And the Winner Is...

     Our cruise, and thus these "travel" posts, were coming to an end.  We had seen a lot, from France to England/Ireland/Scotland and now, the remaining southern coastlines of Norway.  The variety was immense, not just in watching the peoples and hearing the languages, but even among the storefronts of food and fashion that changed before our hungry touristy eyes.  Gone were the magnets and (gasp) postcards, as if declared relics from a distant time capsule, one that held sweep-second wrist watches and ballpoint pens.  And just a few tee shirts and hoodies were visible, but not many, perhaps because of their $60 price tags.  But overall, shops were open for business as normal because our ship would generally dock quite close to actual towns.  Cruises came in now and then but apparently not so often that sidewalks and roadways were overwhelmed.  For many of us in our ship, waiting tour buses quickly swallowed us up and whisked us away for the day, sparing the towns from the gawking eyes that tended to look but not buy.  After all, floated the unconscious mantra, food and drinks were there for the taking on the ship...hmm, am I sounding a bit too American?  I've found that as Americans (and I'm including myself here), we tend to standout when we're overseas: in general we're loud, we point, we wear baseball hats and sunglasses (often even in cathedrals), and we seem to always ask a stranger we meet at a table or on a bus or at a bar, "so what do you do?"  Having checked with locals in Ireland, Germany, Norway and elsewhere,  the only thing changing in all of those stereotypes were the sunglasses & ball caps which occasionally appeared among some of the younger generations in foreign countries.   The other three --loud, pointing, and asking the all-important "what do you do"-- all nods of the head...yup, only Americans.  Gulp...

     From the tall balcony of a ship, it was easy to feel fortunate, almost above it all, as we watched the many young workers below, hooking and unhooking the cables and ramps as we docked or left a city.  Add them all to the "hidden" workers moving throughout the ship, the ones busy cleaning rooms over and over, and serving endless requests at all hours with meals and drinks that came with a smile and a "good morning, sir" or a "something else, madam?"  Even in the wee hours, hallways were being vacuumed and uniforms being pressed so that each of us as passengers could waken from our dream vacation sleep and feel that somehow, those fresh faces that greeted and served us were equally rested and had merely waved a magic wand to make all of this sparkling, happy atmosphere just "happen."  Out of sight, out of mind.  Keep the illusion alive.  Silently in our heads, we tended to justify that this was what our own hard work had been about, a time when we were on the other end: tired, wondering if we would ever find the security and safety of a job that paid us well enough to not only live but perhaps to save some money, that someday we could be the ones ordering room service and wanting it in 20 minutes, just like the other hundreds of other passengers now calling.  But trips, like delusions, have to eventually end and, as with life, we also knew that this wasn't the real us, and that before long we would soon be back at work and back to our routines, even this late in the game (in our case, at least).  It was a reminder that each and every one of these workers appreciated a smile back, a thank you, maybe even a generous bit of tip money to let them know that their hard work was being acknowledged, that we --as passengers-- were indeed just on vacation and that we hopefully weren’t representing an increasing tidal wave of inequality that appeared every one or two weeks for these workers as the ships disgorged thousands and thousands of people on the left, while an equal number waited to board on the right.

    But beyond the financial side of such travel, consider the added difficulty if you were physically disabled.  My wife's cousins, both with cerebral palsy, her dependent on a full-support electric wheelchair, were telling us about what they go through when traveling: the looks of others while being wheeled on a flight; the restrictions of getting a room (especially on a ship); the lack of excursions on such a trip simply because they require a van with a wheelchair ramp and restraint straps; the extra charges imposed by most vacation operators because only their equipment could be used on the trip; the number of waivers they have to sign to exempt the tour operator from liability; the having to pay three or four times the standard price because they also needed carers 24/7; the not hearing back from calls and emails as if hoping they would change their minds (they had booked through P&O), and on and on.  When you think of how so many of us take for granted the simple act of seeing a beautiful beach or of dining at a fancy ship's table at sea, the perspective for others can be radically different.  But hats off to those who overcome such obstacles.  Our cruise had two people with wheelchair-scooters, the type in which one sits and rides on as if shopping; even so (they told us) the extra time needed to lift both the persons and the chairs onto the bus, not to mention the extra charges, were substantial (my wife's cousin's chair is both double the size and weight, too large for most ships' ramps, so that alone becomes an extra consideration).  But there these two were, off to see the fjords, just as my wife's cousins regularly go to concerts and have indeed, taken cruises.  Bravo to all... 

     I had to relay all those thoughts because each and every day my wife and I realized just how fortunate we were.  This getaway had been a real treat, one made even better by the run of good weather we encountered, almost unheard of weather such as sunny days in cities that get rain 250 days of the year, as in Bergen, considered the rainiest city in all of Europe (the local residents have a saying there: There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing).  We had brought warm clothing but never wore the jackets, and only once brought out a sweat top, and that was because we had kept the patio door cracked and the night had grown a bit chilly while we slept.  So yes, other than me catching a bug (likely from that packed train ride full of 40,000 American college football fans in Dublin), we were extremely fortunate.  And what better way to end a trip than to glide your way through a land even richer in history, and the all-around winner of the countries we visited...Norway. 

     When one hears about Norway, it seems natural to think of scenic fjords and salmon farms.  And yes, those are evident, this land being hilly and rocky and dotted with fjords.  Water seems everywhere and is put to good use, not only to farm-raise salmon (Norway's 2nd largest export), but for hydropower; 90% of household electricity comes from hydropower (and good thing because Norway is on track to become a nation of all-electric vehicles --including buses, already evident-- in just over 6 years, said our guide).  As to their salmon farms, Norway is way ahead of most other countries in its regulations; as but one example, use of antibiotics in their salmon farms has dropped by 99% so that a kilogram of farmed salmon from Norway has just .00034 kg. of antibiotics in it -- in contrast in the U.S., each kilogram of farmed chicken has an entire kilogram of antibiotics in its meat (nearly 3000x that of Norway's salmon).  Norway's regulations regarding their salmon farms are quite strict and thus explained Norway's reluctance to join the EU (European Union); to do so would allow other EU members to fish their waters and possibly pollute (or overfish) their waters.  As to the fjords, the main qualification to be called a fjord is that its waters must touch the sea, allowing a mix of both fresh and salt water.  Said our guide, the word "fjord" is the same spelling in nearly any language, and more importantly, has no real translation.  And why so many fjords?  The softer stone of Norway (vs. that of both nearby Denmark and Sweden) allowed the glacial ice to penetrate and to thus "carve" the valleys (the average fjord in Norway is 2600 feet both up and down) instead of just sliding over the top and rounding out the land.

     But Norway wasn't done.  Far from being considered a "socialized" country,  Norway ranks 28th among capitalist countries, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation (the US ranks 20th).  Wrote Foreign Policy: The Nordic welfare system that people like to point to as a flourishing example of socialism was developed around 1970, when there was a policy shift throughout Nordic societies toward higher taxes and generous public benefits.  In the century preceding that turn, Nordic countries had combined small public sectors and free markets to achieve strong economic growth.  Despite basically providing healthcare and education for all (even care when advanced age or dementia sets in), Norway is considered centrist.  And those "high" taxes one keeps hearing about on social media?  The flat tax rate in Norway is 22%, about what the average middle class household pays in the US.  But Norway's attraction doesn't end there.  To a person (we asked 8 people of all professions, from a waitress to a security guard to a pharmacist), they love their country.  And not only their country but the outdoors; and they seem to recognize that preserving the beauty of the outdoors requires everyone's help, so even their popular candy bar Kvikk Lunsj (similar to a Kit Kat and released just 2 years after the popular English candy) has wording inside its wrapper that reminds you to "leave no trace" among its 10 basic rules of visiting the outdoors (could you picture a US candy manufacturer ever printing that?).  And with the discovery of oil in the North Sea, a fund was set up for the people, one which now provides the average Norwegian with $250-300,000 in social services (including pensions).  So with all of that, is there a flood of people moving to Norway?  Here's a comparison, said our guide: the city of Bergen is larger in area than Paris yet holds just 1/40 the population (280,000 in Bergen vs. 11.2 million in Paris).  

    Shall I continue?  Our guide told us that Norway realizes that its oil won't last forever, so it's growing more dependent on its salmon...and thorium.  Wait, what the heck is thorium?  With the world's 3rd largest reserves, Norway is well underway in developing this low-level radiation source for everything from alpha particles targeting cancer to low-waste nuclear reactors (China is already in the process of launching its own thorium reactor).  As to getting to the thorium, Norway pretty much leads the world in building tunnels (of their nearly 2000 tunnels, including one drivable tunnel under the ocean, they have the world's longest tunnel at nearly 26 miles); one tunnel even has a roundabout which splits off into 3 directions.  And on the decline?  Post offices, because virtually every grocery store can handle all your mailing needs.  And religion as well (Bergen has only one Catholic church; the main religion being Protestant-Lutheran); but in a bit of irony, Norway's wooden "stave" Christian churches, built 800 years ago, were Catholic, wrote Wikipedia.  Back then, women had to sit on the left, men on the right (pregnant women were kept in another area entirely), a tradition somewhat still in effect with weddings seating the bride and groom's families on separate sides.  It was also a time when the Reformation created a "pulpit," taking the priest away from ground level and placing him higher above the parishioners "to spread the word" said the sign.

    If all of this sounds a bit giddy, it was because Norway, like New Zealand, left a deep impression on us.  Certainly the scenery, lush and changing, the waters achingly blue, the history both Nordic and environmental (who knew that the Vik in Viking meant "bay" so the term was basically "people of the bay"), and the fresh, fresh food (we had a fish chowder to rival anything we had on the Alaskan coast, which wasn't that strange since both Anchorage and Kristiansand are on the same latitude, although the Norwegian city trends warmer due to the Gulf Stream).   And was it any wonder that in explaining the colors of their flag --red, white, and blue-- there was no reference to blood or war or fighting, but rather a simple explanation that the colors represented liberty, equality, and fraternity.  And there it was, the true attraction...the people.  With all the turmoil and divisiveness going on back home, it was nice to be among a population whose attitude was relaxed, and happy, and seemingly quite content with life (Norway consistently ranks as one of the happiest nations).  Said the Visit Norway website, the outlook of the Norwegian people is simple: --Connect: Spend time and connect with family, friends, and people around you. --Be active: Through hiking, cycling, paddling, et cetera. --Take notice: By being curious, catching sight of the beautiful. --Keep learning: Get to know a new activity or try a new path. --Give: By helping others to have a good time, and express gratitude for what they give back.  How can you argue with that?  It all brought to mind Jennifer Garner's innocent character in 13 Going On 30, who said: I think all of us want to feel something that we've forgotten or turned our backs on.  Because maybe we didn't realize what we were leaving behind.  We need to remember what used to be good.  If we don't, we won't recognize it even if it hits us between the eyes.  Norway had indeed hit us, and we left quite thankful for it...