2006: Norwegian Christmas Day Smorgasbord
Lots of my posts, especially at Christmas time are about food, but then again it is an important part of Norwegian Yuletide. This post is about some of our old home made food traditions, with recipes passed down for many generations and I consider myself lucky having a mom who still holds on to them. My mom and grandmother did most of it in the kitchen with fresh meat coming directly from the butcher. Then of course we have the cookies – 7 varieties – and the marzipan and other types of confect. It all shows up at our First Christmas Day smorgasbord at the traditional family gathering.

2007: 17th of May – Norway’s National Day
Our constitution was signed at this day in 1814 and declared Norway an independent nation. All over Norway, children march through the local neighbourhoods with an abundance of flags and traditional costumes. Each elementary school arranges its own parade, led by the school’s own marching band. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes for senior citizens, war memorials, etc.

2008: Christmas tree and food traditions in Norway
Norwegians have either a spruce or a pine tree in their living room – decorated with white lights, tinsel, Norwegian flags and other ornaments for Christmas. As a child and with my children of course, we made paper baskets of shiny, collared paper. The baskets can be filled with candy or nuts. Chains made of collared paper are also very popular.
Our celebration starts Christmas Eve at 6PM with a feast and before presents are opened, we “circle the Christmas tree”; all the family holds hands to form a ring around the tree, and walk around the tree singing carols.

2009: From frozen Paradise to hot summer beaches
After all, my blog is about our significant four seasons and this post literary illustrating my point. It’s a story about our favourite beach and how it change from the hot summer days where you need to cool down in a dip and then to wintertime where we go skiing and skating at the very same spot. So within 6 month, you switch from snowsuits to tiny bikinis – and everything between (sometimes less *LoL*).
Around summer solstice, the sun is up from around 3:45AM to 10:45PM -19 hours in southern Norway. If you then have in mind that the sun is up only for 5 hours in mid winter and the temperature is around -10C, I guess you understand why Norwegians are crazy about taking advantage of this sunny, warm weather.

2010: The Oslo Blog Gathering
A dream came true – No doubt OsloBG2010 is my ultimate Social Media experience. It fulfilled my saying “Blogging Connecting People” when about 30 friends from all over the world met – in real flesh – in August in Oslo! It was a once in a life time experience and also proved another of my saying about networking like blogging: “It’s a Givers Gain”:
After sharing about Norway in general and Oslo in particular, it was a blast of a gathering when I finally could meet at least some of my regular readers and show them around at places they had read about and wanted to see by themselves! The top of the cream was when The Major of Oslo invited as all to the Town Hall and even a guided tour around in the building.
I’ve done my best to collect some of the blog posts by the participants about their stay and what they liked about Norway and Oslo. Take a look at OsloBG’s official program site and there you find the link to the participants and their reports from the gathering!

As I always say “Blogging Connecting People”: When I started this blog and first came up with that motto I had no idea how true it would be. Now I have so many good friends from all around the world, and blogging here on my Terella has brought me in touch with all of them. Thank you all for following along on my adventures and here’s to another year of blogging and connecting people!

Thanks to First Hotel Millennium we had a centrally located hub to meet up each day before our adventures. We thought we might be relaxing there in the evening but every single day things took off and we dragged ourselves in to the hotel totally exhausted and often quite late ; -) Never a dull moment and no time to waste at OsloBG!
The hotel manager and staff met with us several times throughout the planning process and helped us with setting up, tourist information, and an area to meet up and plan our daily adventures. Every time I pass by First Hotel Millennium now I think of our OsloBG and what a wonderful time we had.

VisitOSLO was an important associate and a key contributor in making OsloBG a success. When I first talked with their Convention Manager – with my head full of ideas of a detailed program – she served me The Columbic Egg; “We give every participant The Oslo Pass, so they all can reach and enter the sights they want” – for free!
VisitOSLO is the leading organization in profiling and positioning the Oslo region as a tourist destination. They are dedicated to contributing towards the development of commerce and culture in the region. So when you are in or plan to go to Oslo; always check their website for all you want to know about the city: www.visitoslo.com

The Grand Opening was at Oslo City Hall with a reception from the Mayor of Oslo, Fabian Stang. Even his own birthday didn’t keep him from greeting these excited bloggers and providing us with an exceptional guided tour of the City Hall. Even in places I had never seen before!! All of OsloBG’s guests had a little gift from their homeland for the Mayor’s birthday and to thank him for receiving us on this special occasion. After the reception many of us went for dinner at Aker Brygge and had a chance to be better acquainted over good food and wine.

The first day as you may recall we had a guided tour around the highlights of Oslo. Oslo Guideservice provided excellent transportation and information on some of the most interesting sites in the area like Vigeland Sculpture Park and Holmenkollen ski jump.
The guides took us through Vigeland Sculpture Park and gave us an insight into Vigelands work and vision in designing every detail of this beautiful green area of Oslo. Although the weather didn’t cooperate as well at Holmenkollen ski jump, the best part was thankfully inside and many made it to the top for the ultimate view.

On the 20th the group was divided into activities of choice. My group had a guided tour of Oslo Opera House, a trip round the main street of Karl Johan, and watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. Meanwhile Tor’s group had a day on Bygdøy island exploring the museums and beaches there. In the evening we had dinner at a small but charming restaurant on Bygdøy Island with a fantastic view of Oslo fjord.

The final day of our program again included the groups dividing up and exploring as far away as Drøbak! Ending the day with a champagne reception in the medieval park, and a roaring night on the town at The Dubliner!! That and plenty more photos – even a movie from the Mayor’s reception – is included in this cavalcade of a movie I made from these three days, enjoy:

I want to give a special thanks to all the participants. One thing we really felt after you all went home, when we looked back we felt so certain that Oslo Blog Gathering would have been different if even one of you didn’t come. One of the best things about OsloBG was the people and how everyone added a little something special to the group. In short it wouldn’t have been the same without you!
Click to see The participants and their adventures posts!

We hope one day to meet everyone again, and who knows maybe there will be another OsloBG in the future?

In Soul – Ginnie’s blog:
I met Ginnie in Blogsphere almost 6 years ago. Actually it was through ExpatTravels -From Switzerland to Canada, one of my very first blog friend. I know they have met some years ago in Canada when Ginnie still lived in her homeland; Georgia, US. Now it’s our turn and we can always hope that our next visitors in Oslo will be ET, her husband and new born baby : -)
I’m happy I met Ginnie of course, but sorry it was just a couple of months after she had have a short cruise landing in Oslo. Already when we blog met, she promised to come back to visit us and tonight, tonight it’ll happens!

What to explore for 4 days in Oslo?
There are plenty of options of course and we have had some mail exchange about our suggestions and their interests. One of theirs are the Mini Cruise on the Oslo Fjord:

Left: The Town Hall – Right: Fram & the Maritime Museum at Bygdøy island.

I had planned to tell about all the other options, but now it’s time to go to Oslo Central Station to pick them up from the Airport Express train : -)

The OsloBG girls night out:
Some of the participants from August 2010 were expats – moving from their homelands to live with their loved ones in Norway – and people with similar experiences often stick together. Like last Saturday, Karen arranged a girly girls party at The Dubliner Irish Folk Pub in Oslo to catch up as well as share good memories from last summer. My wife DianeCA was one of them and I gave her a ride to the pub at 2PM. As you can see from the pic, I dropped in just to say hello and get my hugs and a photo, but then I returned home to play with my gadgets toys while the girls had girl talk in the bar: -)

The Girls let the Boys in:
At 7PM I got a text message from my wife: “They are letting the guys in!” I would say that was on offer no one could refuse, so I took a quick shower, grabbed a taxi and was there in 30 minutes. I guess no one would blame me – maybe rather envy me (pics are worth more a thousand word – click to bigify & enjoy):

Left: Tressa, Karen & Sara – Right: Diane, Corrine, me & Karla
These are pics borrowed from Tressa, you should hop over to her blog and read about these adventures from her perspective!

Lots of talking, fun, meeting new people and doing some crazy things – describes the evening with the girls in a nut shell. Since I often shot pics of them, they also took some revenge:

After a Guinness that size, I needed a cigar (no smoking inside, so I went in the snowy back yard ; -)

The JIGs Concert:
Every weekend the Dubliner offers a live concert this time it was Mick, Kevin and David in the group called JIG:

We loved their performance and like Tressa said (read her post!): I am pretty sure the Dubliner would have to be my favourite bar in Norway. It was SO nice to have people speaking English all night, & the Norwegians who were there… were all interested in where we were from & even better.. speaking ENGLISH.. yahoo…
I hope she still feels that way after watching the vid I mixed up after shooting some more pics and a couple film sequences with my Nokia N8 Mobile phone:

I am so happy to see that many of our guests have become friends with each other and keep in touch after OsloBG is long over. It shows how much we have in common and that blogging really is connecting people – every day!

The grand historic Oscarsborg Fortress:
My wife DianeCA. invited those who wanted to join her for a trip to Oscarsborg Fortress. It stands on Kaholmene in the Drøbak Strait and has been there for more than 350 years. Build as a Coastal fortress in the years 1643-1644, its name was given by royal resolution on August 23, 1855 after a visit by the Swedish/Norwegian King Oscar 1.

Oscarsborg is best known for the sinking of the German battleship “Blücher” on the 9th of April 1940, WW2, and one can still get a whiff of the creosote (lignite tar) from the battleship. So the Fortress was military territory until 2003, but then made a publicly available resort island. We can tell you that many local families enjoy taking the boat out to the island fortress and having an enjoyable afternoon on the scenic grounds and visiting the charming seaside café.

Champagne on historical ground:
The Medieval Park in the Old City of Oslo (called Bjørvika) is the largest contiguous area of preserved ruins from the Middle Ages. It was here that the urbanization of Oslo started around the year 1000. In the 1300s there were six churches, three monasteries, royal residence and the bishop’s residence in this small urban society.

Surrounding the ruins is now a park and the old coastal line is recreated as it was in the middle ages by the creation of a water table to provide parkland quality and character. Before the grand finale in the evening, TorAa suggested this place as the perfect surroundings for popping the cork and toasting a successful gathering:

Through Exhibitions and Events the park already communicates experiences, stimulating activities and even more: provides knowledge about Oslo City’s origins, and the role of Oslo as the capital and the Norwegian Middle Ages. The most famous yearly event is The Øya Music Festival, so we where in the right place to have a party:

The grand finale celebration:
Three hectic days (and nights) were coming to an to end but we weren’t ready to give up without a fight, or rather a party. My wife DianeCA and I were exhausted, but we still had a jolly good time with the whole gang at Dubliner Folk Pub. It was a mixed feeling of sadness for having to say farewell, but also the loud buzzing and talking about all the excitement we had experienced. Nobody wanted to go home and all had a lot more they wished to see and do. I was thinking: All in all, many good reasons to come back:

Lawrence aka BeaverBush came up with the party idea and made the reservations for us at the pub. He was so nice and gave me a bottle of very nice champagne on behalf of all the participants. I was happy, thankful and proud of course that all went so well. It was hard to make a small thank you speech – very emotional for me:

Celebrating the Mayor’s birthday in the City Hall:
I have decided to end the report from OsloBG with the most Magic Moment of all: the opening ceremony as the reception by the Mayor in Oslo City Hall. Being aware of that the Mayor had his birthday that very day, I’d asked the participants to bring a small gift from their homeland to give to him. My wife had my Nokia X6 mobile phone, to capture the moment:

My wife DianeCA and I have worked hard on planning OsloBG for over one year and now that our mission is accomplished and my dream has come true, I want to thank everyone again who participated. We made the plan and invited the guests, but it was really each and every OsloBG participant who made the event what it was. Everyone played a key roll and it would not have been the same without them!
So far, all their posts about OsloBG is collected at the gatherings guest list. I will soon make a post to present all of them – so stay tuned!

Five minutes later we had left the urban city life and were enjoying the nature (click pics to bigify & enjoy):

The ferry is relatively small and in just 15 minutes takes you to Bygdøy Island with lots of historical museums:

<sub>Closer and closer to the Fram Museum:

Fram = the boat Roald Amundsen used at his Polar Expeditions (the first to the South Pole in 1912)</sub>

Five minutes walk from there and you take Norway’s shortest ferry trip to the island where we were dining:

_{Max 11 passengers and one minute drive.}

The restaurant at little Herbern Island:
This small “hide out” is a hidden gem and a peaceful and idyllic island which should be on every Oslo visitors wish list. People started to come out here when the restaurant first opened in 1929, and it has been known as a small and precious pearl in the Oslo gastronomy scene since then, beautifully situated on a natural beach it is open yearly from May – October.
It could be taken for a private Scandinavian summer home on the outside, however inside the restaurant has seats for 65 guests and 130 outside on the terrace with a fantastic seaside view. The restaurant’s interior is bright, with big windows, white table cloths, wooden chairs and a beautiful parquet floor. I’m sorry I didn’t take any pics from the outside, but here are some from the restaurant late in the evening:

_{Fantastic sceneries through the panoramic windows.}

I have pics from our gastronomic adventures as well so join the Oslo Blog Gathering gang from all over the world and let me share the menu:

I guess it would not surprise you that seafood is their speciality and to me of course; the choice was easy. So first things first; the starter – bon appétit:

<sub>Scampi on a crisp salad with balsamic vinegar dressing

Left, the main course: grilled salmon on pureed potatoes – Right, the dessert: cappuccino pannacotta</sub>

After the one minute ferry back to Bygdøy Island, we took the bus back to Oslo – a 20 minutes drive and we were back in the city and First Millennium Hotel again.

This was Friday night’s menu and we were all getting to know each other quite well – making friendship for life. According to the OsloBG program, we still had one more day and night of fun and adventures, so stay tuned there is more to come!

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet:
As an ice berg out of the ocean, the Opera from the outside is considered spectacular, and the radical change of worm welcome look when you get inside is equally impressive. It’s Norway’s largest performing arts institution, with 600 employees working in about 50 professions and trades. Designed by the Norwegian architects Snøhetta, it is the first opera house in the world to let visitors walk on the roof (click pics to bigify & enjoy)):

_{OsloBG participants roof photo shoot}.

The new opera house offers a rich and varied programme from three stages: The Main House (1369 seats), Second House (400 seats) and the Studio (200 seats). The Opera Roof and Foyer are also used for concerts and other artistic performances.
Our guided tour invited into a unique workspace and we learn a lot more about the architecture and even catch a glimpse of life backstage. I had my Nokia X6 mobile at hand of course, to give you a sneak peak:

The oak tree inside gives a warm and welcome impression as oppose to ice berg shaped building on the outside:

The artistic facilities and what is required of the shows was also among the guiding themes. We saw the public areas, the main hall as well as Scene 2 (photos above), and we even were back stage and also saw the rehearsal rooms and the sewing room:

The Oslo Pass = Free transport & entrance:
The OsloBG participants were given this Oslo Pass by VisitOslo. It provides free travel on all public transport, free admission to museums and sights, free parking in all Oslo municipal car parks, discounts on car rental, ice skate hire, Tusenfryd Amusement Park etc. This of course were very convenient to have – all the time – so even if only three stops away, we took the tube to our next adventure this second day.

His Majesty the King’s Guard (HMKG):
At 1:30PM 2 pm. every day, the changing of the guard ceremony take place in front of the Royal Palace. A popular spectator event for tourists and of course for the OsloBG participants too:

Their dark blue dress uniforms have remained virtually unchanged throughout the regiment’s 142 years of existence

I was serving at the King Guard myself in 1972, so I knew where to take OsloBG participants to stay or sit to get the best, closest look:

One noteworthy detail of the uniform is the plumbed bowler hat, which was copied from the Italian Bersaglieri alpine troops – a regiment that so impressed the queen Louise (Queen of Sweden and Norway between 1859 and 1870) that she in 1860 insisted the Norwegian guards be similarly attired.

OsloBG – the participant’s choice:
This is only a small collection of what was explored by the OsloBG participants this second of our three days together – all in all we were about 30 participants from all over the world. Seldom were we together in one group though as the program idea was based on that everyone should pick out their favourite spots according to their interest and preferences and of course what they felt for each day. So as “local hosts”, DianeCA my wife, our good friend TorAa and I picked out our rout for the day and invited those who wanted to follow.
I will post more from my trips and so will they – not to mention all the participants’ blog posts from their adventures. Those will be presented by me in one post as soon as I have collected all of them. So by all means: stay tuned!

After the Mayor’s welcome speech, it was my turn to return the favour with some words:
“Our Dear Mayor, Oslo Blog Gathering participants, and associates;
They say that Oslo is the city with a big heart, and you dear Mayor, participating in this reception is certainly proof of that. Even on your own 55th birthday you are here to welcome my guests from around the world with open arms. In the five years I have been blogging about Norway, our culture, traditions and habits, I have lots of regular readers who have become curious about our country, find us a bit exotic, and wanted to come and visit. I have also tried to explain about our open and transparent society. I have told the world about our accessible politicians who hear our individual voices, and you are now an excellent example of this.
I also wish to express my thanks to VisitOslo for their contribution as well as the gathering’s hub, First Hotel Millennium.
I’m proud of Oslo city and I know you are too. To me it is a dream comes true that I am able to give my blog friends, from all around the world, a taste of what we have to offer. Again, thank you dear Mayor for receiving us and letting us have a look at the heart of Oslo, our lovely city hall. I’m sure our participants will share some of their adventures from today and their expectations in the rest of the program with you.“

Then we had a great time enjoying the food, the drinks as well as a nice chat with the Mayor (click all pics to bigify and enjoy):

We also were lucky enough to get a guided tour in the city hall: Located by the waterfront, with Fritdjof Nansensplass on the inland side. It’s open to the public, with a spectacular main hall featuring huge murals with typical Nordic social democratic themes. Its characteristic architecture, artworks and the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony makes it one of Oslo’s most famous buildings. There are also some displays of historical artefacts in the side rooms upstairs and we where in the Munch-room with a beautiful view of the harbour and Oslo Fjord:

The day however started in the morning at reception in OsloBG’s HUB; The First Millennium Hotel, where we all meet for a guided tour: Highlights of Oslo:

Let me just give you a short memo from the bus tour which started with a round trip in the city when the guide gave a short overview and description of the towns history:
Our capital and largest city in Norway was founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway and largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania. In 1925 the city reclaimed its original Norwegian name, Oslo. The diocese of Oslo is one of the five original dioceses in Norway, which originated around the year 1070.
Oslo is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental centre of Norway. It’s also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping as well as an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of them are amongst the world’s largest shipping companies, ship-brokers and maritime insurance brokers.
We also had some short stops to some sightseeing:

The Vigeland Sculpture park:

Some of us gathered by the Angry Boy; the most tourist photographed object in Norway. We had an excellent guide who gave a wonderful introduction to Vigeland’s beautiful work of his life (you may read more about it in my post: Olga the travelling bra clothing statues Vigeland Park:

The Holmenkollen ski jump:
20 minutes by tram, on the hill behind the central city, you’ll find Norway’s number one sports icon: The Ski Jump: is host to the world’s oldest notable ski jump competition still in existence.
Since then the capacity of the stands has been increased to over 50,000 people and the jump has been extended 18 times, last time in 1982. Today’s tower extends 60 meters above ground, and 417 metres above sea level. The current record of 139.5 meters was achieved by Andreas Kofler of Austria on 14 March 2010. I was there at that time and can recall you’re memory from my post: “Holmenkollen Ski Jump preparing for OSL2011
This time we went to the very top and here is the view (unfortunately in rainy weather):

Bygdøy Island & the Museums:
We ended up passing the Museums at Bygdøy (click the links to read my earlier posts:- Like the Kon-Tiki Museum, which shows all year long the legendary expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl. The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. Viking Ship Museum as well as Norwegian Maritime Museum and the ship Fram, used by Roald Amundsen.

OsloBG – The show will go on:
This was just a short report from the first day. The show will go on for two more days, so stay tuned!

Update: My wife DianeCA’s post from this first day: Blogger friends exploring Oslo at OsloBG!

OsloBG is a three day program to explore Oslo and Norway’s culture, traditions and habits. Associates like VisitOslo give the Oslo Pass to all participants which allows free access to sightseeing attractions as well as public transportation. That gives everyone a free choice of how to experience our compact city offering everything from the Fjord, the mountains and wild life as well as pulsating urban adventures. Click the official logo to read about the whole program.

OsloBG in Social Media:
The gathering is first of all a social gathering for people from all over the world who love to meet up and share magic moments while exploring Oslo. Some might blog about it live (like me, so stay tuned!) and some will share our adventures on other social media. I have a Nokia X6, excellent for uploading and sharing on all platforms, so check out my photos and reports on Facebook, Twitter and/or Flickr as well! If you are lucky, you might get a glimpse of us and our adventures live at my Qik-site too from where I can broadcast real time, on line!

OsloBG’s Guest list:
Of course all participants are active on the net too and you might like to check them out for reports during or after the gathering:
From Norway/USA: The Host Renny and his wife Diane at DianeCA’s Metamorphoses
Norway: TorAa at TorAa’s Mirror
Sweden: Mrs. Lifecruiser & Mr. Lifecruiser at LifeCruiser’s Travel Blog
France: Claudie & Pierre at LazazandCruisers
France/USA: Vagabonde at Recollections of a Vagabonde
Portugal: Lelé Batita at Pérola de Cultura
UK: living in Norway – Nicola at Facebook
Russia: living in Norway – Svetlana at Facebook
Denmark/USA: – Rachel & her sister at Happily practising Danish. And I run too.
Indonesia: – sherinesky! at Once upon a blog
Latvia: living in Norway – Edgar Valdmanis at Norwegian Computer Society
Philippines: living in Norway – Anna Lyn at Nothern Angle
Spain: – Maria… at Facebook
Canada: living in Norway – BeaverBush at Canadian in Norway
Norway: returned from South-Africa – Caroline at Returne to Norway
USA: living in Norway & her SO – Michele at My Grand Adventure Part II
USA: living in Norway – Corrine at Northern Natterings
Indonesia: living in Norway – Cecelia at This Indonesian
UK: living in Norway – Karen at Facebook
Philippine: living in Norway – Charles Ravndal at charlesravndal.com

Click their link to enjoy all they will report before, during and after the gathering and of course check back here for updates and reports from our gathering!

Oslo is situated in an amphitheatre-like setting, with the city centre in the bottom close to the Oslo fjord, and residential areas stretching uphill from there in all directions. Behind the residential areas, the forested area extends, with flora and fauna that is quite extraordinary for a city of this size (click all pics to bigify & enjoy):

Enough facts and on to our round trip with the boat – I guess photos show more than a thousand words:

^{Recreational, don’t you think?}

^{A lot of nice beaches on the islands and shores.}

Tourist highlights:

^{Above & Below: Oslo harbour at the City Hall}

^{Above & Below: The new Oslo Opera House}

^{Bygdøy island with e.g. Maritime and the Viking ship museum.}

Some curiosities:

^{Above: Light Houses – Below: House boat}

Moose are commonplace (easily spotted in winter), and the whole of the capital is part of Norway’s wolf reserve (even if they rarely come here). We did not see any moose that day, but on the island by our friend’s cabin, we saw this cute deer:

A culinary end:

The day was finished off with a delicious dinner of grilled pork loin, baked potatoes and salads. We were incredibly lucky to have good friends willing to share their cottage and boat and help us give a perfect summer Norwegian experience while my wife’s family was visiting. We will soon be moving on to Sweden, and then across the Norwegian mountains to Bergen. So keep checking in for a look at the fantastic Nordic summertime.