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!!

Computer Crash!!!

Bad news - our home computer's hard drive just died on us. So access to the internet is pretty limited for me at the moment. Mainly I'm worried about losing all of our photos as we've been lax lately on backing them up. Good thing I've been blogging at least . . . But Dr Brian the physicist is all over it. (A good nerdy problem to solve.) So hopefully we'll save the photos and files and be back up and running soon.

John & Marcy are here again!

My folks are visiting us for two weeks this summer and arrived this past Wednesday. They know the drill now, on how to travel from the airport in London to Oxford. The first day and a half are pretty chill for them, as they adjust to the time change. Then Mum and I went to the Cotswolds Friday for a girls day of shopping and tea rooms. Was lovely! Visited the villages of Burford and Whitney. Friday night was our regular trip to the pub with the Physics group, and they were all out, so many pints were consumed.

Saturday the four of us went punting on the Cherwell River and unbelievably we are having hot summer weather!! We punted (well Brian did the actual punting) up to the Victoria Arms pub, where we sat outside in the large garden along the river and enjoyed the sun and some pints. Went to our fave Greek restaurant for dinner and Mum and Dad really enjoyed that.

Sunday was another day of just hanging in Oxford. Mum and I went to one of the local Church of England's churches for their morning service. It was family focused, so all the little kids helped with the service. We then headed to Marston village, just a walk away, for my Canadian friend Lindsay's baby shower. Was fun for Ma to meet my NAG friends (North American Girls)! Had a relaxing dinner at the flat to allow Mom and Dad time to pack for their week trip to Scotland. They woke up really early this morning to catch the plane to Edinburgh. Looks like they are going to St Andrews tomorrow and on a bus tour through the highlands Wednesday. I warned them about trying Scottish food faves such as haggis or "neeps and tatties"!

Brian's Conference in Poland

My own husband doesn't even read our blog, but since he's living it all with me, I guess he is off the hook! I'm posting one of his latest emails, so you can hear more about his conference in Poland he recently returned home from.

From Bri guy:

"I just wanted to let you know that I made it back safe and sound from all my travels over the last month. I got in late Thursday night, and went straight to work yesterday morning. No rest for the wicked. . . Anyway, I just wanted to share a little of my trip to Poland with you. It was a fantastic trek. I was there for 10 days. Five of those, I spent at a conference in the southern mountain town of Zakopane, located at the edge of the Tatra mountains. The conference was called Quantum Optics VII (it's been ongoing since 1985 - before Poland was set free from the Iron Curtain). My grad school advisor, Mike Raymer, was there and has been attending since the early days. It was funny to "run into" him (and a former colleague of mine at Oregon, a current student of Mike's, Cody Leary). I met a lot of people whom I had known of, but not had the pleasure of meeting before. So that was fun. There was a birthday banquet for a longtime friend and collaborator of Mike's - Jan Mostowski (note, w's are pronounced like v's in Polish), which was good fun.

At the end of the conference I stuck around for an additional half-day to get up early (4AM) to hike from the town, to the top of Poland and climb a few of the highest peaks there. It snow, rained, and shined on my ascent and descent. I hiked for about 8 hours before arriving back to the hotel to pack up and head via taxi-bus-taxi to Krakow, Poland on the Vistula river. It's probably the largest city in southern Poland, and most visited. I spent two and a half days there. It was largely untouched by WWII, so there are many old buildings and historic sites still around. I really enjoyed seeing all the markets, squares, and having tea (herbata) at the cafes! I walked all over the city visiting its major sites (Wawel Hill, on which Wawel castle sits, which used to be the thrown of Poland back in the day), Market Square, and the Kazimier district (the old Jewish section of town). It was great to see so many people just enjoying themselves! I also came upon a Jewish wedding ceremony, which was great to see, since after WWII the population dropped to only 5000 in Krakow (from hundreds of thousands!) The second day in Krakow, I actually spent going to the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. It was something I will never forget.


I then made my way by train (8 hours!) to Torun, Poland located in the north central part of Poland also located on the Vistula river. This is the home to the Nicholas Copernicus (the guy who said the Earth goes around the sun, and not the other way around) University. It is rumored that Copernicus was born in Torun and lived there, although my hosts at the University say that it was in a small town nearby that this actually occurred. In any case, it was a delightful town with similar architecture to that of Krakow. Again, this city survived WWII with little damage. I visited the Quantum Optics groups there in Torun for a day and a half, with my evenings free to walk around the city and explore. I was able to enjoy several new foods. I must say I was scared at first having been told by a Polish colleague here in Oxford that Zakopane was famous in Poland for having good "man food," as she described it - lots of potatoes, sausages, and good meats and cheeses. Well I had no trouble finding plenty of good "vegetarian" options - like fish or chicken (apparently these are not considered meat there). Anyway, I found the perogies to be excellent (filled pasta), and they did a great breakfast spread - bread, cheeses, (and meat for those who like), tomato-cucumber-onion salad, and some kind of pickled vegetable (carrots, kraut, etc...).

Anyway, as I said, I made it back to Ox with no major issues. Kelly and I are enjoying a nice weekend together (first in a while) and are just doing our "regular" chores. I hope this note finds you all well and everything good in your lives. Take care and keep in touch!"

Rome!

We went to Rome in April - it was a bit of a last minute trip. Brian had to go for work, and I thought I'd tag along! It's actually our second time being over there, but can't complain about visiting one of the most amazing Italian cities again!








The first two days we had together over the weekend, and we were pretty lucky that the weather held out. We toured around the centuries-old Roman Forum, Palantine and the Colosseum. Had our early evening beer in front of the Pantheon and ate yummy Roman food for dinner outside by candlelight in a cobblestoned alleyway.










We also had to visit the Vatican (hi to the Pope!) and the beautiful Spanish Steps.






The second two days, Brian had to work, so I was on my own for the daytime. Of course, shopping was on the order, and I did enjoy finding some Italian boutiques. I also had some pizza and wine at an outdoor cafe while reading a good book. Not too shabby! It did start to rain though, so I had to trek back in the pouring rain - taking my sandals off and running the streets of Rome in my bare feet!

The coolest and yet most disturbing place we discovered this trip was the capucin crypt in the bottom of one of the Catholic churches. The monks who used to live there, decorated the 6 rooms with the bones of their own dead, and made these decorative designs out of the human bones. Totally freaky!