...or maybe I should say Oslo, as it's a big country and I didn't venture much beyond the capital. It seems the trend is to embrace modern technology. The main airport (Gardermoen) seems to have dispensed entirely with people to check you in and out. And talking of checks, cheques disappeared about 3 decades ago. Payment in cash seems to be on the wane too. Even payment by card on a bus or tram seems old-fashioned. An app. seems to be the accepted way of travelling on the Oslo equivalent of the Metro. Getting a ticket is just old-fashioned. Electric (or at least hybrid) cars are much more plentiful. Teslers are much in evidence. You are exempt from the 'Big Brother' payment system of driving through Oslo if you have one. (That will no doubt change when everybody has one!) Attempting to prepare food on the latest incarnation of a cooker takes some working out; you have to fathom an arcane system of touch-screen symbols to get the pan in the right place at the right temperature. A far cry from lovely cast iron stoves...which linger still in the cabins, I am sure.
By contrast I would say Norwegian Christmas Music is conservative. Germanic and somewhat foursquare carols with endless verses all sung the same...albeit beautifully...seem to be the fare of church choirs.
Luckily global warming had not, this year, robbed Oslo of its Christmas snow...and sledging seems to rely on gravity much the same as it always did.
By contrast I would say Norwegian Christmas Music is conservative. Germanic and somewhat foursquare carols with endless verses all sung the same...albeit beautifully...seem to be the fare of church choirs.
Luckily global warming had not, this year, robbed Oslo of its Christmas snow...and sledging seems to rely on gravity much the same as it always did.
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