The Great Norway...?

The Great Norway…?

There is no beautiful picture in Norway, because people are living in the picture. But, you can easily spot scratches in this region, discovered Jiann Chyuan.

I’ve no choice but to admit that scenery in Trondheim is insanely breathtaking and eerily attractive. If you have seen my photos in Friendster and Facebook, you probably would have agreed with me. (For those who haven’t done so, what are you waiting for? GO!)

It is not surprising to me when I heard the statement: There is no great picture in Norway, because the people are living in the picture. The scenery of the whole city is flawless. It is pretty impressive how nature and civilisation blend peacefully with each other.

However, there is always another side of a coin. After living in this town for more than three weeks, I think I’m qualified to give a description.

Okay, I’m initiating a complaint. Lest you think that I’m letting my fumes over something trivia, I’ve to clarify that these two complaints are huge, and serious in Trondheim, at least for foreigner. Wait, I would love to rephrase the ‘foreigner’ word to international student, because I’m now a legal resident of Norway for the coming seven months.

So what are they? Let’s just discover only one in this post. Oh yea, there is really a lot of irritation about any one of them. I’ll tell you why.

So the first annoyance: weather.

It is always good to look at all my lovely and charming photos with bright sunlight showering the impressive landscape of Trondheim. But the truth is, good weather is nothing more than a luxury here. If you are really interested to travel to this harmoniously charming city, google about the city and the chance is you will be well-informed about the excessive rainfall in this city. In this case, 200 days per year.

Not a scary amount to Malaysian, right?

Correct. But what if one day really carries the meaning of one day, one full day? Exactly! There is no exaggeration in this context. Rain is just so often and persistent that you will always wonder whether rain has particular interest to this area.

And please do bear in mind that it is Norway, the top of the world looking everywhere else as down under. It means temperature is relatively low compared to the other parts of the world. What I’ve experienced is, erm, 2 (degree) C in a summer day time? Oh gosh! I just can’t keep my body static and start shivering all the time.

Wear more clothes? Brilliant idea. Wearing four layers of clothes is definitely sufficient to keep you warm, in a deadly cold summer day. But, the question is, if four is the number for summer, what would be the number for winter?

Ah ha! Yes, I did purposely torture myself by wearing as minimum as possible. The reason is to take this opportunity to train and prepare myself for the first winter of my life. I just don’t want to die in this land just because of the weather. I still have a complete travel galore in my mind. I refuse to have something unpleasant happen to me.

About clothing, it is just annoying that I’ve to carry a huge bag wherever I go. Raincoat, umbrella, warm jacket or pullover, you can’t miss any of them. Honestly, it consumes so much time to just dress and undress, or at least to pack all the clothes into the bag nicely so that you will not look like a ninja turtle with its shell on the back.

But clothes are not all. It is really very lucky that I’ve two pairs of shoes. You can just easily have a pair of wet feet in any day. Having to walk quite intensely recently, it is really quite not possible not to get your feet wet. And if you only have one pair of shoes, the chance is you are going to have this ‘ikan masin’ smell in your apartment, literally. More socks are necessary.

It is absolutely crucial to have yourself ready with all kind of weather, at all time. And for this reason, there is another saying in Norway: There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Zha dao!

Warm clothes are just so important that you will see nearly every shop in the town centre is selling all kind of jackets and sweaters. They are, indeed, very helpful in getting away from the ‘not-bad’ weather (but I would really prefer to call it bad). But the problem is, there is just no cheap product in Norway.

And with that, it leads you to my next complaint: Price. Check back soon.

Caption:
Left: Beautiful square, but look at the wet floor.
Right: Sunny day filled with thick dark clouds, a sign to wear raincoat.