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Januar 29, 2006
Takras
Ok, so I was in the Sound of Mu, opening the bar for the day. Petter was there, folding a piece of A4 paper in half. "How long have you been in Norway?" he asked. "Since June," I replied. So this was my first winter. He said he'd have to introduce me to a feature of Norwegian winter called takras.
It was raining outside, indicating both that the temperature had risen, and that the snow was beginning to melt. This meant the ice on the roofs would become unstuck - and fall off. Petter and I went out onto the street outside Mu and he pointed to a menacing shard of ice on the roof, high up above us. Soon, it would fall, to the peril of whoever stood below.
Posted by barry at 12:41 EM
Januar 22, 2006
Snø
O snow, thou art warm.
Someone said to me that the bleak, depressing part of winter is not now, in the cold, but earlier in winter, before the solstice, when the days are getting darker. Now, when it's -8 degrees, the snow, a white blanket, brings more reflective light. Also, each day now is a little brighter, leading to spring. Oslo folk found a way to love the snow. They go cross-country skiing on the well-lit tracks outside the city.
Posted by barry at 8:33 FM
Januar 15, 2006
Vår Frelsers Gravlund
("Our Saviour's Graveyard"). This graveyard, established in 1808, is Oslo's most famous cemetery, and many of the great Norwegians of history are buried here. On this 'warm' January afternoon (it's about 7 degrees, and there isn't any snow), I take a stroll through the Gate of the Abandoned Glove... Of course, that's not its official name, but there's a hardened, weather-beaten and presumably abandoned glove on the gate and it doesn't look like it's going to be removed any time soon.
Continue reading "Vår Frelsers Gravlund"
Posted by barry at 2:18 EM
Januar 8, 2006
Back to Norway
Yes, "Back to Norway!" as Klaus Dinger from Neu! so memorably hollered in song.
I've been out of the country for two weeks, and now I have returned. Everything here in Oslo seems pretty much the way I left it, but in the first hours after my arrival, it seemed like I'd lived a whole life in the interim, like I'd been away in Ireland for a hundred years. But despite feeling disconcertingly different, I simply picked up my life from where I left off.
Continue reading "Back to Norway"
Posted by barry at 7:30 EM