NORWAY, NESTLED IN ITS FJORDS, REVEALS ITS CHARM AND BEAUTY

NORWAY, THE PEARL OF THE NORTH

Norway meets you first with its fishing villages. Small houses painted in red, roofs pitched against the wind, gathered around calm little harbors where boats move back and forth. The fjords cut deep and quiet between mountains shaped by time. Pines run down almost to the water. Life goes slower here, marked by fishing, by people who take time to talk and share.

On the trip we stopped in Bergen, on the coast of Vestland county, at a restaurant made all of wood. The couple running it wore traditional dress and greeted us without ceremony, just naturally. We ordered salmon, their signature dish. While she was in the kitchen, small plates came out. A bit later her husband showed up holding a salmon, fresh from the sea and steamed. The taste was delicate, fragrant, like nothing I had tried before.

I can still see her: in green, round face, pink cheeks, a smile that stayed. She reminded me of a matryoshka doll. That’s how Norwegian hospitality fixed itself in my memory.

Back in the 1960s Norway was still searching for energy and finding nothing. Then in 1969 came the strike at Ekofisk, thanks to Phillips Petroleum. After that Statfjord, Troll, more and more fields. In a short span Norway turned into one of the leading exporters of oil and gas.

The Government Pension Fund Global was created in 1990. Oil money flows in, invested abroad to protect the economy and secure the future. Today it holds more than $1.5 trillion. With it the country funds welfare, builds infrastructure, and pushes the green transition. You see this balance of old and new clearly in Oslo: electric buses and trams, bike paths following the fjord, Bjørvika rebuilt as a cultural quarter.

On the waterfront the new Opera House rises, the MUNCH Museum too, changing the skyline with bold design. Traveling Norway means touching both past and future at once. In summer, fjord cruises slide under cliffs that drop straight into the water. In the Lofoten Islands, hiking trails twist between rocks and sea. Go farther north and the midnight sun refuses to set. In winter, the northern lights hang above villages lit up against the snow.

Beneath the beauty is a nation that turned nature’s gift into a plan for growth. Norway shows how wealth, when guided by vision and discipline, can outlast one generation and become part of the next.

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