One of the rich countries in Europe, Norway seems to worth it’s reputation. Even is not big (slighty larger than New Mexico, hosting around 4-5 million people), the landscapes in Norway are overwhelming. Famous for it’s fyords, very clean, well organized, it’s a beautiful place to visit. But all of this has a big cost, probably one of the most expensive countries in Europe. The temperature is changing very fast, today you can go out in a T-shirt, and the next day you may need to take a good jacket because of the cold, but even so, this will not stop you to visit the beautiful sights in the area. Most of the norwegian border is the shore line (more than half of the border), so main activities around here are fishing, sailing, but as well mining, timber exploitation (from the many mountains they have) and not the last, oil exploitation and technology developement. For such a small number of people, Norway seems to own a lot of resources, so from here the high life standards came. In Norway you won’t see people begging for change, you won’t see homless people and you won’t see sad people. Everybody looks 10 years younger and probably this is the proof that when life is easy for you, you don’t have stress, you don’t have worries, you get older harder. The people have the nordic aspect (blonde / blue eyes), they are friendly and very easy to socialize with, everybody speaks english (it is quite an insult to ask somebody if he speaks english) and there is no way to get lost there. The criminality rate is very small, so you will feel very safe every where you go.

Bergen, is a small city, built between the mountains, with 2 ports (one for fishing and the other one for transportation). It is a quiet city, with many things to see, even it is small. The best thing is to visit the old streets, to admire old buildings (which are well preserved), but never the last, to have an overview of the city from the top of the 7 surrounding mountains. Bergen is filled with old monuments, statues, fountains, parks and old churches, but the first thing you will have to consider, will be the costs. The prices in Norway, are very high because of big taxes they have. For locals, there is no problem, since the average income is around 3000Eur/Month, but for people comming for poor countries, the expenses will not be easy to digest.  A good experience in Bergen will be to visit the fish market and next to the fishing market you will find a  public square with some coffe shops and  an classical band singing.

Eating in Bergen is easy, you can go to any restaurant because basically everywhere the food is good, but the price will make the difference. The cheapest places you can find are McDonald’s , which are at least 3 in the entire city. At most of the hotels you will find swidish buffet, which is cheap (rather than to pay to be served), but even so the prices are higher comparing with other european countries. There are a lot of sea-foods available, but also all kind of fruits, cakes, stakes in a swidish buffet, so comparing with other places i’ve took the same, in Norway you will really have where to choose from.

Because of it’s geographical position, you will notice an interesting thing regarding the light during the daytime. For example, in the summer time, the day starts around 5 o’clock in the morning and it ends around 23 at night, so in the summer the day is very long. Contrarely in the winter time, the day starts around 7-8 o’clock in the morning and it ends around 18 in the evening. During summer time it will be nice because you will have a lot of time to visit places. If you hate cold, you will not be in the right place, because even in summer time, the weather is not hot, so mostly it will be like a spring time in Spain. But if you like cold, and if you like winter sports, you will be in the right place (especially in winter time).

If you want to go shopping, you will find a lot of stores in the middle of the town and in Norway the quality is beating the prices. For traveling from one place to another, it is highly recommended to use the bus. There are even areas inside towns where you can take the bus for free (they apply this trick to make people use the bus rather the car, just to protect the environment, and as well to protect the environment, in Norway you may see a lot of electrical cars, since they run cheaper and as well the taxes for electrical cars are nearly null). The traffic is hard inside the cities, so that’s why is recommended to use the bus, since the bus has it’s special lane on the streets, that can be used only by the buses and by the taxis (the taxi is quite expensive by the way). If you rent a car, however you have to be very careful while driving because the tickets are very big. I noticed that even at pedestrians zebra, the car drivers was stopping much earlyer before the pedestrian was putting the foot on the zebra and asking “why is that so?” the answer promptly came “because of the high cost of a ticket for breaking the rules” , so be aware if you get to drive in Norway, don’t break the rules , it will cost you a lot.

If you have big pockets, Norway is a good place to visit (not to mention that is a perfect place to live in, but is quite difficult to emigrate, to get papers and to work there), you will have what to see and it is a good experience (probably for most of the people it will look like a dream world), so enjoy.

Oliver Cage is a contributor for http://ikoupon.com and http://simbiotiq.com