Saturday I arrived in Norway, after too many hours in flight. traveled from 4pm Friday NZ time till 12.30 am Sunday NZ time, so arrived 2.30 pm Saturday Norwegian time.
Took homeopathic pills on journey called No-more-jet-lag. Think they are brilliant as do not feel half as bad as I should.
Was almost sureal to see Jarle after all this time. Was only May since I last saw him but felt like a year had passed. Was very good to be able to hug him again. Norway turned on a spectacularly fine day for my arrival. Hot day after coming out of early spring in NZ.
First impressions of Norway:
– Lots of trees
– Older country than NZ
– Houses are like fairy tale houses.
The landlords put out a collection of wee Norwegian flags on their verandah  to welcome me. I have not met them yet but that was sweet.
I managed to stay up till bed time day one so that will help me settle into the time zone, but I woke up at 5am the next day unable to go back to sleep, so still catching up sleep here. Monday slept till 7am so things are settling.
Sunday went to the sculpture park in Oslo, seen photos of it before so it was good to actually be there. Very pretty expansive grounds. Can picture great picnics being held here.
Sunday, also met Jarle´s family and they were very welcoming. His parents are self confessed cat people and spoil their cats. They served apple cake, yum my favourite, and homemade cherry juice, unsweetened, nice and tart, yum.
Strangest things I have seen so far,
– water feature, spurting up a circle of water in the middle of a road where trams drive over. Handy for washing underside of trams I suppose and quite pretty, but strange.
– people driving on wrong side of road, going round roundabouts the wrong way and yielding to the wrong side, LOL
– Hardly any wind 😀
. white raspberry jam made from white raspberries, who knew there were such things, not me obviously. Looking forward to next autumn and seeing some white raspberries, Jarle´s parents grow them.
– Street signs so old and worn you almost can´t read the street name.
Cool things:
– houses so pretty
– people take their shoes off indoors (very reminiscent of Pacific cultures) Â makes me feel at home.
– Cloak bays in entrances to houses, makes sense for the snowy days, but this has been a feature I always wanted in a house and here it is the norm it seems. Door on other side of cloak room is also a feature I have always wanted in a house as it gives that barrier to the cold on windy days
– Under floor heating, mmm cozy!
– trees trees trees, got to love so many trees being round
. Berries, berries are my favourite fresh fruit and they grow in abundance here.
– new type of berry called rips, small red berries on a long woody stalk, very tart! yumm yumm.
I really think I am going to like it here.