Be aware of the “Norway in a nutshell” experience. This is meant to be a great touristic event for Japanese, Chinese, Americans, Russians, and others interesting in seeing all of the wonderful nature that Norway has to offer.
The train trip and the boat trip guiding you thru the Norwegian fjord itself is nice, but it also scares people away by people which is unfriendly. Is it meant to be like this?
The first Unfriendly issue on Norway in a nutshell trip
On the train from Myrdal to Flåm, which was my first travel job for Distrita, I already hit the first unfriendly vibe.
First I need to write that this train trip offers some spectacular views, and the acting within the trip is spectacularly made. It is really stunning, but then the train personal destroys what could have become a magic train trip for many tourists. The personnel got strange behaviors towards the tourists and they are very strict, without no reasons.
Inside the wagons, there are normal seats, but also standing place. Some of the windows have the option of being able to be pulled down and since the weather was quite nice, tourists were able to pull them down by their seats. However, there is also an area in the wagon for people with wheelchair. Here it is easier to stand and film or take pictures. On our train trip, there were no wheelchairs in our wagon so many tourists choose to stand in that area.
Together with the tourists, I was also standing there. There were Americans, Russians, and Japanese people. Everyone had a great time, but out of sudden. A trained personal came and screamed and pushed all of the tourists because he claimed that this place is only for wheelchair users. Ok, there were big signs that this area is only for wheelchair owners, but there was no one there. The place was empty. I felt as a Norwegian that this was very rude, so I wrote it down in my notebook so I didn’t forget.
The second Unfriendly issue happened in Flåm tourist area
When I arrived in Flåm, which is the end station for Flåmsbanen. The weather was stunning at the beginning, but out of sudden a quite huge rain storm came, so many tried to hide under a roof because of the heavy rain. I choose to stand outside of Flåm Ferdaminne store (see the picture). Here I experienced a lady that almost attacked everyone for standing outside of her store and not inside of her store. She was pretty rude to all tourists, at the same time as the rain was pouring down (see the picture). So I also wrote this event into my notebook. I asked myself,… Do tourists deserve such treatment? No! People were going to buy things at this store, but after this happening, people refused to buy things. All such negative events don’t help even if the mountains are stunning. To give tourists a good treatment, should be priority number 1!
I think that Flåm should be welcome and understandable even in rain storms which I experienced. When the lady tried to push all of the people away because she didn’t like that people looked at their products which were put outside??? She demanded all to go either inside the shop or away, even the store had a quite big roof with room for several tourists which didn’t want to get wet. In my view, she could just have asked kindly instead of screaming and making the whole scenario even worse than it was. No good treatment at all.
The third Unfriendly thing which covers the boat experience is
In Flåm and then the boat in the fjord is ok without all of these events, but I must say how shocked I am of the prices that the Norwegian tourist society gives the tourists that visit Norway. A soda cost 40,- NOK and food quite expensive too. Also, the only restaurant on Flåm harbor was fully booked, so they referred us to the Cafe beside it. In that Cafe, it wasn’t clean and the windows had insects crawling on them. The Cafe also didn’t have any normal 2×2 table seats inside, so you felt like you were sitting on a bar without alcohol in your hands. Here Norway in nutshell organizers and others should look into how they really treat the tourists coming to Norway.
On the boat which gave me stunning and awesome pictures, I saw areas full of messy chairs and the food prices must have scared people away? I felt like we are robbing our tourists there. A Norwegian waffle cost 30,- NOK on the boat and all other food is way more expensive than I thought.
How about the Toilets on Flåm and at the boat?
On Flåm it was quite normal, but it should have been washed more often? The smell was not really nice. On the boat, the toilets were a totally different thing. It shocked me! Does no one clean them? The smell was Horrible. Is this how one of world’s richest country wants to show how it is here for tourists? Nature and the scenery is mindblowing, but when people that sell food and doing ordinary services makes the trip irritating with no understanding. I feel really sad, see all the nice tourists getting such treatments. I doubt that this just happens this time. People working in touristic areas should care more about their environments, both socially and how it looks around them. This whole Norway in a nutshell trip could have been amazing.
I hope that some in Norwegian tourist society read this because this is the bad promotion of Norway. Distrita went on this trip to see how it is, and now I experienced things that we never thought would happen. This is just not good. Touristic Norway needs improvement!
Please read this and do something.
