Personally, I prefer beer over cider, as cider is too sweet for me. It might have something to do with a couple of earlier experiences with cider though.
When I was in Russia this autumn, I tried a few of these beers:
http://www.bravosolutions.com/beer_baltika.htm
And found them to be quite interesting.
Personal favorite: Lysholmer Double Ice (Wich is quite light, and 4.7%... to get stronger beers in Norway, you'll have to go to a government controlled liqour store, where everything costs twice as much as it should.)
Carlsberg is nice as well, and I haven't really gone into detail on many foreign, more "special" beers, but I think I will now.