Week 10 - Cultural

This week when I have been in Finland, I decided to travel to Norway with a few friends. We flew from Tampere airport, to Oslo airport. When we arrived in Oslo we decided to rent a car and to drive to the Fjords in the west of Norway. We were unsure of where to go to rent a car, or how much this would cost, but the people in Norway were very friendly and helpful. We were told that we needed a bus to another airport to rent a car, and we were directed where to go. When we were on the bus, the driver was friendly and he informed us when we needed to get off the bus. When we had rented the car, we drove the whole of the first night towards the Fjords. It was very exhausting, and we had to stop many times for directions. However, the Norwegian people spoke very good English and they were always very helpful and friendly to us. There was even a woman in a shop that printed out the ferry times for us along with a map so that we could find our way! This was a big difference to me from Finland, because even though Finnish people are friendly and helpful, they seem very shy and they are insecure of speaking English around people. Therefore at first glance Finnish people may seem to be impolite or unfriendly towards foreigners. After we found the Fjords, we were in awe of their beauty. The second night we were there, we had nowhere booked to stay, so we had asked a few people who were in the town next to the Fjords. Unfortunately as it was not tourist season, all the hotels were closed, except one. This hotel was only open for this night, because some people had booked it out. One lady who owned a coffee shop told us this, and she even offered to ring the owner to try and get us a room. She told us that there was a room available and we should go to the hotel to speak to the owner. We went there and the owner told us he could offer us a room (this hotel was a four star hotel) for only 1000 kroner, which worked out at about 25 Euros each. We got the room so cheap because the owner told us that the nearest hotel that was open was another four hours driving away. I was stunned at this generosity and I couldn't help but compare this with a Finnish person. Personally, I feel that if I was in Finland, I don't think this would have happened, because Finnish people seem to be very sensible and precise. Perhaps in Finland we would have gotten the room a little cheaper, if at all, but not much. The whole time I was in Norway, I was unintentionally comparing the Finnish and the Norwegian people. Generally, the Norwegian people were very friendly, helpful, polite and compassionate to us whilst we were travelling. However I felt that Finnish people may seem less friendly and impolite as they do not like to speak alot of English, and this may make people think they are rude. However, as I have been in Finland for 10 weeks now, I understand that Finnish people may feel insecure about speaking English, so I know that they are not being rude and they are just shy.