We’re about to hit the fjord country. When I travelled in Norway in my teens in the summer of my Vanderbilt University days, I was able to purchase my first new car from Germany for $1351, a VW bug, and then drive around Europe sleeping in hostels for $2-3/night. I bought bread and cheese and drank soft drinks or local beer when I could find it. It only cost me a few dollars a day for food. Gas prices were more expensive than the US, guessing about $4/gallon but the distances were not as large to get from country to country so it wasn’t too bad. The dollar was strong and no matter where I travelled to, it was a bargain compared to what we would have paid in the US. At that time, everything seemed a half to a third of what we would have to pay for things even in Scandinavia and Germany.
Yesterday we stopped in Alesund, our first Norwegian city. While you can find coffee prices equal to the foofoo coffee prices at Starbucks at convenience shops, most of the items were twice the price of what we would pay for them. In restaurants, they seemed 4 times the price. A cup of soup in one restaurant sold for $20. I remember the last coke I bought in Copenhagen about 5 years ago was $6. The irony is that now that I’m retired and not wanting for money, if I were to travel like I did driving around Norway looking to enjoy the beauty of the fjords, the lakes, the glaciers and the Norwegian people, I probably would do so staying at the least expensive hotels, and buying a lot of food from fast food places like the Middle Eastern mom an pop restaurants that have sprouted out all over Scandinavia after importing them for cheap labor starting about 25 years ago. While I probably could afford to travel like the Norwegians do, it would not feel RIGHT to spend twice to four times the price to go to a restaurant in Norway than it would cost in the US.
Norway may be the most expensive country in the world to travel to, which may be surprising to others as it is to me. Scandinavia is no bargain but Norway is No 1. Ostensibly this is due to the weakening dollar in the US; we all know what that is due to! But the other reason is the wealth of oil that Norway has discovered in the North Sea which contributes greatly to their national wealth and has driven prices over the top.
I usually bring some American dollars with me to buy presents whenever I travel. This time, I may return home empty handed, go to Wal-Mart and buy a few things and pretend they were purchased in Europe. That of course will relieve me of the burden of trekking another suitcase of stuff half way around the world as well as the pain of paying so much for so little. I’m glad that I am able to travel as I do - as I approach my 67th year of life. But it is indeed disconcerting and painful to continue to witness our great country getting dwarfed by others in terms of the economy when only 50 years ago, we were both the most powerful and richest country in the world. i won't pretend to hold out any hope for a recovery anytime soon.
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