Oslo?

GothicGothicness said:

Maybe not now, but last time I was in Oslo and bought a pizza it was 150 SEK, here the same kind of pizza was 70 SEK… same things on some other things… so I am underexaggerating if anything. However right now I don't know… what it is like.

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You might have just gone to some expensive restaurant

GothicGothicness said:

Maybe not now, but last time I was in Oslo and bought a pizza it was 150 SEK, here the same kind of pizza was 70 SEK… same things on some other things… so I am underexaggerating if anything. However right now I don't know… what it is like.

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I don't doubt that. But it's only one product bought at one place. The average is not on that level.

pibbur who

Well, believe or not, but I was spot on with this

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...y&city1=Oslo&country2=Sweden&city2=Gothenburg

Restaurant Prices in Gothenburg are 49.40% lower than in Oslo.
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant 150.00 kr 71.97 kr -52.02 %

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Wow!!! Restaurant prices didn't surprise me, neither did rent. But for the other elements, the difference was greater than I expected.

Thanks for the link.

pibbur who thinks maybe he should go to Sweden for his next holiday.

PS. We need to do something about this. We've been living a very protected life in Norway, but we can't expect that to last. From that perspective the recent fall in oil prices may be useful. DS.

pibbur who said:

Wow!!! Restaurant prices didn't surprise me, neither did rent. But for the other elements, the difference was greater than I expected.

Thanks for the link.

pibbur who thinks maybe he should go to Sweden for his next holiday.

PS. We need to do something about this. We've been living a very protected life in Norway, but we can't expect that to last. From that perspective the recent fall in oil prices may be useful. DS.

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I had some people visit me from Oslo.. actually they are originally from China... but they have been in Oslo for a couple of years. They were shocked when they came to Sweden for the first time, when they saw the prices and selection of food... now they want to come here and shop all the time.

Levis trousers are cheaper in Oslo.

pibbur who claims that prices in Oslo, especially the cost of buying/renting houses, are significantly highter than the rest of the country.

Just to help us furriners, what's the approximate conversion rate for your currency to say US$, or $AUS? I can get a cheap Dominos or Pizza Hut pizza for $5-6, while a top of the line Gourmet pizza would be $20.

1 USD=7,45 NOK
1 AUD=5,95 NOK

Pibbur who is happy that for the currency he's using the exchange rate is simple, 1 NOK=1 NOK.

Ugh! I better increase my credit limit!

Well I am now in Oslo airport about to depart for Düsseldorf via Zurich. I have had a fantastic time in Norway. Oslo was excellent and made more so by the excellent information from pibbur, others, and the comprehensive and excellent information from Peter S.
Thank you!
I also very much enjoyed my journey to/fro Bergen. (Was meant to be easy train with no changes, however, due to a landslide, it became a train, boat, bus, train each way journey! While not planned the boat on the fjord was magnificent, rain and all.
A highlight was meeting pibbur in Bergen. We spent a most enjoyable few hours wandering around the older areas of the town which, combined with your excellent history knowledge pibbur, was just great. The funicular and views was very good and the subsequent local beers an excellent conclusion. Thank you very much I appreciated it (and for coming to say hi and pointing out you house when we transferred from bus to boat on returning to Oslo from Bergen).

And yes it isn't cheap and it was magnificent!!!!!

@hurls: it was very nice meeting you and I had a good time.

For the record: he was the unnamed australian (in another thread) I was going to meet and falsely (sorry about that) claimed there could be problems understanding.

Hurls was easy to talk to. Maybe that's because he was from Melbourne. Perhaps people from other parts of down under, like for instance Brisbane are more alien..

Pibbur who wonders how many ozzies are called "Bruce". Or "Ozzy".

PS. If anyone else of the watchers plan on going to Bergen@Norway, better call pibbur.

Just wait till you come down here for a visit!! !!

Food related products are very expensive in Norway. Mainly because we are not a member of the EU. That means we have a lot of import taxes on food products to protect the Norwegian farmers. The selection of products in the stores is also much less since imported products become too expensive.

Some products like alcohol, tobacco, gasoline, automobiles have heavy taxes in Norway. The Government thinks high prices on alcohol and tobacco will keep the consumption down. Instead people buy such things in Sweden or use the tax free quota every time they travel abroad.

On normal imported products (electronics, clothes etc.) the Norwegian prices aren't that high. E. g. I've found quite a lot of products cheaper in Norway than in Sweden. E. g. computers. You just have to know where to buy such things.

Public transportation is also very expensive in Norway. Some is policy based. The airline company SAS (owned by Denmark, Sweden and Norway) said their air trip prices for domestic prices in Norway are more expensive than Denmark and Sweden because they know the Norwegian customers can pay the extra price.

Norwegians see that it's cheaper to fly from Stockholm to New York than Oslo to New York despite Oslo is closer to New York and the fill rate is the same. SAS use the same aircraft for the trips.

Unfortunately what the tourists need are food related products, gasoline etc. That means they see the worst of the prices in Norway. Not easy to fix for the tourist industry since it's government politics. Keeping local farmers alive is vital for keeping the settlements in rural areas. The price we pay is insanely high food prices.

Still we have never spent less on food compared to our wages than we do now.

pibbur who actually thinks some prices should be higher for animal welfare reasons.

I've found something that is really cheap in Norway: Diapers. A small pack of diapers may cost as little as 2 USD, while for instance in Denmark, the same pack cost 4 times as much. According to a Norwegian newspaper.

The reason: All grocery stores use cheap diapers as bait. They lose money on the diapers, but hope to get more customers this way. Which I assume doesn't work very well, since every store does this and have done it for years. But no one dare increase the prices, because then they surely will lose customers.

According to the same newspaper foreigners, especially east-europeans have discovered this. They come with trucks and buy all the diapers they can get their hands on (which isn't illegal) and sell it all when they come home (which probably is illegal - according to the newspaper). But no matter what, it's not what the stores had in mind. So some have set a limit: only 1 (or 2?) pack per customer.

For those of you who are not language-challenged, here's the link: http://www.bt.no/nyheter/okonomi/Han-sier-nei-til-bleie-hamstring-3377347.html

And, to my surprise I found and English link as well: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/9841806/Nappy-wars-in-Norway-supermarkets-lure-eastern-Europeans.html

pibbur who no longer remembers what diapers are used for, except that you should not throw them at Lord British.

Something similar happened between Germany and Poland. Sugar was (is?) much more expensive in Poland. So it wasn't unusual that some guy from Poland drove to an Aldi close to the border and stuffed a palette of 1 kg sugar packs into his 20 year old VW Polo.

Pibs, as you are getting older, you may want to stock up on those diapers incase you have certain issues later in life!!

Corwin said:

Pibs, as you are getting older, you may want to stock up on those diapers incase you have certain issues later in life!!

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Not sure what you're talking about here, but I'll take your word for it.

Pibbur who trusts the corwin as long as he agrees with him, and occasionally when he does't..

Hmm, the voice of personal experience corwin????????

No, fortunately no problems there; now if I could only remember what we were talking about!!