Oslo, Norway (July 21st - 24th, 2007)

More trips down memory lane. Let's see how much I remember off the top of my head.
This was the last of the Nordic countries that I needed to visit. Wait, actually, I haven't gone to Iceland yet. Sigh, still so much of the world to discover. Soon. Soon.
Let the tour begin:



I didn't get to go inside, but as I always say, I love a good theatre.








Here's the palace. Didn't take a tour...I'm not usually a big fan of palaces. Versailles would be the exception.



I did, however, go into the Munch-museet and I thoroughly enjoyed the art there. I was disappointed to learn that The Scream was not on display, as it going on rotation. There was a consolation prize of some drafts of the famous painting. Here are some shots from the museum. I was
surprised that we were allowed photography. In my experience it seemed that the smaller museums allow photos even if there are famous pieces there, whereas the larger museums are more strict (although, while I was in Paris a little while ago, I found out that the Louvre was allowing pictures of the Mona Lisa).

Ever since I started travelling outside of the continent I started collecting keychains from Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe locations. I still do this, even though I'm wondering why I bother anymore. Back in the day it seemed like a good idea, but years go by and you realize that there are better souvenirs to be purchased and/or that those keychains are a complete rip off.

I like looking at traditional outfits. Being the last Nordic country I visited, I felt like I'd seen a lot of this stuff before. There were differences for sure, and I'm sure I'm making a big generalization as those from the different countries would probably argue that their cultures are very different, but they can't say that there aren't similarities. I especially like the bright colours that are in the traditional outfits.










In the Vikingskiphuset. These boats are amazing. Travelling really opens your mind. As a teacher I can really appreciate the importance of experiencing and really smelling, feeling, touching and tasting things. Everything just comes to life and students will remember what they learned that much more if they can connect it to something else in their life. Constructivist learning, my friends. I will always remember just how lucky I am. Did I already post about my trip to Stockholm? Darn. No, I didn't. Anyway, when I do, I will post pictures from the Vasa Museum. Dude, that's a viking ship.

Since I haven't posted about my trip to Sweden yet, I haven't talked about open-air museums. I've only seen these types of museums in the Nordic countries and I love them. I love talking walks and feeling like







I'm just stumbling across different quartiers of cities so the open-air museums are good for me. Even though I loooooooove metro systems a lot, I truly feel like walking is the way to experience a new location. You take in so much more when you're walking and you never know where you'll end up. I'm sort of lucky that I'll walk almost anywhere. Sometimes after
the fact, I find out that I ventured into totally sketchy areas that I probably shouldn't have been in, but at the time, I felt completely safe and I'd really felt what the area was like. Anyway, the open-air museums are like...Black Creek Pioneer Village. Hey, maybe there are open-air museums in other cities too. They are like preserved villages set up so that visitors can step into the era or culture of what the museum is trying to show. Often the staff are dressed in traditional outfits and there are traditional shops set up. Schoolhouses, pharmacies, trades, crafts, bakeries, farms, etc. So these pictures are from the Norsk Folkemuseum.









Holmenkollen has a big ski jump which was used for the 1952 Winter Olympics. I can't imagine going off that thing. On a sort of related note, I am still looking for someone
to go skydiving with me in Interlaken. I've had a couple people bail on me, although all for understandable reasons. Two of my favorites include one gentleman who has been travelling/learning around the world for two years (and is still going) and a lady who decided that her wedding was more important.






Apparently she was really really mean.






And now, a barrage of pictures from the Vigeland Park (the sculptures) in the Frogner park (the flowers).



































































LILLEHAMMER
Being the ultimate tourist, I decided to take a couple little side-trips. You can't consider yourself an athlete if you're not obsessed with the Olympics, ergo, I took a trip to Lillehammer. Before heading to some of the venues, I visited Maihaugen, yet another open-air museum.






















Okay, back to Lillehammer. The town still bore the evidence that the Winter Olympics had been there. I'd like to visit Torino again to see if it is the same for this city. I only say that because during the Olympics, you could hardly tell that something special was going on. Honestly, I was kinda disappointed by that. I know that the majoy venues are still there, but I'm not sure the city of Torino itself looks different than it used to look before. I hope so. I think hosting the Olympics should be
something that any city should be proud of and should try to retain evidence of for the future. Anyway, seeing some of the venues, and of course various exhibits to commemorate the event made me happy. Being at the Olympics was such a wonderful experience, I can only
hope that I get to experience it again in the future. Lillehammer isn't a very big town, but it has a lot of heart. I can imagine how wonderful it must have been during the Olympics. It's a very sweet town and even if you're not a big fan of the Olympics, it's worth a visit.



DROBAK
Another little trip that I took was to a town called Drobak. The claim to fame of this city is that Santa Claus is from there. There's a post office especially for the big man and has a bunch of letters on display from people around the world writing to the man himself. I wonder if the people who wrote
the letters know about this. I also love Christmas. I love the lights. I love the decorations. I love the vibe of the season. If you also love Christmas, visit Drobak...it's good for some souvenirs too. Actually, even if you don't like Christmas, visit the town because there the town is very quaint and there are
the cutest streets and lanes to walk through. It's very tourist friendly. The best way to discover the town is by foot. Grab a map and take a walk. There was a really good map from the tourist office which gave suggestions of walks through town and points of interest. I cannot stress how much I love to walk. The architecture of the houses is nice to see as well. Very different from North American homes. I'm not sure if I could get used to living in these homes, but I really enjoy looking at them. It's be a fun cottage to own. It would be a nice half-day trip.

I didn't post any pictures, but the Henie-Onstad Art Centre is worth a visit as well. Some nice art and a little room about Ms. Henie herself. I would like to own some artwork myself in the future. Yet another thing on my list of "to do-s". My little plug for a talented artist: Mr. Jack McLean. His website doesn't seem to be working right now, but I hope he's doing well. I was nice to talk to an artist about the process and learn a little bit more about the profession and his dreams in life.

So, Norway. Yeah. A nice country. Lots to see and do.

Not bad

I've got a view of a pile of dirt, half built condos, the Gardiner Expressway and the lake, Ontario Place and other things in the distance, but here I am, sitting on my balcony, soaking up the sun and mooching internet off of someone (I have cable inside, but am too lazy to pull the cord around with me). Life is pretty good.

Prague, Czech Republic (July 17th - 21st, 2007)

My notes on this trip are tucked away somewhere out of my reach right now, so this is going from my horrible memory. I'll just post pictures now and maybe try to add the details later.
Prague was a fantastic trip because I got to see someone that I hadn't seen in quite some time and it was a chance to be in a location where I had no hope in understanding the language. It was completely foreign. For some reason, I strangely enjoy that feeling. Trying to understand the world around you in that situation makes it like a big challenge. The town was beautiful and had so much history and character to it. And seeing friends makes it all the more enjoyable!



The National Museum in the distance. Take a look at the old-school trams that they have.







Out for a walk in the evening and stumbled upon a beer garden. The Czech love their beer!




Inside the St. Vitus Cathedral of the castle. The castle itself is a group of buildings including a residence, cathedral and the cutest little town I've seen among other things. It's up on a hill on one side of the Vltava river. Cobblestones everywhere, so don't wear heels.




Looking down from one of the towers of the cathedral. the colour of the roofs will be etched in my mind forever. I also associate them with my trip to Croatia.



Another picture from the tower. The big bridge that you see here is the famous Charles Bridge. You can probably see how many people are on the bridge. There is a certain amount of elbowing involved to get through and I wasn't even there in the height of tourist season. Ugh.




Keeping everyone safe in the castle area. There were guards in little shelters just like you see at almost any other castle/palace around the world. My mind immediate thought of London and Athens for some reason.



This is the cute little town that I was talking about. Everything was miniature. Most people had to duck through the doorways of the buildings. Now they are a bunch of shops and restaurants. Oh yes, all of these areas you had to pay to get into. Money making machine these places were of course. I was considering buying something Kafka related as my Czech souvenir, but didn't think that it was really me.
No Kafka book, but yes to a wooden marionette. I couldn't believe how incredible they looked. This was my favorite shop and the location of my purchase. There were so many different types of marionettes and I considered getting something "pretty", but I was drawn towards a witch.
I looooooooooved this one. I'm not sure how to display it - I'm thinking that if I ever get a coffee table to get one that has a glass top and a shelf underneath and just lay her on it, but I don't know for sure. There's always the option of hanging her up too, but I'm not sure if that would be too creepy. I find her face strangely comforting for some reason. I think she looks incredible.












One of the many famous tourist attractions, it's the astronomical clock in the town center.
Crowds gather to watch the "show" on the hour and such.



This is the Žižkov Television Tower. For some reason there are babies crawling on it. Apparently it was supposed to be a temporary art installment, but they decided to keep it there.





See?!?! Told you. Babies.














I don't know if it's weird to visit cemetaries, but this one was very special. Centuries ago, the tombstones and memorials
made quite a statement. I felt like I was walking through an area of so much history. Seeing the growth of the plants as well. It was so neat. I've never seen anything like it before.



I have a thing with concert halls. I love them. I love them as much as I love opera houses. This concert hall was art deco (which I also enjoy) and beautiful. Sometimes I wonder what people coming to Toronto think of our architecture. It seems pretty dull compared to things in Europe. Maybe in a couple centuries our stuff will look cool. That is, if we don't keep tearing it down and rebuilding it.















Milunić and Gehry's Dancing House. Cool architecture.







We took a little side trip to Karlovy Vary, a town known for its hot springs. The town itself was beautiful and had completely different architecture to Prague. They had these big flat wafer cookies which were very tasty and of course there was the water. This famous water that was supposed to be really good for you somehow.


All of these different fountains were labelled with the temperature of the spring that it came from. They tasted GROSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!






So gross that I didn't want to buy one of these cups as a souvenir. I'm not sure why they had these special cups with the funny spout as opposed to just regular cups. I used my nalgene.

Yup. That's my trip in a nutshell. Prague is a very popular tourist destination for good reason. It's a beautiful city and I while I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see on my whirlwind trip, I'm sure that I could find lots more to do if I wnet back again. I would like the chance to get a better feel for the people who live there as well. To just walk around without being "on a mission" and feel the city itself. Knowing someone who lives there helped though. I got to do something things that I would never do if I was there by myself. We even lounged on a sand beach they created by the side of the river. So fun. And of course, going out at night was a lot of fun as well. A completely different side to the city.
Prague. I'd definitely go back.

Perk of living downtown

There's some kind of fireworks thing going on this week. Thank goodness I live in a downtown highrise near the water. Free view of the shows from the comfort of under a cozy blanket while sitting on my balcony. Lovely.