Norwegian Customs Handled By Machine

by Jonathon Morgan on

Next time you’re traveling through Norway and have goods to declare, chances are your transaction will take place at one of the world’s first automatic customs tellers.

The Finance Minster is excited because the move leaves his “personnel to fight more serious smuggling,” and I agree. You can always tell with customs officials are bored — they grab the first shaggy-looking college student they can find, haul him off to the side, and rifle through his stuff. Just because he’d had an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam and looks (and smells) a little inebriated. (Just to use a completely hypothetical example.)

Good news for travelers is that the device appears to work. The first woman went through customs using the automated teller this weekend, declared an extra bottle of wine, and paid her fee with a bank card.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of these worldwide in the months ahead.

World’s Most Expensive Cities

by Willy Volk on

According to a recent study by The Economist, the World’s Ten Most Expensive Cities are:

  1. Oslo
  2. Paris
  3. Copenhagen
  4. London
  5. Tokyo
  6. Osaka Kobe
  7. Reykjavik
  8. Zurich
  9. Frankfurt
  10. Helsinki

The most expensive city in the US is, of course, New York (thank you very much) — though it didn’t show up on the list until #28.

What major city ranked as the cheapest? Tehran. I’m telling you: it’s the place to head for skiing.

[Photo: Gabirulo]

The International Ecotourism Society Searching for Intern

by Adrienne Wilson on

This could be cool — very cool if you’re on the hunt for unique job experiences, but you’ll need to move quickly and act fast! The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is seeking an Intern to work in their Washington DC office to help organize the 2007 Global Ecotourism Conference, which will be held in Oslo, Norway, from May 14-16, 2007. It mentions nothing as to whether the position is a paid gig or unpaid internship, but it seems worth shooting for. Me, being the dreamer that I am, would imagine being handsomely rewarded with a ticket to the conference in Norway as a token of all my paid or unpaid hard work, but again you’ll have to further inquire to see what’s at the end of the job tunnel.

Some of the duties to be performed include: researching and compiling lists of potential speakers, guests, and partners – preparing invitations – solidify partnerships with other NGO’s. Oh, but there’s more, you’ll just have to go see for yourself. The deadline for application is September 1, 2006