Back in Norway!

Hello hello!!

I am back in Norway! Which means back to blogging, for a little... we'll see.

But, this is a great way to show people a lot of pictures without mass emails and long upload/download times.

I arrived in Norway on June 22, 2010, the second longest day of the year, and the day before their national celebration of the Summer Solstice. That being said, here goes nothing, Sandra as a Saetre part 2!

Just to set the scene, here is downtown Bergen, with the two main mountains on the left, and a new sculpture in the middle. Beautiful sunny day, but... they are definitely not all like this.


June 23rd, the country celebrates Summer Solstice. Norwegians make big bonfires down by the water and celebrate summer with songs, food, music, dancing, etc. Oddmund and I walked to the part of Bergen with the most famous bonfire, and here it is! Hundreds of wooden barrels stacked on top of each other and burnt. There was a big stage built and live music, as well as some carnival type food and games. We got there late, so these pictures show about a third of the original height of the bonfire.


People enjoying the fire from a distance, it was unbelievably hot within thirty feet of the fire. (I felt like I was back at work at BlackSalt!) You can see Floyen, the main mountain in Bergen, in the distance, with lights leading up the mountain where the tram goes.


It was a beautiful evening of celebration and a nice arrival to the country.

So, here is where I live now, Bergen Norway. We live in a part of town called Danmarksplass (Denmark's Place). I have since learned that there is a "good" and "bad" side of Danmarksplass, but fortunately we live on the good side.

Here is the front of the house, we have an apartment on the first floor, the two windows on the top left are our living room windows.


Here is a view looking up our street from the front door.


And here I am enjoying one of our first dinners at our dining room table.


I will definitely post some more pictures of the apartment once we get a bit more settled and my things and clothes are more in closets and less in suitcases on the floor. I'm getting there though! So far we have made one trip to Ikea and numerous trips to other smaller home stores to change this apartment from its 6 years of bachelor pad to a place for a rural Norwegian and a girl from Washington, DC to have a home together. I'll keep you updated.