geared towards those that only want to do shopping and will include bus fare to the various shopping malls that have grocery store(s) that are to rival - if not beat - Walmarts in size, and a ton of other stores to visit.
Some of these malls will be in locations that have other malls to visit within walking distance, or if not other malls, will have shopping streets filled with other stores outside of the mall. People will often take a day trip to Denmark by boat at night, arrive early in the morning at Denmark, spend the bulk of the day on land doing shopping (up to 12 hours +- a few hours) before taking the boat back to Norway the same night.
It isn't uncommon for people to spend, say, anywhere from 500 NOK to as much as 1500 NOK (excluding potential hotel stays) in travel expenses for their Harryturer, only to spend twice or three times the price of their travel expenses on things they buy on the Harrytur, but this also means that they actually come home from the Harrytur having made an earning in the long-run, because if they'd bought everything in Norway instead, they would have ended up paying maybe twice as much - if not trice or more in some cases.
For context, in November 2022, I went to Denmark and bought a six-pack of Corona Extra on the boat for around 86 NOK (it was 60 DKK), if I had bought that six-pack in Norway, I would be paying about 34 NOK for a single bottle of Corona Extra, and about 204 NOK for the six-pack of Corona Extra. I paid around 440 NOK in travel expenses, bought 7 six-packs of Corona Extra for a total of 602 NOK, saving 826 NOK by buying them on the Denmark Boat instead of buying them in Norway, even including the 440 NOK into the price of the beer, I still saved 386 NOK on that trip from the beer alone.
In Sweden you can never count on reaching anybody at work on Friday afternoons