My take on Scandinavia ;)

Yo yo yo all my Scandinavian mates , jag hoppas du ar kjempebra ;)

So yeah I live in Scandinavia as you all would know by now and as you may have guessed it's just a little bit different from back home Down Under ... never has this term " Down Under " actually meant much to me but it does now because im up the top of the world now and Australia definitely looks down under to me lol

Ok so probably the biggest difference from Aus after the weather ( which I will get to later ) is the people ... they are very reserved and almost shy compared to the typical Australian , a good example of this is that when Sara was in Aus her and I were staying in a hotel in Brisvegas and we got in the lift and after a few floors a lady got on and proceeded to say hello how are you and asked what we are doing today and where we are from etc and the lady got out before us and Sara said to me surprised " Did you know that lady ? " I said " no , why ? " , " because she was asking many questions " to which I replied " This is normal in Australia " and Sara said " I love this country already " lol . Sara later told me when she came back to Oslo she decided to spread the love and try the same thing when she was in a lift with some people here in Oslo and they just looked at her like she was a crazy woman haha . When I first arrived and I didn't have work I would often go for a walk on an awesome island/peninsula/forest area called Bygdoy and I would pass people and smile and say hello , only to receive looks of astonishment and wonder as to why the fuck is this bearded man smiling and saying hello to us because in Aus if your on a bushwalk as we call them when you pass someone you always say g'day how are ya and smile and move on ... not here .... Although not all people looked at me like im crazy , just % 95 lol .... needless to say that I have
Given up on my friendly greetings in favour of an awkward smile held for 1 second ans no longer and then I quickly make my way past glad that im content with my own company. In a way it kinda sucks because now I can see myself acting in the same ways and its very UnAustralian I must say ... but u know what they say ... when in Rome ... don't say hello to anyone and mind your own fucking business because im not here to greet random people I see in the street .

Ok so what else ? Working here is also very different and I would compare it to working in a beauty salon in relation to the amount of bitching and backstabbing that goes on at my work  ... now I work on a construction site and you wouldn't expect people to be bitching and talking shit behind people's back but it seems like one of the pre-requisites of having a job here in Norway... at my work it's unbelievable ... there is one guy who shan't be named who has been known to actually sneak up to a door to a room where people are working and get up close to actually listen to if people are working and also what they are talking about ... and if they are not working he will immediately ring the boss and tell him that you aren't ... one time a guy even came in about 5 mins after our coffee break and took a photo of everyone still sitting down and sent it to the boss , which resulted in us getting called to a meeting in which we were told not to take breaks for to long ... anyways its just good that I have managed to become good friends with the guy who snitches a lot because im not stupid ... you keep your friends close but ur enemies closer lol .

Ok so the winter is just fucked up ... literally its winter for 6 fucking months here .... basically from September to March its freezing and snowing and dark ... the sun usually comes up at around 9am and goes down around 3pm ... what . The . Fuck ... its seriously depressing as sometimes if the weather is bad on the weekends you can go weeks without seeing the sun ... I went about 2 weeks without seeing the sun at all ... not cool man not cool ;)

Ok so enough with the complaints now I will tell you about the good things in Scandinavia . Whilst I mentioned that the people are very reserved and keep to themselves but they are also pretty much all super friendly and happy , you just have to break through the initial border of their persona and they are pretty much all welcoming and funny and are always keen to help you or be friendly to you and this is always good . The summers are incredible ... the sun goes down usually around 11:30 pm and will come up at 4:00 am .... 4 .5 hours of darkness !! :) whilst its not the greatest for my body clock its damn good for after work barbecues and drinks in the many parks/islands here in Oslo . Mind you it never really gets that hot ... 30 degrees here would be considered a heatwave and probably the whole city would shutdown ... the hottest its been here since I arrived over a year ago has been 25 degrees I think . Another good thing is the hotdog culture they have here ... hotdogs are all the rage and they have them at every 7 eleven and convenience store ... its awesome ;) ok so there are many more good things about Scandinavia but il write more about that later because this post is starting to become so long I could make a novel out of it .... anyways all in all its like any place ... it's got good and bad things but mainly its just not to bad I would say ;) ... gotta be diplomatic ;)

That is all , Peace out  , Catch  ;)

This is a picture from my window at around 11pm at night ... crazy ass shit right there lol ;) :)