Type and sockets, English spoken by essentially everyone, and shops that shut on Sundays. The rule that catches visitors is alcohol: the supermarket stops selling beer at 20:00, and anything stronger only comes from Vinmonopolet.
- Anything above 4.75% is sold only by the state monopoly, typically 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 15:00 on Saturdays, closed Sundays.
- Supermarkets sell beer only, and only until 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays. After the cut-off the till refuses the sale whatever time the shop closes.
- Shops are closed on Sundays apart from small convenience shops, petrol stations and bakeries.
- Take your shoes off indoors. In any Norwegian home this is automatic, and not doing it is genuinely rude.
- Take a numbered ticket on the way into a pharmacy or post counter - without one you will be invisible. Sockets are type and at 230V.
- Power: Type and sockets, 230V, 50Hz. UK, US and Australian devices need an adapter.
- Time: CET (UTC+1), CEST (UTC+2) in summer. In Tromso that means midnight sun from late May to late July, and no sun at all from late November to mid-January.
- Language: English is spoken fluently by nearly everyone under seventy. You will not need Norwegian for anything practical, and trying a few words is appreciated rather than expected.
- Tap water: free, cold and among the best in the world. Refill the bottle.
- Shops: usually 09:00 or 10:00 to 18:00 or 20:00 on weekdays, shorter on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays apart from small convenience shops, petrol stations and bakeries.
- Public holidays shut things completely: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 17 May, Ascension and Whit Monday. 17 May is a national street party and worth planning around rather than through.
- Toilets are widely available and frequently cost NOK 10 to 30, paid by card.
- Queue tickets: pharmacies, post counters and Vinmonopolet use a numbered ticket machine (kolapp). Take one on the way in or you will be invisible.
Alcohol, which is its own subject here
- Anything above 4.75% is sold only by Vinmonopolet, the state monopoly. Typical hours are 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays - some branches to 20:00 - and 10:00 to 15:00 on Saturdays, closed on Sundays and public holidays.
- Supermarkets sell beer only, and only until 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays. After the cut-off the till refuses the sale, whatever time the shop itself closes. On Sundays no shop sells alcohol at all.
- You must be 18 for beer and wine and 20 for spirits, and ID checks are routine regardless of how old you look.
- A bar pint runs NOK 100 to 140. The vorspiel - drinking at home before going out - is a national institution for exactly this reason.
Things visitors get wrong
- Take your shoes off indoors. In any Norwegian home this is automatic and not doing it is genuinely rude.
- Leave a wide berth. Norwegians keep more personal space than most of Europe, on buses, in queues and at bus stops. It is not coldness.
- Do not camp within 150 metres of a house, and do not light a fire in or near forest between 15 April and 15 September.
- Drones are restricted near airports, over crowds and in the national parks, and Svalbard bans them almost entirely.
- Pay the toll and the parking. Both are camera-enforced and the bill reaches your rental company eventually, with a fee on top.
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