Home!

Ahh... I seriously think that every Norwegian should live on the crowded East Coast of the US for a while - just so they can truly learn to appreciate the space, solitude, silence and sheer serenity of the Norwegian mountains. Or cities, for that matter. I have not been home long enough to go crazy over the small conveniences we lack over here (such as 24-hour grocery stores, cheap food delivery and peanut butter) and can still appreciate the small happy differences. The picture below, for instance, is the McDonald's restaurant in Bergen. This has to be the best-looking McD in the world...

As for the mountains, they are as gorgeous-looking as ever, and with only one week gone of my vacation so far, there's been quite a lot of hiking, tenting, fishing, boating and general enjoyment of nature. I also have several dozen moskito bites - which serves as proof that I've been spending quite some time outside - plus a decent tan that is way to uneven to be fake.

My sister is still very pregnant (and ready to be over and done with the whole pregnancy thing), so there is no auntie Linda yet. I did get some practice, however, when we visited Toralf's family - after a week, his 2-year old nephew was getting quite good at saying "tante inda!" (I bribed him with chocolate to be my friend... worked like magic). The first day after we got home, there was a "Happy 2nd birthday" party - with about 45 guests, of which 15 were in the age between 2 months and 11 years old. You can say I got the crash introduction to the family....

All in all: very much enjoying some Norwegian down time :o)