Sunday Funday

I messed up when I was saving these pics so they are a little squished looking. I'm tired, I'll fix them later. : )
























So, we woke up around 11am today...the first thing we did was hop on a tram, that's a lie, the first thing we did was try to figure out what tram/train/bus to take. A hikes up and down the streets of Oslo we firgured it out and we were on our way to Majorstuveien and Sorgenfrigata to meet Vidar. We got off of the subway, took a right, when we should've gone straigt, we walked back to the station, called Vidar, took a right when we should've gone straigt, walked back to the station, went straight, just as we were about to pass we see Vidar coming to our rescue. He took us up to his apartment which was on the 6 or 7th floor, I lost count. His apartment was filled with old Danish modern furniture, the kind that would be few and far between at the thrift stores back home but I imagine is pretty prevalent. We went back down the 6 or 7 flights of stairs, jumped a teeny little Toyota and away we went. Our first stop was about 20 minutes from Vidar's house. It was a lookout point up Ekeberg overlooking all of Oslo, you could see clear across to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump and back towards the highrise multifamily housing in the suburbs! From there we drove another 20 or so minutes till we arrived in a quiet little area with homes that were built around the late 60's. This place, like so many places we have seen so far was incredibly picturesque. We pull up a gravel road and park infront of one of the 3 houses on this property. The 12 acres of land belonged to Vidar's Great Grandfather and his Grandma, Uncle and Mom live up there now. We were greeted by Vidar's mom who had been busy cooking us breakfast while we were driving up. We sat down in her living room and had tea and coffee...for breakfast she made us something that could easily become one of my favorite things to eat, little waffles with...sour cream, sugar and lingonberries!! To change it up a bit she brought our geitost or goat cheese and butter! They were to die for, and she kept them coming!! Jeremy just reminded me of something funny. Vidar's mom brought out two blocks of foil wrapped goodness, they were the same shape and had similar labels on them. I understood the brown block to be goat cheese, which Jeremy served me and it was delicious. So, I ask him to slice off a peice of the other, I thought it would be Jarlsberg or something. I took the slice and being the cheese freak that I am i chomped down on half of the slice. Dude, it was butter! I ate a gigantic slice of butter, i thought I was going to throw up. Hahaha! Vidar showed us around there house which his Father built with his Grandfather just before he was born. We then took a walk into the forrest that surrounds his Mother's home. I can't imagine growing up surrounded by lakes and forrests, how much fun for a little kid.

We stayed for about an hour and then headed back down to the more metro area of Oslo. Jeremy was excited because he got to see the building where a very popular old record store called Helvete, used to be, he took a picture in front of it, it's pretty funny since it's now a bed and bath shop. From there we went to Vigelandsparken or Vigeland Sculpture Park. It was amazing. I had seen tons of pictures but they just can't capture the grand feeling this park had. The park was filled with locals out for strolls on a lazy hazy sunday. Kids were bundled up in puffy coats and hats and parents were trying to keep up with their wobbly little ones. It was very peaceful place with families enjoying the bright green scenery and the light drizzle of rain between moments of sunshine. Again, another surreal and beautiful place in Oslo. We enjoyed a beer and a cup of tortilla chips with aioli for dipping on the patio of a a resturaunt over looking the lake in the park. Around 5:30 we headed back to the subway and headed home for a nap.
It was a fabulous day. We are going to go back to Vigeland later this week for a picnic, I can't wait.

Tomorrow morning we need to be at the train station by 7:30am. We are taking a train to Bergen. This is going to be great, 7 hours on a train, with a detour midway through to see some natural waterfalls, then on to Bergen. We will be in Bergen around 2pm. The sun doesn't set until after 10:30pm, and by that time we will have spent 8 hours sightseeing around town. We are going to take a train back to Oslo in the middle of the night, we got a sleeper car so hopefully we can catch some z's.