Roadtripping With Gina
Norway
Norway, In My Opinion
My first impression…THERE’S NOTHING THERE! That’s because I’m an American, and I’m used to greedy land developers building on every single square inch of empty land, no matter what’s already living there. But as I started digitally exploring, I realized that Norway is absolutely breathtaking. Sure, they live in cities like the rest of us. But outside of the cities, they somehow manage to live in perfect harmony with nature to preserve the natural beauty of their country. I confess, I’m a tiny bit jealous. It’s beautiful and there aren’t millions of people eating up all the land so consequently, they have and incredibly high standard of living. It’s not even remotely cheap to live there, but people mostly seem to live very well. The dealbreaker for me: It’s truly cold. North of Norway is the Arctic. Or what’s left of it anyway. But global warming aside, it gets seriously cold there. The planet may be warming but trust me, being that far north, they’re gonna be the last ones to feel it.
Exploring Norway
I’ve gotta say, I went from thinking Norway was gonna be dull to this being one of my favorite virtual tours. I’m here all the time, not because it’s exciting, but because it’s not. It’s SOOO PEACEFUL!!! This is by far one of the most relaxing places I’ve digitally explored. The weather doesn’t bother me at all…mostly because I’m not really there. So I’ve included a lot of it here because a walk or drive in the rain or snow is just beautiful. It’s relaxing in ways that New York could never be. This isn’t the kind of place I’d normally go to people watch. Norway is more about Nature watching. But I’m not selling the people watching short. The cities are surprisingly cosmopolitan. Norway seems to enjoy a great deal of ethnic diversity, which is surprising to me. I’ve always thought of it as one of the whitest countries on Earth, but they’ve managed to attract people from around the globe to live, work, and tour there. That speaks very highly of this country in my book. Walk the streets with them and you’ll see Asians, South Asians, Africans, and everyone else. Which is particularly important to me because I’ve lived in Europe. And if you are a person of color, going to a country where you are only one of a handful of whatever race you belong to can make you feel a bit like a fly drowning in buttermilk.
Walk The Neighborhood
Move the mouse on top of the little gold man on the map. Hold down the left mouse button and you’ll see blue lines appear. Those lines are streets. Drag and drop the little man on top of the street you want and let go of the mouse button. The picture on the right will change to show you a view of that street along with the street name. Click the arrows on the street to “walk” around. Or you can double-click the street to walk if there’s an arrow under your cursor. Roll the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. That’s all there is to it. Now get out there and explore!