Morgendagen reise vi til København! Jeg liker å reise. :)

But for today, I intend to keep things rather low-key and pack some of the essentials: the pillow, a blanket, a few changes of clothes, etc., and just assume that the rest will take care of itself. I think I will also do some laundry, too, and give everything plenty of time to dry this morning. What an exciting life I lead!

The second walk along Akerselva on Saturday was marginally more pleasant than our first one, which took place back in January when it was much colder and stomping over lots of snow was required. Our tour guide still has this very bizarre, unusual way of describing different features along the watercourse, and we spent an extended period of time in the old factory district talking about the awful working conditions that the women who used to work in the mills endured through as late as the 1930s and 1940s. But it is interesting to me that, rather like back home in Huntsville, these really old houses that were originally designed as residences for impoverished mill workers and their children, have now become the chic and trendy places to live. The area has been well taken care of as a historical site, with lots of little walking alleyways to slip through and do further exploring during the springtime; it reminded me of Five Points back in Huntsville, and the Merrimack Mill area. I'll definitely go back once it's a little warmer. (Note how that has been my mantra since, oh, January, and it is still not quite warm enough for all the exploring I want to do even as we enter the beginning of April.)

Yesterday, Tim and I essentially spent the entire day at our friend Damon's flat down in Sogn (pronounced "Song") student residence, where we ate delicious Norwegian waffles with sour creme and raspberry jam and watched a Norwegian film called "Kjaerlighetens kjøtere." I've always been a big fan of Stellan Skarsgård, who played the principle antagonist character in this movie, and the plot was, for me, very compelling, but it was hard for me to really enjoy the film because the depiction of the animal cruelty was pretty graphic. I can handle a lot of things in film, but I tend to draw the line when animals and children are harmed. Anyway, the violence was effective and conveyed the brutality of the characters' on-edge living in Grønland, so I suppose it was successful in that regard.

Damon also cooked a really delicious dinner for us after the movie was over ("us" being myself and Tim, plus some of Damon's friends and classmates), and then we spent the rest of the evening playing silly card games, drinking beer, and walking hilarious episodes of Dylan Moran's show "Black Books." We didn't end up walking home until close to 1am or so, and I've pretty much decided that at some point, I will prepare something nice for my friends here in the near future, either during the Easter holidays or right after. Thankfully, my mother has agreed to send me some fantastic recipes, so I cannot wait to try them out. :)

Left to right: Gerda, Nurdin, Tim, me, and Damon. :D I pilfered this picture off Damon's facebook page.

I probably won't update this blog again before I get back from Copenhagen because I won't have my computer with me--gasp! I won't even have my blackberry with me, so the only way you will be able to get in touch with me if absolutely necessary is through my Norwegian number.

I dag gikk jeg til båthavn--igjen!

I may or may not be in love with Oslofjorden. ...okay, I pretty much am. :D

The harbor and Aker Brygge weren't part of my initial agenda for today; after all, I spent most of yesterday tooling about the city with both Tim and Mike as is our wont for Wednesdays, where we hit up the Cultural History Museum and a few different exhibits within the Natural History Museum. (I do have pictures from Wednesday, but they're all on my blackberry and for some reason I can't get the thing to cooperate with me at the moment. That blog entry will have to wait until another time.)

But this afternoon, I had arranged to meet with one of my father's childhood friends, an Englishman who emigrated to Norway after marrying a local some thirty years back. Mr. Peter Martin and I met at a Deli de Luca across the street from Saga Cinema, which is about a stone's throw away from Nationaltheatret and incredibly easy to get to, where we chatted for about an hour about.. well, lots of things, really. My studies, mainly, the general peculiarities of being foreigners in Norway, how it feels to be a native English speaker struggling to learn a new language, etc. It was a fascinating encounter for me, since I know that Mr. Martin and my father haven't actually had much contact with each other since their school days, but I hope we'll meet up for coffee again.

I took most of my pictures during the hour I had to myself before our meeting, wandering around and generally enjoying the diffused sunlight. There's a tiny ice cream stand right beside the waterline that sells some of the most delicious chocolate ice cream ("sjokoladeis!") I've ever had before. Definitely going back there!

Jeg skal prøve å snakke norsk oftere!

Jeg begynner i dag. :) I går gikk jeg til Blindern campus på konservasjonkurs. Forelesning var interessant, men jeg var i klassen før tolv. Klokka tolv gikk jeg til sentrum og drakk en kopp te på Jernbanetorget. Neste uke skal jeg til København med venner (Tim, Mike, Richard og Ray). Hei hei, Danmark!

Jeg kom til Norge for tre måneder siden! :O

Viking Ship Museum and other adventures

Go here for more pictures!

This will be a relatively short blog entry since I don't have much time to go in-depth, but suffice to say, it was another day of grand adventuring for me and the usual suspects here in Oslo, despite the inclement weather. Tim, Mike, Ray and I took the bus out to the Viking Ship Museum, then wandered through an exceedingly posh neighborhood in order to get to the Kon-Tiki Museum as well. Have to say, fantastic museums aside, the highlight of the day for me was being jumped by a random kitty while walking down the pavement with a kebab in hand. This cat was seriously the most friendly little critter ever, and we all just hovered around her for a bit before moving on. Definitely brightened my day despite the gloomy overcast. :)

So in total, we saw three museums today: the Viking Ship Museum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and the Industrial Art Museum, which wasn't part of our agenda but became part of it as soon as we realized the Reptile Park required an 80kr entry fee. (No, thank you!) The Industrial Art Museum was unexpectedly fascinating, and filled with lots of chairs that we could not sit on because they were all part of the various exhibits. I wish I'd been able to take photographs, but alas, no dice.

And yes, I did live it up on St. Patrick's Day. You can't tell in this picture (which Julia's boyfriend Magnus took), but I was in fact wearing lots of green! Green tights, green cardigan, green jewelry.

Left to right: Ray, Tim, me, Julia, and Mike. Hooray for the Evergreen Regulars! :)

I'm back at Kringsjå now, and apparently someone is hosting a Bollywood night in the party room! I'm going to head over just long enough to poke my nose in and scope out the possibility of free food, then we're convening at Ray's place in order to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark while consuming mass quantities of chips, salsa and sour creme.

Hadet! <3

København!

See you soon, Denmark!

I am ridiculously excited right now, because today Mike, Tim, Richard and I booked our bus tickets from Oslo to Copenhagen! We will depart on March 30th in the evening, enjoy a scenic drive through Sweden (or we would if it wasn't past sunset), and arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the morning. I expect to sleep very well on the bus, and once we've checked into our hostel, I'll probably linger there just long enough to wash my face and look a little less like a travel-worn zombie before heading out into the city.

There are a few attractions I absolutely must visit while in Copenhagen:

• The National Museum
• Museum of the Danish Resistance
• Christiania, which Rick Steves terms "the hippie squatters' community." I really want to check it out just to see what kinds of "alternative lifestyles" feature here.

Half the joy I've derived from living in Oslo thus far has come from just wandering the streets with good company, portable food, and the promise of a beer at the pub in the evenings. It's crazy how much traveling can thoroughly wipe you out, but after a long day spent exploring fantastic sites in new places, I'm always in a great mood.

UiO essentially gives us two weeks' off for Easter holidays, which is fantastic, and once we've exhausted ourselves in Copenhagen for a week, I'd like to take advantage of the rest of our free time by exploring up and down Oslofjorden some more. My Eyewitness Travel Guide to Norway has an entire section devoted just to the area surrounding the fjord, so I figure we can probably choose a few of these places to visit as well. There is a major train route from Oslo to Halden, which is very far south along the fjord and close to the Swedish border. Halden has an old 17th-18th century fortress preserved in excellent condition in this city which lights up very brightly at night, but since it is so far away, I think we'd have to book lodging there overnight. I'm guessing it would be pricy, which means no more than likely. ): Anyway, those are my plans thus far, and even if we don't do much exploring of the fjord, I'll be glad to have gone to Copenhagen.

I forgot to mention that yesterday, in addition to watching Vålerenga's victory over Viking, I finally tried lakka! Tim, Mike and I ducked into the liquor shop at Ullevål stadion and I picked up a bottle of port, as well as the bottle of cloudberry liqueur you see pictured above. :) It tastes very much like the jam I tried while visiting my friend Beth in Vancouver... but alcoholic, of course. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a drink best enjoyed with accompanying coffee or ice cream, so when I'm next at either the Kiwi or the Meny shop, I think I'll pick up some plane vanilla or something. At any rate, it tastes very good all by itself, but a little too sweet for me to enjoy without something to dilute the flavor.

So scratch that one off my list! Now, where's the reindeer steak?

Vålerenga SMASH

I may or may not now be addicted to Oslo "fotball." Tonight we watched the first home game of the season at Mike's place, and happily cheered Vålerenga on to its first victory, against Viking, out of Stavangar. I can't wait to see a match at Ullevål stadion here in Oslo--and yes, I will be getting a scarf.

Norsk på en to tre!

Supposedly. Anyway, say hello to how I spent my Saturday. Hei, norskkurs! Hvordan går det?

Actually, to amend this post a bit: I did do a bit of grocery shopping up at the Meny, since they accept MasterCard and I need to go a little easy on my checking account right now. Ended the evening with both Mike and Tim, watching Fight Club and discussing our adventure into Copenhagen at the end of the month leading up to Easter. I'm super-excited for it, and you can bet I'll be taking lots of pictures!

Wednesday Adventure! Munch-museet, Vigelandsparken, and Akerhus Slott.

Hello, dear readers! (And by "dear readers," I mean, "Dad." Hi, Dad!) Ready for another exciting installment in my travel-abroad chronicles? I bet you are! Fortunately, I've got lots to talk about, so you're in luck. And as usual, to see photographs of the adventures in question, go here.

Last night, Tim, Mike and I stayed in and watched movies, which was a nice change from our pub-outing routine over the past week. Since Tim has never seen "Shaun of the Dead" or the new "Star Trek" movie, we popped open a couple beers and lazed about watching those movies, then called it an early night. (Or, I was supposed to call it an early night. Instead, I successfully freaked myself out by watching scary independent horror flicks on Youtube for about an hour before laying awake in my bed, too nervous to fall asleep.)

We've more or less decided to spend our Wednesdays adventuring across the city since none of us have class and staying cooped up in our rooms with nothing to do is just ridiculous. On today's agenda: visit the Edvard Munch Museum, Vigeland Sculpture Park, and Akerhus Castle by the harbor.

Entering Munch-museet is like trying to get through airport security, except harder. Not that I blame the museum staff much; the version of "Shrik" ("The Scream") on display there has apparently been stolen at least twice. I enjoyed comparing that version of "The Scream" to the one that I saw at the National Gallery with Tim several weeks ago. The one in Munch-museet is older, but the one at the National Gallery jumps more. I didn't realize Munch was quite as varied an artist as he apparently was, since he produced not just oil on canvas paintings, but a plethora of hand-drawn sketches, woodcuts, lithographs, and some photographs as well. Color me impressed and interested! Since the museum was free admission, I may wander back to have another wander through, paying more attention to his "Alpha og Omega" series this time.

Vigelandsparken was next on our list, the main attraction pictured just to the left! For reference, the Monolith is 14 meters high, though the other people milling about enjoying the fine weather (a high of 41 Fahrenheit!) probably provide scale more effectively. All of the sculptures here were carved by Gustav Vigeland, and then worked into their present forms by contracted craftsmen, and the end result is a massive, sprawling section of Frogner Park devoted just to these works of art. It's divided up into different segments: The Main Gate, The Bridge, The Children’s Playground, The Fountain, The Monolith Plateau and the Wheel of Life. I think I've got photographs in my album of everything except the Wheel of Life, which I couldn't get a good enough shot of because I only had my Blackberry with me today. Rats! Next time, Batman. Next time.

We've been experimenting with different forms of Oslo's public transit lately, since becoming too reliant on the T-bane is never a good idea given how often it is prone to downtime. After walking (backwards) through Vigelandsparken, we took the tram south to the harbor, which carried us through several very old city streets lined by equally old but lovely houses. I wish there was some way for me to realistically stay here after this experience is over and maybe rent out a room in a detached house, working for peanuts and living lean, but I won't hold my breath on that pipe dream. Besides, how can I think sad thoughts when I get to have this view pretty much whenever I want:

Ahh, Oslofjorden. You are so awesome.

We walked up to Akerhus Castle with the harbor to our right, which meant plenty of pauses in order to take pictures and admire the beautiful view of the sun over the water. Mild as the weather has been, and nice as it is to see all this snow melting away, melting snow on rooftops is actually a wee bit dangerous, as poor Tim found out. He was walking past one of the admin buildings situated against the castle when we heard this loud, ominous rush of snow and ice sliding quickly down the roof, only to crash dangerously into the cobblestones right where Tim had been standing only seconds previous. It was pretty jarring for all of us, actually, and we ended up ducking past any and all awnings nervously after that.

The Norwegian Resistance Movement Museum is situated in the Akerhus complex, and I would've popped in to have a look-see if the whole place wasn't about to shut for the evening. I don't know why that still continues to surprise me, since nearly everything in Oslo shuts at 5pm, or even earlier on Saturdays. (Let's not even talk about Sundays.) But since the Danish resistance is a subject very near and dear to me, I'd like to look into the Norwegian resistance as well just to examine any similarities or dissimilarities with what happened during the occupation. I'm hoping they will have a few books written in English for me to look at.

Speaking of books, we put in another appearance at the antique bookshop, Damms Antikvariat, since it is located very close to Akerhus Slott. Nothing more to note here, except I once more admired (and wept over the price of) lots of old books.

Tonight is the Kringsjå pub quiz! :) A nice, silly end to a wonderful day.

The weeks keep flying past.

I still don't feel like I've been here long enough to say that yes, it is March, and I've been a temporary resident of Norway since January. I'm daily floored by this experience.

A few points to note about last week: Tim, Mike, Julia, Julia's boyfriend Magnus and I attended the launch party for Oslo Student TV at Chateau Neuf last Thursday. It was a little hard to get into the swing of things at first; I don't think Tim and I had been back to Chateau Neuf since our last failed attempt at "mingling" during International Coffee Hour on some Friday either in late January or early February. Either way, this gathering was much more exciting, and even though I couldn't understand most of the TV clips from the launch, it was very cool to be surrounded by so many students who were enthusiastic about independently run student work. Unless I'm mistaken, Julia's boyfriend actually contributed to the script of the TV spots, so I'm glad we were all there to offer him kudos and support.

Friday was another Uglebo night, after a very good dinner (Irish stew, yum!) provided by Geoff, a Canadian who lives here in building 12 but several floors up. I don't really have much to add about going to Uglebo, except that it was good to spend so much time with my friends again. This was the first time since my return from the states that I'd seen some of the usual crowd; Bastian and Ray came to Geoff's dinner, as did Richard, who also joined us at the pub afterwards. But pub nights are fairly standard around here now and don't require too much elaboration anymore--though I feel like I should make mention of Saturday evening's very chill festivities. Aside from working on some homework for most of the day, I didn't do a whole lot, though that night Tim and I did walk over to Velferden, the student residential pub here at Kringsjå studentby, just to keep Mike company as he tended the bar as a volunteer. We mostly just played around with the sound system and played whatever music we felt like listening to, and discussed the possibility of going to Stockholm and Copenhagen over our Easter holidays. Fingers crossed that pans out.

No, the real adventure of the weekend took place on Sunday. Actually, I suppose I should say adventures, plural, since I spent the majority of the day stressing anxiously over my Nordic languages presentation (which I successfully gave today, despite technological trials and tribulations). However, at around eight or so, Tim, Mike and I sallied forth into the cold night air to find our way back to Blå, which I may have mentioned once or twice before. Getting there was a little bit of an adventure this time, because for some reason we thought it would make more sense to take a series of buses and trams instead of just hopping on the T-bane to Oslo S. and taking the tram from there. ...so it took us about an hour to actually get to Blå--but once we got there, we rather enjoyed the artistic, jazzy atmosphere and waited around for Tim's very cool Chinese friend Damon to join us. It's rather unfortunate that the music didn't start up until close to 10pm, but we were closer to the stage this time and I was able to get some better shots of the Frank Znort Quartet (plus some guest vocalists). These guys put on a great show; I found a cool recording of one of their performances from last month on Youtube, so you should take a look at that too.

Tonight was yet another Norwegian film night, which Tim and I went to see around 7pm. Jernanger is a touching story about a surly older man named Eivind who has turned his boat, the Jernanger, into a floating pub off a pier in Stavangar, where he grumpily keeps himself aloof from pretty much everyone and anyone who tries to get close to him--but is persistently hounded by memories of Beatrice, the love of his life who he let slip away (because he's an idiot man, and that is what men do, of course). His story is wound up with Kris's, a young guy trying to reconcile his love for his girlfriend Erika with his phobia of becoming a father. Through a series of surreal events, Kris and Eivind become friends, and the rest of the story unfolds itself from there. I've posted the trailer (all in Norwegian I'm afraid) below as well.

With this blog entry out of the way, I've got to commence working on my Norwegian homework, which should occupy me for the next hour or so before bed. God natt, internet!

Østre Gravlund and Frognerseteren

Yesterday was undoubtedly my favorite day in Oslo so far. And I've been here for over two months now. To look at more photographs, go here.

It was absolutely gorgeous weather yesterday, with lots of sunshine, not a cloud in sight, and probably the bluest sky we've had since we've been here. It was even above freezing, making my coat mostly unnecessary during the day though by night time I was glad that I'd brought it because temperatures plummeted predictably. Anyway, on a day like this, why stay inside?

The agenda for Mike, Tim and I was as follows: check out Østre Gravlund, and Jødenes Gravlund within it, near Helsfyr station, and then take the Frognerseteren line to the very beginning to

check out one of the best views in the whole city.

The cemetery is tucked away right beside the station, though most of it is hidden beneath a thick layer of snow right now. It's a very quiet place despite the presence of a T-bane and a major motorway mere feet away, and the Jødenes Gravlund--along with the Holocaust memorial--is on the far side of the cemetery, about a ten minute walk from the entrance.

This is just one shot of the full memorial, which stands in the middle of a Star of David across from the rest of the graves. On each side of the star is a list of Holocaust victims by name and date of death. Some parts of it were mostly inaccessible due to all the piled up snow, but during the spring we're going to come back and take a better look--and hopefully some better photographs. All in all, however, I found the site incredibly peaceful; it was interesting, to me, how the majority of the gravestones bore epitaphs and details written only in Hebrew, and not Norwegian as well. I remember a walk through Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, in 2008, that there were a few gravestones in the Jewish section with exclusively Hebrew epitaphs, but to my knowledge the majority were written in English. I'll have to go back next time I'm in Huntsville and look at them again.

Next: adventuring up to Frognerseteren, which, I have decided, is probably the nicest residential area in Oslo. Maybe the entirety of Akershus. Line 1 is the oldest of the existing metro lines, and so I think it's fitting that in order to get to the end of the line, you've got to take one of the older model rail cars to do it. While winding up through the mountains (at an admittedly slow pace), we were frequently caught off-guard by the view of the fjord, and the surrounding neighborhood, and other little details like 19th century churches and peculiar schools tucked away like secrets in the woods. It turned out to be something of a blessing that, due to snow, the train couldn't take us to the end of the line, because that allowed us the opportunity to get off the train and explore the neighborhood near Skådalen station. We took a bus to our final destination, and the whole point of this day trip:

Oslofjorden!

Sorry about the cable line. Couldn't be helped.

The boys, lookin' suave.

Words and photographs don't adequately describe how fantastic this view was, or how reluctant we were to eventually leave it. We went inside Frogneseteren Hovedrestaurant (incidentally, serves reindeer! But I haven't tried it yet), which is this gorgeous, late-19th century wooden lodge situated right across from this lovely view, in order to have ourselves some tea, coffee and a bite to eat, then took everything back outside so we could enjoy the picturesque setting for a little while longer.

On the train ride back into the city, we ended up talking a little bit about how much of this city we haven't actually seen, despite having been here since early January. Once you get settled into a place, it's tempting to slide into the every day routine of schoolwork and socialization, forgetting that you're in a remarkable new location with exciting new places to visit and experience. I've got my Norway travel guide with me now, so I expect lots of new adventures in the future.

My favorite places.

Some special places, people and memories. This is mostly for me, but if something here applies to you, you'll know.

I took most of these pictures, but not all of them.