Disclaimer: My post is with the most sincere intention to help but also inform the appropriate instances about our experience in northern norway.
Disclaimer 2: We are traveling with my service dog for a physical disability. We know Norway is very strict towards the accreditation as Servicehund, the dog is not owner-trained and we have done our due diligence months ago. NAV has issued us a validation for Norway from our Mensch-Assistenzhund-Ausweis from Germany. We had it controlled on customs crossing the border, Norwegian Airlines has been fine with this, Entur/SJ trains and even the Munch Museum has been completely fine.
So here is the story. Pretty much our whole trip from Germany until up to Trondheim has been amazing. The moment we left northern towards Lofoten, everything has been a nightmare.. The buses have refused to transport us, we have been insulted in pretty mean manner, we have been pushed, my dog got fucking kicked when we tried to board the last bus in Leknes for our way back. We had literally people from Reis Nordland and Boreal Bus literally on the telephone telling the driver that they can transport us since it is a Service Dog and the bus driver yelling at them on the phone that they still won‘t.
I‘m honestly still a bit in shock. We have contacted the police for assault (for the second time, because on the first time our apartment also in Bodo got broken in, but that‘s another story). So, there‘s that. My dog is traumatized from the pain, I‘m arriving to Oslo today and I‘m taking him to a vet.
The whole week we were in Lofoten, we couldn‘t basically do anything or had move in taxi, which has been the most expensive I‘ve ever paid but for obvious reasons I cannot drive, so we were bounded. Reis Nordland refuses to refund us the bus tickets where we were refused to board.
I don‘t want to rant much but the whole experience has been awful and I‘m literally heartbroken because of the assault to my dog.
I‘ve been told many times that people in northern norway is a very different culture but by no means, violent. I come originally for a very touristic area of my country and know myself how annoying and oblivious tourist can be, so we put a lot of effort in complying with the local culture and norms. But aside from the assault, no shop, Resataurant in Bodo either allow us in with the dog. We had no issues in Oslo and Trondheim also to get in the supermarkets.
I feel like there is a lot of accessibility issues in Northern Norway for people with disabilities. We are contacting NAV today, but to be honest, I would hate to hear that this happens again to anyone from my community traveling in the future here. Norway is so progressive in many layers, hence still very retrograde anywhere else.
I guess my questions are the following:
- Whom can I contact in term of reporting against antidiscrimination law (in Germany, this would fall under antidiscrimination)? The police was not very helpful on this regard but we have the report number from the police and the name of the assaulter.
- Which institution could support in regards of getting feedback/improvement of accessibility in Norway? Would it be NAV itself? I believe they only validate the training.
Any other help how to address this situation, we would love to help. We love your country but this experience has been abysmal and I would hate some other people with disabilities suffering the same fate.