Norway

As this BLOG is entitled Weebles's Adventures, I had better talk about some of the adventures I have had, not just now, but in the past.

The company I was (and still am) with was considering doing some business with a company in Norway and sent two of us over to check things out. So myself, and a coworker went over for a week. It was coincidental that this week was in or around May 04th, which is Norway's national holiday.

We arrived, and where we were going was in a town called Konsberg, just out of Oslo (125km or so). We arrived and checked in to the Grand Hotel. Oddly enough, there seems to be a Grand Hotel in every town in Norway. Anyways, one of the first things we tried to figure out was the parking meters, and whether we were required to stuff money in, even though it was 7pm or so. I am not sure we ever did figure this out, we just kinda lucked out and our car was not removed from the street.
My co-worker was recently married, just 2-3 weeks if I remember correctly, and her new husband was going through major separation anxiety. When I say major, this would be quite an understatement. He would phone her and talk for hours, which was unfortunate as our timezones were such that this resulted in her getting very little sleep. By the end of the week she was a complete wreck.

The people we had gone to see were really good to us. They had arranged for us to stay in Oslo the day of the national holiday, at the Grand Hotel ( :-) ), which is also the hotel where the Noble Lauriates stay when they receive their awards. They had also arranged for us to have tickets to the end of the parade-grounds, at the king's palace grounds. So, the morning of the 4th, which was quite cold and gray, we walked up to watch the festivities.
Little did we know that in a country with 4M people, 3 1/2 attend the parade, either in it, or lining the street. We tried to stay the whole time, but after over 2 hours of watching people marching in regional costumes (I think you would just have to be Norwegian to appreciate this) we just could not do it anymore. So, we attempted to go back to our hotel.....against traffic.....yikes, it was crazy.

Another thing I remember about Konsberg, was that all of the students were graduating. What the do is buy a bus (usually last years bus), painted in the schools colours and drive around town partying it up. They do this for days and days and days. It was hilarious to watch.

Oh well, after 6 days it was time for us to venture home. We survived pizza day, and brown cheese (can anyone tell me what the heck is in brown cheese which makes it brown) and having absolutely no idea of what we were eating. However, the people are fantastic and I loved the country, would go back any time.