KRISTIANSUND OLD AND NEW

 

I love this older house with it's tiny windows and the details around the front entrance.

 

Looks like Kristiansund grew up and surrounded the house.

 

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OTHER THINGS I'LL MISS

 

I'm going to miss the norwegian tradition of gathering around huge bonfires on the beach on Midsummer Night. Families gather and have picnics. I'd never been to a picnic at night before I moved here. Only it didn't seem like night because Norway is truly the land of the midnight sun.

 

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NORWEGIAN FIGURE EIGHT ROLLS AND MY STOMACH

 

These are the tasty Norwegian homemade rolls my neighbor baked and shared with me. Actually she gave me over a dozen but these are the last three so I thought I better take a pic quick, because she gave them to me yesterday. I believe they call them Kringler. They are soft and mildly sweet with a hint of cardamon. Steve likes them slathered with Nutella and I like mine with butter. They are usually eaten with a cup of coffee. There are hundreds of recipes for them already on the net so I'm not going to bother repeating one here. Just search Kringler or norwegian figure eight rolls.

Now, about my stomach. You could say the rolls are like my stomach these days, ( no, not soft and slathered with butter!) tied in knots. I haven't been blogging because it's too painful to write the following words. We are being relocated to the Netherlands. Of course I'm excited about our newest adventure but I'm leaving all the great new friends we have made here. And all of this stunning natural beauty. And our beloved rekkehus(rowhouse). So I will try to post every few days of our remaining few months here. We have relatives coming next week and will be doing little trips off the island to see more of Norway.

 

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THE SPIDER THAT ATE KRISTIANSUND,EDDERKOPPEN SOM SPISTE KRISTIANSUND

 

I took this terrible and weird photo on one of our rare sunny days. It looks like our peaceful little island community is about to be visited by a very large Arthropod.

Jeg tok dette forferdelig og rare bildet på en våre sjeldne solfylte dager. Det ser ut som vår fredelige lille øysamfunnet er om å bli besøkt av en stor leddyr.

 

But thankfully it is just another platform rig cruising by.

Men heldigvis er det bare en annen plattform riggen reiser med.

 

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UMBRELLAS FOR FISH/ PARASOLLER FOR FISK

 

I spotted this manhole cover in the Myra neighborhood and haven't found another one like it anywhere in town. At first I thought the umbrella looking shapes were meant to symbolize all the rain that Kristiansund gets. But that can't be right as it is usually far too windy on our island city to even think about opening an umbrella. Then I took a closer look at the shapes and thought they resembled the clipfish that Kristiansund is famous for. I asked some locals at the wonderful Easter dinner we attended and I think I have a better answer. I'm going to say "I think" because my norwegian is not so great even after five years of living in this beautiful country. I think the shapes are there to represent the wooden umbrellas they lay over the drying clipfish to protect them from the rain. I hope in the very near future to get a picture of one of these "fish umbrellas" for you. I seem to remember seeing some in Karihola.

 

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GOD PÅSKE,HAPPY EASTER

 

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PÅSKEKRIM,EASTER MYSTERIES

Påskekrim is an entertaining Norwegian Easter tradition that even to Norwegians is a bit of a "mystery". Along with the daffodils and chocolate,the grocery stores put up their Påskekrim displays. Påskekrim is the term to describe "crime and mystery books published for the Easter holidays". I asked several Norwegians why mystery books are so popular here at Eastertime and they all said they weren't sure but that maybe it was started as an advertising gimmick back in the 1920's. I'm a big fan of mystery books so this tradition is very popular with me. Also, since the books are in Norwegian it helps me with learning the language. This year,instead of buying mystery books written by English speaking writers translated into Norwegian, I am trying something different. I bought a book of short mysteries written by Norwegian authors. In doing this I get to see how Norwegian is written by native speakers. I also get to sample a lot of different Norwegian authors. Now I just need to buy some more chocolate to munch while I'm reading.

 

 

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