Pictures from our West Coast Trip

Here are a few photos from our recent trip north and west in Norway. The first two were taken in Trondheim: the first is of Nidaros Cathedral, built in 1070 and the buial site of St. Olav, the second is of the 1861 Gamle Bybru (Old City Bridge). The third picture is of one of the many fjords we saw, I believe by Molde, but at this point it's hard to remember! The fourth was taken in Ålesund--in my opinion, the sunsets over the Ålesund harbor are the most beautiful I have ever seen! The fifth and sixth photos were taken at the Jostedalen glacier near the arm of the Boyabreen. The last photo is of Kevin and his parents at the Tvinne waterfall outside of Bergen. We saw a lot, we did a lot, we drove a lot...I hope everyone has fully recovered!

Experimenting with the New Camera

So my new camera can take pictures in sepia and black and white too...somehow the goofy dogs look a little more dignified!

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I slept in until 10 this morning, and finally got out of bed to find Kevin making chocolate chip pancakes and coffee. He was up bright and early baking me a chocolate birthday cake (he even made the frosting from scratch!) and wrapping my gift. He got me a new, very nice digital camera, as we haven't been able to repair the flash on my old camera..damn ghost! The new camera is charging right now and I can't wait to try it out--it has a better zoom than my old camera in addition to improved picture stabilization. I still have tons of photos from our trip with Kevin's parents taken with the old camera to post, but stay tuned for clearer, sharper images to come! (I'm so excited about my new camera that I'm not really freaking out at all about getting another year older!)

A Napoleon Complex?

We were originally going to take Kevin's parents on an insane road trip all the way up to Tromsø, but because our usual catsitters were both on vacation this week, we ended up having to take a much shorter trip. We drove up to Røros, over to Trondheim, down to Ålesund, briefly visited the Jostedalen glaciers, on to Bergen and we finally spent 2 days in Oslo. Even though we didn't get to see everything that we had hoped to see, we saw a surprising number of the "world's biggest and best" sites. Since their arrival, Kevin's parents have visited the world's biggest cavern for public use, taken photos at Scandinavia's smallest stave church still in use, driven past Europe's deepest inland sea, driven through the world's longest tunnel, seen Norway's most visited stave church and admired the world's oldest steamboat still in use. Unfortunately, we didn't venture quite far enough north to experience the world's strongest ocean currents! (I'm sure they saw more superlative sites, but I can't remember all of them at this late hour.)
This fierce pride is also apparent with Norwegian food...there is a dessert called "Verdens Beste Kakke", or "World's Best Cake". I consider myself a bit of a cake connoisseur, and I can say rather definitively that Verdens Beste Kakke is nowhere near as delicious as a gooey chocolate cake, in fact, I don't know if it would even make the Top 10 List of Best Cakes Worldwide! At a gas station stop in Dale, I bought a couple of baskets of strawberries from a vendor who assured me that they were the world's best strawberries. It was all I could do to restrain myself from cracking up--I think the only reason I politely nodded and smiled instead of giggling maniacally was because earlier he had complimented me on my excellent Norwegian speaking skills!
Anyway, what is this national obsession with everything being the biggest, longest, first, oldest, best? Norway is a relatively small country--does it suffer from a nationwide case of Napoleon's complex? Or is it just trying to draw attention away from its rather dubious distinction of being the world's most expensive country? (Speaking of expense, the photo is of a toll bridge we crossed somewhere between Trondheim and Ålesund. It cost us close to $30 to cross it--not only were we charged for our car, we were also charged for all 4 people inside of the car. Even pedestrians are charged to walk across it! I guess in addition to all the biggest and best sites they saw, Kevin's parents also got to ride across the world's most expensive bridge...if there is actually a pricier toll bridge out there, I probably don't want to know about it!)

Question: What's Cuter than a Fjord Horse Foal?

Answer: Absolutely nothing!

Summer Skiers

We took Kevin's parents up to Lillehammer today to see the Olympic Museum and ski jumps. We were thrilled to see the competitive skiers out on the jump, whizzing by on their porcelain tracks. It was a little surreal to see all those skiers in their racing outfits, riding up the chair lift and then whooshing down the ski jump in July!

We haven't been able to show George and Maria any Norwegian wildlife yet, but at least we got a picture of them with the stuffed moose at Nikker's in Lillehammer. George also got to try some moose sausage from a street vendor...he said it was "robust." We leave tomorrow morning for Trondheim, and I'm really hoping that somewhere along the way, they get to experience some moose who are still alive!

Trekking with Trolls

Kevin's dad George and stepmom Maria arrived safely in Oslo this morning. They are exhausted and napping right now, so I have a little time to post a few more photos from our trip to western Norway from 2 weeks ago. We drove to the "Troll Stige," or "Troll Ladder," a steep road which zig zags up a tall mountain. Of course I had to get a picture of the sign with the hiking troll! The views were incredible although the drive itself was a little nerve racking and nausea inducing! This was the first time I had been to this part of western Norway, and I was very impressed by the high, jagged peaks. The mountain range in the fourth picture is known as the "Troll Wedding," I'm not sure why. Norway is so beautiful, I can't wait to get out there again and explore with Kevin and his family!

In Newark Again

Kevin and I are back in the Newark airport, this time waiting for our flight back to Oslo. I have had the best week, but it wasn't nearly long enough to see everyone I wanted to see and to do everything I wanted to do. I think Dunkin Donuts stock skyrocketed this past week, as I guzzled gallons of iced lattes! Temperatures were in the 90's on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday...everyone around me was complaining about the heat, but after constant cold and damp in Norway, I really enjoyed the summery weather. On Wednesday the weather turned and we had some thunder and lightning--I didn't realize how much I have missed thunderstorms until I heard that first rumble. We get lots of rain in eastern Norway, but in the past year, we haven't had a single storm.
I really feel recharged after this vacation. In addition to the excessive caffeine consumption, I also did some retail therapy and indulged in a fabulous spa day. I always thought that if I won the lottery, the first thing I would do would be to hire a housekeeper, but after an hour of being rubbed into a boneless puddle of goo, I have decided that a masseuse would be a far better decision! Best of all, though, was all the time I got to spend with my friends...my greatest fear about moving abroad was that I would lose contact with the people who mean the most to me. Luckily, I have some really wonderful friends, and this past week, it felt like no time at all had passed since the last time I saw them. I laughed and talked so much my throat is a little hoarse now!
My vacation was almost perfect, except for a pesky ghost. When we were in Dublin 2 weeks ago, we all took a ghost tour. We went to the 40 steps inside the old wall of the city, which is allegedly haunted by a lady in green. Our tour guide mentioned that many tourists' cameras break at this site. I didn't give it another thought until the next day, when Carrie and Victor mentioned that their camera wasn't working and they were worried that all their pictures would be ruined. My digital camera still seemed to be working fine, and I was able to take lots of photos throughout the day...but as evening fell, I found that my flash no longer worked. I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to take any evening or interior shots during my stay in New York (several of my friends have very cute cats or dogs, so the majority of the shots probably would have been of their pets). I guess I'll try calling the folks at Canon to see if they have any suggestions, but I'm not really sure how to explain that a phantom broke my camera...maybe I'll just tell them the camera must have gotten banged up in my suitcase!

Stuck in Newark

Kevin and I are in the Continental lounge at Newark right now--free beer and snacks, woo hoo! I will fly on to Syracuse and he is off to Las Vegas for work. I had no problems getting through passport control in Oslo today. (On the way to Dublin, I was questioned because I have been in Norway for so long. I explained that I had applied for a residency permit and I showed the letter I had received stating that my application was being processed. The passport control woman was not pleased that I was traveling out of the country with a pending application and she was very hesitant to stamp my passport and let me through. My letter states that it will take approximately 8 months to process my application, and there is no way I'm going to stop traveling for that length of time, so I guess I'll just continue to risk being scolded every time I leave the country!) Anyway, no problems getting to Newark today, but now my flight to Syracuse keeps getting delayed. I am so excited about getting home, and all I can think about is getting a Dunkin Donuts iced latte as soon as I land, so this delay is torture! Even though we have visited some amazing places lately, I'm feeling a bit like Dorothy today. There's no place like home, there's no place like home!

Western Norway Pictures

In lieu of actual content, some more pictures! These are from our trip out west to Ålesund. I promise, at some point I will actually have time to write, but not now...we're off to Oslo with Carrie and Victor to see some art museums.

Dublin Pictures

We're back from Dublin--we had a fantastic time, and in the morning we're off to the Geiranger fjord. I'm ridiculously tired, so off to bed I go. I really hope I can keep my eyes open tomorrow!