Previously on “Mild Musings”, our author had taken a plane ride to a foreign country where tragedy struck…her television was broken. After she braved thousands of TV-less miles she arrived in Norway and began an adventure around the city of Oslo. Hereupon she encountered skinny jeans, naked statues, Deli de Luca, and a really cool shower. What will she behold next?
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| Hereditary Tastes Indulged |
What I beheld was hills…and lots of them. Our second day in Norway brought us out of Oslo and into the countryside. We had a very tasty breakfast in our hotel, in the coolest breakfast nook I’ve ever seen in my life. There was an amazing spread all laid out for the taking, and it was very heavy on the cheese. Scandinavians like their cheese and they like their fish, so that’s basically what was available for breakfast. Now this may not sound delicious at 8am, but it was so good. I took a bite of my salmon and cheese open faced sandwich and something clicked inside of me. It was as though my whole life my hereditary tastes were trying to get my attention, and now in this most perfect moment, they had. After finally finishing our fishy feast, it was time to catch the train to Lillehammer…well, catch the bus to catch the train.
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| Mountain Chain?Or glorified hill? |
Eventually we were seated on the train and going toward Lillehammer. The Norwegian countryside is breathtaking, and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There are so many hills and trees you can’t help but be amazed at the sheer grandeur of them. Tiny farmhouses are tucked around every corner, and almost every single one is painted red or yellow. Occasionally there would be flashes of silver as the sun sparkled off of the rivers and lakes. Soon our train came to a stop at the base of (what seemed to me) a small chain of mountains. We had reached Lillehammer and were now seriously relying on Kari to guide us. This was a little more warranted, as she had lived there for four months. Taking the lead Kari told us we were going to a museum called Maihaugen.
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| OLD BUILDINGS!AND SCENERY!! |
“Seriously?!? We couldn’t have found some other way to get here?!” “Why won’t this hill end?!?!” “Does the museum have to be at the top of the hill??” “Are we going up at a 90 degree angle?” These were just a few of the comments from myself and my family as we walked to Maihaugen. It was pretty bad. The hill made us feel like we were walking straight up, and you could not tell where the museum was so no one knew how far or close we were, except Kari…and we weren’t about to trust her scale of distances. The good news was we saw a hospital in case we collapsed from exhaustion. After much huffing, puffing, and one father almost throwing himself down in defeat we were at the museum. Once we were inside we headed off to look at the exhibits that were old buildings. Now I’ve been to museums before and seen old buildings, but never in my life have I encountered a building from the 1200s. It was the coolest thing that has ever happened to me, aside from the time that I won an iPod touch at my senior prom. The history nerd inside of me was jumping up and down in a frenzy to be around so much history.
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| Dragons...on a church! |
On the roof of the church building was a carving…of a Dragon and it was awesome. There were a lot of surprising things around the museum, like old sewing machines, hay drying on a rack, actual cows grazing, and the amount of hills. The buildings made it seem like you were in an old village that slowing working its way through the centuries, and so it took a lot of walking to make it all the way from 1200 to 2000. Then there was the fact that we were all carrying semi-heavy loads. I toted around my sister’s messenger bag for a while because it held my book. My dad felt his windbreaker was too much for him to handle, so I was saddled with that as well. Every time I tried to give it back to him, he would find something very interesting to look at, but I was so persistent he finally took back his jacked. After we made our way about Maihaugen and I geeked out over an advertisement for “Peer Gynt” we had a lunch of Vaffles. Yes, vaffles, not waffles. Vaffles are so tasty and pretty, so they get a V instead of a W.
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| Seriously drooled over this. |
It was now time to hit the town, and we hit it hard. Going down mainstreet (somehow to get down to mainstreet we went up more hills?) we cruised every shop that caught our fancy, but Kari advised us to wait until we saw the inexpensive souvenir shop. Walking into the shop was like entering a wonderland. Scandinavian objects were lined along the wall and we felt as though we were welcomed. It was at this shop that I found a cheese slicer shaped like a moose. This was perfect for my friend Chris, as he loves cheese…and doesn’t dislike moose. Moose are a big deal in Norway, and that is probably because moose in general are a big deal. You don’t mess with a moose, you just observe them and are allowed to be impressed by them. For this reason I felt it my duty to buy a pair of knitted socks that said “Norway” and had plush moose on the ankle part so that my feet could pay their respects to the moose. Once we had made our final purchases it was time to see the school Kari had attended.
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| Looks like "The Sound of Music", I was so excited! |
Tucked away at the base of one of the Lillehammer mountains was the college. Thankfully, we were able to take a bus to the college instead of walking. Never fear, we had to walk up hills once we got to the college. It was a very small college and it was adorable. The buildings looked more like homes than classrooms, and you could feel the old age of the area in the campus. One mountain sat right behind the apartment Kari had lived in, and you had to look straight up in order to see the top. I praised God that we didn’t have to climb that mountain. After we were done looking at the college we made our way back to town and moseyed into a convenience store. Kari ordered a hotdog on something called lompa. She told us we needed to try it as well. We were handed hotdogs on what looked like the love child of a pita and a piece of lefsa. Taking a bite of my hotdog on lompa I was transported into another world. This hotdog was not too salty, and it actually tasted like meat instead of byproduct. The lompa cradled it gently and gave it a smooth floury feel. All too soon my hotdog was gone, but this was okay because then it was candy time.
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| Norwegian mittens and jam...together at last. |
Norway is a magical place, a place where every grocery store has a wall of candy. It is so mystical to stand in front of the wall of candy and know that everything here is good, except the Lakerols…don’t get those. My family and I shared our candy with each other and Anna handed me a gummy candy shaped like a soda bottle. I took one bite and was hit with an extremely sour sensation, and then it bubbled. They tasted like soda, but also like candy, they were amazing. Kari had bought a thing of candy in a hockey puck-shaped container. Wearing one of her recently purchased Norwegian wool mittens; she opened the puck container and spilled salt everywhere. It was salt in the hockey puck and not candy. Oh the many surprises of Norway, where candy is salt, uphill never ends, and you have to pay to use some public restrooms (which smell really bad). After a lovely hill filled day, it was time to journey back to Oslo and prepare for the next leg of our journey, Sweden.
COMING SOON! Scandinavian Adventure Part IV: Roots, but with less whipping and nobody named Toby.
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