Day 1 In Norway

Picture 1: Ski jump outside of Angel (my host`s house)
Picture 2: Mansion house with grass on top (explained below)
Picture 3: Traveling friend Nick (lives in Norway, from Atlanta)
Picture 4: Angel my host on left, Nick behind him, Joakim on right (host for 2nd and 3rd night) and his girlfriend Monica
Picture 5: Angel who is orginally from Spain cooked a beutiful dinner for us

My first full day in Norway started with a generous breakfast prepared by my host Angel. He then took me on a brisk walk throughout his neighborhood. He happens to live in the wealthiest neighborhood of Oslo (he rents a small part of a huge house). It was a steep climb and along the way we saw Oslo`s Nordic ski jump that sits just outside his backdoor. Along the way we saw tons of seriously fit people jogging along and many bikers as well. Mind you, it was 30 degrees out! These people are nuts and serious about their exercises. These extremely fit people were in the 50`s 60`and sometimes even in their 70`s. I also learned later that day that being fit is viewed as status.

The house you see in the photo has grass on top of the roof. Angel told me the reason but I am still not quite sure I completely understand the reasoning behind it. It was an old tradition and very few houses have this today and I suppose it is seen as status as well. They used to have goats on their roofs and they would eat the grass. It also served as a insulator during the winter months.

I met up with a fellow traveling couchsurfer, Nick, in Oslo`s largest statue park. The park has more than 212 statues depicting human beings in everyday emotions and embraces. We also saw the Royal Palace which was quite unimpressive. Although the decorative live soldiers "guarding" this Palace were cute and entertaining. Nick now lives in Norway outside of Oslo and wanted to check out the town for a couple of days. Nick is originally from Atlanta. We spent the entire day roaming around Oslo chatting up a storm and having very little purpose with which direction we went. It was much more enjoyabe exploring the city with someone rather than on my own.

Nick and I purchased some ingrdients to prepare hummus for our dinner party at Angels house. When we arrived we saw that Angel had made mounds of traditional Spanish food. Joakim (my couchsurfing host for my 2nd and 3rd evening) and Monica (his girlfriend) joined us as well. Joakim is a home brewing beer nerd and brought several bottles of his home brew. They were out of his world amaizing! The 5 of us sat at the table for nearly 4 hours and had such interesting conversations! It was an end to a wonderful day in Oslo!