After great debate, here is our Top Five list.  Thank you to everyone who submitted a story.  Moose and I had our own favourites and it was fun and challenging to pick the Top Five (hence, the late post…lol).  Now it’s over to our readers to choose which Norwegian experience will win the free Sample Calendar.  Just add a comment below telling us which story is your favourite.  (One comment per reader ;D)  Good luck to our Top Five!

(In no particular order)

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Story 1. Kari Sheppard

During the 1982-83 school year, my family hosted a Norwegian exchange student. He spent the whole school year with us and became part of the family. He very much enjoyed the Florida sunshine and would go swimming in Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico all the time.

Arne’s English was very good and he had very little trouble communicating. However, one day while he was at the local beach, swimming in the deeper water near the end of the pier he spotted some sharks. He quickly headed towards shore to warn the families and young children splashing in the surf. As he swam by he kept yelling to everyone “Hai! Hai!” And he couldn’t understand why everyone just smiled and waved to him responding with “Hi!” No one seemed to be worried to get out of the water.
It wasn’t until he returned home and was telling the story that he realized he was not saying “Shark!” in English, but rather “Hai!” in Norwegian.
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Story 2. Lynne Ellison

Years ago I fell in love with a Norwegian seaman, Gunnar Nygård from TØnsberg, Norway. My first trip to Norway was Christmas 1973. Gunnar and I had gotten engaged and I was going to meet his mother, brother and sister for the first time.

When we arrived early morning in Oslo, it was extremely cold, snow everywhere, and the sky was a pinkish orange, for the sun had not risen yet. Gunnar’s brother Odd picked us up at the airport. Gunnar, the oldest brother, drove back to TØnsberg. I sat in the front of the car between Gunnar and Odd. The roads were completely covered in packed snow with snow banks of about 5 feet on both sides of the road. I felt like I was in a slalom race. Gunnar drove so fast it scared the life out of me. He never did slow down. Odd never said a word. He just smiled at me and spoke Norwegian to his brother.

The funniest memory that Christmas was when I went downstairs to use the toilet. We were all having a grand time, celebrating Christmas. The toilet was in a small closet. When I opened the door and turned on the light there was this black snake behind the toilet bowl. I screamed out loud, and jumped back and slammed the door. When I heard all the laughter upstairs I realized Gunnar played a joke on me. It was just a rubber snake. Gunnar knew that I was very fearful of snakes. When I came back upstairs, I felt a little embarrassed and then I started to laugh too. Those Norwegians! They love to have fun!!!

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Story 3. Terri Sheahan

Apologies for the length of this one, but it’s a complex story…

Earlier this year, my partner Paul, and I, spent a couple of nights in Tromsø on our way to Svalbard. I had found a lovely-looking Bed & Breakfast on the internet, and traveller reviews were excellent. I was thrilled with my find, but more than a little puzzled when the confirmation email arrived. It contained the most detailed and peculiar check-in instructions and I joked to Paul: “I think I accidently booked us into a spy hotel!”

Let me quote directly from this priceless email:

“This is your code for late arrival: ask after New Year. Remember to bring this code with you for the stay. If your arrival is after 15.00 you check in as followed: By the front door you push the code mentioned above and open the door. On the inside you will find the key box no.1, where you push the same code, followed with B (confirm) and open by turn the wheel. In the key box you will find an envelope with your name and room number. Inside the envelope there is a key card with a key chip attached to it. The key card is for your room door and key chip for the front door. “

We were not due to arrive until around 10pm, so I dutifully printed out the email as I knew we would never memorise such detailed instructions. I also knew that we would be arriving in lovely Tromsø after a 30 hour flight marathon (Brisbane, Australia – Hong Kong – Helsinki – Oslo – Tromsø). I joked to Paul that we may be so jet lagged, we’d never manage to complete all the instructions and might end up having to sleep on the doorstep. I joked too quickly, it turned out!

We’d made the booking in December so four months passed before we finally took off on our Scandinavian adventure.

Weary and jet lagged, we arrived on the doorstep of the quaint B & B on a freezing March evening. And yes, as the email had warned, there was a key pad by the front door. Luckily, another guest was leaving as we arrived and she held the door open for us, so we made it into the lobby without having to enter the secret code. Once inside, we spotted another keypad. Clearly, this is where we were also to enter the code. But how, I asked Paul? The key pad only had numbers. How on earth were we meant to enter the words “Ask-after-New-Year”?

As Paul videoed my feeble attempts to solve this puzzle, I was becoming increasingly frustrated. Then it suddenly occurred to me. A light bulb moment! “I know” I announced “…I bet we have to enter the letters like you do on a mobile text message.” (You know: press 2 for A B and C, 3 for D E and F and so on.) “Oh it can’t possibly be that hard, can it?” Paul asked. But I was on a roll. Ingenious Norwegian trickery! I thought, as I pulled out my mobile phone and started entering the numbers that corresponded to the letters “Ask-after-New-Year”.

Clearly, I was a little demented from the jet lag. Or my frustrated ambition to be a spy. Either way, I persisted. It took a while. Then the moment came. With great anticipation, I pressed the letter B on the keypad and went to turn the wheel which would open the secret safe to reveal the envelope with our key card and key chip. Nothing. The door on the little safe would not budge.

By now, totally frustrated and seriously needing to get into our room for an overdue lie down, I desperately scanned the lobby looking for a phone to call the owners. At that moment, two guests walked by, and I showed them the emailed instructions.

“How on earth are we meant to key in the words Ask-after-New-Year?” I asked them.

They just about fell over laughing.

“No,” they informed us “that’s not your code. You must have made the booking last year, and you were meant to email them back after the New Year and they would send you the new code.”

With an embarrassed smile, I gratefully accepted the numeric code they kindly shared with us. Aha..at last…our room key was in my hands!

That was, to say the least, one of the most bizarre holiday experiences. And every painful minute of it caught on video. What an introduction to Tromsø!!

(PS: Despite the ‘challenging’ check-in process, The Ami Hotel was a great find.)

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Story 4. Andy

The day had arrived when I would finally meet my Norwegian partner’s mother for the first time. Understandably, I was nervous and eager to make a good impression.

We got her home from the airport and I was busy making polite conversation about the weather and her flight over when, after rummaging through her suitcase, she produced a small bottle of pale brown liquid. “Aquavit”, she said, “a Norwegian tradition”.

Carefully she portioned the liquid into small glasses and handed them around. “Skål”, she said, smiling and raising her glass. I followed suit, but as I stood there blinking back my tears and desperately trying not to cough, I was surprised to see my partner’s mother give me a strange look before taking a tiny sip from her glass. Only then did it dawn on me – skål is NOT the same thing as skull!*

(* In New Zealand and Australian slang skull means ‘to drink the entire contents of something without pausing’.)

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Story 5. Hanneke

Not long after I arrived in Norway, I started with a Norwegian language course. Before that, I would constantly ask people to speak English. Armed with my new knowledge, I went to buy some flowers in a shop, determined not to switch to English. It all went well, I understood their questions and was able to answer them (the very simple ones, like “would you like a bag”? ). When I was about to leave the guy said something I completely didn’t understand. I looked rather confused so he repeated it, but I still had no idea what he was trying to say. So I threw in my “unnskyld, jeg snakker bare litt norsk, snakker du engelsk?” – which he didn’t! He went to ask his colleague for a translation, but she didn’t know either. I was feeling quite embarrassed by now, but I thought he was trying to tell me something important (perhaps how to care for the plant?) so I patiently waited. The guy decided to go to the back of the shop to find someone who spoke English. When he came back with an English speaker, I finally found out what he had been trying to tell me – “God helg” – Have a good weekend!!!