Norge 2017

I can't believe it has been over a year and a half since our odyssey to Norway.  In honor of the upcoming Syttende Mai holiday, I figured I'd better get on the stick and officially write up my report.  I've been working and saving on it forever it seems.

My dad had been fussing to get back to Norway saying, "Reagan was president the last time I was there."  He was planning to travel solo and looking at hostels for accommodations when I said I'd go with and we could rent an apartment.  Once my sister Lisa heard about it, she was on board to come along too.  The more the merrier!  Here we are waiting and having "a little lunch" at our gate at the Minneapolis airport.

We took the evening flight to Paris which then connected to Oslo.  I'd flown into Paris twice before but had never been in this small regional terminal.  I was 5 months pregnant on this trip and thrilled that I finally got to sit in the "Reserved For Elderly and Pregnant" seating!

I know I'm weird but I just have to put this in about the bathrooms.  You can immediately tell you are "on the continent" by the stalls in public restrooms!  You get a whole little enclosed room in Europe.  I wonder if Europeans feel horribly exposed using our bathrooms with the open cubicle design.

I always say the most painful part of any trip is first arriving in the country because you're tired, hungry and have a list of essential errands you must tick off.  You have to get local currency.  Transport to your residence must be arranged.  Public transport tickets/passes need to be purchased.  This truly was one of the least stressful trips I'd been on in recent memory.  It helps that we all speak a little Norwegian, but language was never a barrier because everyone speaks some English.  We bought a 7 day Ruter pass which covers travel on the buses, metro and tram.  Literally steps away from the Ruter counter was the Flytog kiosk where we bought our "airport train" tickets from the airport to city center using the automated machines.  I must also mention that Dad was able to get senior discounts (sometimes almost 50% off!) on all his tickets and admission prices.  We traveled 20-25ish minutes by train to the National Theater stop and then walked 2 minutes to our apartment.

We stayed at a Frogner House Apartment and I can't say enough how wonderful this organization was.  Our location was Huitfeldsgate #19. Scandinavia is an expensive travel destination but this fabulous apartment divided between 3 people came out to about $65/night which is Motel 6 pricing!  They had locations all over the city but the check in is automated using a machine.  I chose this particular building because of the awesome location and because only 2 of buildings actually have the check in machines.  Otherwise we'd have to travel to a "check in building" to get our keys and then find our way to our actual building with luggage in tow.  This building also had an elevator.

Scandinavian automation at it's finest!  You enter your account username and password and hey presto, you are issued keys! 

The entire building is rented out by this company and assistance is a phone call away.  You can pay extra for them to deliver breakfast or for daily cleaning services, neither of which we opted for.

The unit itself was beautiful.  We rented a suite and had all kinds of room.  I'm not kidding when I say every room had a veranda!  Here is the living room.  Not pictured on the left was a desk.  We even had a fainting couch in the back!

Full kitchen as you can see.  We'd requested a hot water kettle and coffee machine (it wasn't listed on their description and we wanted to make sure we had them) which they provided.  Cooking your own food is an easy way to save a lot of money while traveling, and you get the added bonus of exploring the grocery stores which is one of my favorite things to do.  What a wonderful way to see a slice of everyday life in a foreign country!

My sister and I shared the large bedroom with our wonderful view.  Lots of room to spread out and tons of closet storage space.

Dad had his own smaller bedroom.  Towels were included for each guest.

His room also had a veranda and a view.

We were pleasantly surprised to find we had two bathrooms!  The larger contained the shower and washer/dryer as well as a hair dryer.  I like to pack only 2-3 changes of clothing and wash and re-wear so I have all kinds of room in my suitcase for the shopping I will invariably do!

And of course like nerds we had to take pictures of everything when we first moved in.  This apartment was so well stocked!  We have learned over the years to have every single person pack a roll of toilet paper in their suitcase but found we didn't need to here.  In the end, we left a donation of t.p. for the apartment.  They even had toiletries, dishwasher tabs, packets of instant coffee and sugar, salt and pepper, etc.  I can't recommend this outfit highly enough!

Dad got his own half bath which worked out nicely.

When you finally arrive to your apartment, of course you are exhausted and all you want to do is sleep...but it was about 2 PM local time.  Naturally we made coffee and had a little lunch before venturing out into our neighborhood.  Activity is the enemy of jet lag.  I have an ongoing argument with my husband that there is no such thing as jet lag.  As a nurse, I've worked shifts for the last 20+ years of my life and whenever I do a night shift, you could say I have jet lag.  You're just tired.  Shake it off like a nurse!

We had 3 fabulous grocery stores just blocks from our apartment and this was our first big haul.  I was so excited about the cheese!  I love going to grocery stores in foreign countries!

We had a little supper and were all in bed by 6 PM.  And of course you wake up around 2 AM because you've had a good sleep but you're hungry.  We had some herbal tea and a bowl of my homemade travel granola with Norwegian kefir.  I kept waking up in the middle of the night on this trip because I'd be so pregnant tired every night by 8.  I'd get up in the night and drink tea, journal and call Dave and Mom before going back to bed.

Out the door first thing and down to our Ruseløkka tram stop that was literally on the corner.  Line #12 stops here and took us practically everywhere we wanted to go.  Location, location, location!

Walked down to the harbor and around the Rådhuset which is Oslo's city hall.  This was our first attempt at a selfie stick picture!  This beautiful building was a free activity steeped in history.  The harbor location is the symbolic and ceremonial gateway to the city used first by Haakon VII when he arrived from Denmark.  It was later used by Olav V when he returned from exile after WWII. 

Most people are familiar with this building although they don't realize it.  This stunning and ornate hall is the venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.  Every surface of this building is covered in artwork such as murals and inlaid marble floors.

Here is a closer view of one of the murals.  You can see Haakon VII, father of Olav V, on the right in light blue.  I love all the women in bunads and national pride in this painting.  Harald is the current king and I saw his father, Olav V, with my family in the 1980's on his last official visit to the US when he visited Luther College in Decorah, IA.

This is a working municipal building and different meeting rooms and hallways have tapestries like this hanging in them.  Can you imagine seeing something like this every day when you come to work?  There was even a huge Munch painting tucked into one of the council rooms.

Even the drapes were glorious!

Here is another mural of everyday rural life.  I took so many pictures in this building.  My dad had visited this building years before with my now deceased Grandma Joann and Grandpa Maynerd and it was wonderful to sit and hear him talk about it.

Here is a glorious Dwarven-esque Lord of the Rings door.  Adornment everywhere.

I am a nerd for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and I've said it over and over again that they borrowed more imagery and design motifs from Norway and this just proves it.  There is plenty of Norway in Middle Earth!

I thought this was interesting and unusual.  This is the coat check room in the lower level.  Can you imagine checking all the coats for the dignitaries attending the Peace Prize ceremony?  It was huge.

Also of note, the Norwegian alphabet contains 3 extra vowels at the end: Æ, Ø, and Å.  The definitive A-Z list of anything would be A-Å in Norwegian and here is Dad posing with the sign.  There is also a cafe in the lower level which is open to the public from 1230 - 1330 every day.  We really wanted to come back and have coffee and visit with the employees but our timing was always off and every day by then we were across town.  Next time we will have to do that.  There are also free toilets here which is valuable information when you are traveling.

Some of the most reasonable souvenir shops are behind the Rådhuset and I made a new friend here.  I was trying so hard to convince my nephew back home that trolls were real.  I assured him we'd probably be OK since we'd be in the city and "the countryside and the forest is where you had to worry."  I can remember Dad going off to Camp Norway with the Sons of Norway when I was 5 and him telling me about the trolls and how you had to be careful.  As you know, trolls turn to stone when they are touched by sunlight which is why Norway has so many rocks.

Dad found a coin shop around the corner and made a fast friend.

This proprietor was very patient and spoke Norwegian with us and talked coins with Dad.  We visited about all manner of things and left him some Minnesota-made Nut Goodie bars as a thank you token.

We saw school groups of small children everywhere and they all wore adorable rain suits!

We walked around the Akershus area and visited the Resistance Museum and enjoyed the October weather.  They were kind enough to let us eat our lunch inside the museum out of the light rain.

The Akershus Fortress is up on a hill overlooking the harbor and afforded us beautiful views of the water.

We walked further on and checked out the opera house.  Not only is it a building for staging productions, but the exterior of the building is designed for outdoor programs as crowds can sit on the slanted roof as an audience.

Another fall view of the city.

We visited the Domkirke which is the Oslo Cathedral.  The tram stops on these few blocks were interrupted for construction so this was all walking.

Beautiful light filled church.  Scandinavian churches are always so bright versus the dark medieval sanctuaries of old Europe.

We visited with the lovely and helpful church docent and gave her some Nut Goodies after our chat.

Stopped to admire the Martin Luther stained glass window being the good Lutherans that we are.  The docent was kind enough to translate the inscription for us:  "It is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against one's conscience."  Well put.

We arrived in time for the afternoon Vespers service på Norsk.  It was responsive reading and we were invited to light a candle at the end.  I prayed and lit one for Marek in my belly.

One of our few "meals out" included this gas station hot dog.  If you've never had a Scandinavian hot dog, you haven't lived!

I had mine on a bun but there is always the option to eat it rolled up in a lefse.  They also include a remoulade type dressing as well as french fried onions.  Num num!

We hit up the dollar and discount stores when we saw them.  This is a picture from Nille which is where I bought most of the yarn I brought home if you can believe that.  "Knask eller Knep" is Norwegian for "Trick or Treat".  Halloween is becoming more and more popular there which surprised me.

After a long day of walking, it was such a relief to take a seat on the tram home!  I don't use public transport here at home and wouldn't know how to ride the bus or the light rail here in the The Cities, but it is so easy overseas.  Why is that?

Another free day activity was visiting the Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park.  Gustav Vigeland designed the wrought iron gates, the bronze sculptures and the stone sculptures in the sprawling garden.

It was a chilly and almost gloomy morning when we arrived.  We chatted briefly with the gardeners who were planting winter bulbs.

The Angry Boy is perhaps one of the most famous sculptures in the park.  We all knew about The Angry Boy because my parents had taken pictures and slides of him and we'd both seen him as teenage students.  Of course I was pregnant with a boy so I especially liked him on this trip.  My son is now 14 months old so we sometimes have our own Angry Boy!

I don't know about you, but I do this every day when I get out of the shower.

Jazz Hands!

"Parenting Is Hard"

Of course I am joking with the captions of the above sculptures.  This is a beautiful park and even on a chilly day, it was busy with school groups, tourists and locals.  There is a dog park nearby so we saw lots of local dogs.  This a large fountain depicting the circle/stages of life but of course it was shut down for the season.

As a broody pregnant woman, I really liked this stone family.  His stone sculptures were all stocky/husky figures that resembled Soviet socialist sculptures.  They were re-leveling the steps so many sculptures were scaffolded and crated.  I could have sworn there was a pregnant sculpture and wanted to have my picture taken with it but I couldn't find it.

I love the details of the different pieces.  He certainly captured family life in his work.

Take a closer look at the little girl's face.  I'm sure I've given that look to my brother and/or sister a time or two before!

Here is his famous monolith of figures.  It is certainly a testament to his artistic ability but I don't care for it because it reminds me of a concentration camp.

Another group of school kids eating their matpakker.

 We also packed jam and cheese sandwiches every day.  When in Rome...

We walked up and down Karl Johans Gate which is the main avenue in Oslo.  It starts here in front of the central train station and ends with the royal palace.

Of course we are too thrifty to shop on Karl Johans but we'll happily take in the sights.  Here is Storting which is the parliament building.

Off in the distance is the palace.  I can't believe I didn't take a closer shot.  As I recall, the King was in residence because the flag was flying.

 We did do some thrifting in Oslo and it is one of my favorite things we did!  This is one of the many Fretex stores throughout the city.  It is a Salvation Army charity shop.

 They had your typical thrift store items but it was a creative "boutique" presentation of a store.  They also sold repurposed items like blank books with vintage novel covers, hot water bottle covers made from wool blankets, leather purses made from old leather jackets or furniture, etc.  Very neat store.  I got a Norwegian sweater for Marek here for about $25.

 Lisa spotted this store when she saw the bunad in the window as we rode by on the tram.  It was the mother lode as far as thrift shops!

 They had racks and racks of Norwegian sweaters for a fraction of what you'd pay in the souvenir shops.

 They had racks of BUNADS!  Granted these are not the Husfliden handmade bunads for the individual fylker, but they are generic childrens' bunads.  Lisa picked up a couple for each of her kids for less than $100 altogether.  I got a few one piece bunad suits for Marek, 2 vests and 2 little girl dresses.  Even when they've been outgrown and worn out (because they were a little worn, they were bought used) I can still cut off and reuse the pewter clasps and hardware.

 They also had all manner of vintage clothing treasures.  Oh to be 20 years younger and 50 pounds lighter and I would have been all over this shopping for finds!

 This is kind of unrelated but I finally had the chance to take a picture in this store.  We saw women with their babies in strollers and these insulated sleep sacks covering their lower halves.  They looked like half of a sleeping bag.  They were so cute and I'd never seen such a thing before.  I also didn't think it was that cold because it was only October.  Dad dryly asked, "What do they do when it gets cold?"

The National Gallery is another compulsory stop when in Oslo.  I absolutely love depressing Scandinavian paintings.  This is a Munch painting and both women are clad in black.  One looks to be convalescing in a wheelchair while the companion knits next to her.  Are they in mourning?  Is the one suffering from consumption?  We'll never know because the painting is called, "Spring".  Go figure!  

 

 Here is Rodger in front of one of the stunning Norwegian-born Johan Christian Dahl landscapes.  The pride of the museum is it's collection of Norwegian paintings.

This was an immediate favorite of mine, Harald Sohlbergs "Winter Night In the Mountains".  I was last here when I was 16 and don't remember this painting but it is the stuff of dreams.

It was a huge painting and I asked for and received a print of this for Christmas that year.  I think it will look beautiful hung in a child's room.  It reminds me of the Norwegian storybooks we were read as kids.

Adolf Tideman was another painter famous for his portraits.  In this painting, Dahl painted the landscape and Tideman painted the people.  I've been shown this picture my entire life and it is a sight to behold up close and personal.

I think this is where my love of Norwegian wedding crowns came from.  The bride is sitting in the stern of the boat.  When I was a teenager visiting my brother's host family in Dokka, they treated me to an outdoor production of the Ibsen play Peer Gynt complete with an orchestra playing Grieg's score.  The audience was seated on log benches on the shores of a mountain lake and as the overture played, this scene was recreated as a wedding party in a boat approached from the distance and disembarked on the shore for the opening scene of the play.  It is one of the most magical memories I have of Norway.

Kittelsen is another painter famous for fairytale paintings.  Here is Askeladden, the ash lad.  He is a recurring character in Norwegian folk tales and is overlooking the mythical Soria Moria kingdom in the distance.  This painting is in Norwegian storybooks everywhere.

Here is one of his paintings of a water troll.  These were my favorite because legend says they love to have their heads scratched by young ladies.  When a woman walks along and the troll shows himself and asks to have his head scratched, if she refuses, frogs and snakes will fall out of her mouth every time she speaks.  If she agrees and does a good job, gold will drip from her hair every time she brushes it.

Christian Krohg was another beautiful realistic painter.  This painting, "Mother and Child" is totally my life right now.

The Edvard Munch paintings in the collection were the jewel in the crown and "The Morning After" was not one I was not familiar with.  I have her on a coffee cup in my kitchen but I can't find a print of her for my wall unfortunately.

Last but not least is Munch's "The Scream".   I saw this years ago as a teenager and it has been stolen and recovered at least once since then.  I remember it being on the ground floor and not behind glass the last time I saw it.  It is still every bit as magnificent.

It is not a very large painting but I love that you can get right up close to enjoy it.

I wanted to share some interesting things from the grocery store.  I wanted to get this flour in special Christmas packaging!  Why can't we do this here?

We saw this frozen seafood "Pick-A-Mix" in the grocery store.  I have now seen it all!

You can buy pre-buttered and sugared lefse in the store.  Norwegian processed food!

I should have gotten some of this condensed milk just for the novelty of it.

I just loved these tins of liver pate "naturally rich in iron".  I love the kids on the packages!

I know I wrote about the Vikingship Museum earlier, and just down the road is the open air museum.  This was probably my favorite thing we did this trip because I love old buildings and the woodwork and fiber arts and textiles.  I can't get enough.  This is a stabbur storehouse building and is my dream home.  The dean of the Norwegian camp we attended as kids lived in a reproduction stabbur building while at camp.

Beautiful old buildings with thatched roofs in the autumn sun.  We were there just past the end of the tourist season.  The museum and grounds were open but during the summer, they have costumed artists in the buildings making candles and weaving and shearing sheep and baking and sewing and all the domestic activities I wish I could be at home doing all day.  It really is too bad I have to leave the house to work for a living.

Here is another selfie stick picture of us in front of the Stavkirke which is an actual viking era church.  Only a handful of these survive in the south of Norway because the Nazi bastards burned the ones in the north as they retreated.  Who could do such a thing?

This building alone could keep you busy for hours examining the carving and adornment.  They were Christian churches but you see dragons in the finials and carvings because they didn't want to anger the old pagan gods after they converted.

It smelled of old smoky wood inside.  If they could make an air freshener that smelled like that, I'd pump it through my house.

The ironwork on the doors reminded me of magic wheels we saw in Iceland.  Beautiful.

Just imagine living in this time period.

Inside the museum they had a wonderful exhibit of household folk arts including this traditional costume and knitting exhibit.  Here I am pulling a Meghan Markle with my hands on my belly.

This was a fabulous exhibit of bunads including silver, head coverings, beaded breast panels, wedding crowns and knitted hand coverings.

Years ago I special ordered Heidi Fossnes' book Håndplagg and instantly recognized these textiles as the originals featured in the book.

She recreated these items with patterns in the book and they are thus far way too ambitious for my knitting skills.  Maybe someday.  How did they do it back then with the tools they had.

They're clearly well made because they have survived.

How did they manage that fine embroidery on those tightly knit gloves?  All the way to the ends of the fingers even!  Beautiful.

They also had a Sami exhibit with costumes on display.  I loved these decorative details with rick rack and felt cut outs.  I will be mentally filing this away for future inspiration.

How simple yet beautiful.  Another design element for future use.

In the knitting exhibit, they had an orange painted knitting needle holder on the far right.  I found 2 similar holders at the flea market and brought them home.  Weeeeeeee!

As  much as I love these kinds of exhibits, they depress me because they only remind me of the projects I want to be working on.  I have a simple plain wooden rigid heddle I purchased at the open air museum in Helsinki that I still haven't used.  I want to start weaving some braids and trims.  I also have card weaving cards that have yet to be used.  I guess when I am retired and done raising kids, I can hit the fiber arts harder.  Until then I will have to think about it and research it.

Here is a tapestry depicting the wise and foolish virgins parable.  There is a similar one hanging in the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, IA.

And if I were independently wealthy, I'd have reproduction cabinets like this in my house.  So beautiful.

There was a room filled with altar pieces and decorative elements from bygone churches.  Another thing commonly Norwegian are these ships that were hung in old churches.  They are a memorial to sailors which was a much more common, essential, and dangerous profession back then.

We didn't visit any relatives while we were there, we didn't take any day trips out of the city because we'd all been there, done that to coin a phrase.  We traveled for exactly 7 days in October which was not nearly enough time but it was simply thrilling to my bones to be back in Norway and actually speak Norwegian and connect with people.  I wasn't at all shy about it either.  I have always found Nordmenn literally roll out the red carpet for you when you can speak a little Norwegian.  A common question we heard was not, "Where or how did you learn Norwegian?" but instead, "WHY do you speak Norwegian?"  I had a Norwegian explain to me once that there are only 4.5 million native Norwegians in the world and the fact that we bothered to learn their language was absolutely charming.  Literally everyone we encountered was kind and helpful to us.  When Marek is older, maybe I can talk David into coming back with me.  He is Norwegian and needs to make the trip at least once.  Until then, Norway beckons.