Visible Color: 3/23/14

How I fell in love with Norway:

Above is something called an astrocartography map.
It is derived from one's astrological birthchart and it shows where on the planet your
planetary lines traverse.
This can tell you about where you live, have lived
and where it would be a good or bad idea for you to travel to or move to.
I was curious about my astrocartography for a long time.
When I finally ran the chart, there is an impressively dramatic intersection
of what appears to be all of my lines,
just off the coast of Norway.

This is what first made me contemplate Scandinavia. It seemed like it might be a good idea to go there sometime.

So I started paying attention and then fell in love with Scandinavia through its art, history and mythology.

Then I got to go to Norway...
with my friend Jimmy, one of my favorite people in the whole world.

It was late November so it was cold. I love cold!

And the Sun started its decline at around 3:30pm. I loved it.

Here was my first day in Oslo, Norway's capital city.

Norway Facts:

"Norway's population is a little above 5 million and it is the 2nd least densely populated country in Europe. Oslo's population is 630,000. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, fresh water, and hydropower. Two centuries of Viking raids to southern and western areas tapered off following the adoption of Christianity in AD 994 and Norwegian power peaked in 1265." -wiki

I took these photos in the Viking Ship Museum.

The ship and artifacts shown were first discovered by a farmer, in a large burial mound in 1904 in Oseberg. Thus they were very well preserved but dated back to around 800 A.D.

It was so amazing to be in the presence of the graceful and intricately carved ship!

Viking cooking pot. Look at the feet!

"In 1380, Norway was absorbed into a union with Denmark that lasted more than four centuries. In 1814, Norwegians resisted the cession of their country to

Sweden and adopted a constitution. Sweden went to war with Norway but agreed

to let Norway keep its constitution in return for accepting the union under a Swedish king.

Later Norway demanded independence, which it gained in a referendum in 1905. Norway remained neutral in World War I. Despite its declaration of neutrality in World War II, Norway was occupied for 5 years by forces of Nazi Germany. In 1949 it abandoned neutrality, becoming a founding member of NATO. Discovery of oil in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes. The country maintains a welfare model with universal health care, subsidised higher education, and a comprehensive social security system."

Norwegian neighborhood

The Norwegian Folk Museum

I could have spent a week in this place!

The sheer volume of well preserved history through clothing, tapestries,

weavings, furniture and other household items was dizzying.
The long long Norwegian dark winters gave rise to very well crafted Everything.
With all that time, why the heck not make everything exquisite and well made?

(The quality of my photos is less than ideal due to low lighting to preserve everything as well as shooting through glass.)

This is a sleigh!! Lots of snow in Norway.

This is a traditional birch bark hat in the foreground.

So many embroidered fineries.

These are from the north, getting up into Saami Reindeer country.
Their designs remind me of Tibetan designs.

Britches!

Snow boots

This tapestry is one of my favorite things that I saw.

Handmade lace

If I could have found a way to bring this Grandfather Clock from the Telemark region

home with me....

And as if the insides weren't dazzling enough, they have also deconstructed and reconstructed actual historical buildings from different parts of Norway to display here.
It was like time travel.

I had so little time in this enchanted place that if I had slowed down and documented where and what everything was, I wouldn't have traversed the half of it. So... this is all from Norway!
That's (mostly) all I know. :)

This is what 15:30 looked like.
Twilight commencing.

This Stave Church from Gol, Hallingdal is dendrochronologically dated to 1212.

It was dismantled in Gol and brought to the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History

(same place as Folk Museum) in 1885 by King Oscar II, and is still nominally the property of the reigning monarch. It was super badass.

This was some wealthy Norwegian's guest house from the 1800's.

They just can't help themselves... so darn stylish.

The stoves in Scandinavian homes look/ed like this.

Room inside the stovepipe to warm and dry things.

(PS This one was in a recreated liquor store from the 1800's in Oslo.)

"Norwegians are an ethnic North Germanic people. Since the late 20th century, Norway has attracted numerous immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, the Mideast, Africa and Asia to work in its strong economy. All of these groups speak many different languages and come from different cultures and religions.

The Norwegian farm culture continues to play a role in contemporary Norwegian culture. In the 18th century, it inspired a strong romantic nationalistic movement, which is still visible in the Norwegian language and media. In the 19th century, Norwegian culture blossomed with nationalist efforts to achieve an independent identity in the areas of literature, art and music. This continues today in the performing arts and as a result of government support for exhibitions, cultural projects and artwork."

Back in downtown Oslo now.

The morning view out our hotel room window.

Wow

Cool store window display.

And then we took the train 300 miles to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, located on the Atlantic coast, nestled into fjords.

The palette of Norwegian houses that we saw from the train were mostly red, black, white and mustard yellow.

omg... FJORDS!

Charming and picturesque Bergen.

Jimmy in front of our absolutely divine lodging; the Skansen Pensjonat.

Me too:)

The streets are named things like this.

And the paving looks like this.

Our room looked like this.

And the view from our room looked like this.

Seriously.

Time to go out and celebrate the life of Lynn Wilson, Jimmy's aunt to whom this trip was dedicated!

We found the perfect spot.

Per Lynn's instructions: Two shots of Aquavit and a pint of stout as a chaser.

Uh oh...
we remembered that Norway is the second most
expensive country in the world!

*below is the total for said drinks;)*

Very yummy drinks.

Back out into Bergen! So gothic.

It was late November, and Scandinavians do Christmas and all its trappings exceedingly well.

Here were some uber charming store windows.

I heart Bergen!

And lest we forget that Bergen is a wharf....

These sorts of things are readily available.

Back to Oslo for one more day.

On our last morning we headed out to Frogner Park,
home to the world famous Vigeland installation,
a permanent sculpture installation created by Gustav Vigeland
between the 1920s and 1943.

The sculpture area in Frogner Park features 212 bronze and granite sculptures
all designed by Gustav Vigeland and all are clad in bronze,
and contribute to the Human Condition theme of the park.