You know you are Norwegian when ...

Hi again, thanks to everyone who has asked if we are experiencing bad weather and floods as south Norway has over the past week or so. No, the weather Gods have been kind to Bergen and we have had very little rain.

As for southern Norway, the rain has stopped but there is still plenty of melt water to come down of the higher mountains, so the rivers are still raging torrents in many places. Roads, bridges, houses and gardens have been swept away, and many other places undermined so much that houses will probably be abandoned. It will take a lot of work this spring/summer to repair just the general transport infrastructure, let alone houses and farms. It is the second catastrophic flood in three years, and many are questioning the viability of some of the areas which have been affected, tucked away in isolated valleys.

Norway prides itself on offering the same services to all in a community, which is why you see million kroner bridges built out to islands housing 50 people! However, the strain on finances is obvious, and they won’t use the ‘oil money’ to help themselves out (saving it for a rainy day when the oil finally runs out!).

So maybe that is why netthandelen, an online Norwegian auction site had this little baby up for grabs today? A micro dumper, to give it the correct name!

Fantastic piece of kit for anyone living halfway up a mountain, far away from any form of building depot where you can hire them for a day or so! Much easier to use than an ordinary wheelbarrow, powered by a 4.5 hp petrol motor, I think this is one of those ‘boys toys’ that my husband would love to get his hands on! It carries 350kg over rough terrain at 4 kph.

So a really useful peice of equipment if you need to shore up the foundations of your house or road, or rebuild the barn! I reckon it could also be very useful at the family cabin, which is usually in an even more isolated place with no running water or electricity! There's plenty of room on board for granny and granddad plus their suitcases if they can’t walk up the steep, rocky path!

Coping with tough terrain is part of the Norwegian psyche!

Norway's National Day - 17th May

Hiya, in case you had not realised tomorrow is a very important day in Norway. It is Norway's National Day or Constitution Day.

Technically, Norway did not become fully independent from Sweden until 1905, however from 17th May 1814 Norway had its own constitution, it just wasn't allowed to pass its own laws or have its own foreign policy. Every decision regarding trade, foreign policy, laws etc. had to be agreed by the Swedes.

So tomorrow is a national holiday here, with all the celebrations cantering around the children. There will be school processions, school bands playing, fairground stalls and games in the larger towns and everyone will have a good time. Everyone will be either wearing or waving the Norwegian flag and the air will ring with the greeting 'Gratulerer!' or 'Congratulations!

A lot of people will dress in the Norwegian traditional costume, the Bunad. Actually the word Bunad is a twentieth century creation, and the costumes themselves, which vary from area to area are an innovation of nineteenth century romanticists and secessionists who wanted to mark Norway as being different from its larger brothers, Sweden and Denmark.

The Bunads for the girls consist of white cotton shirts and heavy wool skirts and waistcoats, heavily embroidered with flowers and other motifs, the guys are plainer with white shirts, waistcoats with some embroidery and knickerbockers. Guys wear jackets and girls wear capes. The colour, fabric and type of embroidery motif used show which area in the country the wearer comes from. The small kids look really cute in them!

Apparently, there has been a renaissance in Bunad wearing, and many new designs are being created, which is not entirely appreciated by some. Bunads are traditional items they say, and so the thought is they should remain as they are and not be tampered with. However, since they are the creation of the romantic movement, and have never been thought of as part of the Norwegian story until about a hundred and fifty years ago, that does seem pedantic!

Still my husband and I both have our 17th May uniform ready - suitcase and plane ticket to London. Well with no children of our own here in Norway we thought we would make the most of a long weekend and fly south!

Maybe we could take a leaf out of their book and start a child friendly celebration of St. George’s Day each year on the 23rd April. Or if we should be fully inclusive of all those resident in our Great British Isles maybe we should celebrate June 15th instead as our National Day. Why? That was when King John signed the Magna Carta, which historians consider to be the beginning of constitutional government in the United Kingdom! A little piece of history – slightly older than the Norwegians one!

Wonder what our national costume should be though! Any thoughts?

P.S. As usual rain is forecast tomorrow here in Bergen - hopefully it holds off until the main processions have ended!

Art in Bergen

Apologies for not having written for a while but I have been quite busy with lots of extra substitute hours at the International School, plus we took a five day break in Venice at the end of April! Venice was beautiful and fourteen degrees or more warmer than Bergen, which was so nice! Unfortunately it did rain a little, but Italian rain is not the same as Bergen rain. It doesn't bounce back up at you from the steeet, soaking your trousers above the knee, and it doesn't create small rivers out of the roads either!

The weather when we got back was sleet and snow - what changes eh?!

As Scandinavians will tell you though, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. So no surprise then that people were queuing up on a rainy Thursday afternoon last week to get into the newly refurbished Rasmus Meyers art collection in central Bergen.

Rasmus Meyer (1858 to 1916) collected paintings from Norwegian artists such as Tidemand, Gude, Nikolai Astrup and Christian Krohg. He also bought several large Munch pieces, including some pencil drawings for that most world famous work of Munch's 'The Scream'.

Now apparently the museum, which is arranged to look like a well off Bergenese home from the late 1900's has been refurbished and painted. I am sure we will go there again. It is certainly an interesting place to visit on a wet weekend - of which there can be many. Next door is a modern art museum, which has a good selection of art from across the world from Renaissance times to the present day.

Bergen likes to think of itself as a town which supports art in all its forms and has several interesting sculptures dotted around town. As I write, finishing touches are being made to a massive mural at Lagunen beside the new tram stop (the tramway will eventually go all the way from Bergen city centre to the airport) of a woman wearing traditional Norwegian dress. At other stops along the tramline you can see a giant plastic rabbit, a sculpture that looks like a glacier, and various neon light arrangements in the tunnels. Eclectic taste!