Journal
What a trip we had in Slovakia! And now we've decided to spend Christmas in extreme temperature at the very north of Europe, Norway. After landing at its capital, Oslo, we immediately headed toward the coast where we would be tasting the most delicious food in the country. Out of many restaurants we chose to go to Lofoten Fiske restaurant, a restaurant known for its seafood. While eating, one of the waiters kindly informed us that Norwegian cuisine is traditionally based on raw food provided by nature from the mountains and the coast. The principal food choice is salmon, which could be found in the Norwegian Sea. Due to cold temperature and long winter, many traditional cuisine contain conserved materials. Norwegian cuisine nowadays are still strongly influenced by its traditional background. Because of globalization, many Western European food would be found in Norway but flavored differently from the other countries for example: sandwiches, pastas and even pizzas.
After finishing a great meal at Lofoten Fiske restaurant, we went back to the hotel and decided to explore Norwegian art the next day. We directly headed to the Oslo National Academy of Art next morning which was founded in 1996 and ranked 22nd in the country. From what we know, this is considerably high for a university founded under 25 years. According to the mayor, its design program is ranked among the world's best 60 by the Bloomberg Businessweek. Beside visual arts, the academy's education in the field of design and performing arts are also well-known in Europe. After finishing our lunch at the university, we went to the Much-Museet(Munch Museum) that commemorates Edvard Much, the greatest painter in Norway of all time. According to the curator of the museum, he is famous for being one of the pioneers of modern art, building on to the main tenets of Symbolism of late 19th century and most importantly, his later artworks that greatly influenced on expressionism in the 20th century. In all the artworks he painted, the best of all the masterpieces is "The Scream" painted in 1893. It is his first and the most crucial painting revealing the idea of symbolism.
Before heading back to Central Europe, we wanted to understand more abut the economy of the richest country in Northern-Europe. We then went to the Norwegian School of Economics which ranks 57 of worldwide business schools. One of the professor told us that with 68591, Norway ranks the sixth highest GDP last year. GDP, which stands for gross domestic product per capita, values the the good and services of a nation in a certain year over its population. We also learned that Norway used to be a small country producing sea products for their own country, but after the industrial era, Norway has shown a great growth in economics. He also told us the reasons why Norway has become one of the richest countries in the world: Noway's growth in economics has been fueled by natural resources, providing hydroelectric power for other countries, and most importantly fisheries. Norway's broad industrial fields providing low unemployment rate is also an element to Norway's great economics. According to the OECD, Norway stands the third highest employment rate in the world with 99.8 percent of employment rate. It's a pretty large number compared to other European countries.
http://time.com/4722651/norway-doomsday-vault-svalbard/
Norway has opened a second 'Doomsday Vault' in a former coal mine to store data in the event of an apocalypse. This new vault, officially known as the Arctic World Archive, is filled with books, documents and other forms of data. It's located on the island of Svalbard on the same mountain as the Global Seed Vault, where people stored 1.5 million of the world's most important seed crops, which would come handy if most of the Earth's crops are destroyed. Piql, the archiving company running the vault, said they think their film could preserve information for up to 1,000 years, due to its unique storage location. This coal mine maintains the temperature of below-zero degrees Celsius and is deep enough to avoid damage from nuclear weapons. The storage service isn't only available to Norway, it also accepts information "for guaranteed access in the future," from other countries, companies and individuals. So far, only three countries have submitted to the project. According to Live Science, Brazil submitted important historical documents while Mexico sent in documents that date back to the Inca period.
Hey! We're in Norway and we went to a small town beside the harbour. This is Bryggen, a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining on the eastern side of the Vågen harbour in Bergen, Norway. It is also known as Tyskebryggen, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. These beautiful buildings are mostly restaurants, museums and shops. The construction of Bryggen started around 1100 and had experienced fire several times, the most recent fire was in 1955, where a part of Bryggen was destroyed. Later in 1976, the Bryggen museum was established on part of the site cleared by the fire. I think that's it for now, we'll see you in a few weeks!
Andy and Daniel
After finishing a great meal at Lofoten Fiske restaurant, we went back to the hotel and decided to explore Norwegian art the next day. We directly headed to the Oslo National Academy of Art next morning which was founded in 1996 and ranked 22nd in the country. From what we know, this is considerably high for a university founded under 25 years. According to the mayor, its design program is ranked among the world's best 60 by the Bloomberg Businessweek. Beside visual arts, the academy's education in the field of design and performing arts are also well-known in Europe. After finishing our lunch at the university, we went to the Much-Museet(Munch Museum) that commemorates Edvard Much, the greatest painter in Norway of all time. According to the curator of the museum, he is famous for being one of the pioneers of modern art, building on to the main tenets of Symbolism of late 19th century and most importantly, his later artworks that greatly influenced on expressionism in the 20th century. In all the artworks he painted, the best of all the masterpieces is "The Scream" painted in 1893. It is his first and the most crucial painting revealing the idea of symbolism.
Before heading back to Central Europe, we wanted to understand more abut the economy of the richest country in Northern-Europe. We then went to the Norwegian School of Economics which ranks 57 of worldwide business schools. One of the professor told us that with 68591, Norway ranks the sixth highest GDP last year. GDP, which stands for gross domestic product per capita, values the the good and services of a nation in a certain year over its population. We also learned that Norway used to be a small country producing sea products for their own country, but after the industrial era, Norway has shown a great growth in economics. He also told us the reasons why Norway has become one of the richest countries in the world: Noway's growth in economics has been fueled by natural resources, providing hydroelectric power for other countries, and most importantly fisheries. Norway's broad industrial fields providing low unemployment rate is also an element to Norway's great economics. According to the OECD, Norway stands the third highest employment rate in the world with 99.8 percent of employment rate. It's a pretty large number compared to other European countries. Newspaper
Norway Now Has Two Doomsday Vaults In Case There's an Apocalypse
Norway has opened a second 'Doomsday Vault' in a former coal mine to store data in the event of an apocalypse. This new vault, officially known as the Arctic World Archive, is filled with books, documents and other forms of data. It's located on the island of Svalbard on the same mountain as the Global Seed Vault, where people stored 1.5 million of the world's most important seed crops, which would come handy if most of the Earth's crops are destroyed. Piql, the archiving company running the vault, said they think their film could preserve information for up to 1,000 years, due to its unique storage location. This coal mine maintains the temperature of below-zero degrees Celsius and is deep enough to avoid damage from nuclear weapons. The storage service isn't only available to Norway, it also accepts information "for guaranteed access in the future," from other countries, companies and individuals. So far, only three countries have submitted to the project. According to Live Science, Brazil submitted important historical documents while Mexico sent in documents that date back to the Inca period.
World's Happiest Countries
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/20/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-united-nations-2017/
Norwegians have all the reason to be celebrating the International Day of Happiness. According to the latest World Happiness Report, released Monday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations, after ranking fourth for the past few years, Norway has finally gotten their first ever title, displacing the three time champion Denmark, who dropped to second place this year, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and Sweden (which tied for ninth place). Denmark has won the title three of the four times the report has been issued, while Switzerland has won once.
Settling at a latitude of 60.4 N, Norway’s hockey has been the most popular and profitable sport in the country. Just like USA’s NHL, the NIHA( Norwegian Ice Hockey Association) also organizes a hockey league named the GET-ligaen with 10 teams. Recently, the playoff has begun. Teams advances according to the seven-series game where one team should gain four wins. At the deciding game seven of the first round(quarter-finals), The Sparta Warriors met the Storhamar dragons ridiculously setting a world record after using a total of eight overtimes to decide the winner, sending the Warriors to quarter finals. Interestingly, the game began at the local time of 9:00, but after the regulation and the eight overtimes with the timeouts, the two teams sent the 5526 people in the arena back home at 2:30am!
Norwegians have all the reason to be celebrating the International Day of Happiness. According to the latest World Happiness Report, released Monday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations, after ranking fourth for the past few years, Norway has finally gotten their first ever title, displacing the three time champion Denmark, who dropped to second place this year, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and Sweden (which tied for ninth place). Denmark has won the title three of the four times the report has been issued, while Switzerland has won once.
Hockey history set in Norway
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/a/34629221/norway-hockey-playoff-sets-world-record-with-eight-overtimes/#page1
Settling at a latitude of 60.4 N, Norway’s hockey has been the most popular and profitable sport in the country. Just like USA’s NHL, the NIHA( Norwegian Ice Hockey Association) also organizes a hockey league named the GET-ligaen with 10 teams. Recently, the playoff has begun. Teams advances according to the seven-series game where one team should gain four wins. At the deciding game seven of the first round(quarter-finals), The Sparta Warriors met the Storhamar dragons ridiculously setting a world record after using a total of eight overtimes to decide the winner, sending the Warriors to quarter finals. Interestingly, the game began at the local time of 9:00, but after the regulation and the eight overtimes with the timeouts, the two teams sent the 5526 people in the arena back home at 2:30am!
Postcard
Dear Grandma,Hey! We're in Norway and we went to a small town beside the harbour. This is Bryggen, a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining on the eastern side of the Vågen harbour in Bergen, Norway. It is also known as Tyskebryggen, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. These beautiful buildings are mostly restaurants, museums and shops. The construction of Bryggen started around 1100 and had experienced fire several times, the most recent fire was in 1955, where a part of Bryggen was destroyed. Later in 1976, the Bryggen museum was established on part of the site cleared by the fire. I think that's it for now, we'll see you in a few weeks!
Andy and Daniel
I liked how you ended the trip in the postcard. As well as the historical facts.
ReplyDeleteI like how your postcard was really friendly in the front. It provided a lot of information, but maybe since this is a postcard, you can also kind of ¨talk¨ to the receiver, because it sort of sounded like you forgot she was there...?
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, it was great!
:)