guest blog: Mike's trip to Norway

Today's post is brought to you by my brother Mike, and the letter R. (Yes, I know you all know who Mike is.)

First and foremost I would like to thank Tracy for allowing me to “guest blog”. I’m hoping it starts a trend and others who recently took a trip (Tony or Katherine) write one too. Without further ado, highlights from my trip to Oslo.

The most abundant thing I did in Norway was walk around and see stuff such as the waterfront,

famous paintings and sculptures,













culture museums,

and of course the people, my favorite were the Russes.

Every year for a couple weeks, high school seniors will wear these red pants everyday. They will also carry around business cards and it is common practice for little kids to go around and ask the Russe for their cards. Although not a little kid, the Russes humored the good looking American and not only posed for a picture, but also gave me a card.

The biggest day on the trip was 17 May, Norway’s Constitution Day.

There were parades,

excited children yelling “hipp-hipp hurra,”

drinking,

and more walking around the city seeing stuff.

All in all it was a very good trip. Some of my favorite highlights include: speaking Kurdish (much to his shock) to a Kurdish man, waking up on 16 May to children practicing their “hipp-hipp hurra’s”, trying different types of food, trying to take out money from a machine (I would later learn) was used to play video solitaire, having roughly 4 hours of darkness daily, everyone speaking fluent English, and having the same song stuck in my head the whole time. This guy won the 2009 Eurovison by the biggest margin ever, woman in Norway love him. Special thanks to my friend Kristina for being my Oslo tour guide and putting up with me all week.