travels of a wandering canadian

norway

so i did finally get to norway. it took 2 trains and a bus then the commuter train to get to drammen a town about 20km from oslo where i was going to stay for a little while. i had finished reading my book and my pen died at one of the train stations so to pass the time i pulled out my cd player and listened to canadian bands: bare naked ladies, les cowboys fringants and paul piche. it was amazing how i felt that i was back home as the train was going trhought the country side in norway. the landscape was very similar to what i have seen at home. it was beautiful.
on the friday, i went to see the museum where the woman i was staying with works. there is some amazing glasswork there and folkart from norway. it was really interesting to see and was a change from all the other art i have seen elsewhere in europe. in the evening we sat outside and enjoyed the weather, unusually warm for this time of year in norway. it was really interesting to hear all these stories about when my mom lived in norway. it's funny how depending on who i am visiting and when they knew my family, they find i look either more like my mother or more like my grandmother. in norway, i was the more recent version of what my mother looked like when she lived there.
the next day i went to the cottage of some other friends. it is on some islands on the oslo fjord and the weather there is usually much better than on the shores of the fjord. that would explain why the norwegian king has his summer cottage near by. we swam and went kayaking and then drove down to verdens ende 'the end of the world' to go swimming. it was amazing! it really looks like you are at the end of the world and all that is in front of you is water. the shoreline is huge rocks worn down during the last iceage and they sort of plunge into the water, click here. you climb over the rocks to get to the area where you want to swim and then jump off a cliff to get inot the water. you also how to climb out of the water afterwards as there is no shore. unfotunately i didn't bring my camera along so no photos from me for this one. the water and air temperature were the best that i have had on the entire trip.
in the evening as i was being shown the garden, i discovered saskatoon bushes full of fruit. now anyone from the prairies knows how good saskatoons are. they are small berries similar to blueberries and they grow in trees and bushes. the only reason they were in this garden in norway was b/c the flowers are nice. now there is another reason for the bushes to be there. (if anyone at mcgill wants to try some, the bushes at the top of the grassy knoll are saskatoons, but i think that the berries are ripe at the beginning of july).
the next day was a boat ride where we saw the king's cottage, a rather modest place compared to the places the queen of england can stay. we went swimming again and then went back to drammen. another evening of enjoying the weather. the next morning was my last in norway. it was pouring rain! so we drove up to the spiral tunnel, the first of its kind in the world, to the top of a moutain to see some of the museum that was up there and to see the view, although not much to see b/c of the mist. i then headed into oslo to see the munch museum. munch is a famous painter from norway most famous for 'the scream'. i discovered more saskatoon bushes near the entrance to the metro station, but the berries were a bit dried out. then off to the airport and a long wait there before a short flight to copenhagen. so now i am back in denmark for 18 days.
norway was great and next time i will definitely spend more time there. 3 and a half days was not enough!

posted by madeleine @ 2:40 PM