Submitted by Kaare Askildt, Preeceville area farmer in training who recently returned from a trip to his home country of Norway. This story is the first of a three part series.
Driving in Norway
I became Canadian years ago and have lived in various western provinces for the last 43 years. We visited my birth country Norway over Christmas and I would like to share some of our experiences with you, starting with driving a vehicle.
Due to the high cost of fuel, which is more than double of what we pay at the pump in Canada, most vehicles in Norway are small peppy European models, and it amazes me how the tall Norskies manage to get in and out of these puny cars without rubbing off all of the hair on top of their heads! We quickly learned that all Norwegians drive like they stole the vehicle.
The posted speed limit is a challenge to the Norwegian driver as to who can get to that limit the quickest. Drag racing is part of the driving culture, and at times it seems that the rear bumpers are meant for the passing drivers to touch before passing at high speed! There are round-a-bouts and tunnels everywhere. We rented a car to make it easier to get around.
The roads around the City of Oslo and the neighbouring suburbia are in decent shape by Canadian standards, with the main throughways having two lanes in each direction, and a narrow shoulder. But get off the beaten track and you find yourself on a winding two way road no wider than one lane in Canada with no shoulders, and a speed limit of 80 km! That winding road might be going up the side of a mountain!
Let's get back to the car rental. We picked up a peppy little Audi downtown Oslo. Our nephew Morten who we were staying with at the time drove us there and kindly lent us his GPS, which was preprogrammed for home.
I was in my early twenties when I left Norway, and I used to drive here, so this should not be a problem. Yeah right! Lesson number one: don't hesitate, not even for a millisecond, or you will be cut off or blocked!
OK let's put on our cowboy hats so that the other drivers can see that we are tourists. That didn't work as expected. It seemed that we were mistaken for bronco busters or bull riders, as now the cut offs became more aggressive. I know how to drive in a round-a-bout, or so I thought. Half way around I should use the outside lane, three quarters way around I should use the inside lane.
Lesson number two: Don't ever under any circumstance use the inside lane! We got stuck in the inside lane going around and around, and I had visions of having to spend our entire vacation driving around in a circle! Finally I braved up and said to my wife: "When in Norway do like the Norwegians!" I put on my signal light and just drove out! Never mind that guy on my right who kept honking his horn! Phew!
We made it back to Morten and his family in one piece!
Our next driving experience was to drive through the City of Oslo to the City of Drammen to visit with my niece Line and her family. Sounds simple enough and we had a GPS to guide us. My wife helped with the navigation. The human voice on the GPS spoke Norwegian, which didn't help us much as the voice was too low for me to hear and my wife is not fluent in Norwegian. In any event the GPS showed us in a highlighted colour which way to drive. We had to drive through a number of tunnels, and the longest one was into the centre of Oslo. Half way through that tunnel we lost the GPS signal and I had to guess which exit to take. I guessed right as we popped out right in front of the City Hall of Oslo, and just kept on going towards Drammen. Two lanes each direction, this is easy!
There are a number of exits for Drammen, and ours was the second one. Off to the right, then left under the bridge and into a round-a-bout. Between the road signs at the round-a-bout and the GPS, I took the wrong exit and we were headed back to Oslo. Bummer! It seemed like forever until we came to an exit that would turn us around back to Drammen. I get my second chance at the same round-a-bout. My wife looked at the GPS and made a suggestion as to the exit, which I chose to ignore. This round-a-bout was not going to get the best of me this time, I thought as I made another wrong exit, making us head west past Drammen.
My wife was right again, I should have listened. The GPS recalculated our course, and we had to go through another long tunnel before we could turn around. After we got turned around I pulled off the road and called my niece Line to tell her where we were and that we would be a bit late. She giggled a bit while wondering why we were coming to Drammen from that direction. I told her that it was a long story. We get to the same round-a-bout, and this time I listened to my wife, and presto we are in Drammen and after missing the first street to the right, I corrected by taking the second right and doubled back and there we were!
We stayed with Line and her family overnight, and had to return the Audi before noon the next day. Morten is a common first name in Norway, and Line's husband's name was also Morten. He gave me a quick explanation as how to get back on to the freeway to Oslo. He said something about left turns and right turns and a number of traffic light controlled intersections and round-a-bouts and then a sharp right. I thought I had it right, so no need to engage the GPS at this point. I turned left out of the driveway, then right at the first intersection then straight to a T intersection. By then I had forgotten which way to turn, then I remembered the sharp right and figured this must be it! Wrong! We headed up the side of a mountain, and it took me a while before I realized that I was going the wrong way. I pulled off and fired up the GPS. I called my nephew Morten who told me where on the GPS to find the preprogrammed address to the car rental in Oslo. I clicked on it and the directions to get there popped up on the screen.
We got out of Drammen without any further delays and headed for Oslo. When getting off the freeway in Oslo, I was faced with a number of round-a-bouts and one way streets! Suffice it to say that I had a problem following the GPS directions and made a half a dozen wrong turns, showing my wife the seedier side of Oslo as well as the main rail yard for freight. My wife finally decided to take charge of the GPS, and in no time flat had us back at the car rental office two minutes before noon! Morten met us there and my wife gave the GPS back to him. While thanking him for lending it to us, she told him that she would keep the GPS override, as she is married to it! Morten drove us home, and we took the most reliable public transportation from then on, called "Transported by Relatives!"
See Part 2 in the Thursday, January 26 issue of The News Review.
