Even jaded Norwegians were shaking their heads over this year’s prices for a standard half-liter (pint) of beer at some of Oslo’s popular outdoor meeting places: NOK 137 (nearly USD 17). Only the weaker Norwegian krone can make that a bit easier to swallow.
“Most people traveling to Norway are aware of the price levels,” Pia Eriksen of tourism promotion agency Visit Oslo told newspaper Aftenposten, which published a list of the most expensive places in the Norwegian capital to get a beer, and the cheapest.
Eriksen claimed it was “seldom” that her agency registers complaints about beer prices. Employers’ organization Virke also claimed tourists were mentally prepared for the shocking prices of a beer, roughly three times those in Spain, for example.
The most expensive beer prices were found at the exclusive sushi restaurant Alex Sushi Tjuvholmen, which charges NOK 91 (USD 11) for a .33 bottle of Kirin or Asahi Japanese beer. Next came The Edge and The Thief Hotel, also at the new Tjuvholmen waterfront complex, both charging the equivalent of a NOK 129.
The cheapest, a half-liter of Oslo-brewed Frydenlund on tap, was just NOK 40 (USD 4,80) at Samfunnet Bislet in Oslo. The Under Brua Pub was offering a half-liter for NOK 46 and Star Gate NOK 47 for Ringnes beer on tap.
newsinenglish.no staff
