Norway (the Kingdom of Norway, Norge in Norwegian) is a country situated in Northern Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It has borders with Sweden, Finland, and Russia and also water boundaries in the North Sea with the United Kingdom and the Faroe Islands (autonomous region of Denmark). Norway covers the total area of 385,252 square km and has population of about 4,752,500 inhabitants. The official language is Norwegian.

The capital and the largest city is Oslo (called in the earlier times Christiania and Kristiania) situated at the end of the Oslofjord. It has population of about 560,000 inhabitants (about 857,000 people including urban area) and is the third-largest Scandinavian city after Copenhagen and Stockholm. Oslo is a very important maritime center in Europe and a lot of major shipping companies have their headquarters there.

Norway occupies the Western part of Scandinavian Peninsula and has very rugged coastline notable by thousands of islands and fjords. The huge parts of the country are dominated by mountainous or high terrain. Due to the Gulf Stream influence winters there are warmer that it might be expected, but anyway they are rather cold and snowy.

As the terrains in Norway are predominantly rough and wild, formed by prehistoric glaciers, skiing there is not easy and better suited for advanced skiers. There are magnificent snowboard parks built in some Norwegian ski resorts. The largest ski area in the country – Oppdal – has something to offer to anyone. Besides, there are great possibilities for cross-country skiing in Norway.

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