It's hard to describe, but many people end up quite depressed.

It’s not the cold or the endless weeks of rain.

It’s the days that barely feel like daylight.

Ps: and that’s fine if you can snuggle up in the couch with a good book. But small kids rarely want to do that.

Without actually personally experiencing it, I think I would have the opposite struggle. If it were dark for that long without clouds so I could have all of that extra time to view the sky I think it would be a much different situation though.

This is why New York is on the same latitude as Lisbon yet is much colder. Same for Tokyo and San Francisco.

Western Europe is about as far north as people can live in large numbers.

You'd think climate is great, but it's ALWAYS "foggy", you can't see a clear blue sky like in the inner regions of the country such as Cusco, it depresses you, I can't imagine it being even darker.

It's why I simply can't believe nordic "stories" about being the happiest place, I simply can't believe with all the money in the world you'd be happier than at a tropical beach with half of that money.

Waaay too warm and humid. And no seasons. Thanks, but no thanks.

My ideal climate is proper 4 seasons with sub-zero and snowy winters. I am pretty sure I am not the only one.

I'm an immigrant in Norway. The darkness is enough of an issue that told us know about this in the state-funded language classes and made sure we knew help was available. I'm in Trondheim, so December is full of 4.5 hours of poor sunlight each day.

If there were something else that really gets folks, it is that Norway's people are rather reserved, to a point, and it really makes some folks lonely. This combined with the dark winters really causes some folks to struggle.

Everyone gets used to the weather and quickly learns how to dress properly enough.

15C day temps? morning/night temps can be much lower. Winters in Norway are much colder. If you are looking for stable day-night temps year around in that range, then there is no such place in Europe, well maybe except Ireland?

The only thing that sucks is hovering around 0C for a long time, since this means oscillating between frozen/mud

As a predominantly temperate maritime/oceanic climate it's unpredictable and erratic, from 15C mid-winter days to 4C mid-summer nights :/

Plenty of grey and wet though.

Norway is a beautiful country. I love cold weather and grey skies but all that fish stuff is not for me.

The sweet brown "Brunost" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunost) might not be your favorite, but I doubt it haunts you in nightmares. The Gammelost though will stay pungent in your mind for years. It's been years, and I still wonder whether I was the victim of a particularly cruel practical joke.

* Smalahove (whole, barbecued sheeps head; how whole depends on who/where, but the eyes and brain certainly need to be included)

* Lutefisk (fish half-dissolved in caustic soda, then washed out - or your intestines would have a really hard time - leaving what is best described as fish-yello)

* Gammelost, of course.

Then there are the less objectionable or outright nice things that we still serve to foreigners either knowing they're acquired tastes, or that we like spinning stories around to try to make it uncomfortable for our entertainment:

* Whale, presented as "Willy from Free Willy". Whale tastes fine - it's just a bit tough, and sometimes a bit oily and "fishy" (yes, I know, not fish; doesn't stop the blubber from affecting the taste)

* Deer and reindeer, which tastes great but squeamish people everywhere get more squeamish when the dish is introduced as "Bambi". When I worked for a US company in Norway many years ago, the US CEO came for our Christmas party and the CEO of the Norwegian subsidiary had of course ensured that the menu was moose, deer, and whale, so that our entertainment was to watch the CEO's reactions (he took it well).

* Sour cream porridge. I love sour cream porridge, but it is an... acquired taste, and people do not expect it if you put a bowl of porridge in front of them without warning...

* Salty licorice full of ammonium chloride. Yes, licorice with floor cleaner. I love it, but outside of the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, the only person I've made taste this who has liked it was a single co-worker about a quarter of a century ago. I keep bringing them to the UK at least twice a year and imposing them on unsuspecting people (in the UK, finding even lightly salted licorice is near impossible outside of specialty imports, so people here are caught entirely unaware of what salted licorice will taste like, and that is half the fun). For science, of course.

Norwegian humour when it comes to feeding people stuff they're not familiar with is pretty basic, along the line of "we're serving you a pet/beloved children character" or "we're serving you something likely to dissolve your intestines/an industrial byproduct that our children eat". Where my Nigerian in-laws worry about whether the food they're serving me is too spicy and fuss over it constantly, we try to trick people into trying weird things while we take pleasure in observing their reactions and/or try to stifle laughter.

I only tried it once, but it's the only cheese I've been unable to eat. Sawdust soaked in cat piss would be comparable but preferable. I was exited to buy it and brought it along for a hiking lunch. My wife and I both took one bite, and then decided to bury it under a rock. I felt sorry for the rock.

I still do wonder whether I somehow got a bad batch, or one that was spoiled.

Looking around the internet indeed there's very little fish in most popular Norwegian dishes, except for fish meatballs.

Honestly no idea. They just don't. Growing up the only fish we really ate was fish sticks and heavily processed fish cakes. When going out to restaurants I have no real memory of anybody really ordering fish. Even when I was living in down town Oslo (admittedly 20+ years ago), just getting ahold of fresh fish was hard. The only food store that had a fish mongers and sold fresh fish was the really fancy store in the most expensive part of town. There were maybe two fish stores in all of central Oslo that I knew of, one of which was a high end luxury food sort of place that also sold fancy caviar, foie gras and oysters. Compared to basically any costal town anywhere in Europe where fresh fish is plentiful and ubiquitous, it is really strange.

Some data says Norway is the second country in the world by amount of fish eaten [1][2]

[1]https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_seafood_c...

1) Things have radically changed since I last lived there 20+ years ago

2) My view is heavily biased by only having lived in/around Oslo and the rest of the country eats a lot more fish

3) Norwegians eat a lot of heavily processed fish based foodstuff (fish sticks, fish cakes etc), but hardly any fresh fish.

But it's more common on the West Coast, I think. Even people in Oslo get impressed by the (rather small) Bergen fish market.

Then again I've never willingly gone looking for fish other than smoked salmon anywhere.

If feeling luxurious, then maybe both meat and cheese on bread.

(I ask with all seriousness; I'm kind of hoping the answer is interesting)

I know taco and pizza aren't really that special or fancy meals, but I guess they turned out that way in Norway since they came from abroad. They're still not seen as "fancy", but they are many people's favorite tastiest food.