Thank You, Oslo

Oslo, I'm willing to take back any grumblings I spoke against you from November through March if you keep up the glorious spring you've bestowed upon us the past few weeks.  


Not many things make me happier than sunshine and loads of daylight, and you've been extremely generous.


I'm wide awake by 6am every morning, even with dark curtains, because it looks like this outside (which I'm perfectly okay with):

I might have to reinforce the curtains when this is 4am in June...

It also looks like this at 9pm now (please also note that the trees are starting to bloom!):

Pretty soon this will be 11pm.  Love it.

Our little balcony is also ready to rock - the flower box is full of pretty pansies, and we found an excellent sale on a tiny table and chairs:

Once the trees bloom completely, I'll take some pics of the city.  Right now it still looks like November as far as foliage goes.  Hopefully another week or two.


So yeah, you could say that we're good to go around here.  It doesn't take much more than bike rides, laying in the park, and BBQing to make us happy.

Other than the ongoing Moment of Zen of amazing weather every day, here are two additional goodies:

A little Cherry Garcia during Free Scoop Day at Ben & Jerry's.

Oregon wine tasting with a group of awesome gals.  So much fun, and so tasty!

Hello, Amazing

Being the travel nut I've somehow become over the past six years, I got a little stir-crazy and developed some severe warm weather cravings a couple of weeks ago.  

So I pulled up Ryan Air just for kicks.  

Chose Oslo as the departure city.  

Scanned the list of arrival cities and prices... 

...and my eyes widened in delight at the amazing price for this little gem:

So I sent a text to my friend Brigita, whose husband works with Ken (the guys had a Paris trip with work the same weekend).  She called me quickly after, and we booked!

Here we are, thoroughly enjoying our last-minute plans.  Thanks for such a fun weekend, Brigita!

Anyway, this little slice of heaven is Alicante, Spain, on the Costa Blanca.  My good friend Kaitlin (who lives in the U.S.) visited Alicante a few years ago, and that's the only time I've heard of it.  I remember that she loved it, and her pictures were gorgeous.  Since then, I haven't heard a single person I've met in Europe mention visiting this place.  

I'm extremely baffled by this, due to the amazing price from Oslo, and the following:

Insanely beautiful scenery.

.

Gorgeous beaches.

(I refrained from photographing the elderly folks enjoying the nudity option.  

You're welcome.)

Perfect blue skies.

Inexpensive and absolutely delicious wine and mojitos.

Tasty eats.

Horchata...my new love.

   

Castillo de Santa Barbara looming in the background of the city.

Relaxing with drinks at tables under these massive and beautiful trees.

(Possibly the best place ever to have a drink.)

Learning valuable life skills, such as how to properly handle a crustacean carcass (not something I'd normally be interested in, but when in Spain...)

And finally, all the charming and gorgeous architecture:

Fabulous.  Lovely.  Wonderful.  All of the above.

I don't know that Ken took many pictures of his Paris trip, but I do know that he had an awesome time last weekend as well.  Apparently he rode a bike around Paris all three days of the trip.  While wearing a beret.  

Here's the lone photo I've seen from his trip:

The fellas taking a break from the mean streets of Paris.

(I can't look at this without laughing.)

For this week's Moment of Zen, you can simply choose your favorite photo from above.  I can't decide...

Back in the Game

Well, our U.S. taxes took an astonishing amount of time this year (this is even with KPMG U.S. "doing our taxes").  It's a blessing/curse (more of a curse...) to sort of know how to do them, so I watched the process like a hawk (and saved us some $!)


Anyhow, enough nerd talk.  I'm done being boring now, and I apologize for the lull.


March is always a strange, in between month for me anyway.  Every year it always seems to be a month of trying to cross some sort of really long bridge into warmer and more exciting months, weather and work-wise.  It didn't feel much different in a year of funemployment.


We also haven't traveled in the past two months, and posts of waiting for spring to arrive and having dinner parties probably aren't the most entertaining reads.


So...farewell, March.


Let the Euro travel begin once again!!


Ken is heading to Paris with his department at work this weekend ("team building" trip, I believe it's called).  Thus, I'm heading to Spain with my friend Brigita, whose husband works with Ken.  There are so many lovely reasons for this little last-minute getaway.  $200/1200 NOK for the roundtrip. 75F/24C weather.  Haven't been outside of the Oslo city limits in two months.  Beaches.  Tapas.  Tapas. Beaches.  Sanity.


So, that's about it for the excitement right now.  Here are a few pics from the past couple of weeks...

Lovely farewell lunch for Robert, Esther, and Pippa at Mel and Nader's house.  They're moving to Copenhagen, so they're only a party boat ride away now.  But we're sure going to miss them.  Good luck Robert, Esther, and Pip!  We'll see you soon.

Ken and I went for a run along the fjord to the opera house a couple of weekends ago, and the fjord was definitely frozen solid.  So we got to walk out onto the water.  Slightly disturbing, but cool.  We went for another run last night, and luckily the ice in the fjord is now disappearing with all the warmer temps we're having lately.  Thank. Goodness.

Went for a walk with some of my fun girlfriends in the sunshine at the "beach."  Apparently we'll be able to lay on this beach with no snow/ice this summer, and possibly swim (something about jellyfish the past couple of years may keep us from that?)  It looks like a snowy apocalypse to me at this point, so fingers crossed for more melting action...

At least my face got a little bit of color from the sun + glaring white snow?


Here's to warmer times...and a Moment of Zen:

Although it will only take approx ten minutes to pack the free small carry-on I'm allowed on the flight to Spain, I started packing yesterday.  Bring on the dresses and flip-flops!  And don't laugh at my Chacos...they're perfect for hiking, which I plan to hopefully do this weekend.  Or I might just lay on the beach and eat tapas, either way...

  

Is It Over? Maybe? Please??

I apologize for the post-less week last week.  The United States Internal Revenue Code (not so fun) and St. Patrick's Day hoopla (so fun!) took up a fair share of the hours last week.


One of my proudest accomplishments last week:

Baileys milk chocolate truffles bedazzled with white chocolate shamrocks.  Some of my favorite treats ever are the delicious Mayan and Baileys truffles from Moonstruck in Portland.  There appears to be an absence of worthy truffles here, so I took matters into my own hands.  Sidenote:  when you pay a hefty price for a delicious truffle, don't complain.  It's because they take FOREVER to make.  Seriously.  Forever.  Rewarding in the end though, for sure.


Anyway, back to the main idea of this post: this whole winter thing might be ending?  Sweeet.


I'll be honest: I'm not a winter person.  I always consider it one of those times to "get through" in the year, and it never helped that my most stressful time at work coincided with the season.  In Portland the temperatures were mild, it rained incessantly, and it was super gray.  I was indifferent to snow, and enjoyed it when I wanted it with a short drive to Mt Hood in the winter.  As soon as we got back to low elevation though, it was gone, and we returned to our rainy, gray, snowless lifestyle.  I will add that the trees start to bloom in Portland in mid February, and they are absolutely beautiful.  This makes the rain and clouds much more bearable.

Pic of the March Portland waterfront cherry blossom trees sitting above our kitchen sink (I didn't take the pic - bought it at the Portland Saturday Market).  

So, when deciding to move to Norway, I knew I was in for it and tried to psych myself up for a hardcore winter.  I checked the average temperatures, and they didn't look too terrible.  I also read about the snow, and how it's really here for five-ish months.  Told myself to get over it, and to keep a positive attitude.  Which I think I did (sometimes?)  I did mutter more than a few expletives under my breath when the sidewalks were covered in solid sheets of ice (which was a good portion of the winter).  Walking and running have been an adventure, to say the least.


Oh, and this was apparently one of the coldest winters in a long time.  All those average temperatures I read about were pretty much rubbish this year.


Anyhow, now that we've made it through the wilderness, I'd like to take a moment to thank a few items that helped me tremendously this winter.


We'll call it the Norwegian Winter Survival Kit (note: this version is for those who do not love skiing, because it does not contain any ski-related items).


Winter Survival Item #1:  Columbia Sportswear Women's Kaleidaslope Jacket

I can't believe they call this baby a "jacket."  Maybe because it's compact, lightweight, and doesn't feel like a bulky coat.  Which is what I love about it.  However, even on the coldest of days this little gem kept me incredibly warm.  I never had to wear anything bulkier than this, and believe me, it was cold.  Apparently it's Omni-Shield water repellent and has Omni-Heat stuff inside that keeps you super warm.  It sounds like some sort of scientific phenomenon, and it is.  I'll just call it Omni-Awesome.


Winter Survival Item #2:  North Face Primaloft Mittens

When it's too cold to take your hand out of a mitten for more than two seconds before it hurts (usually occurs when trying to answer the phone), these little goodies are there to bring the feeling back.  Lightweight, amazingly warm, and so soft inside.  Bonus:  I'm now pretty awesome at eating with bemittened hands.


Winter Survival Item #3:  Burt's Bees

This is a tribute to any and all Burt's products.  I've been obsessed with Burt's for about seven years now.  Face care, lip shimmers, lotions, this hand creme...all of it.  The air is crazy dry here.  My hair has even lost a significant amount of curl due to the lack of humidity.  Burt's came to the rescue for my skin.  And I'm kind of enjoying my not-so-curly hair for now (slight identity crisis aside).


Winter Survival Item #4:  The Good Stuff

Self-explanatory.

Winter Survival Item #5:  The Blue Wonder

What goes better with a glass of glorious vino on a cold night than a crackling fire?  Ken and I are now pretty much gangstas at lighting wood fires (if we have lighting cubes, dry wood, and a lighter...we're not that rustic around here).


Anway, thanks to all of these lovely things!  I'll see you (except the Burt's, vino, and Baileys - you get to stay all year) next winter.  I'd say I'll miss you...but I won't :)


One more winter thing that we won't miss:  Ken's busy season, which is hopefully coming to a close this week.  It's lasted about a month longer than he originally hoped.  He did get to finally take an entire weekend off for a ski trip with his co-workers, so it's been improving slowly.  Fingers crossed for this week.


We'll end with a couple of fun parties from the past couple of weeks.  Good times.

With the lovely hippies at Ellie's 13th birthday party.  Definitely the best hippie party ever, and the nice teenagers even let us old timers come down and hang out for a bit (maybe because we kept bringing them food?)  I spent the day before assisting Mel with a sweet hippie van cake - it was awesome!

With Agnes and Mel.  Don't worry, the smoke is from a smoke machine (promise).

I just perused the pics from Robert and Esther's Moving to Copenhagen party, and I can't find one that doesn't feature embarrassingly bad dancing (we're all pretty amazing dancers, so it must have just been the camera angle, right?)  So, we'll just say it was a totally rockin' party, and we stayed out waaaay later than we have in a long time.


Moment of Zen...

Running on clear sidewalks.  Glorious!  

The More You Know

Continuing with last week's cultural theme, here are a few more tidbits...

Cultural Tidbit #1:  The Kvikk Lunsj.

It's easily the national candy of Norway.  Upon first seeing one of these in a vending machine back in October, I thought it was some sort of chocolate granola bar that would fill you up a bit (literally, a "quick lunch").  

But, it's not.  The Kvikk Lunsj is, essentially, a Kit Kat, made with higher quality chocolate.  I'll probably be deported immediately for saying that.  But really, it's a Kit Kat.  And apparently people like to snack on them during ski trips in the forest (they even have little trail suggestions printed inside the wrapper).

Anyway, Ken did some superior awesomeness-spotting at the ski jump when he found this little goody:

That's right, my friends.  A Kvikk Lunsj beanie.  Standing in front of us in all its glory.  Before next winter, I either have to a. find one of these, or b. learn to knit.

In honor of that amazing hat, we gave the Kvikk Lunsj some photo love.  

(This was before my feet were so cold that I was somewhat concerned about frost bite for the first time since moving here.  I stuck my feet in front of a heating vent after Round 1.)

(This was before we discovered that the U.S. was not actually participating in the ski jump event we attended.  I also found it amusing that we actually borrowed this huge U.S. flag from our Swedish friend/neighbor, Henrik.)

Cultural Tidbit #2:  A ski jump (and a beautiful day to be at a ski jump).

Holmenkollen.

Representing with red, white, and blue all over the place (still prior to not knowing the U.S. had no chance/was not participating in this competition).

And the winner was...Austria!  We happened to attend this event with our fun friend Katrin, who is from Austria.  She was pumped (and so were we, once we switched our allegiance to Austria when the U.S. let us down).

Cultural Tidbit #3:  A proper Norwegian sandwich.

Open-faced, with brunost (Norwegian brown cheese).  The adorable Norwegian modeling this proper sandwich is our fabulous friend Agnes.  The funny thing is that this sandwich came as a regular, closed sandwich, and Agnes opened it up to two slices immediately.  I laughed.  Anyway, Agnes was our very first friend in Oslo, and she invited us to a party at her house our first weekend here (thanks for the introduction, Elia!)  I want to give Agnes, Øistein, Marianne, and Sunniva a shout-out for being cool, fun friends, speaking English to us slow foreigners, and telling us about Norway, from a Norwegian perspective.  We really appreciate it!  I have a good picture of the whole crew from the night Sunniva made us all a fantastic traditional Nord-Norge (Northern Norway) dinner, and now I can't seem to find it...will have to take another one I suppose!

Cultural Tidbit #4:  A group of foreigners skiing in a park. (Something Norwegians would apparently never do...although there were tracks there...so maybe they would?)

Pretty ski bunnies.  Love 'em!

Much less frightening than skiing with 1,000 other people in the forest.  Pretty sure my backpack-wearing would also be openly mocked by the general Norwegian skiing public.

Moment of Zen:

Nothing beats this for the week, other than maybe the dance-off they tried to have between some middle-aged Europeans during a break in the ski competition (which I could've watched for eight hours, and sadly have no photographic evidence of...)

Vinter Mania

I wrote a post last week.  Then I decided to nit-pickedly edit the placement of a picture, accidentally deleting all of the text in the process.  Blogger autosaved one second later, and nothing was left.


So here we go with a new and improved post, about the king of all Norwegian cultural traditions:  skiing.


The Nordic World Ski Championships (a.k.a. Ski VM) are going on in Oslo right now, just outside of the city at an area with a ski jump and trails called Holmenkollen.


The ski jump is a huge, white behemoth that looms in the Oslo skyline, and we took a tour of it a couple of weeks ago.  It's pretty crazy to be at the top of this beast, looking down on Oslo and the fjord.

Can you imagine how it would feel sitting at the top, knowing you have to fly down this thing and look good doing it (let alone live to see your score)??

Oslofjord from the top.

Lucky to be up there on such a beautiful day.

Along with all the ski jazz, there's a lot of hoopla going on along the main street in Oslo, which is just a short walk from our apartment...

One of Norway's biggest claims to fame is the artist Edvard Munch (remember art history class?)  So they had a few Munch-inspired ice sculptures created to line the street.  They're pretty awesome.  And I've included a pic of the paintings as well, so you can compare...

Skrik (The Scream)

Aften på Karl Johan (Evening on Karl Johan) 

The sculptures are in the same area where the painting takes place.

Pikene på Broen (Girls on the Jetty)

There's your fancy art lesson for the day.  


Now moving on to more important Norwegian cultural matters, such as...

YES!

Little piece of heaven in my bemittened hand.  My eating whilst mittened skillz are pretty impressive these days.  

Did not partake of the moose, but I appreciate the signage.

Flags purchased.

No spring?  No problem.  Just freeze some live tulips in blocks of ice, and line the palace park walkways with them.  Instant spring for the tourists!  I think these are really beautiful.

One last notable event from the week was a fun night out with our fabulous fellow expats, who we absolutely love to hang with.  

Since it was 15F/-9C outside, our awesome Dutch friends, Robert and Esther, thought it would be a great idea to go to the Ice Bar.  If you aren't familiar with the Ice Bar, it's a bar.  Made of ice.  Where you wear ridiculous capes and mittens, and drink cocktails from ice cube glasses.  

It actually felt warmer inside of the ice bar than it did outside.  And it was pretty hilarious to see everyone walking around in capes, holding ice cube glasses.  Good times!

Too cold.

Robert and the ladies.

And the Moment of Zen for the week?

Oh, yes.  It's true.  Oslo's first Ben & Jerry's.  There isn't any Half Baked here, but there's Cookie Dough and Chocolate Fudge Brownie, separately.  The price of $5/30 NOK per scoop is actually a good thing, to keep me from making a daily trip...