Oslo really was slow...lots of museums

Today was very kicked back. We woke up, met up with Leonard and Rick, had breakfast at the hotel and then walked through town to the docks so we could sail on the Fjord. We first stopped at a museum that housed something called "The Fram." Turns out there is a Norweigan boat that traveled through the arctic waters and all the way to the South Pole before returning to its home in Oslo. We saw pictures of the building and how it was built around the boat which is over 100 years old....Seeing the steel reinforcements on the front of the ship was crazy. It looked like a thin layer of metal between ice and the wood in the ship. The cabins were oh so tiny too. I felt bad for everyone that had to sleep there. 

We also checked out a museum that housed a ship called the Con Tiki. Apparently, a man thought that he could make a raft/ship out of natural materials without a motor from Polynesia to South America.....and he did it....I didn't really get to go INSIDE the museum, but from what I could see, it looked like a brush house from Africa. 

Then it was off the Holocaust museum. There I was in the Holocaust museum among an entire family of Jews who were strongly affected by Hitler's movement. Although Leonard, Rick, Aaron and myself behave ourselves, Freda, Aaron's grandmother, recalled many of her memories of the 1940's in Norway. There was supposed to be real footage of Leonard's grandmother at her own wedding, but the machine was broken which made me truly sad for him. He was so excited to see him grandmother move, as he has only seen still photos of her. The museum is going to try to send him the footage through email. We found a wall that had all the names of all the Norweigan Jews who were killed by the Nazis. There are on the wall are many of Aaron's family members. I feel like after meeting everyone here, I am closer to those who have been lost. 

We also went to another museum after this...one that contained a Viking Ship. Again, I did not walk INTO the actual museum, but I got to see the exhibit from up high and took some photos of the ship. It was unearthed in the early 19th century years. It was in great condition too. I saw no Vikings however....I am so pissed about that. I came all this way to see a Viking....if I went to Japan, I would expect to see a ninja....All I saw were Trolls....who likes trolls anyways? No one!

There was a crazy incident with bees today! I got quite scared of a bee that was chasing my food and myself. It ended in a crying fit because I got so scared. Just thought I would take note of this for the future.

We had dinner tonight at Arve Isaksen's tonight. We had a traditional meal, fish! Getting to the house was quite an adventure. Arve had a friend come pick us up in a boat. We sped on water for an hour and a half, seeing Oslo from a whole different view. The whole evening was great and the food was delicious....BTW, raspberries here are ENORMOUS!!!! I am not even kidding. They are at least 3 times the size we have back home. If we have some tomorrow night, I will have to take a picture. 

Moving day

Trondheim has been overly sunny. It is a real treat for the Norweigans, so I've heard and seen, but for Freda and sometimes Aaron, it is a little bit much. I have been soaking up this sun though, all 20 hours of it...lol. I am bronzer than a medal. Now my mom cannot make fun of me for being white. Today we took it even slower. We went to the fish market, but nothing looked too appetizing. I did buy some nice Norweigan souvenirs for my family though. We spent most of the day sitting at one specific cafe in the shade.

We walked up the hills of Norway to an abandoned Norweigan fortress, which I learned today was actually used by the Nazis to execute Jews. There was a plaque on the wall where I presume men and women were shot. Aaron said that David and his brother were shot here and I started to tear up. There were cannons still stationed at the edge of the fortress too.

We had dinner at Christina Isaksen's house. It was delicious. 

I forgot to mention that yesterday in the church, we spotted a book filled with names of all the service men who lost their lives from 1942-1945, the time when the Nazis were invading Norway. We opened it and were able to find all of the Isaksens listed. It was quite sad and moving. Just think, these men are part of Aaron's family and soon to be part of mine.

Trondheim is fab...

Norway is beautiful. The sun is so bright, kind of like California. The only big difference is that no one has air conditioning....so instead of sitting inside with your nice lemonade, you're baking inside the houses or you go outside and get sun burned. Yesterday, we met up with Aaron's cousin Juaquim. They played a mean trick on me at lunch. After eating a really nasty looking burger, they both told me it was horse meat. I had to take some medicine to get my body to not throw up. We went to the church that is the pride of Norway....it is buried over a Saint. And no buildings can be taller than this church. We also visited the crown jewels. I learned that the name Carl probably came from this region of the world as there were 3 King Carls.

We picked up Freda, Aaron's grandmother from Inger Isaksen's house. Inger is Freda's sister in law. Inger's house was filled with antiques and polished silver. There were many porcelin plates on the wall and little porcelin figurines of couples in love on the tables. It reminded me a bit of a mix between a piano teacher and my grandmother....lol. Freda was very excited to see us. Especially Aaron....it is quite strange to hear Freda speak Norweigan because I am so used to having her speak English.

Right now, Trondheim is having a huge music festival so everyone is out partying on holiday and nice. We went to Aaron's relatives house and it was the most breathtaking view. I met the original "Christina Isaksen" and she was really excited that I was going to have the same name as her. Everyone was really welcoming. When the sun was starting to set(10:00 PM) Aaron, myself, Juaquim, Ingrid(his girlfriend), and Daniel (Juaquim's older brother) went out for drinks. We were there until last call....it was still slightly light in the sky though.....at 12:30. What do the Norweigans do when it's dark all winter?