Oslo, Norway

The best thing about Europe is that most countries are just a hop, skip, and jump away within the continent. Scandanavia is practically a suburb of Spain so we decided to spend a few days in Norway. Lee has been to Sweden already and we've both heard wonderful things about its neighbor to the West.

We arrived at the Oslo airport and took a train through fields of lavender to get to the city. The public transport is immaculate. Most Scandanavians are taught English from a young age. Though language wasn't a huge problem for us, purchasing subway tickets from stand alone machines was challenging because none of the machines included English instructions. Norwegian is unlike anything I've ever read! I recall being in my 7th grade typing class and typing erratically on the keyboard , making up words like 'Det smakde meget god. ' That's what Norwegian looks like to me. I digress...

The most striking part about Scandanavia in the summer is that the days are very long. The sun sets well after midnight and rises around 4 a.m. If the curtains at your hotel are not thick enough, your internal clock can really get screwed up. It was clear that Norwegians were loving every moment of the season. One waitress said that locals are always happier in the summer, but almost bipolar. After all, the winter is dark and the days are very short. I imagine it would be quite depressing.

Speaking of depression, we visited the Munch museum (which houses the infamous 'Scream' painting). Now there's a depressed guy. It's one thing to see a representation of his works in an art history book, but walking through the museum was draining. Every piece of art displayed was gloomy, somber, and often- macabre. We also visited the Viking museum and learned all about their history. They had 3 actual ships displayed that were discovered in the early 1900's that were build in the 800s and were well preserved. See photo. It's also interesting to see how the physical characteristics of these broad, strong, people have been retained today. I've never seen so many tall people.

Of course, there are also the fjords (Lee's favorite word next to archipelago). You can take a 2-hour tour on the water to see them and they are really interesting estuaries, formed in the Ice Age. A few of the longest fjords in the world are in Norway. A must-see.

Next time, I'd like to visit Sweden, Finland, and Iceland as well. There's something unique about that part of the world. It's difficult to explain but the perspective of the sky seems different and the air is crisp and clean. Though we only spent a few days in Norway, it's a place that ranks rather high on the list of countries we have visited on this trip (which is around 20 at this point).