National Theater Student's grove

I went into the center of Oslo today, my last day in town. It was a beautiful day with temps finally at 32F and full sun. The sidewalks are clearing and drying out such that I can go back to bigger steps instead of the little baby steps I was using on the ice. It seemed like everyone was out enjoying the weather as well. I wonder what will become of me in Phoenix when 32F feels warm to me now? I don't think it has been this warm for a couple of weeks now. But, tomorrow I head back to Phoenix and to instant Spring. I'm sure I will sit in the warm sun a long time this weekend and enjoy seeing my Arizona friends and saying hello again to Gila and Corazon.

the fate of snowmen in Oslo

Last Sunday the neighbor and his two children made a fine snowman, complete with legs that formed a tunnel. Now it's Friday and the sun has been out all day. I walked home to find the snowman was now leaning with his head up to the sun as if he was as glad as me at the sun being out and was basking in the glow and working on a suntan. Not long after I took this second photo, his head just plopped off backwards and there is little left of the elegant man. Still, I was very glad for the sun and no more snow. I have fallen enough!

botanical gardens

Saturday, and I decided that regardless of the excess of snow, I would go sight seeing. I have never seen the Munch museet, but Cecilia had been and told me how much she enjoyed it, so I figured out which bus and where to catch it and took off. Now, that is so much better than personally driving in this snow! The museum was great. His art shows such incredible emotion for being a flat surface. Even the amount of paint he used seems thin and stretched with personal pain.

Across the street from the museum is the main campus for the University of Oslo. There were several museums, but what I wanted to do was to go to the greenhouse in the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, they were closed. Here is a photo of the gardens. What you can't see is the amount of snow that was falling! But, the trees in garden had such beautiful colors and were covered in such great amounts of snow. I really enjoyed looking at the trees and thinking of painting.

University of Oslo, Blindern

Here is the campus of University of Oslo at Blindern, which is where Biology is located. The building on the right is the library, and on the left, the low building is the student union. It was snowing again, but the sidewalks had been cleared. Probably was because of some heating under the path. Otherwise, all the sidewalks are really either slushy, icy, or packed snow. And, it was snowing hard the day I took this photo, and even more today. Everyone in the City is beginning to say there is TOO much snow (I thought that many weeks ago). It would seem that the snow is not making for good skiing conditions. It certainly doesn't stop anyone from getting out.

Oslo winters

Here is the same location that I started off the blog with, except now the water in the fjord is now frozen. Birds walk on the surface rather than swim, although I saw a little open water that was filled with ducks and swans near the tidal river. Further out there are still large ships passing, but close by it appears to be thick ice, and now covered in snow. After 3 days of sun and -14C weather, it is again snowing. It snowed most of yesterday, all of today, and is forecast for the remainder of the week. I will be in total shock returning to spring in Arizona. Still, I find that I am wearing less layers than when I first arrived, so I am no longer the novice. I have learned that I am much warmer if I wear gloves and a hat than an extra shirt, which I find an interesting bit of info. The days are now quite a bit longer. This photo, while it is snowing and hard to tell, is taken at 3:30pm, the same time I took the one in January, except then the sun was setting. Now the sun set around 5pm and is up at 8am. It is almost a 3 hour increase in just one month.

skiing

For reasons as yet unknown to myself, I took up the call for cross-country skiing, joining all of Oslo on the trail. After so much snow, it seemed as if the entire town was out for a weekend ski. To get to the cross country trails, all you have to do is catch the T-bane (tram) that goes up. Now, that should have been a warning to me that the tram went UP. I thought cross country skiing meant a flat trail, but not here. The first 10 meters were downhill and I fell at least 6 time in that 10 meters. We eventually went 6 km, but I admit to falling more than skiing. Sometimes, it was more like face-planting. So, while that photo of me looks like I am really moving, I am a complete poser. But, the trail was incredibly beautiful and I am glad I went, even if I couldn't lift my legs the next day.

Back to the River

I am back in Oslo now, and back to even more snow than before. Here is what the little river near the house looks like now. There are still at least 5 different species of birds living in Oslo during the winter, often looking more like like balls of fluff than birds in an attempt to keep warm.

But, the best is that the sun is quickly increasing it's daylight hours. Now, the sun comes up around 8am and sets closer to 6 than 3pm. Much better for returning home from work.