CAPITAL OSLO - POPULATION 4.6 MILLION - AREA 323,802 SQ KM -OFFICIAL LANGUAGE NORWEGIAN
Polar bears, twinkling aurora and sledding across snowfields behind a pack of pooping huskies – not a scene from movie The Golden Compass but a reality in Arctic Norway and the Svalbard archipelago. Perhaps the increasing numbers of travellers heading that way are attracted by the food: the Red Polar Bear, Svalbard's new eatery, is causing a stir…for being the world's most northerly kebab van. For the more refined, 2009 is Norway's Year of Cultural Heritage, offering up 52 weeks' worth of exhibitions and festivities – not least of which is the centenary of the Oslo-Bergen Railway, which slices its way between snow-coated mountains to be one of the planet's most ‘wow’ commutes.
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