Norwegian Greetings

Last night we arrived in Oslo. We got in pretty late and took a train to the Central Station where we were warmly greeted by Nolan’s…third cousin? fourth cousin? twice removed? Norvald! Neither of us actually knew what each other looked like, but we found each other impressively quickly. Norvald walked us back to his apartment in downtown Oslo, where we spent the night.

Morning. Norvald has prepared a delicious breakfast spread for the three of us: bread with homemade Norwegian strawberries, cheese, salami, ham, a beautifully fried egg, Norwegian lox, and, of course, a big ole’ pot of coffee!

 

After breakfast Norvald showed us around Oslo. We took a walk through downtown, made our way to the Royal Castle, and then spent some time admiring Vigeland Sculpture Park. Totally incredible. It’s neat to have the contrast of manmade wonders after our week surrounded by natural beauty. We stopped by a café for some cappuccinos – it was quite hyggelig! For all of you back at home, you’ll learn about this word soon when it makes its way across the Atlantic. Norvald said that it’s already a common expression in the UK.

 

Next up was lunch! We met up with Bjorg, Mie, Morten, and were briefly joined by Ole Andreas (who was driving his ambulance nearby and stopped by to say hi). They are all related to Nolan in some way or another (big family!). We ate whale! It was actually really awesome: cooked in a creamy mushroom and onion sauce, served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries. We also had a toast with a shrimp salad on it. Quite a lunch indeed. All the relatives helped us plan out the next two weeks we’re spending in Norway. Pretty great to have people here help us with that.

After lunch, more walking and wandering the streets. Mie and Morten took us to the opera house, where you can walk on the roof and look out over the harbor.

 

We continued on through a park and to a manmade beach, where we enjoyed beers. (Well, Nolan did…Monisha’s still developing her taste.)

After the beers, it was back to Norvald’s to pack up our stuff and head off with Mie and Morten. They’ve graciously offered us a room in their house in the Norwegian countryside for the next couple days.  Tonight we had a wonderful barbequed feast of chicken, pork, sweet potatoes and corn! We had to teach the two of them the word “feast.” It’s kind of interesting, but in Norwegian there aren’t really any words that mean yummy.  English has tons of these: tasty, delicious, delectable... While they just say “good” or “fantastic.”

After dinner, several glasses of wine, and Madagascar vanilla ice cream with salted roasted peanuts on top, we searched for flights to and from Bergen (in Western Norway) and Harstad (in the very north of Norway). Morten was extremely helpful, and stayed up past 1:00am with us to finalize our travel itinerary.