Do not let your kids read Norwegian literature

- July 02, 2015

"It was such a lovely sunshine-day,
The house and the yard couldn't hold me;
A meadow I found, on my back I lay,
And sang what my spirit told me;
Then snakes came crawling, a fathom long,
To bask in the sun,--I fled with my song (...)"***

There was a time in my life when I was one of those sad and happy-to-be sad young girls that are listening depressive music and are always wearing black clothes. Yes, I was one of them, I even had a long, black coat and purple hair. This was the time when I was escaping the sun and I was crazy in love with Norway. I even wanted to live there.

When I think about it now, I am shocked how much a person can change. Today I like colors (maybe a little too much), I adore silly, happy songs, positive people and literature. I wear black only to fake people I am thinner than I really am. And I no longer read Hamsen, Ibsen, Bjørnson nor Obstfelder. In the past those guys were my heroes. Especially the last one: Sigbjørn Obstfelder. He influenced me by one and only short story titled “Liv”. The story was mystic, intimate and was of course about love and as you all can imagine there were no happy ending. But I liked it because of other reason - the main character was so cool, he despised the happy people that were sitting in cafes, laughing and chatting about non-important stuff. Because you know, only suffering matters, and being happy is so shameful and middle-classed. I was enchanted by this theory that only serious, sorrowful people are worth something. The rest is just a dull crowd living their mindless and thoughtless lives. And I imagined then, that the best place to escape from this nonsense, empty life would be Scandinavia, with its impressive nature, simple and quiet people and many sunless days.

Oslo, 2015

My first clash with Scandinavian life and people happened about 8 years ago. I spend just 3 months with a Danish family, to discover that it is not the lifestyle that is good for me. The comfort life was tempting for sure, but the cold nature of friendly after all Danish people was not something my soul yearns to. My second meeting happened about a week ago – I spent an intensive, lonely weekend in Oslo just to confirm my earlier findings.

As for now I am a totally different person than this unhappy creature, a dreamer that wanted to live in a dark and cold country like Norway. Now I would rather live the Italian dolce vita and I am proud to be a happy chin wagging chick with no intention to save the world anymore. And a short visit in Norway showed me that this is not the place for me to stay for long, that no matter how stunning nature you can admire there, this county does not correspond with my temperament. I guess this is one of the most important part of travelling for me: feeling the place and deciding if this is my vibe or not. Oslo is not, but for sure it is worth seeing at least once in life.

Aker Brygge,2015

The city located at the Oslo fjord is a capital of Norway and it is in fact a small green city where both light and weather changes often during the day. Oslo does not look like a great city for sure, it does not have the architecture of Rome nor the speed of London. It is on the other hand friendly, rather quiet and a sleepy place full of tolerant, open-minded people. It is also full of extraordinary and funny examples of street art – this was something that draws attention and makes walking around quite exciting. For sure, the city has its own spirit and its own style.

To be honest Olso is extremely expensive, especially for visitors from central Europe. I am a low budget traveler, or at least I try to be reasonable with travel expenses, so spending there 3 days was rather a challenge. Luckily with a good weather I was not alone eating my take away food on the grass in the park – both tourists and locals were doing exactly the same - enjoying their meals outdoor, under the blue sky. I would not change that atmosphere of a huge picnic on a fancy restaurant meal anyway.

As I mentioned before the Oslo art, not only the street art, made an enormous impression on me. And one of the monuments have left me breathless and brought few tears into my eyes. But I will tell you about this next time. For now, let’s just take a look at the photos of the city.