The neighborhood

We don't have a car and we aren't sure when or if we are going to get one. Car's are very expensive over here and there are a ton of taxes. There is a registration fee, a winter snow tire fee (snow tires are required) a few for carbon emissions and gas runs about the equivalent of $10 a gallon. So for now we are taking the bus. The bus isn't cheap either it's about $5 or 30 kroner each way. So any trip is going to cost you at least $10. Jeff got a bus pass for the month which was roughly $200 and will run him about $100 a month from here on out. Things are not cheap in Norway. Waiting for the bus and trying to figure out our next stop. We take our backpacks everywhere because you have to pay for a plastic bag at the grocery store. You can bring your backpack in any store. Theft is not as much of a problem here as in the states and they seem to be much more trusting. When we get groceries we just load everything into our back packs.
The neighborhood.
View from one of the bus stops. This was taken while waiting for the bus to IKEA.
Same bus stop, the view from another angle. It was funny because at IKEA people were getting onto the bus with huge pictures. Apparently this is normal and a lot of people use the bus instead of driving cars.

Shopping is roughly twice as expensive as in the states. The grocery stores seem very expensive but we are finding out it depends on the products you buy. If we want brand names that we recognize from the states like Heinz ketchup we pay for the name. They have local brands that are cheaper, however, I feel better buying what I know I like so for now we are buying a mix of American products and Norwegian products. Funny things we have found out include; Norwegians in Trondheim do not eat ground sausage so you can't buy it in the store or get it on pizza, cheddar cheese runs the equivalent of $20 for roughly 12 oz, it is hard to find black beans and all products are smaller. Our fridge is shorter than I am, our dishwasher won't fit our large plates and our stove won't fit my large cookie sheets. Apparently in the States we are gluttons and don't even know it! You can't buy anything close to a gallon of milk here and skim milk only comes in small liter size containers. It is taking some getting used to but we are figuring it out. Jeff has lost like 25 pounds since he got here and we think a lot of it is due to the fact that high fructose corn syrup is illegal in Europe and they really don't use preservatives like in the states. Products are fresher but they also don't last as long. It's almost like shopping at the Good Food Store everyday!