Ah...the SO overdue report on my trip to Norway. :) I went to Norway over a month ago with my good friend Espen (he is from Norway), but school kept me from posting anything about it. Here are a gang of pictures from the trip, in no particular order...
We stayed in a town called Tonsberg, where Espen is from. It is about an hour south of Oslo. We stayed in an apartment on top of his aunt & uncle’s house...which was across the street from his mother’s house. Espen’s mom lives in the bottom apartment of the house and his sister and her family live on the top. He also has several other relatives living on the same street, cousins, aunts & uncles, etc...I asked him if this was the normal Norwegian way and he said no, just the way his family is. They live by the sea, on a type of bay? Its very beautiful, there are pictures....
We went to several parties while we there. It was Easter week in Norway, so a lot of people had the three days prior to Easter, which they celebrate on Saturday from what I gathered. I got to meet so many different people...The first few days we were there we hung out with his family, then we ventured to Oslo. I got to see the Viking museum which I loved. I also loved the opera house, its built so that people can sit on it’s rook and enjoy the view/weather. Very modern design, but I loved it. The city of Oslo reminded me a bit of like Victoria BC, or what I remember of it...very beautiful city. While we were in Oslo I met a few of Espen’s friends, we were only there a night.
We BBQ’d hot dogs a lot while I was there, I guess it’s Espen’s favorite food. :) We would take these disposable BBQ’s and hike up to the rocks over the ocean and sit and BBQ. It was really nice to be outside and outdoors...it was different though from anything I have done. Sitting on these huge rocks hanging into the ocean, roasting dogs and shmellows...it was fun.
One of the highlights of my week was going to ‘game night’ at Espen’s aunt & uncle’s house. There is no tolerance for drinking and driving in Norway, so everyone shows up to parties with backpacks that they carry around with them all night, moving them as they switch seats etc...Now this was acceptable to me when I was in, say college, but EVERYONE does this. People of every age, and more so the ‘wiser’ generations. It would have been like seeing John at a party carrying around a backpack with box wine in it, busting it every so often to get a refill...so strange to me. So we were there to play games, there were like 5 tables set up with different games - all in Norwegian which made me nervous, but I tried all the same. His uncle wanted to break us all up into teams, to do so he started asking everyone questions (20 people or so were there) like if you are wearing white underwear got to this table, or pink underwear go to this table, etc...Espen was translating for me. Then everyone would shuffle around, laughing all the while. Then he would ask more questions, like, if you had sex in the last 24 hours go to this table, or if you have flown in the last week go to this table...it mixed everyone up as well as gave everyone some laughs. The games went well for the most part. They seem to have similar games as us, just a bit different. Like monopoly, but its round...?
Another think I thought was CRAZY when I was there was the first night we went out. After we left the party we walked through town (a very small town) and there was a 7-11 which amazed me. What amazed me more was the fact that there was a HUGE line to get in as well as a ‘bouncer’ monitoring how many people were in there at a time. I guess it’s the only 7-11 in town and the most popular place to go after you have been partying, so strange to me. Those places are on every corner back home....
The landscape in Norway reminded me a little of back home, the temperature definitely did! It was a lovely trip. I met so many great and fun people....I am hoping to go back someday soon.
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