Time to catch up on the past couple of weeks, after my sappy post from last week...
Ken's birthday was a few days before mine, and he headed to the U.S. a couple of days after that. Yes, he skipped out on my birthday in Oslo so he could go home and see friends and family, but I can't fault him for that since that was his first trip home since we moved here!
Anyway, we started Ken's birthday off with this...
A beerfest in Oslo? Could it be??
After the beerfest we enjoyed a fun dinner at a new restaurant on the Akerselva river, and ended the evening with Cuba Libres at our favorite semi-dive bar with Pierre.
We also enjoyed some good ol' grilling in the park the night before Ken left, courtesy of the ingenious Scandinavian engangs grill - a little disposable grill you use once. You just have to light it and it's ready to rock shortly after.
Ken and Henrik doing some manly grilling while I fell asleep in the sun.
Come to think of it, I don't know that I've given Henrik a shout-out in this blog yet, and that just doesn't seem possible?
When we got the keys to move into our apartment back in October, we accidentally tried to unlock the door on the floor below ours, rather than our door. Lo and behold, Henrik opened the door to see what the heck the two crazy Americans were doing fiddling with his lock. Luckily, Henrik (a.k.a. the partysvenske) turned out to be a very friendly Swede who had studied in the U.S. for four years, so we started hanging out shortly after. He's the best neighbor we could ask for, and a great friend! He appreciates my cooking, so he can come up for dinner or buttermilk pancakes anytime.
Now, back to Ken ditching me on my birthday for a trip to the U.S...
Ken's flight was at the crack of dawn last week, so I got up to help him with last-minute packing. I also snapped some photos of the astonishing amount of daylight at 3:30am...
View of the sunrise over the hills from our balcony.
Flower box on our balcony at 3:30am - no flash was used in this pic!
I was a little bummed to miss out on all the U.S. fun Ken was going to have, but it was paybacks for when I went without him back in the winter. So, I decided to have a fun little bachelorette week to myself, and it wasn't too shabby. I also lived vicariously through Ken via phone calls, where I asked every detail of who he was with, what he was doing, every morsel of food he was eating, etc.
On my birthday, I treated myself to a nice breakfast, then I was treated to a fun lunch by a wonderful group of my girlfriends here. I'm so grateful to have such fun friends here. Ladies, you know who you are...thank you for a lovely birthday lunch! It decided to rain all afternoon afterward, so I just chilled, then headed to Connie's place for dinner, where she made us some tasty Thai. Thanks to Connie as well!
I spent the rest of bachelorette week staying up way too late and eating way too many potato chips (a.k.a. crisps). I know, I'm a wild woman.
Then Pierre and Silje invited me out to a cabin in the forest last weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous there, and reminded me a lot of the Cascades on the way to Bend, Oregon. The cabin was so cozy and lovely too.
There was some crazy rain for a few days before the trip, so we made it out there despite landslides around Norway. We went for a really mushy, muddy walk the first day. I'd like to give a shout out to wellies, for making this walk possible...
Pretty colors along the way.
Pierre and Silje on the trail. In the words of Pierre: "Det er tåke." (It's foggy.)
A few flowers along the trail.
Pierre & Silje at the foggy lake.
Silje was an excellent tour guide!
It finally stopped raining on our last day there, so Pierre and I took a bike ride along a river.
Thanks to Pierre & Silje for a lovely weekend in the forest!
To wrap it up, there's a tie for the Moment of Zen for the week:
1. Running 16k/10mi and ending at a 7-11 for a cold drink, only to find a blue raspberry slush machine was installed for the summer. I had two in one evening, and sadly there's no photo of this epic moment.
2. A beautiful run in the forest - you can't beat the smell of rainy, tree-laden air!
