Four surprising things about Norwegians
With street shots from Bergen, a bike ride for the ages, and upcoming exhibit and book-related events.
TRAVEL
Things I learned in Norway
By Barbara Ramsey
1. They love dynamite.
Norway is full of mountains and rocky cliffs. For most of its history, settlement was confined mainly to the coast and areas near navigable waterways. But the mid-20th century brought big-time road building projects using—you guessed it—a heck of a lot of dynamite. Over the following decades, Norway spent newfound oil money to blast roads into underdeveloped areas, especially roads with tunnels. Norway now has more than 1,100 tunnels, including the longest road tunnel in the world, the fifteen-mile-long Lærdal tunnel north of Bergen. Although Alfred Nobel was a Swede, the Norwegians love him dearly.
2. They’re warm and friendly, not cool and reserved. And unexpectedly diverse!
Prior to our trip to Norway, I’d prepared myself for a cool reception from some pretty laconic people. But no. Everywhere, we were greeted warmly, offered assistance, and treated with hospitality and friendliness. And in Oslo and Bergen, we saw tons of folks from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. While the highest numbers of Norway’s immigrants come from places like Poland and the Ukraine, other significant contributors are Syria, Somalia, the Philippines, and Iraq. Currently about seventeen percent of all Norwegians are immigrants. In the U.S. it’s fourteen percent. Up your game Statue of Liberty!
3. They can tell you at least one scary story about a moose.
Here’s the best one I heard: Two friends were taking a hike along a beautiful, wild river. They decided to have lunch at the base of a tall bluff on one side of the river. While eating their sandwiches, they suddenly heard a loud bellowing and looked up to see a giant moose hurtling down from the sky. The beast landed just a few feet from the picnickers, breaking its neck. Apparently the moose had been grazing at the top of the bluff, forty feet over their heads. The grass must have been extra slippery or the top edge of the bluff suddenly gave way or...who knows? But if the moose’s trajectory had been altered by even a few inches, those two guys would have been pancaked. Moose are herbivores but they can kill you. And sometimes they fly.
4. Their national snack is...the hot dog!
Norwegians love hot dogs. Nationwide, the average yearly consumption is one hundred hot dogs per person. You can get them at kiosks, gas stations, and even on the train, usually wrapped in a potato flatbread and accompanied by an array of ketchups and mustards. Some add lingonberry jam to their dogs, a topping I cannot fathom, but to my American palette the strangest topping is their summer choice: shrimp salad. Go figure.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Streets of Bergen
VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS that I took on a day wandering Norway’s Bergen harbor comprise this slideshow. One shot with two young runners overlooks the entire harbor. To get there, you take a popular cable car, called the Fløibanen funicular, up a mountain. Other pictures depict people and buildings and colors that caught my eye. The music, Sunday Morning, was composed by our nephew Paul Carduner and played on piano by his wife, Megan Urbach.
The images are best seen at full size; click on the little rectangle in the righthand corner of the window to expand the size.
EXHIBITS
TRIBAL CHAIR ROSALEE WALZ will speak on the history of the Chemakum on the Olympic Peninsula and on the tribe’s new initiatives this Thursday, September 12, at the Commons at Fort Worden State Park. “Chemakum: Then and Now” is presented in conjunction with the Still Here exhibit of portraits of Chemakum people by Brian Goodman that I helped organize. Reception at 6 pm and the presentation at 7 pm. Even if you’ve seen this exhibit in other venues, its presence at the former Army base is extraordinary, powerful, and well worth the trip. The pictures will be shown through the September. More info at chemakum.org.
A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS
Seventy years in seventy days
By Barbara Ramsey
MY FRIEND TOM PAYNE and I bonded in the first semester of medical school in the 1970s. We took gross anatomy together—and yes, it was pretty gross—and hung out together the following four years. (I described one episode in a recent Wild Things.) We were an odd pair. He was a straight-shooting Stanford guy who loved the great outdoors and I was a stoner from a hippie college who vastly preferred the great indoors. But we shared a demented sense of humor and we loved to ridicule our professors.
When I developed a serious heart condition last year, I reached out to Tom for help. He had become a medical school professor himself (karma!) and fast-tracked the cardiac referrals I required. In myriad ways, he was enormously helpful to Kerry and me during a dark time.
While I was still recovering from open heart surgery, Tom finally retired. Always an avid cyclist, he decided to celebrate his retirement and seventieth birthday by riding his bike across the United States from Washington to Maine. Alone. On June 8th, we hosted a dinner in Port Townsend with his daughter Molly and lovely wife Amy to celebrate the upcoming trip. The next day Tom set off. For friends and family, he kept a daily blog documenting the trip. I followed his progress closely, just a tiny bit concerned that this crazy project might run off the rails at some point. But no, despite the wind, weather, and an occasional flat tire, he completed the trip in seventy days. On August 17th, in Bar Harbor, Maine, he dipped his bike tires in the Atlantic Ocean. Congratulations, Tom!
BOOK LAUNCH
MEG KACZYK, a friend and colleague, has written and illustrated an extraordinary book describing her many months as a caretaker to her late husband, Joe. As someone who recently played the caretaker role, this honest and down-to-earth account deeply resonates. I will be interviewing Meg after a reading to launch the book at Sunrise Coffee House on Friday, September 27th, at 6 pm. Sunrise, which is owned and run by our friends Sue and Bill (and roasts the best coffee in town), is located at 308 Tenth Street, in the boatyard in Port Townsend, Washington.
The Norwegians probably make better hot dogs.