Grand Prix celebration in Bodø!

May 29, 2010

Our second day in Bodø started with perhaps the most delicious mug of hot chocolate ever, Norwegians know their chocolate! Today was the second of our travel rest days and we kicked off the morning in search of a laptop adapter. Interestingly, electronic stores in Norway sell converters from Norwegian to US but not from US to Norwegian. The store clerk did figure out an alternative though and I bought a mickey mouse cord for only 35 NOK. I can now stay connected throughout the trip!

Richard and Wenche Lindal, perhaps our best friends in Bodø, picked us up for a Norwegian lunch. We visited a small restaurant called Formers Stue or Grandma's Dining Room. The inside of the restaurant was designed to look like Grandma's house including a living room, dining room and kitchen. Each room was decorated with old wallpaper, lace curtains, handmade dollies and of course, antiques throughout. Lunch was delicious and our party tried several Norwegian favorites including an open-faced burger, a brown cheese crepe and my selection, vegetarian pie.

After lunch, we met up with Per Vasshaug and a British-born Norwegian Edward Pegg. Edward has lived in Norway for the past 40 years after leaving Britain for the beauty of the Norwegian coast and of course, love. "There's always a girl," he explained. We decided to meet on the top floor of the County Building, which was great because of the panaromic view of the coastline. The goal for this afternoon meet up was to talk more about Norway and to answer any questions we might have about the country as we kick off our month-long stay. Over the next hour, we learned a lot about the country and the city of Bodø.

Norway is a country of 4.8 million and is located between 48 and 71 degrees north. In Bodø, we are already above the Artic Circle but sadly, because we crossed the line by airplane, it is not considered being baptized. Norway is about 1700 km in length, with Bodø being the approximate half way mark. Norway borders three countries: Finland, Sweden and Russia. Norwegians are very savvy negotiators and in fact, over 45 years ago negotiated with the English on the boundaries of the sea and took ownership of more than 75 percent of the sea between the two countries. Conveniently, the North Sea later was found to be home to oil so Norway became a very rich country because of that find. Border negotations for the waterways between Russia and Norway have been ongoing for 40 years, with Norway wanting the border to be half way and the Russians wanting a section line instead. Norway and Russia finally agreed on a border last year and the result is a compromise.

Norwegians initially settled along the coastline and the Sami people chose the inland area. Today, there are still about 40,000 Sami people who live closer to the northern tip of Norway. The Sami people are protected by the government and often have reserved seats for Parliament or even at universities. In Norway, everybody has a right to an education until 18. This means that you cannot fail out of a school or be kicked out for any reason. However, after 18, only those who are the brightest can apply to go to a university. Once a year, Norwegians would mail in an application to college to one address in Oslo. The government will then go through the applications and select candidates for seats in different universities and programs. Medicine, civil engineering and journalism remain the most competitive programs.

Politically, Norway is a constitutional monarchy. The king remains more a figurehead but does have the ability to make special decisions. The rest of the power is divided between Parliament (makes laws) and Government (executes). One interesting example of the monarch's power was in 1927, when the govenrmetn went into crisis and dissolved. The prime minister, who is appointed by the king, decided to step down and asked the king to find a substitute. The king selected a communist replacement and thus started a divide between the Parliament and the Government. Today, there are elections every four years and the king still can select the Prime Minister but the decision must be approved by Parliament. Local elections are every four years, two years after the national elections. Voting is by party and is not done electronically. Only for local elections can the individual candidates be selected. The parties in Norway include (from the left to the right): Left Party (Marxist/Leninist) which receives about 0.5-0.8 percent votes, Socialist Left Party which currently does have seats in Parliament, Labour Party which is represented in Government and the current Prime Minister is the head of the Labour Party, Christian Democrat Pary, Liberal Party, Center Party which is made up of the farmers, Conservative Party and the Progress Party which is more populist. Traditionally, it has been a competition between the Labour and Conservative Party to take the most seats in Parliament but recently, the Left/Socialist/Center Party has formed an alliance and works together. The winning party takes 30 percent of the seats and seven of the other parties do take some percentage of the seats. Norway has hosted two referendums in 1972 and 1992, both regarding joining the EU. People have voted against joining the EU mostly to protect their waters from other EU members coming in to fish. No other referendums have been mentioned since 1992.

While fish continues to be a valued commodity, the country's wealth comes from oil. Norway has been steadily putting away the profits from oil instead of spending the money in order to provide for healthcare and other needs the aging generations might need. Currently, there are four workers to every pension but the goal in the near future is to make it to two workers to every pension. Employees currently pay 2 percent of their wages to the pension plan while employers pay 9.5 percent of their pension, though it varies slightly depending on the region within the country. Parliament cannot reallocate more than 4 percent of the money in the plan. Unemployment in Norway is currently 3.5 percent due to the financial crisis but typically is 2.5 percent.

After learning about Norway, we went home to change and get ready for our first Eurovision contest party. Richard had bought us tickets to a party hosted at the Radisson Blu Hotel and being that Norway is last year's champion, this event going to be a celebration. Eurovision, or "Grand Prix" as it is referred to in Norway, is a Europe-wide singing contest where 40 countries participate by performing an original song in any language. After two rounds of semi-finals, the final 20 countries perform their songs live in the host city (Oslo this year, since Norway won last year) and each country participates in the voting. There are two parts to the voting, half comes from a panel of judges representing each country and the other half comes from the voting public at home. However, no country can vote for themselves. The only guaranteed spots in the final are the reigning champions and United Kingdom, Germany and France since they put up the most money toward the event. After every performance has been viewed, the judges collaborate the votes and each country assigns 10 scores ranging from 1-7, 8, 10 and 12 points. While technically this is a signing competition, votes are highly dependent on politics. In this year's competition, Germany won by a significant margin. Other notables include Greece, France, Romania and Belgium.

While watching the Grand Prix was half the fun, the other half was partying with the Norwegians. This was our first night out in town and we met a lot of fun and friendly people! After the party at the Radisson, we headed over to a bar called Public with our new friend Marie. Mind you, walking out of the Radisson at midnight, the sky was bright and looked like 3 pm in the afternoon. The bar scene in Bodø was like most pub scenes back at home, except more expensive! A glass of wine or a beer were 64 NOK or $10 and a mixed drink started at 91 NOK. At 3 am, it was finally time for bed!