When trying new foods my family uses a rating scale to determine if we will prepare a meal again. It is as follows… Food Scale Excellent (Can’t wait to make it again) Good (Would enjoy eating it again) Fair (Would eat it again, but not often) Poor (Would prefer not to put it back in my mouth) GROSS! (Wouldn’t touch it with a 10 ft. pole) I’m going to use this scale to assess some of the things I have tried here in Norway. I have vowed to try everything at least once. Salmon- Prepared with lime juice, jalapeños, and spices. [View Full Entry]

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Last night I was invited by Stephy to a BBQ on Fløyen. Ten of us spent the evening playing games and grilling food in a park on the mountain. We played Frisbee, Botchee Ball, and a bit of football (soccer). Lars brought juggling balls and was giving me lessons. I saw about five different people juggle throughout the night, and decided that Norwegians must be born with natural juggling skills. I myself was not born with the talent, but I’m improving. I even had the chance to jump on a trampoline in the park. They have these neat disposable grills in [View Full Entry]

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We are on the boat from Norway to Denmark now. After leaving Finland we spent a couple of days in Sweden. Stockholm is a beauitiful city built on a number of islands connected by bridges, so you always see water and beautiful boats. The changing of the guard at their palace is fun, because they have about 50 soldiers on horse back, some with swords, some playing musical instruments. We saw the Vasa, a ship that had an extra cannon deck and so was top heavy and sank her first 15 minutes out of the dock. She lay under water for [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up at 8:30 with plans to go to Oslo museums. Our first stop was the Viking Ship Museum. There were 3 Viking ships that had been burial ships. They had been well preserved and many artifacts were on display. We then went to the Folk Museum. It was very similar to our Genesee Country Museum. There were houses, churches, and other buildings brought to the site from different time periods and different places in Norway. Inside the buildings were tools and other artifacts used from the time period. Whenever repairs are done or replicas are made to make [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday Kristine and I climbed Rundemannen, the second tallest peak in Bergen, and fjell nummer fire (mountain number four) for me. It was a “gradual incline” to the top of the peak, but a bit grueling, as it is a continual upward slope. It sprinkled a bit on the top, which was surprisingly the only rain we have had since Monday, extremely out of the ordinary for Bergen. Yesterday was the infamous seven peak hike. Every May, hundreds of people gather to hike all seven of Bergen’s mountains. Some do it as few as 4 hours! I didn’t feel I [View Full Entry]

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Today we went to a free airshow at the airfield we could see from Jens' roof. We met up with Terje and watched for over 4 hours. Of course we all got sunburned, but it was a sunny day and people always get funny sunburns when they are looking up at the sky all day. We were going to meet up with Joachim and Lars (Norwegian friends Christine made through her co-worker Sylvia this past January in Spencerport). However, we acquired free tickets to a soccer game in Lillestrom. We rescheduled with Joachim since we will be in Oslo then anyways. [View Full Entry]

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Today we set our alarms for 8:00 but we were slow getting up. We ate bread and Nutelli for breakfast and then cleaned up the cabin. We had to buy special coins for showering. One coin was good for 5 minutes of hot water. We each had one. Our shower was quick, but effective. Last night while we were looking at the scenery, Jens had started to say, "Tomorrow, how about we" and Christine interjected sarcastically with, "try to climb up that mountain?". On several occasions now, Jens will say that he wants to climb to the top of a "small [View Full Entry]

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While we got ready this morning, Jens went to the store to get some breakfast. He got some fruit, crackers, bread, and Nutatti (like Nutella, a hazelnut chocolate spread for bread and crepes). The loaves of bread are very hearty. They are a meal within themselves. Since we decided to move on to a different place, we drove 3 and a half hours North to the city of Ålesund. We got out of the car, Jens saw a mountain peak, and said "Let's climb to the top of that one!!!" We thought he was joking. He wasn't. So we walked to [View Full Entry]

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A land of fjords, waterfalls, seafood and mountains - seems like my kind of place. So I headed to Norway for an extra long weekend at the end of May. We flew into Oslo on Friday morning and checked out the sights (although we took it pretty easy, knowing we had a big couple of days ahead). A highlight was the Munch museum where we saw the famous 'Scream' painting, which had only just been returned to the walls after having been stolen in 2004 and recovered in 2006. The painting had been damaged by the thieves and the museum spent [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday Kristine and I walked into town. It was a beautiful walk and the weather was really nice. We grabbed dinner at one of her favorite Italian places. Traditional food is hard to find. We walked by Bryggen a part of the town that contains a few of Bergen's oldest houses. Kristine treated me to a cider beer at an outside bar near Bryggen. While we looked out over the water and drank our beers, Kristine taught me a bit of Norwegian. I can now count to 10 and ask what time it is. I even learned a few sentences [View Full Entry]

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