Originally Posted by oregonrebel
Whats so differant about winters in Norway??? Its 4pm right now and its almost dark!!!!
In the next few weeks it will start getting dark at 2-3 and gets light at 10am... thats whats wrong with the winters here
I lived in N.Minnesota for several years and it was awful but the darkness here makes it much worse.
On the alcohol thing.... I guess i havent taken tons of public transport in different parts of the world but is it normal to booze on buses and trains 5pm on a weeknight????
Take a train after 5pm on a weekend and you would think you were sitting in a vodka bottle...... They booze so much here its not even funny
So it gets darker in the Scandinavian capitals a bit faster than in the capitals of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but it's routinely much colder in MSP and MSN than it's in ARN, CPH and OSL during the winter months. The darkness doesn't bother me at all .... and one or two hours less of light in the winter but several degrees (and then some) warmer is no skin off my back. The cold weather in the dead of winter in ARN, CPH and OSL seems like a cake walk to me, especially in relation to MSP/MSN (or even BOS, NYC and DC in January).
I've seen the drunk kids -- that's mostly who the drunks are then and there -- on the public trains around the capital cities in Scandinavia on the weekends, but it doesn't concern me as much as the drunks (many with bottles and cans on suburban routes) on say the NJ or NY trains.