Week 11 continued & Week 12

Norway:

August 7-9:
Our first weekend in Norway Lisa was busy attending the wedding festivities of her cousin, Linda. Meanwhile, I was being educated on the local history of the logging industry at a museum in Fetsund. I also ate Norwegian waffles with Granny and Aunt Mona at the first house in Lillestrøm.

August 10-16:
We traveled to Oslo and took a walk by the ocean on a pier, Akerbrygge. Uncle Leif took us to see the new Harry Potter movie at the Colosseum, the largest cinema in Northern Europe and the largest equipped with THX in the world. He also took us on a tour of the university and some local sites including Vige-Land park.

Lisa's Uncle Paul & Aunt Mona took us to the mountains. The mountains here are beautiful and covered with reindeer moss.
On the way we came upon two Moose, rather Meese, in the road, they were huge! I was so excited to see them, after many trips to Maine and Canada without site of one.
We took a morning walk into the mountain to observe Paul training his dog, Aiko, whom Lisa and I have spoiled. He is such a sweet dog. We visited the town of Røros, which was once famous for its copper production. We walked around the downtown looking at traditional houses, shops, and various pieces of art. I was very excited to find a great deal on a Norwegian sweater and I tried another Norwegian tradition, rømme grøt(porridge). In fact, I have also eaten reindeer, moose, goat, and horse. I have heard of blood pudding but I'm trying to steer clear of it.
Our next adventure took us by train to Trondheim to visit Lisa's cousin, Matias. He and his roommates were very kind and cooked for us several times. We took in the local sites and Matias gave us a tour of the University where Lisa's parents met. He also took us to the mountains and I was introduced to yet another Norwegian tradition of wild berry picking. I think the final collection was around 8 liters of blueberries.