Having driven around the Russian North, we gathered in Scandinavia. The next point is the northernmost cape in Europe, Nordkapp. The Murmansk region has three border crossings: two with Finland and one with Norway, and they have their own characteristics. Which one is more convenient to drive through and what is needed for this will be written in this post.
The fastest and most direct way to get to Norway on this cape is through the checkpoint Borisoglebsk - the only border crossing with this country. But there is one important point here - if you are going to Norway for a long time and take food with you, you will have to say goodbye to all stocks at this border, because. Norwegians do not allow them to be carried with them. We had a full trunk of provisions for a two-week trip with us, we didn’t want to lose them and spend a lot of money on buying local ones. The only option left was through Finland (we did just the visa of this country, because we planned to enter and exit through it).
The Murmansk region has two borders with Finland: Salla checkpoint and Lotta checkpoint. Checkpoint Lotta is the closest to Murmansk and is located 230 km from the city. The road is long and without settlements, so you need to know two things before leaving: 1) there are no gas stations along the way, and at the very border the price of a liter of fuel is about 10 rubles more expensive than in Murmansk, so refuel in advance and to a full tank (it is allowed to transport with no more than 10 liters of fuel in an iron canister), 2) the border is not very popular, so there are no points in front of it where you can buy a green card for a car, take care of this in advance in Murmansk, otherwise you will have to return.
To cross the border by car, you need to have with you: a passport with a visa, documents for the car (even if you are not the owner, they don’t ask for a general power of attorney), the same green card (its minimum period is 2 weeks), life insurance for the duration of your stay in the Schengen zone ( may ask), hotel reservations (in order not to explain the whole route, we presented only a two-week hotel reservation in Helsinki and said that we would go there now and spend the rest of the time there).
Another very important point! In Finland, as in all of Scandinavia, radar detectors are strictly prohibited. For this, a fine of the order of 100 euros is provided, the removal of this device and its storage at this checkpoint until you return and take it back, a fee is also provided for storage. Moreover, it is not enough just to remove it from the car; If the border guard suspects that a radar detector has been installed on the car, he will shake up the car. We removed the radar detector, hid it in a sleeping bag, removed the wiring, and when removing the sticky mat, there were traces of glue that did not want to be removed. Then we came up with another option - we glued the mat back and put a phone with the navigator on in place of the radar detector to divert attention. Happened! The border guards carefully looked at the phone, the windshield and let us through.
By the way, on Friday afternoon we passed both borders in about 30 minutes. The border is extremely deserted, mostly residents of Murmansk use it, and then on Friday evening (Saturday morning) in the direction of Finland and Sunday evening in the opposite direction. Therefore, at this time I do not advise you to cross it. On other days there is almost no one here.
As for navigators, we used several - from Google, MapsMe and pre-installed in the car's GU. Each has its pros and cons, so we decided to duplicate different ones so as not to accidentally go to the wrong place.
In Europe, there are huge fines for speeding and speed is strictly limited by a sign. If 80 is written, then you can drive no more than 80, and not like ours 99. The radar can count even +1 km per hour as exceeding, so in order to avoid possible fines, we drove 5-10 km per hour below the established limit. There is a sign in front of all cameras warning of its approach. Almost everything here is automated, during the entire trip we saw the police only a couple of times, there are no patrols and there are no points like our traffic police. After the beginning of each settlement there is a sign that explains which speed limit should not be exceeded, this can be seen in the photo in the background. Therefore, there is no need to guess what speed you need to adhere to in a particular city. For 2 weeks of travel, we did not receive a single fine.
About 200 km after crossing the border with Finland, Norway begins, it is marked with this sign :) As you can see from the photo, there are either no or almost no shoulders on the roads, so it is very difficult to get in a car without interfering with traffic outside stationary parking lots .
This is especially annoying when you want to stop to take some gorgeous shot, and in Scandinavia you will always have such a desire. You have to either stop right on the road, or move down the slope with the risk of rolling over. According to my feelings, the roads themselves are a little narrower than in Russia. Every time a tractor with a trailer drove by, the nerves were really naughty, especially on the turns, and look, you'll be hooked.
The first stop for rest and a small picnic was in a small town on the way near the Coop grocery store. We looked at the prices and realized that it was not in vain that we took so many products with us. On average, everything is 3 times more expensive than ours. And this thermos subsequently helped us out a lot when there was no time to cook food. Later I will tell you how we cooked food and where we lived.
The first shock that we experienced while resting here was the sight of a dead elk in a car trailer.
Without pretensions to absolute historical accuracy, we note that for the first time the border between Russia and Norway was established on the basis of an agreement between Yaroslav the Wise and King Olaf Trykesson in the 11th century. And she passed along the Lugen Fjord. 1 Further, on the basis of the “Orekhov Treaty” with Sweden in 1323, this border was shifted eastward to Varanger Fjord.
Having given due credit to the fact that Russian-Norwegian efforts to establish a border at sea have a long history, let us turn immediately to the twentieth century.
Beginning in 1944, the USSR and Norway made efforts to establish a maritime border. The Maritime Boundary Agreement was signed on February 15, 1957. Since 1970, both countries have been conducting lengthy bilateral negotiations that did not lead to success / In 1975, Norway proposed delimiting the continental shelf along a line running east of the border of the polar possessions of the Soviet Union . Since Norway's claims were rejected on October 15, 1976, the Governments of the USSR and the Kingdom of Norway signed the Agreement on Mutual Relations in the Field of Fisheries, all January 1978 - the Protocol on Interim Measures in the Field of Fisheries. The disputed areas have been dubbed the "grey zone" where the parties agreed not to prevent fishermen from both sides from fishing. one
Rice. eighteen
In accordance with Article 3 of the agreement between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Norway "On the delimitation of maritime spaces and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean" (2010), a "Special Area" was formed in the area of demarcation of the maritime spaces of the two states, which is determined as an area to the east from the maritime boundary line within 200 NM of the baselines from which the territorial sea is measured on the Norwegian mainland, but beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the territorial breadth is measured
rhetorical sea of the Russian Federation. In this area, the Russian Federation is entitled to exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction deriving from that jurisdiction in the exclusive economic zone which Norway would otherwise be entitled to exercise under international law. Russia must take the necessary measures to ensure that any exercise by it of such sovereign rights or jurisdiction in the Special Region is thus reflected in its relevant laws, regulations and maps.
Rice. 19
In the “special area”, the adopted rules should not adversely affect the fishing capabilities of each of the Parties and both States should cooperate in the field of fisheries in order to maintain their existing shares in the volume of the total allowable catch and ensure the relative stability of their fishing activities. each relevant type of fish stock.
Notable (not to say strange) are the provisions of Article 5, according to which the rules relating to hydrocarbon deposits extending beyond the demarcation line are established. As follows from part 2 of the said article, “if the existence of a hydrocarbon deposit on the continental shelf of one of the Parties is established, and the other Party believes that this deposit extends to its continental shelf, then the latter Party may notify the first Party about this and must submit data, on on which she bases her opinion.
If such an opinion is presented, then the Parties begin discussions on the issue of the contours of the hydrocarbon deposit and the possibility of exploiting such a deposit as a whole. During such discussion, the Party initiating it shall provide a rationale for its opinion supported by geophysical and/or geological data, including any existing drilling data, and both Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure that all relevant information is provided for maintenance. such a discussion. If a hydrocarbon deposit extends to the continental shelf of each of the Parties, and a deposit on the continental shelf of one Party may be fully or partially exploited from the continental shelf of the other Party, or the exploitation of a hydrocarbon deposit on the continental shelf of one Party may affect the possibility of exploitation of a hydrocarbon deposit on the continental shelf of the other Party, then, at the request of one of the Parties, in accordance with Annex II, an Agreement is concluded on the exploitation of this hydrocarbon deposit as a whole, including its distribution between the Parties.
- Engelgart A.P. Russian North. SPb., 1896. Issue. II, p. one.
On May 29, a new procedure for crossing the Norwegian-Russian border by citizens of the two countries living in the 30-kilometer border zone comes into force. From that day on, they will be able to visit the neighboring state without visas.
In honor of this event, official events will be held in Kirkenes (a Norwegian city 8 km from the border with the Russian Federation), at which Russian politicians and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are expected. By the way, it was he who initiated the opening of the border for residents of the border regions.
Støre put forward this idea back in 2008 during negotiations with the governor of the Murmansk region, but it could only be realized four years later. The relevant documents were signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries in the presence of then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in October 2010. In 2011, the agreement was approved by the State Duma and the Federation Council.
Now residents of the border regions of the two countries need only a passport and a special certificate of a resident of the border region to visit each other. To obtain it, the applicant must submit to the consular services of Norway a justified reason for the need to regularly visit the border area - these may be family ties, economic, cultural or other reasons. When applying for a visa, invitations are not required in this case.
The fee for issuing a permit is 20 euros, and minors, full-time students, persons over the age of 60 are exempted from paying it. The document is issued for a period of up to 3 years and entitles its holder to an unlimited number of border crossings and its stay up to 15 days in the territory of a neighboring country. By the way, the length of the Russian-Norwegian border is 196 km.
The opening of the border in Oslo is seen as a "small step forward" for bilateral cooperation, but some politicians believe that Norway could do much more. So, for example, says the head of the Barents Secretariat Rune Rafaelsen. In an interview with the Hegnar newspaper, he said that "only a few residents will benefit from the visa-free zone." According to preliminary estimates, about 40,000 residents of the Murmansk region will receive the right to enter Norway without visas from the Russian side.
“By and large, much more could have been achieved by simple means. It was enough to spread the Finnish practice on the Norwegian-Russian border of the Schengen area,” said Rafaelsen.
However, the Norwegian embassy in Russia says that they do not intend to issue long multiple visas to Russians, as Finland does. For example. at a recent press conference by the Visa Attache of the Norwegian Embassy in the Russian Federation, that Russians who want to get a multivisa “must provide additional documents that confirm that the applicant needs to visit Norway several times over a certain period.” “Only in this case, he has the right to count on a multi-visa,” Mr. Rogne explained.
Norway - country in northern Europe, the main part of which is located in the western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
The territory of Norway includes approximately 50,000 small coastal islands, as well as the large Svalbard archipelago, Bear Islands and Jan Mayen Islands in the Arctic Ocean. On a detailed map of Norway, you can find the country's border with three states: with Sweden in the east, with Finland and Russia in the northeast.
Norway is one of the largest oil and gas producers in Europe and a global exporter of timber, titanium and fish.
Norway on the world map: geography, nature and climate
Norway on the world map is located in Northern Europe, in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula, washed by the waters of the North Sea from the south, Norwegian - from the west, Barents - from the north.
Minerals
The country has large reserves of oil and gas, iron, titanium and zinc. In smaller volumes, there are also deposits of lead, copper, coal, apatite and graphite.
Relief
Most of the territory of Norway is occupied by the Scandinavian mountains with numerous fjords (bays deep into the land with rocky shores) and valleys. The northern and southern part of the country is occupied by elevated plateaus - fjelds - Yuste-dalsbrs, Telemark, Yutunheimen, in the last of which the highest point of Norway is located - Mount Gallhøpiggen (2470 m).
Hydrography
The river network of Norway is dense, and the rivers themselves are full-flowing, deep and narrow. The rivers are fed by snow-rain or ice. The longest river is the Glomma (619 km), flowing through the east of the country.
About 4 thousand Norwegian lakes occupy 5% of the country's area and are located mainly in southern Norway. The largest lake is Mjosa with an area of 365 km 2, located on the map of Norway in Russian in the southern part of the country, 100 km north of the capital Oslo.
There are almost 900 glaciers on the territory of the country, most of which also occur in Southern Norway.
Flora and fauna
Norwegian soils are not very fertile. The most common types of soils are: mountain-meadow, low-humus podzols, podzols, brown, marsh gleyed and others.
There are mixed broad-leaved forests, taiga and coniferous-broad-leaved forests, mountain forests and tundra vegetation in the country. Forests occupy 27% of the country's territory, they grow: oaks, beeches, ash trees, birches, spruces, mosses and lichens.
Lynxes, deer, martens, ermines, squirrels, bears, hares and foxes are found in local forests and tundra; and among the representatives of birds - capercaillie, black grouse, gulls, geese and other birds. Fish of the salmon family live in fresh water, and herring, mackerel, and cod live in sea water.
The protected areas of Norway include 37 national parks, several nature reserves and about a hundred wildlife preserves.
Climate
Norway's climate varies from mild temperate maritime in the south, temperate continental in the center, to subarctic in the very north of the country. The climate of Norway is significantly softened under the influence of the warm currents of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, characterized by mild, for such high latitudes, winters and cool summers. The average January temperature in Norway ranges from -17°C in the far north to +2°C in the southwest of the country, while the average July temperatures range from +7°C to +17°C respectively. Cloudy and rainy weather prevails in Norway - approximately 800 - 1200 mm of precipitation falls annually.
Map of Norway with cities. Administrative division of the country
Norway consists of 19 counties (provinces, counties), and is also unofficially divided into 5 regions:
- Southern Norway,
- Northern Norway,
- Western Norway,
- Eastern Norway,
- Central Norway.
Largest cities
- Oslo- the capital and most important city of Norway, located on the banks of the Oslo Fjord, in the southeast of the country. Oslo is a major seaport and center of the oil and gas industry, as well as one of the most expensive cities in the world. Akershus Fortress, built in the 13th century, is the main attraction of the city. Oslo is home to 673,000 people.
- Bergen- the second largest city in the country, which on the map of Norway with cities in Russian can be found in its western part. Being on the coast of the North Sea determines the main specialization of the city - maritime business and maritime research (oceanography). The population of Bergen is 273 thousand people.
- Alesund- Another city on the west coast of Norway, the largest center of the country's fishing industry. Three kilometers west of Alesund, there is a large aquarium, which clearly shows the life of the marine inhabitants of the North Atlantic in the most natural conditions - cod, eels, halibut and other fish - because the water comes directly from the sea. The population of the city is 42 thousand people.
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