A Saturday - but not an entirely normal one - in Oslo...

For once, we are spending an entire weekend in Oslo without any fixed plans. But still there is plenty to see and do, and we have had "Markedsdag i Bygdøy Alle", where our street has been closed to all traffic - really really nice!

Steffen wasn't happy when I first woke him up at 7.30 on a Saturday morning, so I tried again after doing the dishes, reading emails etc., and at 10.00 we were out of our apartment and in the streets.

Even though it's summer and the sun rises at 3.53 and sets at 22.42, which means that it's never really dark, the weather today has been awful and it's been pooring down! Still, we had a great day!

Our local and mostly used supermarket Kiwi had footballs, lunchboxes and water bottles, flowers, soda, "hotdogs" etc. for free as a treat to their costumers! Steffen took a bouquet of beautiful pink roses for me, and I treated him with peonies - same colour as the roses, which now together make the most wonderful summer bouquet in our apartment.

 

 

As said, Kiwi had free "hotdogs" for their customers, which Bunnpris did as well. We had one at both places. And this brings me to the next story: telling you about Norwegian "hotdogs". Soon you will understand, why I embrace this word with quotation marks! In Norway they serve you a very short and spongy sausage in something, which they call "lompe". A "lompe" is more or less a Scandinavian version of a tortilla pancake. They use sweet mustard and ketchup on top, before they roll it. And often you will also see, how they put shrimp salat, potato salad, pesto, relish and other - for us aliens - abnormal things on top of the sausage. Here they only had lompe, sausage, mustard and ketchup, and you really learn to appreciate these!

All shops in the street had great deals, and Steffen bought me a birthday present at Soul - a wonderful small shop with beautiful dresses, shoes, handbags etc. right down the corner. And since we live on Bygdøy Alle, nothing is normally cheap and has a no-name-brand. But we weren't the only ones trying to land a deal. We saw something, we had seen last year in New York, when we visited Woodberry Common (a whole outlet city), and their Coach store had a huge sale. We saw bunches of woman of the same ethnic background (which was not Scandinavian) bargaining, greedy pulling bags towards them and bying multiple huge plastic bags full of DKNY handbags for resale - resulting in quite unhappy sales assistents. But I got into action, and now Steffen has the greatest birthday gift for me! :)

We went home with all our shoppings and giveaways, and down at ICA we saw a woman standing with the sweetest little dog. But it wasn't hers! She had seen someone trying to steal it, and now she was waiting, until the dogs owner came back. Apparently these days many expensive dogs get stolen. And I understand why: they are sooooooooooo cute!!!!! So wonder, if you one day see me walking around with one of these - now that I know how to get one! :)

After enjoying "Markedsdag" on Bygdøy Alle we went down to Karl Johan, where they also had a "Markedsdag" today. The police had blocked all the roads between the national theater, the castle and Karl Johan, and finally with a police escort she came: Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

 

She was wearing something red! Well, from her hotel, Grand Hotel, to the castle, where she was going to meet with the king, it's only a short straight walk and you can see all the way. But with all the fans, tourists and other people huddling in front of Grand Hotel to get a glimps of her, you understand, why she didn't just walk...

 

Both "Markedsdag" at Karl Johan and at Bygdøy Alle showed that Oslo has som really reasonable deals to offer, even though this country is one of the worlds most expensive ones. At least we got home with an overload of plastic bags...

While I've been writing, Steffen has made us dinner: lomper (the same they use for "hotdogs") with smoked salmon, red onion, lettuce, mustard, sour creme, avocado, lemon and spices - served with a nice Chablis.

 

 

And therefore I'll leave you for now! This was a Saturday in Oslo!

Moving to Oslo

It's been some years! And a lot of things have happened: I have been to New York, I have finished my M.Sc. in Political Science and added a little certification in project management to it. And even more joyfully, I have met Steffen. Well, "met" is maybe not the right word. Maybe "discovered" is better, cause after so many years we finally realized that we are each others best partner in crime, best travelmate and now also best roomy. Therefore, we've decided to live together, which at least initially will take place here in Oslo! And here the story begins: I have moved out of my apartment, packed my stuff and right now I live a life filled with apartment sale, apartment search, job search, network establishing etc. But we also experience a lot of stuff that is not that terrible grown-up. Like I said before, Steffen is my best travel mate. And to tell about our trips and what life here in Oslo has to offer, I've decided to resume this blog.

And this contribution to the blog will contain a little resume of what has happened so far!

So where do we live? Well, we live on Bygdøy Alle in Frogner - one of the nicest and richest neighbourhoods in the city! We have a great view over Oslo fjord from our rooftop, and it's only a short walk to the castle, Aker Brygge,

Frognerparken

Karl Johan and all the other main sights. On the other hand the apartment is only 40 square meters, and bed room, living room and kitchen are all in one room. So there is not much space for anything, and we dream and fantasize about our future home, every time we walk past a real estate broker.

And what do we eat? We have grown fond of all the wonderful seafood that Norway has to offer - especially salmon and shrimps!

Not just any kind of salmon, but Salma laks (http://www.salma.no/forside) - the world's best salmon.

We eat it steamed, raw, fried etc. and many times a week! And if we ever leave Norway again, this is seriously something that I'm going to miss! On the other hand, we barely eat meat anymore. It's my little sneaky way to turn Steffen into a vegetarian... ;)

What do we experience? There is so much to see here in Norway, and it's become our challenge to see as many beautiful places of this big and wild country as possible. A challenge that we've accepted! So far we've among others been to the bear park in Flå

seen the olympic park in Lillehammer

seen the fortress in Kongsvinger

and been on a wilderness safari in Finnskogen.

The only thing we haven't seen is a wild moose! People talk about these wild moose all the time, there are road signs everywhere, they are said to be quite aggressive and not afraid of humans (or at least roads and cars), and you see moose shit every five meters, if you walk through a forest. But we have many more trips to come, and in July we'll visit Tromsø to see the midnight sun. So there is plenty to write about, and I'll keep you updated!