Norway is a beautiful country…deep blue fjords, mountains stretching up to the clouds, roads that wind through green and pleasant landscapes. One thinks of the Vikings and the ancient history of the Norge folks and their forays out beyond their borders to other lands.
But, have you ever thought about how the current political landscape was established in Norway?
Being friends with a former politician and journalist allows great opportunity for awareness of recent history. You might not know that Norway established their independence from their Scandinavian neighbors barely 200 years ago in 1814 after the Napoleonic Wars.
17 May is their constitution day. But, if you talk to a Norwegian it is ’17 Mei’ or as my friends taught our kids, it is ‘adults can’t say no to children day’. It is a day full of joy and vitality as children march in parades all over the country. 
It is also notable that there is no military presence on this day. The entire country, and I do mean, the entire country dresses up in their national colors, school uniforms or traditional dress passed down from generations to walk and march and then eat as much ice cream as one can possibly stuff in themselves. Okay, maybe that was more my boys’ experience. However, being able to have a lot sweets is a big part of the fun.
The older kids end their Russe Busse at 11am when the parades start (see previous blog). The parades march around the neighborhoods and town and city centers all over the county.
After watching local parades, our hosts secured all of us tickets to be in the courtyard of the Royal Palace in Oslo where we patiently awaited the appearance of the royal family all while watching the endless stream of parade participants march by and admire the local costumes. 
Oakley was particularly excited and was sure that the King had waved directly to him as the entire royal family came out on the balcony.
There is something calming and magical about dressing up along with everyone else in colors of blue, red and white. Having a bit more thought into our dress took some doing for us since we’d been traveling for so long we didn’t have much variety.
I wore my lone dress I had made in Vietnam and borrowed a shirt for Canyon and Oakley got a new collared shirt. Dressing up seems to give us a sense of grace.
After the royal courtyard experience and watching over 100,000 people proudly milling around we went for a luncheon at our friends Brita and Eva’s house. They had been preparing for this meal for a week.
A true smorgasbord of delights as well as a lazy afternoon of snacking, wine sipping and light napping before we found our way back to Marianne and Tore’s house on public transport packed with others finding their way around in their nice dress as sated smiles. It was a sleepy, peaceful commute home. 
The next day we had to recover some before we headed on to our next destination, grandparents along for the ride.
Our time in Norway was magical and we are eternally grateful for our experiences there. We will be back and especially on the day that one can unashamedly eat A LOT of ice cream and celebrate Norway and their people. 
I am back ‘home’ in Portland but, still my soul is floating around the earth. We have returned to our hometown and are putting down roots again….phone contracts, bought a used car, set up utility accounts and kids are now at Montessori but, we aren’t done with this journey or the next steps.
Oslo and they both offered advice, homes, meals and warm welcomes to our travel queries.
My Norwegian friends offered to do a little genealogy research for us and when she presented us with an 80 page document before we arrived of all she found we were blown away.
She had recently opted to not run for reelection to the Norwegian parliament but, gave us intimate access to the Parliament and a tour I am sure you could not ‘book’ anywhere else.
All while high school equivalent students were running around the city in their flight suits and tricked out buses celebrating their transition to adulthood. Its called Russebuss and it is a fascinating tradition.
So, anyway…..family history found us driving (well Kelvin driving, really. We just all cheered him on from the back seat) for what seemed like 100s of miles and hours and hours.
SINGLE TIME!.
You will love it if you go and do get out of Oslo, lovely city yet, there is so much to this enormous by European standards country.
