Fun fact#5
Norway invented the cheese slicer
The cheese slicer was patented in 1925 by Thor Bjorklund, a furniture maker from Lillehammer who adapted a carpenter's plane to slice brown cheese thinly.
Norway
A 24-kilometre road tunnel lit blue to keep drivers awake, and football matches at two in the morning.
7 entries · 2 stories, 5 fun facts
Norway at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Oslo
- Currency
- Norwegian krone (NOK)
- Official language
- Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk); Sami co-official in some municipalities
- Climate
- Milder than the latitude suggests thanks to the Gulf Stream. Wet on the west coast, colder and drier inland.
- Best time to go
- June–August for the fjords, September–March for the aurora
- Time zone
- UTC+1 (UTC+2 in summer)
- Driving side
- Right
- Plugs and voltage
- Type C / F, 230 V
Worth knowing: Above the Arctic Circle the sun does not set for weeks in summer, and does not rise for weeks in winter.
Planning a trip to Norway
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
The Lærdal Tunnel runs 24.5 kilometres under the mountains and is lit with blue and yellow caverns every six kilometres, purely so that drivers stay alert. Above the Arctic Circle the sun does not set for weeks in summer, and locals genuinely play football at two in the morning because there is no reason not to.
Below: the Global Seed Vault inside a Svalbard mountain holding over a million samples as a backup for the planet's food crops, the fisherman who unties his boat when you miss the last ferry, and the cheese slicer invented in 1925 by a furniture maker who adapted a carpenter's plane.
Entries from Norway
Story#6
A ferry that would not wait
We missed the last ferry by ninety seconds and watched it pull away in flat grey light. Then a fisherman untied his boat, said one word we did not understand, and pointed at the bow. He dropped us on the island an hour later and vanished before we could thank him.
Fun fact#7
The world's longest road tunnel
The Laerdal Tunnel runs 24.5 kilometres under Norwegian mountains and is lit with blue and yellow caverns every six kilometres to keep drivers alert.
Story#115
Midnight football
The sun did not set. At half past midnight there was a full football match on the astroturf and a queue for the pitch afterwards. Nobody looked tired.
Fun fact#180
The midnight sun never sets
Above the Arctic Circle the sun stays above the horizon for weeks in summer, and locals often play football at two in the morning.
Fun fact#199
Svalbard stores the world's seeds
The Global Seed Vault inside an Arctic mountain holds over a million seed samples as a backup for the planet's food crops.
Fun fact#873
Svalbard has more polar bears than people
Residents leaving town are legally advised to carry a rifle because of the bear population.
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