Oslo!

I'm home. Has it sunk in yet? I'm not sure. There are so many things to process and so many thoughts to put in order. The flight from London to Chicago was really the beginning of it: American accents making official announcements, that different, perhaps even Midwestern rather than simply American, concept of politeness demonstrated by the flight attendants (they smile a lot more than SAS flight attendants, for example - and open their eyes wide, earnest).

But I have many stories to tell and I have failed rather spectacularly to update this blog. So I'll try to post in three separate posts the adventures John and I have had these past two weeks. Then I'll make an attempt at a summary of what I've learned and what it's like to be home again. I will fail. I'm okay with that.

So up first is Oslo.

John arrived in Copenhagen around noon on Saturday the 15^th. His flight was scheduled to arrive at 9, but he missed a connection, which I figured out with the help of a very kind information desk attendant at Københavns Lufthavn. But he arrived without further incident and all was well.

We left the next day via bus through Sweden. We got on at the Copenhagen central station and found seats together near the back. The bus trip was okay. It was long, and we were joined in the back in Lund by a group of noisy Swedish adolescents. They were okay companions for the most part, until they got bored and started to pull the same practical joke on everyone who came back to use the bathroom – one would stick his head out and say “oooowwww” whenever someone opened the door. It got old. Fast.

In Oslo, we were met by Margarete (I'm butchering the spelling), who is the daughter of Erik Foss, a good friend of my grandpa. Erik hosted us while we were in Oslo, which was wonderful! It was so nice to have a proper house to go back to in the evenings, and he and his family were able to show us around, which was very good. Also, we had amazing home-cooked meals!

The point of going to Oslo was mainly to see Syttende Mai (17^th May). Some of you may know that Syttende Mai is Norwegian Constitution Day. I was really excited to see how the Norwegians celebrate it in their capital!

The day began early, much to John's jet-lagged disgruntlement. We woke up around seven in order to go see the Norwegian children's parade near Erik's home. All of the schoolchildren march with all of the other children from their school up to the home of the crown prince (which, as I mentioned, is very close to where Erik lives!). Everyone has flags flying in front of their houses, and many people wave flags at the parade. The fun thing to see was that every Norwegian gets really dressed up. Many (especially women) wear the traditional costumes, or bunads. A lot of men, and some women, simply wear their best clothes. Also fun to see were the russ. The russ are graduating from gymnasium, so they're about 19. They are easily identifiable by their red or blue overalls and matching caps. The overalls are painted and decorated, and the russ have been wearing them for the past seventeen days, partying in the same clothes the entire time. Jens, Erik's grandson, who showed us around later that day, told us that they aren't allowed to take off the clothes except in order to sleep, and that there are four events for all the russ in Norway throughout those seventeen days – three of which are in Oslo. Parents and schools go all out to make sure the russ have a spectacular time. After seeing the children's parade by Erik's house, we went to see the bigger parade in Oslo with Erik's daughter Barbaro and her friend. We also saw the royal family! From a great distance, although later we got to see the King up close, because he came to visit near where Barbaro works. And...we went to a bar with Jens (Barbaro's son) to see how Norwegians party on their Independence Day. John described it well, at least for Mac people: it's like a combination of Founder's Day (because everyone is super dressed up) and Springfest (because everyone is drunk by two in the afternoon), times Norway. It was pretty excellent.

We also took in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, which was baller! The ships were burial ships, so there were lots of great artifacts there as well. Erik took us to see the new ski jump, which has been designed for the upcoming ski jump and biathlon world championships. At the ski jump we went through a ski museum, which was really fun to see – they had a lot of super old skis! We also saw Vigelandsparken (a sculpture garden) and the Munch museum that day. The next day, John and I went to see the opera house – which is a pretty fun modern building. And we saw the national gallery and the resistance museum. That was our last dayin Oslo. Oslo is a great town, but super expensive, so it was nice to go on to Berlin, which is rather cheaper!