Culture & SocialNorway

Anyone else struggling with the silence on Oslo trains?

Jonas Lindqvist

Started Jul 28, 2026

Coming from a chattier culture, the quiet still catches me off guard two years in. Nobody talks, nobody makes eye contact, and if you sit next to someone when there are free seats elsewhere it feels like a minor social violation. Is this something you get used to, or do you just stop noticing?

💬 3 replies

3 comments

Elin Rask4d ago· edited

You stop noticing, and then one day you visit home and find the noise on public transport genuinely stressful. It goes both ways.

Tomasz Kowalski2d ago· edited

It is not coldness, it is a norm about not imposing on strangers. Once I reframed it that way it stopped feeling personal.

Jonas Lindqvist2d ago· edited

That reframing helps, thank you. Two years in and I still read it as being disliked.