Scandinavian trip in blackberry photos

Arrived in Norway for work. Very nice dinner at the Theatre restaurant in Oslo.

Cafe near the Viking museum. Very Christmasy.

Moving on to Sweden. Christmas treats. 

Merry Christmas!

Swedes preparing for new year's eve... everyone buying lobsters. 

... and booze. There were 70 people ahead of us standing in line.

New year's eve at friend's house. Contributed tuna tartar.

Happy new year!

Rest of the Scandinavian stay spent at various cafes.

Last day in Stockholm. See you again...

Lofoten

Continuing to knit...

I'm finished with one yarn (quite contently), and I'm only up to the width of half my neck... I wonder how it will become a loop scarf with one more yarn? Maybe it will end up a neck warmer after all. Anybody up for making a quick run to the basement of a department store in Oslo (for an extra yarn)?

Frogner Park in Oslo

Vigeland Sculpture Park is part of this large park that houses the 212 bronze sculptures designed by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures are quite different from say, Rodin, and is powerful yet has an ultra smooth surface in a way that only water can wash away over many years. Most of them depict the cycle of life and shows strong and healthy male and female in their different stages of life.

The beautiful opera house in Oslo

We went to see the famous opera house in Oslo. It was done by Snøhetta who built the Egyptian Library of Alexandria. As it was meant to be, it does look like ice floating on the water. In fact, it was really like ice I almost slid from the roof top all the way down into the water, which would have been a spectacle!

Happy new year!

Happy new year to you all! Wishing you a lovely 2012...

Skiing in Norway

It's lovely skiing in Norway, and it's so different from my college day ski trips in Japan where I had to wake up at 6am to enjoy a tolerably crowded ski resort. Here, you wake up after a few snoozes at 8:30am and then have a very nice breakfast. Even at 9:30am the ski resort is empty. Then you ski until 3:30pm when the ski slopes shut down for the day, having a nice hot chocolate and waffles in between for lunch :) Then you have an after ski drink, after which you can go out night skiing again, but we just enjoyed ourselves having a slow dinner.

Can you believe that it's almost new years!