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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
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2004-05-26
lutefisk in norway...okay, maybe not

08:12

First, okay, okay, okay, I am sorry, stand corrected, thirty lashes with the whip, whatever, I was wrong. WRONG, I tell you, WRONG. (Way too much fun with that; I'll stop now.) Anyway, apparently, Becca, Jen, Sarah, and Buzz do not get paid to participate in the LSO Golf Tourney. Still. Playing hookey from work to go golfing, AND go sailing...not a bad way to spend a Monday. My apologies, you poor, poor dears. And no retaliatory comments about my being in Europe! Oh, and in a way, you guys are getting paid - it is paid vacation, is it not? =P

My printer (as in, I have my own printer) is taking 15 minutes per page to print.

Last night, we went out with Beth's boss and a coworker of hers to a lovely and v. popular Bavarian restaurant, Andechser. It was a lot of fun, and cool as the restaurant was in an old church. They told us the story - the Andechser Monks had been brewing their beer in Bavaria from the 15th century, and then started restaurants. So, of course I had to at least try it! It was not so bad, which, coming from me, is high praise.

That out of the way, onto the Rest of the Story.

In an attempt to try the local cuisine of each country, we ended up at TGI Friday's in Oslo, where I had a juicy hamburger, Beth had a club sandwich, and Dinesh had...nothing. They didn't have any vegetarian stuff, so he had to watch us eat. Made up for it later by landing a huge veggie pizza.

However, that comes later. First, where did I leave off? Oh yes, on the way to Sweden. We went over this cool, new (and v. windy) bridge, relieving us of another 32� in the process, and were in Sweden. High fives all around! All the way up the west coast of Sweden to Oslo. There were disapointingly few views of the ocean, but the scenery was still extremely beautiful. The road wound through a lush pine forest, dotted with coastal views and criss-crossed by clear rushing rivers. For Beth, a lot of it reminded her of BC and Ontario, and for me, it was Tahoe.

Rolled into Oslo around 3 p.m. and again headed for the tourist office. Leaving Dinesh in the car, Beth and I went to the train station, asked about the local sights and booked a hostel. Back to the car to go to the hostel, then back into town. We wandered up to the royal palace, took pictures with the guards - they can move and talk, unlike the Queen's guards in England - and then around town (where I bought a Norwegian "jumper" (sweater) - laugh if you like), over to castle ruins from the 14th century (where I got in trouble with a guard for trying to go somewhere I shouldn't), down by the ocean (I touched the water - dang cold), and then over to Friday's for the above-mentioned meal.

Afterwards, with Dinesh happily devouring his pizza in back, we drove over to Vigeland Park in which there were over 200 statues. Of naked people. It sounds a little weird, but it was really quite interesting. The facial expressions on each were incredible. The picture linked above is a monolith of people - babies to elders - piled on top of each other, and surrounded by more statues on the stairs, starting with a row of babies with parents, and growing older as you go clockwise around the monolith, and ending up with the very, very old.

I know there's a whole movement against nudity as art, but when done with the proper respect, then I think it is. After a while, you stopped noticing that they were naked, and began to see the positions and expressions of the statues. It was as if by having them naked, the sculptor attempted to remove all coverings, inhibitions, and disguises; baring their souls by baring their bodies. And these were not supermodel rail-thin perfect bodies, either, but all imperfections of a normal, healthy human body clearly displayed.

There's my philosophical discourse for the day. What the heck is my printer doing?

Anyway, after managing to lose and find Beth and Dinesh, we took off back to the hostel. With promises to leave early, we turned in. Right. So, the next morning, I checked my watch for the time and discovered much to our consternation that it was 8 a.m. - we had hoped to be on the road by 7:30! So Beth and I hurridly packed and ate breakfast, much to the amusement of the 6 a.m.-risen Dinesh. We finally left around 9 a.m., and headed to Stockholm.

Traveling to Oslo, being very close to the border, meant that we were only in a very small part of Norway, whereas we got to see a good deal more of Sweden and Denmark (but still, relatively little). However, despite our limited exposure to Norway, we still paid quite a few tolls. Fortunately, they took Euros so that was one one way of exchanging money. Someday, I would very much like to go back and travel further north - maybe even see the Norther Lights, which I have yet to experience!

Tomorrow, I will finish the story - our third and last capital, Stockholm, Sweden.

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