Bergen, Norway

Well good thing we had prepared for rain, because it rained a lot in Bergen! I believe it's the rainiest city in Norway, and probably one of the rainiest cities in Europe. But it's also very quaint and beautiful; the city was the European Capital of Culture in 2000 and it's water front, Bryggen, is an UNESCO World Heritage site.

We took the most amazing train ride from Oslo to the West coast and traveled through incredible Norwegian landscape. We stayed at a typical chain hotel, but it did the job just fine and had a nice large Norwegian breakfast buffet in the morning. The size of Bergen is just perfect. Large enough for some good exploring, but doesn't feel very large and quite easy to get your bearings quickly.

Our main plan in Bergen was to enjoy the outdoors. In a short furnicular ride or walk from Bergen's city centre, you can reach mountainous hiking trails in the Mount Floyen or Mount Ulriken areas. So we started off the first morning with a hike up through Mount Floyen. It was warm and almost sunny when we took off, but by the afternoon, it was raining fairly good. Didn't stop us - although we looked like drowned rats! But we hiked around the top of Floyen and explored. Interesting to see how there are all of these mountain cabins scattered about. Not sure how they workk - if they belong to a family, or if you can rent one. The key thing of course is getting there! Not like there is an easy road to drive your car up! So they are mainly for hikers to use. And Norwegians like to hike! And in the rain!

In our exploring we found this tiny little old hut, which has been turned into a small art gallery. It's in the middle of nowhere on the tip of ledge on the mountain. But I think the cool thing is for those of us who stumble upon it, receive quite a nice culture surprise! Whoever runs it, changes out the works every few months and runs a blog. Pretty cool!

As food is so expensive as I mentioned in the Oslo post, we took on the typical European tourist habits, and ate mainly bread and cheese (and salami for me) for our lunches and even some dinners. It was much easier to shop in a supermarket and buy picnic type stuff. Plus that is so much fun anyway in a different country.

The next day after our open face breakfast sandwiches and coffee/tea, we took one of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours on the fjords. We traveled by train, bus, boat, bus in a circular fashion from Bergen and back to Bergen in about 12 hours. The main highlights were some amazing waterfalls and of course the boat tour on the fjords. Our photos don't do the fjords justice, even though we took hundreds. We travelled along the Hardangerfjord and past all of the steep sloping fruit farms on the banks. Another wet and cold day, but obviously we found ways to enjoy a hot cup of coffee/tea and experience the Norwegian life! Here we are in a cafe in Eidfjord (on the end of the fjord), waiting for the rain to let up so we can explore the town.

Our last day, we didn't fly out until later at night, so still had some time to hike a bit in the morning. We took the cable car this time up Mount Ulriken. The weather was also somewhat sunny, so that was nice for our last day. We hiked a bit together, and then I was pretty shot from all of our activities, so went back to the cafe on the top and enjoyed a Norwegian boller (sweet baked bun) and a latte while overlooking the city. Brian hiked over to the next mountain and of course loved having his alone manly time to be one with the outdoors. :)

We flew from Bergen to Oslo, and then Oslo home to London. Got home late in the evening, but luckily had a day at home to recoup before heading back to work.

We'd love to return again sometime and explore our families roots, since we both have such a strong Norwegian presence in our lives. Will just have to live off of more bread and cheese!

Oslo, Norway

Brian and I spent the last week in July visiting Norway. If it's not apparent, we both have strong Norwegian heritage in our families and thought this was a good opportunity to explore our roots. It especially worked out perfectly, because our good Swedish friends, Elin & Magnus, were going to drive from Sweden to Norway, to visit our Norwegian friends in Oslo. And they all kindly invited the Americans to join in! Oyvind and Kristine were also neighbors with us when we first moved to Oxford. We only lived in Oxford for about 4 months together, where we lived across from Elin & Magnus for about 11 months or so. This was such a special experience - to reconnect with our Scandinavian friends in Norway!

After the athletics meet Saturday, Brian and I stayed in a hotel by the Heathrow airport, and flew to Oslo on Sunday. On the airplane we sat next to this attractive older blonde Norwegian woman. Brian offered put her bag up for her and asked in English of course. She first answered in excellent English and then immediately continued talking to him in Norwegian. I ended up saying to her, "I'm sorry but we don't understand". And she said, "Oh I though you were both Norwegian, you look like you are. Then she said, "Especially him, but not you as much." (!) Well at least I don't obviously look British - yikes!

Kristine and her 4-year-old daughter, Stella, collected us from the Oslo train station. The Swedes were not arriving until Monday, so we had a chance to catch up with Kristine, Oyvind, Stella (hiding in the pic) and meet their new little boy Jostein. We had indicated how we were looking forward to trying local Norwegian foods - and right away we were treated to some fun and typical Norwegian treats! Not sure that I'm going to remember their Norwegian names, but after our veggie tarts for dinner, we tried some yummy baked sweet rolls, this brown and carmel-tasting goat cheese slices (was yummy!) and their Xmas spirit - aquavit.

Monday started off with a great breakfast. I would say it's a bit different than our sweet breakfast (cereal, baked goods) or heavy greasy breakfast (English breakfast, bacon, scrambled eggs). I know this is similar in Sweden too, when we visit E&M last summer. But basically the main part is proper baked bread, sliced, buttered (so that is where we get buttering our sandwiches!) served open faced with a selection on cheese slices, cold meat slices, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and boiled egg. You could also add a kaviar paste or smoked mackerel if that is your thing! There was also more goats cheese (spreadable or the brown caramel kind again) and some berry jam from berries they had just picked. And lots of coffee! My travel guide said that the most coffee consumed in the world is in Norway! Found that a bit surprising - thinking of the Italians and espresso and French and lattes. But Norwegians like it filtered and black in a mug and pretty much just drink it throughout the day. So it all adds up!

After breakfast we headed for a walk in the nearby countryside. It was so beautiful to see the farmland amongst rocky hills and small cliffs. And we discovered the Norwegian troll eggs! (Bales of hay with the white plastic coverings.) Here is Bri and I in front of a barn - red with white trim, looks familiar!!

The Bjork family arrived for lunch - so we had lunch at the house and then loaded up everyone for a trip to the Vigeland Sculpture Park just outside of Oslo. We hadn't seen Rebecka (3) or Lukas (now 1+) since last August and so fun to see how much they had grown! By now, the weather decided to be really wet and rainy, but good thing everyone was prepared with rain gear!

Dinner back at the house was this concoction called Bacalao (think I spelled it correctly). It's made from klippfisk (dried salted cod), potatoes and veggies, all cooked together in a big pot. Now the fish gets soaked in water overnight, so it's not dried nor at all as salty as when it's purchased. But it's the old school way to preserve fish for long periods of time. Funny enough, that the dish is a combination of Norwegian and Brazilian influences. Norway used to import loads of klippfisk to Brazil - who in turned made their own South American twist to the dish.

Tuesday we traveled into Oslo again (and the sun was shining!) to visit the Norwegian Folk Museum. Kristine was a good sport since she's been there like a million times! It was an outdoor museum divided into the various regions of the country and showing the different styles of homes/farms from various time periods. Of course we saw some traditional folk dancing and then Brian got his requisite photo with the local girls!


I would say Tuesday night was probably Brians' fave meal of all times - an absolutely enormous baked whole trout! Served with steamed potatoes, hollandaise sauce and cucumber salad (with vinegar and sugar just like at home). He had died and gone to heaven!

First impressions of Norway - friendly, worldly, expensive and family oriented. Also extremely tall, blonde and gorgeous women. The stereotype is totally true! But not everyone is blonde really - gorgeous and tall though! They all speak English very well and it's taught for many years in school. They also learn more American English than British English and there is heavy American pop culture influence in TV/movies/music. Fashion however isn't influenced too much by Americans, but more the British and continental Europe (so they do care about what they wear versus flip flops and sweatpants!). Insanely expensive. I had heard this, but assumed it was Americans saying this (with a weaker dollar) and since I live practically in London, how could anywhere be more expensive? OMG! A pint of standard lager was 8 GBP, which is currently like $15! We ate a lot of bread and cheese . . .

More to report on our second half of our trip to Bergen and traveling through the Norwegian Fjords on the next post!

UK Athletics and the Berlin Championships

We just finished watching last week's Berlin World Championships on the BBC. For those of you who don't follow Track and Field (or Athletics as they call it in the UK) the biggest t&f event in the world, outside of the Olympics, was held in Berlin all last week. The big name, as I sure most everyone has heard of, is Usain Bolt - the 6 foot 5 sprinter from Jamaica. He is absolutely amazing! Just broke a bunch of his own World Records and especially slammed the 200m sprint.

Why I'm mentioning all this is because we got to see him in live action in London, the Saturday before we left for Norway! A few weeks back now, we attended the AVIVA London Athletics meet, which was a UK qualifier for the Worlds. It was as last ditch place for teams to qualify for the Worlds and served as a great point to start the build up to the big 100m showdown in Berlin between Bolt and American Tyson Gay and others. The pic here is of the British broadcast woman interviewing Bolt on the track's big screen.

Attending the meet made us miss Eugene sooo much as we went to every single U of O and Prefontaine Classic track meet at historic Hayward field. It's the one sport that we both love and can enjoy together!

Back Online!

Hello lovely blog followers!

Good news is that my extremely intelligent (and handsome I must say), hubby has saved our old files off the dead hard drive and upgraded our Mac - so I'm back online! I did always have access to email, etc, at work or on Brian's laptop. But I enjoy blogging on our home desk top Mac and obviously need access to our photos to help tell you what we're up to.

Now I should be able to upload video clips and the process for me with the blogging should go smoother and quicker (fingers crossed)!

Lots have been happening for us since the crash to update you on. In a nutshell (and I'll post longer updates soon) - Mom and Dad enjoyed Scotland (a bit cool and rainy but what else is new over here) and then we enjoyed a weekend trip to London to for a British-inspired 4th of July for dinner and a West End show - Billy Elliot. Mom and I loved it, I think the boys weren't too sure about a boy doing ballet in a tutu. :)

Then, we took a week trip to Norway to visit friends we had made when we first moved to Oxford. Our Norwegian friends Kristine and Oyvind live in Oslo, and our Swedish friends, Elin and Magnus also drove over from Gothenburg. It was such a special week to visit and reconnect with our international friends.

And last week, Brian's good buddy from Gustavus, Nelson and his fiance Amanda, came over for a visit. Nelson was physics grad, and now works as an accoustic engineer at Apple in California. Amanda is in law school and also a midwest gal. They came over for 4 days in Oxford to see us, and are currently now traveling around Belgium and Paris for the rest of their holiday.

We have a little down time right now in August, and have to admit, the weather has been pretty nice for an English summer. In few weeks, Elin and Magnus are coming back over to Oxford with their kids, to visit us and the city again.

In the meantime, we are just enjoying the sun, the pubs, and our life and friends here in the UK. Just today, we took a bike ride in the sun to the neighboring village, Eynsham. And guess how our day ended? Cheers!!