I hate to say "I Told You So"

I've been saying from the very beginning of my sojourn in Oslo, "This is the most expensive place in the world".

Friends in the US looked at the statistics on the latest web driven list and said "Well, it might feel that way but actually London or Tokyo (or whatever) is most expensive. See? Here's the "official stats" ". And I said, yeah, yeah, whatever, but let me tell you, from my experience and my bit of travelling, and from the things I tend to spend money on, Oslo is definitely the most expensive.

Well, all I can say now is "HA!". Ha! Ha!

For all you who need some sort of statistical survey driven proof, WOOP! there it is! I've gotten links like this sent to me by about 15 friends now, all saying the same thing "You were right all along". And I'm all like, "Ya think?"

The only reason Oslo is actually getting credit for being so overwhelmingly pricey right now is that the fluctuations of the dollar and the yen have made Japan cheaper than it used to be. But whatever. Here in Norway, I spend kroner. And the prices, in kroner, are still as high as they ever were, whether you compare it to dollars or not.

Last night we went out for pizza and beer. (In the US pizza and beer are the cheap option for dining out. Here? The reverse.) The pizza cost 236 nok and the beers were 76 nok each. Go to your favorite currency calculator and convert that to your coinage of choice. Then go to your local pizza joint and see how much a pizza and two beers cost. Hell, go ahead and put your pizza into the currency converter and see how many kroners that American or British pizza cost......

Uhuh. Yeah.

I won't even TALK about the taxes that are about to cripple us. I'm not even going there.

But at least it's nice to get official credit for what I been sayin' all along: It's DAMNED expensive here.