Through this pandemic, it’s been fascinating to observe how different countries are handling the crisis. I’ve been impressed by Norway’s approach, which shouldn’t surprise me. Oslo has always had its act together.
With so many of us stuck at home for the foreseeable future, I believe a daily dose of travel dreaming can actually be good medicine. Here’s another one of my favorite travel memories — a reminder of what’s waiting for you in Europe at the other end of this crisis.
I’ve been visiting Oslo since I was a kid, thinking about it as both the home of my forefathers and as a model modern city that I wish could inspire my hometown.
I’m at the harborfront dock, where my old haunt, a Hurtigruten steamer, was once moored. In its prime, the romantic old postal boat linked Oslo with remote communities along the fjords and islands all the way north to the Arctic. Later it became a hotel. My favorite room was its “writer’s cabin,” the only room on that old ship that lacked plumbing and was, therefore, affordable to me. This same dock also marks the spot where my grandparents embarked for the US. They traded the old country for a new one, hoping to swap a dead-end economy for a land of promise.
Standing here today, I survey the modern, people-friendly promenade and think about how life has changed. I can now afford a room with a shower, but the ship is gone. And the relatives who stayed behind in Norway are now living better than many of the ones who left.
I’m surrounded by the white noise of pedestrian bliss. I can hear people talking and laughing, the birds, the breeze — but no cars. A popular “congestion fee” keeps most cars from the center of town. An efficient tunnel diverts nearly all the traffic under the city. The old train station facing the fjord boat dock has become the Nobel Peace Prize Center, thanks to a visionary man who dedicated the wealth he earned inventing dynamite to celebrate peacemakers. And towering high above the harbor action is Oslo’s stately brick City Hall — where Nobel’s prize is awarded. It stands like a cathedral to good civic values, decorated inside and out with statues and murals featuring stoic Norwegians who seem more than willing to pay their steep taxes.
Every time I come to Norway, I’m fascinated by the way they’ve chosen to organize their society. And then, when I get home, I routinely challenge my fellow Americans by telling tales of a land where the desired alternative to big, bad government is not small, good government — but big, good government. While I certainly wouldn’t want to run my business in heavily regulated Europe, I’m challenged and inspired by the Norwegian way of organizing their society.
Discussions with relatives and new friends alike often lead to comparisons of our two very affluent but very different societies. For example, even though North Sea oil is plentiful and a big part of Norway’s economy, the government understands that the world is warming and knows it’s only ethical to have policies to help counteract climate change. To encourage clean electric cars, the government underwrites car charging, parking, tolls, and taxes — making even a luxury Tesla an affordable ride. As Norway steadily reduces its use of gasoline-powered cars, it has become Tesla’s second-biggest market.
Norway is expensive for tourists — and also for Norwegians. The society is designed in a way that encourages people to consume less, to chew more slowly, and to sip rather than gulp. A glass of beer costs $12. A cup of coffee can cost $8 — and free refills are unheard of. I think Norwegians know they could make more money if they embraced the “big gulp” and started supersizing. But the collective decision is not based purely on what would be good for the economy. A big-box economy would just not be Norwegian.
In Scandinavia, tourists are sometimes put off by the many young beer-drinking revelers they see out on the streets, canalside, and littering the parks. But alcohol consumption is no greater here than it is farther south. It’s just that while pubs in Britain and beer halls in Germany are affordable, Scandinavia’s bars come with extremely high alcohol taxes. So people start their evening with a drink at home or a friend’s house before hitting a bar. Or they just B.Y.O.B. — buying cheap beers at a convenience store, then finding a pleasant perch outside for an impromptu gathering. For young Norwegians, “going out” means literally “going outside.” Norwegians cope with the high cost of dining out by using “one-time grills.” On balmy evenings, the city is perfumed with the smell of these disposable foil grills being fired up for dinners in the parks.
Walking through a light mist along the new harborfront development, I stop by a shrimp boat to buy a small bag of shrimp, pulled out of the fjord by a weather-beaten fisherman just hours ago. It’s been my happy ritual at this very spot since my mom first brought me to this little boat when I was a kid.
The commotion of a festive celebration draws me farther along the harborfront. A hundred Norwegians are swing-dancing on the sturdy boardwalk, which glistens as if pleased to be the city’s dance floor. Sometimes, good-looking, self-assured Norwegians annoy me with their perfection. But these strike me as extremely normal people — a little overweight, a little wrinkled, dancing in content twosomes in front of yacht club bars and restaurants most of them likely can’t afford. It’s mostly American-style two-step to recorded oldies — familiar tunes with unfamiliar Norwegian lyrics — like a line dance without cowboy hats or much of a line. Girls look up at their tall guys with big smiles.
Walking back to where my “writer’s cabin” used to be, I get nostalgic for the long-ago joy of settling into my humble stateroom, gathering the experiences of the day, and weaving them into an article — hoping to share new insights into this capital city — a city that still charms and challenges me all at once.
(This story is excerpted from my upcoming book, For the Love of Europe — collecting 100 of my favorite memories from a lifetime of European travel. It’s coming out in July, and available for pre-order. And you can also watch a video clip related to this story: Just visit Rick Steves Classroom Europe and search for “Oslo Norway.”)