This is my last article on the blog. I’m leaving Norway in 3 days. This article is dedicated to the Halloween boat cruise. During the last week-end of October, me and some friends went to this cruise. We paid 30€ for the all week-end in a luxurious boat. It was my first cruise.

The meeting point was in Bergen. We waited the boat during several hours. After 5 hours, we finally left the harbor.

Bergen is in the middle of the Fjord. To have a clear description about Fjord go back to my article about Norway and Bergen. We navigated in those fjords during approximatively 2 hours. It was wonderful: many houses lost in the middle of nowhere, some other just above the sea level, wooden cabins in little island. We also see dolphins!

For the first night, the ship company, Fjordline, had organized a Halloween party. Most of the people were disguised in nightclubs, it was fun! We also feel the North Sea’s power during the night. The boat moved a little bit because of the wages.

On Saturday, we make a step in northern Denmark. We took two trains to leave an industrial area and go to Aalborg, an important city in this country. We walked during all the day with some Erasmus friends. We discovered some nice building but not a lot and a lovely old district. We went back to the boat at 7pm. After the meal, the company had organized a second party: pyjama party. It was quite fun to see people, in this luxurious boat and nightclubs in pyjama.

On Sunday, we went back to Bergen. We saw amazing landscape during the cruise. It is an unforgettable moment.

This article concludes my contribution to this blog as an Erasmus student. I hope I gave you some interesting information during those articles. But, most important, if you are a student, I hope my experience will motivate you to go for an exchange!

Bye,

Pierre

pcottier

On the previous article, I shared with you a picture of our car in the snow. At this moment, we make a step because we saw the ice on the road and we weren’t at the top of mountains. After a moment of reflection, we decided to continue, slowly, on the road:

We went to Ustaoset. It’s a small village with frozen lakes and white mountains. Houses are lost in the middle of nowhere, sometimes there isn’t any road to go to houses!

At the beginning, we have thought to go to Stavanger, a big city built thank to oil’s earnings. We already knew that it will be difficult to reach this town but with the snow it’s became impossible. Thus, we drove to Odda a city well-known for a famous hike.

We took a road and after 20 kilometers, the road was block by this panel and we eared an explosion:

It’s was not allowed to continue because they were exploding mountains to build tunnels! So, we went back and took a ferry to reach Odda. The hike was short but nice, I saw for the first time of my life a glacier.

At 5pm it was completely dark.

We went back to the city center and took a Norwegian beer in a pub without looking at the price: 31€ for two beers. Outch!

After this break, we searched for a place to sleep. We found a nice harbor to park the car in Jondal.

Last day:

After a breakfast and a hike in Jondal, we took the ferry to Tørvikbygd.

Bergen, my home town, was still far away.

We drove during several hours on wonderful and incredible roads…

After a while, we arrived in the south of Bergen:

This is the end of this adventure!

Next time I will tell you the story of a student boat cruise that we made the week-end before the road trip in Hordaland.

See you!

pcottier

Hordaland is the third largest county in Norway. Me and my friend Guillaume had plan an itinerary to do it, but some unexpected things happened and we needed to change our plans. We made it in three days. So, I will make this first article for 1.5 days and a second one to tell you the end.

First day:

We left Bergen on the first Tuesday of November with a car rent at the airport. Our first stop was Flam, a little city in the north. We decided to do a hike to see a waterfall. It was nice but instead of 1hour of hiking we made 3hours because of the markup. In fact, at the tourist information they said “you just have to follow the red arrow”. The problem was that the red arrow go to the top of a high mountain. Nevertheless, the hike was nice, we just finished it in the dark because an early sunset (5pm).

Norwegians are very fond of hike. In many cities, you have an information panel with all the possibilities to hike. I made some and even when the difficulty is green, you need to have hiking shoes. I slip down several times with my running shoes. We saw in Vandal, one black hike of 18hours!

After the hike, we went to Stegastein to spend the night and eat. Our project was to sleep in the car, we had taken blankets from our apartment.

Second day:

At 8am we discover a wonderful view without any other tourists!

After a breakfast, we drove in the direction of Ustaoset with our little Toyota. Ustaoset is close to Finse, the highest point of the Norwegian Railway System at 1 222 meters above sea level. But, there is no car road to go to Finse, that’s why we decided to go to the closest city, Ustaoset.

We discovered the city and those amazing landscapes during the path between Oslo and Bergen in train one month ago.

But we didn’t think about how the road will be. Certainly, it was magnificent in train with all the snow but in car it’s not the same:

You will discover in the next episode what we have decided to do!

pcottier

Do you know which country has an unemployment rate of 5% in 2016? It’s Norway.

Currently, in France the unemployment rate is about 10,5%.

According to a ranking made by the OCDE in 2012, Norwegians earn $6670 by month versus $3797 for a French citizen.

Living cost in Norway is very high as I can see during those months. But it’s normal according to Norwegians salaries. The purchasing power is higher here than in France. Further, Norway is well-known to be a fair country for gender equality (including wages).

Indeed, wealth’s repartition is better here. To illustrate this fact, we can use the Gini coefficient. According to Wikipedia, Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation’s residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality.

Below a World map with Gini coefficient. If the country is in dark green, it indicates one of the most fairly country for income distribution. For example, South Africa have a bad Gini coefficient. That’s mean, a few people receive the majority of incomes.

Norway is a wealthy country. Thanks to petroleum exploitation, they created the Sovereign wealth fund. This fund is managing more than $700 billions.

Wealth allows some social advantages, like long break after a child for woman and also for man. Moreover, it’s unpopular for a mother in Norway to go back to work quickly after the birth and also to go back to work full time. Actually, most of the mother go back to work for a part time schedule. This is not the same way of thinking in France.

Nevertheless, as reported by La Tribune, very high salaries can be a problem. In fact, in the last 20 years Norwegian’s wages grew very rapidly. Therefore, many people have made a choice: a part-time work. With free time, they are taking care of children, go skiing, hiking or take some rest in a cabin. People earn more and work less. The result of this is a lack of market share. But Norway is still one of the most efficient country like France.

Have a nice week-end,

Pierre.

pcottier

Hi!

I publish this article by advance because next week I will be in Oslo with some friends. I will present you briefly a big Norwegian company founded by Bjorn Kjos, an airplane pilot. Currently he is the CEO of this low-cost company. I choose to make this article because, today, one friend of mine is coming from France thank to this company. Secondly, I know well this company because at school, we made 3 group works on it.

Norwegian is the third largest low cost carrier in Europe with 28 million customers annually and around 110 aircrafts in operation with an average age of less than four years. They have the youngest fleet in the world. Norwegian is less dependent of oil price because his fleet consummation is very low and they buy oil at a good price, thanks to a good hedging strategy.

Nevertheless, like a low-cost company, they make you pay if you want earphones or a blanket during long haul for example. It is the price to pay for a cheap ticket if you don’t take any options.

Norweigian route map

The route portfolio stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as long-haul routes to the US and Southeast Asia. The company has around 450 routes to more than 140 destinations on sale and employs approximately 5.500 people. Norwegian is very powerful and the company is still developing his fleet, nearly 300 planes are already orders to Airbus and Boeing.

Norwegian’s publicity after Brad Pitt’s divorce

Norwegian work hard to develop his long haul offer. It is a very long process. During two years Norwegian Air Shuttle, based in Norway fought against US state and some unions to have the right to fly to and from the US. After many twists, the company obtains the Air Operator’s certificate, AOC, from the national aviation authority of the USA. To develop his offer, Norwegian need to deal with unions and governments but those negotiations take time.

Have a nice week-end!

pcottier

A well-known stereotype about Norwegians is that they are cold and reserved. When I need to go to NHH, my school, I have to take 2 buses. The path is approximately 30 minutes. First point in public transportation: it’s very impolite to talk to an unknown guy in a bus, as reported by a Norwegian friend. But don’t worry if you need to ask for information in the street or if you are searching for a shop people will help you. Furthermore, according to my personal experience, most of citizens speak a good English.

Above you can see typical example of a Norwegian bus stop! Each morning when I take my first bus there are maximum 2 persons in the bus stop and others people waiting outside even when it’s raining. It’s quite funny!

There is another different between Norway and France. When the bus is nearly full, Norwegians going beside of you instead of going in front of you. It’s to avoid eye contact like Dan, a Norwegian explain me. Erasmus experience allowed you to discover this kind of cultural differences. Several masters in international business have courses about managing international diversity and difference. It’s important to respect and understand the culture of your partner. For example, something I learn here is Asian people are not use to say no when you ask something. It’s can be necessary to know it before a group work for instance. I find really interesting to meet people who have another way of thinking and other cultural habits. That’s why, I really want to travel to Asia soon in order to discover new countries and cultures.

Have a nice week 🙂

Pierre

pcottier