Post Doc in Norway research atmosphere
From my limited experience of having worked both in Norway and the UK, I get the impression that there is less pressure in Norway than in the UK. Given the vast difference in population, it is however only natural to expect more competition in the UK than that in Norway. Also Norwegian policies seem to be more welcoming to third-country nationals.

I would however disagree that spending more time writing proposals or trying to do research that can be published quickly and get funding are necessarily opposed to anything that contributes to experience. In fact, your productivity tends to increase when you have less external pressure to dictate what you need to do. 

So a place where one can thrive is not necessarily country-specific, although for some, it may be.