Norway between reality and thoughts

I woke up in the morning one day with the phone ringing, I put my phone to talk and it was a strange number, but immediately I recognized the voice, I was really happy when I heard it because it was the voice of my best Norwegian. friend Mr. Lief, he is older than me but he is such a nice and funny guy I liked him very much, we worked together for 2 years before in Germany in such a famous restaurant in Berlin, I worked as a food and beverage manager, he worked there as chef, came back home and found a job in a big hotel in Oslo that’s because I was at the end of the contract term in Germany, I intended not to renew it again because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the salary

So in the last call with Mr. Lief, I asked him to find me a job in Norway, he promised that he would.

After a while and that day he called me again to tell me that he had found me a job and asked me to come to Norway as soon as possible for an interview. Of course it was great news to get such a job, especially I have never been to Norway before, I also like moving to new countries and getting work for new adventurers, I thanked you very much for your favor.

I talked to my family about this new job, they agreed to move in with me there and it was really cool too, so we started collecting our luggage, looking for plane tickets and since I’m European I can move in with my family fast. and easily to all countries in Europe.

Did you know? I started my trip to Norway and I went there too I got my job but at first I lived with a question in my mind that confused me, before I heard about Norway the income of the normal person is so high and it is such an expensive country and it was very interesting for me to see and know how those Norwegians live in such a high standard of living, I wondered if Norwegians live in this high level because they live in their country and it is a rich country, but what about foreigners there how do they live?

It was interesting to find the answer to this question, so at work I mixed with foreigners and asked how they live in Norway. It was a big surprise!! when I realized for them that life is so easy and not expensive at all.

The reality that I found in Norway, all people can live without a big budget, not as I imagined before, living there is not expensive at all!

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE IS NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL?

#Not expensive for food and meals.

About 1 million foreigners and of different nationalities live in Norway, the salary of these people is different, so the budget for each one is also different, so when you enter the Super Market to buy food, you find that there are different expensive and cheap products. they have two companies one of them is called FIRST PRICE they sell all the products so cheap from bread to meat they sell it at cheap prices for example you can find the price of the bread it costs around 40.00 KOR is around $4.00 you can find the bread for those companies with 7.00 KOR less than $1 and do the same for all products.

By the way, KORON is the name of the local currency in Norway and around 10.00 KOR is equal to $1.00.

Also, if you want to buy hamburgers from Macdonalds as a fast food, it’s less than $1.00.

#It is not expensive to buy clothes and shoes.

In Norway in the public places of each city or town you must find a mall or shopping center and it is full of different clothing and shoe stores and there you can find everything in such high quality with brands and at affordable prices, and from time to time you can go to walk there and find great discounts everywhere so you can buy three pieces of any type of clothing, such as pants or t-shirts, buy three and pay only two pieces and get the third free. such discounts throughout the year in winter, in summer and in all cities in Norway.

#It is not expensive to get public transportation.

In Norway, the normal price of a bus, metro and tram ticket is 50.00 KOR, about 5.00 USD per ticket.

and there, if you bought a bus ticket, you can also use it when you take the subway or tram, but it has a limited time about 30 minutes, you can use it after 30 minutes, it will expire.

From time to time, you can get a lot of discounts from such tickets and cheap offers, for example, in the summer, you can buy the bus card for the whole summer at such a cheap price and the summer period is about 3 months. Also bus drivers can give you cheap deals when you buy a ticket, they can offer a weekly ticket so cheap that you can buy it and use it for the whole week, of course you will save your money.

By the way, here I tell you the price of the inner bus of each city, you can only pay 50.00 KOR to get a ticket and from time to time they have offers for passengers as I mentioned before. But if you wanted to move to another city, maybe you would travel there by train or by bus, it has other fixed prices that are not cheap and without discounts, for example if you wanted to travel from Oslo to Sandfjord by train or by bus, it has the same expenses, the ticket costs about 300 KOR.

My advice do not think about booking a TAXI there because it really is very expensive.

Dial only with public transport is cheaper than Taxi and always have offers and discounts save a lot for you.

If you would like to have a car there, amm, buying a car in Norway is also cheap, if you would like to buy a used car up to 2005 model, it is cheap after that, it will be more expensive depending on the condition of the cars.

Of course, if it is not necessary to buy a car in Norway, it is a big mistake, why?

1- They have many taxes plus car insurance must be paid every year and this system is used throughout Europe, not only in Norway.

2-They have the roads there not free, when you drive in each city you find several places that have doors with cameras to take a photo for the number of your car, every time you drive to go to the city you must pay with bills I come to the address from your house after a while but it’s free when you go out in your car but it’s so bad I didn’t like it plus I never saw this system in Germany or Romania or Poland or even Sweden so if the car is not needed for you ie if you don’t use it for your work there or if you live alone without family it is better to get a public transport this is my opinion just buy and use a car for your family or work because in such case you can cover all the expenses you need.

3-Maybe you ask me about benzene there, yes it is very expensive, but I also think that the price of benzene is high all over the world, so it doesn’t matter if you get a car in Norway or not.

By the way, in Norway you can get the cheapest price of benzene only on Sunday you can go to any benzene station to buy cheaper.

4-Keep in mind that car repair there also costs a lot for spare parts, so be careful and think about that before you buy a car.

#NoCaro When You Hire an Apartment or a House.

In Norway, if you want to rent a flat, the price of a normal flat is not that high, and there is not much price difference from one city to another. Prices in Oslo As in another city, the price is about $750 per month + Electricity and water, Therefore, you need to deposit a month or maybe more according to your agreement with the owner of the apartment, all apartments have a luxury lifestyle. Big apartments, busy with everything you need just get the key to the apartment, go buy your products, put it in the fridge or in the kitchen, turn on the TV or go to sleep.

But maybe when you look at the $750 price tag you say oh! It’s so much, people from Eastern Europe go there to work, they go in groups of 3 to 4 people to rent a flat and live together, so they share the price of the monthly rent between them and then they also live in a luxury style flat with such a cheap price .

Some people may read this article and say that I only wrote about living in Norway, but for them they will only go as tourists, does this article tell them something useful?

YES because we have several coincident points, we already talked about that, such as food, clothing, transportation, taxi and, of course, this information can also help the tourist.

Only the tourist will not go to live in an apartment or house because the rental system in Norway does not allow renting an apartment for one or two weeks and if he finds it it will cost him so much money for this period, the rental system there is annual and A Sometimes you can make contracts for 5 years, so I think that tourists will never go to live in a flat and surely they will have reserved the hotel before traveling.

The hotel prices in Norway are a bit expensive, but I think that if the tourist decides to go to Norway for a sightseeing tour, he will be able to find a suitable booking hotel and he will be able to know the prices from the Internet and choose the best one for his budget.

The writer of this article lived and worked in Norway for more than 3 years, learned the Norwegian language, speaks and writes it fluently, moved for work to many cities in hotel branches throughout Norway, in Oslo, Tonsberg and Sandfjord. Due to family conditions he had to temporarily finish his job and return home.

By the way, he liked Norway very much and will soon return to work and live.