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?

The square is part of the city that Christian IV (the King of Denmark-Norway) founded after a major fire in the older part of Oslo in 1624. This is therefore the oldest existing district of Oslo – called Kvadraturen (The Quadrature) – and was until the city limits were expanded in 1794 the only non –military buildings in Christiania; placed right behind Akershus Fortress and therefore easier to defend.

A panoramic photo of the square circling around the fountain monument.

The Old Town Hall:
There’s nothing modern about this dining establishment and patrons, including myself, come here for a nostalgic experience. Housed in Oslo’s former Town Hall (“Det Gamle Rådhus”) stands as one of Oslo’s oldest restaurants. With the interior adding to the authenticity you can get plenty of traditional Norwegian dishes. Their specialities include fish entrées as well as deer, moose, beaver, game birds or other from the Norwegian fauna. Last time I was there, I had a blog friend visiting from Singapore (click to read the post!). Hope you get the idea both of the building and interior from these pics (click to bigify & enjoy):

Left: Yellow building = Old Town Hall – Right: Authentic interior.

Rådmannsgåren = House of the City Manager:
Oslo’s oldest reminding building was constructed for the City Manager Lauritz Hansen, who some years later also led efforts to build the Old Town Hall. It has two floors, with exterior walls of Dutch bricks. The estate in the Renaissance style, is mostly red cup yellow pages and running pages, and shifts are added so that the walls are red and yellow stripes (left building):

Left: Rådmannsgården – Right: Old City Hall

The Anatomy House:
One of the few remaining houses in Oslo, built with the timber framing method. In fact about 50 % of the buildings in this area were half-timbered in the middle of 18th century. The façades (brick walls) of the building are sanded and covered with layers of protective rock materials, so the timbers are only visible on the gables (left building):

The age is unknown, but the house is likely to be from the 18th century. It is conserved, like the adjacent Rådmannsgården. In the 19th century, the Faculty of Medicine of University of Oslo had its division of anatomy here – hence the name Anatomigården (= “The Anatomy house“).

I hope you enjoyed this historical look at one of the charming old experiences you can have in Oslo. I am proud that we are careful with our history so future generations can appreciate the craftsmanship and culture of days gone by.

Two of our blog friends, Ginnie from Georgia, US and Astrid from the Netherlands, could not make it to the Oslo Blog Gathering in August 2010. So they came in April this year instead, to explore and have a taste of Oslo and Norway; our culture, history, traditions and habits. This post is from their third day of four,exploring the Oslo New Opera House (click all pics to bigify & enjoy):

Left: All Blog Friends at the entrance of The Opera – Right: Ginnie & Astrid in front of The Opera

Two days before we saw the Opera house from the seaside on our Oslo Fjord boat sightseeing trip:

Left: Ginnie photo hunting – Right: The new Opera House.

Guided tour in Norway Opera House:
Up to 50,000 persons visit the new monumental building at the Oslo waterfront each week most of them for a recreational adventure outdoors. This really shatters the myth about a cultural building like the opera being dull and difficult and only an indoor adventure and shows that the opera is more than entertainment for the bourgeoisie. However, a guided tour inside is worthy too and we always try to find time when blog friends are visiting:

The House is workplace for 600 people divided between more than 50 different trades and professions – among them about 100 seamstresses:

Left: Ginnie & Astrid in the sewing room – Right: Costume for the Nutcracker.

This production section holds all facilities that are necessary for the production of an opera or ballet: workshops, storerooms, dressing rooms, cloakrooms, offices as well as audition and rehearsal rooms – with an inspirational view to the Oslo Fjord:

The acoustics are the most important criteria for success for the new Opera House. It has therefore been a primary objective that the acoustics in the Main auditorium are of best quality. Experience shows that a horseshoe form is the best design for achieving optimum acoustics in an opera theatre, which is why the design was adopted:

Materials are also important for tone and timbre. Modern preference is for timbre, where music is prioritised over song and speech. In the Main auditorium, the objective is to achieve a resonant solution that meets requirements of reverberance, early decay time and loudness.

This is day three of four from our Blog Friends Astrid and Ginnie’s adventures – so stay tuned for more in the next posts!

Update:
Go read Ginnie’s first post from their adventures in Norway!
…. and of course my wife DianeCA’s post about their visit too!

Before reaching the island, you’ll pass some landmarks, nice to see from the seaside (click pic to bigify & enjoy):

Left: The Akershus Fortress – Right: The new Opera House.

The Oslo Fjord – a deep inlet of the Skagerrak:
Oslo occupies an arc of land at the northernmost end of the Oslo fjord. The fjord, which is nearly bisected by the Nesodden peninsula opposite Oslo, lies to the south; in all other directions Oslo is surrounded by green hills and mountains. There are 40 islands within the city limits, the largest being Malmøya and Hovedøya, and scores more around the Oslo fjord:

Still some ice since its beginning of April – increasing the adventure!

Below: Two of the many light houses in the Oslo Fjord

The Museums on Bygdøy Island:
If you really want to explore Norway’s history, culture and traditions; Bygdøy is the place – easy to access 20 minutes from Oslo city centre by bus or boat (click links to read more about them in my earlier posts):
The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, a large open air museum featuring typical buildings from various periods in our history. The Viking Ship Museum; in addition to two 1100 year old Viking-ships (apparently the best preserved in the world), it also contains various other Viking artefacts and a Viking burial chamber, complete with ancient skeletons. Closest to the fjord, we passed:

Norwegian Maritime Museum which houses a huge collection of ships and boats and records the impact of Norway’s seafarers on our own country and the world. The Kon-Tiki Museum which displays Tor Heyerdahl’s balsa raft Kon-Tiki and Ra II, as well as some other artefacts from Easter Island. The Fram Museum features the vessel Fram, the world’s first ice breaker and the last polar expedition ship made of wood, and presents a history of polar exploration (with a strong Norwegian focus!)

This is only the first day of four posts from our Blog Friends Astrid and Ginnie’s adventures – so stay tuned for more in the next one!

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 : -)

A while ago, a good blog friend of mine, Mihaela Lica at Pamil Visions made me aware of Stay.com (actually a Norwegian startup!) where you create a guide crafted to your personal needs, tastes and destinations. Best of all it can be consulted on your computer or smart phone, or printed out as a pocket-sized pdf-file if you prefer. You may also broadcast the itinerary or parts of it to friends via Facebook and Twitter. Each guide that gets created adds to the library of itineraries available to other users and by that builds up a vault of good ideas for a good time wherever you go in the world.

My connections via my account at TripIt are automatically broadcast on Facebook, so most already know that my wife DianeCA and I are going to Lisbon in November. We will meet up with our blog friends, Helena and her husband (to the right in the picture) who participated in the Oslo Blog Gathering in August. They are preparing and planning a lot for us already, but it was still exciting to check out Stay.com for ideas of what to explore in the capital of Portugal. Planning ahead is half the fun you know

How about you; how do you prepare and plan for a trip? Share your trip planning ideas here in comments, and maybe check out Stay.com for yourself.

It’s hard to believe we graduated 35 years ago, but it was some special bounds developed during our two years together in Bø, Telemark, As a matter of fact we’ve had these reunions every 5 years since 1985! As always, when we meet up; nobody or nothing has changed – or has it (click picks to bigify & enjoy)?

_{Left: The football team in ’74 – Right: This years reunion.}

The arranging committee had done a tremendously good job in planning for a 2 days reunion. We had a wonderful time on the deck in front of the hotel; catching up, sort out gossip and facts since five years as well as memorising the lovely, inapprehensive time in collage. Also in the evening, we had a delicious gourmet meal with great vine as well as coffee avec and were dancing and talking in the nightclub all night long. I’m sure you understand that I don’t go into details, but there is one special adventure in the afternoon before dinner, I can’t resist sharing: A boat trip on Lake Norsjø in M/S Telemarken. Let’s start with the breath taking view of the valley and mountains (the weather & company was perfect):

_{Lunch in Telemark gives you the peace back!}

The boat M/S Telemarken:
The Motor Ship “Telemarken” was built at Västervik yard in Sweden in 1951 and was one of the boats in the Stockholm archipelago. Her first name was M/S “Freja” and eventually renamed M/S “Karson “. In 1988 the boat was put into operation on the Telemark Canal and was named M/S “Telemarken”. She is 26m long, 5.6m wide, protruding 1.6m deep and takes 140 passengers: here you see her anchored:

_{M/S Telemarken & Norsjø Hotel on top, right.}

Find you’re peace back in Telemark:
Sailing along in sunshine, enjoying the magic in nature, what can be more recreational? To convince you, let me give a taste of the lake, the landscape and the locks from Norsjø up to the river Eidselva and back:

<sub>On Lake Norsjø

Left: The locks to……. Right: …. Eidselva (a wide but very quiet river)</sub>

Eidselva lies in Nome municipality in Telemark. It rises in Flåvatn, runs into Norsjø in Ulefoss with 4 locks and is an important part of the Telemark Canal. I am from Telemark, so maybe a bit disqualified, but admit it’s a natural beauty:

_{The river Eidselva.}

Blues session on Lake Norsjø:
The top of the cream, besides the weather, the food, the nature and the company (who could actually ask for more?), was the unforgettable concert on the boat by the blues musicians: Jostein Forsberg & Morten Omlid. They are very much involved in Notodden Blues Festival, the biggest in Scandinavia (25.000 spectators in 2010) and gave us one good blues pearl title after the other, combined in a jam sessions with Norwegian folk music:

So then I’ve saved the best for last: Filming with my compact Cannon G11 – Here you see Lake Norsjø, the monumental landscape and can listen to the blues guys who sat an adventuress atmosphere with their magic tunes – touching our soul and heart:

These are memories that stay forever and friendship staying the same way. For me the rural and being within the natural elements: Earth, Water and Air – when almost untouched – is the most inspirational and recreational there is. By this post I hope I have given you an idea of what I mean by that and why I love to be outdoors to charge my batteries!

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!

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!