Categories
I wake up in the morning of a day with the phone ringing, I got my phone to speak and it was a strange number but I immediately recognized the voice, I was really happy when I heard it because it was the voice of my best Norwegian friend, Mr. Lief, he’s older than me, but he’s such a nice and funny guy that I really liked, we worked together for 2 years before in Germany in such a famous restaurant in Berlin, I worked as a food and beverage manager, he worked there as a chef, came home and found work in a great hotel in Oslo, that’s because I was at the end of the contract term in Germany, I had the intention not to renew it again because I was not completely satisfied with the salary
So on the last call with Mr Lief, I asked him to find me a job in Norway, he promised that he would.
After a while and that day he called me back to tell me how to get a job and asked me to come to Norway as soon as possible for an interview. Of course it was great news to get a job like that, especially I had never been to Norway before, I also like to move to new countries and get new adventurer jobs, I thanked him very much for his favor.
I talked to my family about this new job, they agreed to move in with me there and it was really great so we started collecting our luggage, looking for plane tickets and since I am European I can move in with my family fast. and easily to all the countries of Europe.
Did you know? I started my trip to Norway and I went there I also got my job, but at first, I lived with a question in my mind that confused me, before hearing about Norway, the income of the normal person is so high and It is such an expensive country and It was so difficult for me to see and know how those Norwegians live at such a high standard of living, I wondered if Norwegians live at this high level it is because they live in their country and it is a rich country, but what about foreigners there, how they live?
It was intervening to find an answer to this question, so at work I mixed with foreigners and asked them how they live in Norway. It was a great surprise !! when I realized from them that life is so easy and not expensive.
The reality that I found in Norway, all people can live without a big budget not as I imagined before, living there is not expensive at all!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT LIVING IS NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL?
#It’s not expensive for food and meals.
In Norway live around 1 million foreigners and of different nationalities, the salary of these people is different, so the budget for each one is also different, so that when you go to the Supermarket to buy food you find that there are different products that are expensive and other cheap, there are two companies, one of them is called FIRST PRICE they sell all the products so cheap from bread to meat they sell it at cheap prices, for example, you can find the price of bread, it costs around 40.00 KOR It is around $ 4.00, you can find bread by those companies with KOR 7.00 less than $ 1 and they do the same with all products.
By the way, KORON is the name of the local currency in Norway and around 10.00 KOR equals $ 1.00.
Also, if you want to buy Macdonalds Hamburger as a fast food, it costs less than $ 1.00.
#It is not expensive to buy clothes and shoes.
In Norway in the public places of each city or town you must find a mall or shopping center and it is full of different clothing and shoe stores and there you can find everything in such high quality with brands and at affordable prices also from time to time. you can go for a walk there and find great discounts everywhere so you can buy three pieces of any type of clothing like pants or t-shirts, buy three and pay only two and get the third free. such discounts throughout the year in winter, in summer and in all cities of Norway.
# It is not expensive to get puppy transports.
In Norway, the normal price of a bus, metro and tram ticket is 50.00 crowns, or about $ 5.00 per ticket.
and there if you bought a bus ticket you can also use it when you take a subway or tram, but you have a limited time of about 30 minutes, you can use it after 30 minutes, it will expire.
From time to time you can get a lot of discounts from these cheap tickets and offers, for example, in summer you can buy a card bus for the whole summer at such a cheap price and the summer period is about 3 months, also the drivers Buses can offer you cheap deals when you buy a ticket, they can offer a weekly ticket so cheap that you can buy it and use it throughout the week, of course you will save money.
By the way, here I am telling you about the price of the internal bus in each city, only you can pay KOR 50.00 to get a ticket and from time to time they have offers for passengers as I mentioned before. But if you want to move to another city, maybe you will travel there by train or by bus, it has other fixed prices that are not cheap and without discounts, for example if you wanted to travel from Oslo to Sandfjord by train or by bus, it has the same costs, the ticket costs about 300 KOR .
My advice do not think about marking a TAXI there because it really is very expensive.
Marking only with public transport is cheaper than Taxi and you will always have offers and discounts that save you a lot.
If you wanted to have a car there, um, buying a car in Norway is also cheap, if you wanted to buy a used car up to the 2005 model it is cheap after that it will be more expensive depending on the condition of the car.
Of course, if it is not necessary to buy a car in Norway, it is a big mistake, why?
1- They have a large amount of taxes plus auto insurance that you must pay every year and this system throughout Europe not only in Norway.
2-They have not free roads, when you drive in each city you find several places they have gates with cameras to take a photo for the number of your car, every time you drive to go to the city you must pay with bills come to your address after a while but it is free when you go out in your car but it is so bad that I did not like that also I never saw this system in Germany, Romania, Poland or even Sweden, so if the car is not necessary for you, I want say if you do not use it for your work there or if you live alone without family it is better to get public transport this is my mind, just buy and use a car for your family or work because in that case you can cover all the expenses you need.
3- You may ask me about benzene, yes, it is very expensive, but I also think that benzene prices are high all over the world, so it does not matter whether or not you have a car in Norway.
By the way, in Norway you can get the cheapest price of benzene only on Sundays you can go to any benzene station to buy at a lower price.
4-Keep in mind that car repair there costs so much for spare parts too, so be careful and think about that before getting a car.
# It is not expensive when you hire a flat or a house.
In Norway, if you wanted to rent an apartment, the price of a normal apartment is not that high, and there is no big difference in prices from one city to another in Oslo, as in another city, so the price is approximately $ 750 per month + Electricity and water By the way, you must deposit a month or perhaps more according to your agreement with the owner of the apartment, all the apartments are luxury level. large floors, occupied with everything you need just take the key to the apartment, go buy your products, put it in the refrigerator or in the kitchen, turn on the TV or go to sleep.
But maybe when you look at the $ 750 price you say oh! It is so much, there people from Eastern Europe go to work, they go in groups of 3 to 4 people to rent a flat and live together so they divide the price of the monthly rent between them and then they also live in a luxury style flat with such a price. cheap.
Some people may read this article and say that only I wrote about living in Norway, but for them they will only go as tourists, so does this article say something useful for them?
YES because we have several overlapping points that we already talked about, such as food, clothing, transport, taxi and of course this information can also help the tourist.
Only a tourist will not go to live in an apartment or house because the rental system in Norway does not allow renting a flat for one or two weeks and if you find that it will cost you so much money for this period, the rental system there is annual and sometimes I can do conracts for 5 years so I think that the tourist will never go to live in a flat and will surely have booked a hotel before traveling.
Hotel prices in Norway are a bit expensive, but I think that if the tourist decides to go to Norway for a sightseeing tour, they will be able to find a suitable reservation hotel and they will be able to know the prices on the Internet and choose the one that best suits them. your budget.
The author of this article lived and worked in Norway for more than 3 years, learned the Norwegian language, speaks and writes it fluently, moved for work to many cities in hotel branches throughout Norway, in Oslo, Tonsberg and Sandfjord . Due to family conditions, he had to temporarily finish his work and return home.
By the way, he really liked Norway and will soon be back to work and live.
