Oslo Local Customs

Its nicer to see police women on horse than in a car or on motor-bike.

You can see this scene often on Carl Johans Gate - the biggest shopping streets. When I was in a cafe there, police women were talking to drunken people and telling them what to do.

If you wanna do like the locals during winter, try renting skis and enter the wilderness surrounding Oslo. On weekends the tracks are filled with people, and crosscountry skiing is viewed more as your typical sunday walk than a sport craze. To be Norwegian you need to bring an orange and a local chocolate called "Kvikklunsj" in your backpack, perhaps even some hot chocolate on a thermos. Take your time, bring friends and family and enjoy nature's call.

Oslo might not seem at first like a likely environment in which to find American artist Richard Serra's massive steel arcs, but you never know.

This recent Serra "installation" has been placed in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Bankplassen. I'm not a big fan of Serra's work, but evidently someone here likes him!

The eastern side of Oslo is known for its left-wing, social-leaning politics, while the western side is more "liberal-conservative" (in the Scandinavian way.) Given the political division of the city, it's not surprising to find this classic "Fist and Rose" statue on Lilletorget, a few minutes walk (eastward, of course) from the Central train station.

Before my trip, I'd been informed that the cheese slicer was a Norwegian invention, I love cheese, so this was on my shopping list!

Apparently Thor Bjorklund, (1899 -1975), a carpenter from Lillehammer, was having problems with his packed lunch of cheese, which had melted! A knife was unsuitable for slicing this, but he eventually succeeded, by using a nearby plane.
Later, after experimenting with small sheets of metal, he designed the Cheese slicer. Friends and family pursuaded him to manufacture this.

On February 27th 1925, a patent was taken out . (Feb. 2005, being the 80th anniversary)

To be continued..........

I have many non-norwegian friends who thinks that the vorspiels and nachspiels are a very strange tradition. I have never actually thought about it before they mentioned it - but as it is a very normal custom in Norway I thought I might write a bit about it.

Having a vorspiel is very normal in Norway, nachspiels too - but maybe not as often. I'm not quite sure how it started, but many say it started because it's so expencive to go out here, so it's better to drink something at home before you go out. Others say it's because norwegians are so shy and cold that they have to drink a bit before they can go out and have fun...

Many times when you are going out with your friends, you all meet in the house of someone to drink and have fun before going out. Everyone brings their own drinks. Because it's so expencive most people can't afford buying drinks for everyone that is coming. So if you are invited to someone; bring what you want to drink. Normally the people who have the vorspiel don't expect a present, but some people bring along a bag of potatochips or something. If they serve drinks or food it's nice to give them a bottle of wine.

Around midnight most people call for a maxi-taxi and head for the city. Other times people have so much fun that they just stay there instead. This is a good way of saving money, and also avoiding the neverending discussions about where to go as most people want to go to different places... ;)

Nachspiels are for the people who don't want to go home when all the places are closed. Most of the time they head back to the place of the vorspiel to finish off the rest of the drinks. Nachspiels tends to don't be as much fun as the vorspiels, as many people are very drunk and tired at this point. But it can also be a lot of fun. Sometimes nachspiels can even last so long that it turns into a vorspiel again, but that's a different story... ;)

There is one thing that we norwegians love doing, and that is barbequing. As the summer is not so long we will use any oppurtunity for having a barbeque. The most usual is to buy a engangsgrill (one-time disposable barbeque) and some pølse (sausage).

On the warmest days in summer it can be almost impossible to find a shop that still has more barbeques, because everyone wants to make a barbeque when we finally have some sun... :)

Another funny thing is that we tend to look more on the calendar, than the temperature... The picture is a good example of this. It was in the end of May and we were going to have a barbeque on a terrace. After a while it got quite windy and cold, but did we go inside the house? Oh no, it was summer so of course we had to sit outside!

We just found some thick blankets and warm jackets and enjoyed our barbeque outside... :)

17th of May is the National Day of Norway and a public holiday. Everybody participates in the festivities taking place this day whether it's joining in one of the parades, watching the parades, wining and dining, and so on.

The picture is taken nearby the royal castle where the royal family is being saluted by the people.