Posted on 03/29/2005 3:43:00 AM PST by franksolich
Record exodus to the mountains at Easter,
Monday (2nd Day Easter) ends the Easter vacation in Norway, and it is already clear that a record number has visited mountain chalets, cabins and ski centers this year.
The major alpine centers report an increase of 20-50 per cent, according to public broadcaster NRK.
One reason for the record number taking to the mountains is the fact that Easter comes early this year. The other reason is the beautiful weather with perfect skiing conditions (particularly in the Southern part of the country), says Einar Oyo, manager of the Geilo Skilifts.
The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reports that by Sunday morning 14,725 persons had overnighted at the Association's mountain chalets across the country, 6 per cent more than last year.
DNT also reports an increase in the number of families with small children, and the number of young people is also higher than earlier.
One wonders if Norwegians make the same mistake many Americans do; that of going where everybody else goes, making it very crowded. Apparently southern Norway was congested like Manhattan Island during this holiday.
It seems to me the purpose of taking a vacation is to "get away;" in which case I bet places such as Gamvik, Berlevag, and Honningsvag, isolated way up on the northern edges of Norway, would have been excellent choices for skiing, but no.....everybody wants to go where everybody else goes.
I just got done reading the memoirs of an American journalist who spent the winter of 1945-1946 wandering through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
Predictably, he found the Norwegians to be the most hospitable, the Danes to be the most friendly, the Swedes to be the most sanctimonious, and the Finns to be.....well, inexplicable.
And he did notice much vigorous anti-Sweden sentiment among the Norwegians at the time, as if they had fought Sweden in a war.
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Well, even though I've never been closer to Norway than 300 miles, it seems to me it's a little hard to get away from the mountains in Norway; Norway probably has as many mountains as Nebraska has prairies.
But this notion of spending a vacation where everyone else is going, mystifies me. I always thought the purpose of a vacation was to "get away," not "stay with."
This reminds me of when I was in college (the University of Nebraska), and one spring break, everybody high-tailed out of Lincoln, headed to points south.....where of course they would be congested by hundreds of thousands of other college students.
A friend of mine and I wished to "get away;" he was a military brat, his parents in another country, and I was an orphan, so we were free to go where we wished.
The night before spring break started, when we were still undecided about where to go, I read in a book that Anaconda, Montana, had the highest smokestack in the world.....and so we headed to Anaconda, Montana.
Of course we had to fight blizzards that made the roads in the Rocky Mountains near-impassable, while our classmates were tanning down south, but we had a great time.
Well, being Norwegian myself I am probably not in a position to be objective, so it might be better to ask a Finn, Dane, or Swede, if any are at hand.
I recently read a long book, written in 1841 by a Swedish immigrant to America (Wisconsin), Gustavus Unonius.
He characterized the Norwegian immigrants as "generally glum and joyless," as compared with his countrymen Swedes.
But on the other hand, he commented that Norwegians had an easier go of it in America, because the Norwegian immigrants tended to be "of hearty peasant stock," while the Swedish immigrants tended to be "from the middle classes," and hence not really suited for the rough American life.
And here--for the illumination of those who continually confuse Norway with "Sweden" and "Old Europe"--the writer commented that while the Norwegians and Swedes got along fine (at least in Wisconsin, during the 1830s and 1840s), no particular problems, they actually....."had very little in common with each other."
Having to continually defend your country against the Russkies will do that to you.
That is what irks me the most about the Swedes; their attitude of "moral superiority" because they haven't been involved in any wars since 1815, as if they are "above" fighting.
I am speaking of Swedes currently in Sweden; not of those of Swedish ancestry living in other places.
The "neutralism" of Sweden is simply a gift of geography; they are far north, they having Norway watching their front, Finland watching their back, and Denmark watching their below.
It is simply a gift of geography, not any personal virtue.
If the Swedes were in Jerusalem or the Khyber Pass or in Central America, I imagine they would be just as warlike, just as bloody, just as contentious, as the rest of us are.
He characterized the Norwegian immigrants as "generally glum and joyless," as compared with his countrymen Swedes.
Well, 1841 is a while ago, and such things are hardly immutable. Besides, the class difference alluded to goes a long way in explaining the difference, as the peasant Norwegians would have a far harsher life behind them then middle-class Swedes, and might also be more preoccupied with puritan religious movements such as Pietism.
Apropos, it often annoys me when people assume that Norwegian-Americans today are representative of contemporary Norwegians. In my experience they usually are not. Even some of their most 'Norwegian' traditions, including dishes like lefse and lutefisk, are far more typical of 19th than 21st century Norway. In a way this is fitting, as they tend to be more interested in the Norway of yore than of present. This, of course, is not meant as criticism but merely as fact.
Yes, exactly.
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