New Years and Norway

Returning to 2020 in the "beforetimes" to welcome in the new year with a trip to Norway.

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Music
Intro and outro: Chilled Acoustic Indie Folk by Lesfm
Waltz for a Cat by Monday Hopes
Dance of Nordic Leaves by Gioele Fazzeri
Storm Surge by Nature's Eye
The Introvert by Michael Kobrin
All music from Pixabay.

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Transcript

Hi. This is Ginger Johnson and you’re listening to Past Perfect: A Podcast.

Though we’re already closing in on the end of the second week of January, for today’s episode, I’m going to return to the first week of January in 2020. I’ve taken excerpts mostly from my unedited journal. 

Just a note about a few things I mention. The Rathaus is like city hall. It’s an enormous municipal building, and the grounds in front of it host a multitude of public events. 

Taborstrasse is a street in Vienna, and the closest stop on the underground system, also called the U-Bahn.

Also, on January 1st, we flew to Norway, because you could get scandalously inexpensive tickets to various places around Europe.

And my final entry comes from a writing prompt that is sent out every Friday from current students and alumnx from my alma mater, Vermont College of Fine Arts.

January 1, 2020 journal

We were invited to a last minute New Year’s Eve party, so we went, ate, talked, and did the Austrian tradition of melting a metal charm over a tea candle, then pouring it into water for it to solidify. You’re supposed to be able to tell your fortune for the coming year based on what the metal looks like. Mine looked somewhere between a dolphin leaping out of a wave, a mermaid, or a dragon. At any rate, it was pretty complex. 

Afterward, we headed to the Rathaus for the festivities. There was a live band playing covers of old music. We stuck together and danced to keep warm. At midnight, after they counted down, they played a waltz, so Bill and I waltzed and kissed and then we headed for home. The trains were packed, as was Rathaus, but no one was crazy or anything. There was just goodwill and excitement all the way around. When we got back to Taborstrasse, we could smell the fireworks from the stairs leading out of the UBahn station. Out on the street and at the corner, there were small containers burning. 

We went up to the rooftop for the fireworks and the view was incredible. Huge explosions in every direction. White and red and green sparkling outward. We all got up on the wall so we could see. It was amazing. We were up until 1:00, and I was so tired, I was practically falling over, but I so thoroughly enjoyed myself that it just didn’t matter.

January 1, 2020 Facebook

I rang in the new year by waltzing with the Gingerbread Man at midnight as part off the festivities at the Rathaus. And then we watched fireworks in every direction from our roof. I wish every new year’s celebration could be so festive, so fun, and so full of joy. Also, #waltzing. May this year be even better than the last. Happy new year, friends!

January 2, 2020

On the train to Myrdal. The sun is just beginning to come up and the sky is turning rosy pink. Norway is quite beautiful. The train followed a waterway for quite awhile and I could see swans floating along from some distance. Mountains, snow, footprints across frozen lakes—animal? Human? I don’t know. Birch and pine trees and farmhouses galore. We’re stopped at Finse and we’re watching people with kites on the frozen lake. So beautiful.

January 3, 2020

The wind is howling outside and the snow has begun. I’m actually a bit worried about our travels today. I tried to think about my decade in retrospect—but I got nothing, other than I published a book, I mom-ed, I traveled, I went on my medication, which took a lot of courage. But the years all flow together in my mind and I can’t distinguish one year from the next. Perhaps if I really, really thought about it, I could come up with some more but I haven’t got time for that, sitting on my bed under a down comforter in my wood-paneled Norwegian bedroom listening to the wind howl outside. So instead, I’ll turn to the immediate past—yesterday. We left the AirBnB in the dark. The views from the train were amazing. I really wanted to take pictures but not too many turned out because of the glare on the windows. We got to Myrdal and they had held the train to Flam, which was great, because our train was delayed by at least 20 minutes. Bill had booked us on the later train because he was worried we wouldn’t have time to switch, but found out we could take the earlier train, so we hopped on though the wind was blowing and it was snowing. It was the first real taste of winter we’ve had. The train to Flam was delightful. Old-style, big, and roomy. The view was even more spectacular. They stopped just before one of the tunnels, so we could get out and take photos of one of the waterfalls. 

Jan 3, 2020 Facebook

I’m stuck in a train station on a mountaintop in Norway while a snowstorm rages. Just thought you’d like to know.

January 4, 2020

I’m sitting in the corner room, the living room of our AirBnB in Oslo, after an eventful day yesterday and a very late night. Yesterday morning, as we were getting ready to go, I mentioned the howling wind and the snow. We had quite a walk into town, across the field, past the sheep barn, and onto the road with snow pellets whipping at our faces. We did see an amazing thing though—a phenomenon like a rainbow, but so much bigger. Instead of an arc of color, there was a mass, making us wonder if it was a rainbow, a snowbow, or the Aurora borealis. The pictures just didn’t do it justice. 

Well, the wind continued to howl and the snow continued to fall—we saw one of the waterfalls being blown upward, that’s how strong the wind was. When we got to the dock, we were told that the ferry might not go, and that we had to wait. Eventually, they let us board, but after a bit, they announced that they weren’t going to run, and that our tickets would be refunded. We were instead able to get a bus up to the top of the mountain to see the fjord from above. The view was incredible—the snow paused for long enough that we could see into the fjord, but then it closed back in again and visibility tanked. The trip from Flam to Myrdal was beautiful, though a bit scary because of the wind and snow. Once we got to Myrdal, we had a few hours to wait while the weather raged outside. We claimed a corner table and played cards. Our train was delayed by about 25 minutes, and it was over an hour late by the time we got to Oslo.

January 5, 2020

Our time here in Oslo is coming to a close. We have a 9:20 train to the airport then a bit of a wait for our flight. Oslo is a lovely city. We turned to the topic of what we were going to do and tried to get consensus. We ended up going to the Viking Ship Museum, which was really cool. There’s only one ship there, highly decorated, that’s 90% original wood. Amazing to think that these ships and carts and other artifacts were over a thousand years old. There was also the skeleton of a man who had likely died in battle—his wounds were evident and had shown no sign of healing. A stabbed thigh, injury to the knee and a foot cut off at the ankle. What impressed me most was the wood carving. Such beautiful and intricate designs. 

We all really liked the Viking Ship museum, but left to go have lunch at the café at the National Folk History museum. There were wood stoves inside, with heat just pumping out of them. After lunch we went directly to see the stave church. It was built around 1200 and moved to the site in the late 1800s, with painted decoration added in 1652. What an amazing building. It was clearly build by shipbuilders, looking rather like a ship standing on its end, and made watertight with a coating of tar on the exterior. We also saw farm buildings, barns, a guest house—all traditional Nordic historic buildings. 

We cut our visit short and took the tram to see the tiger statue, but stopped on the way to see the Opera house. The sun was setting over the water, and we got some great pictures. I got a shot of the sunset reflecting off the glass of the building. Bill got a nice one of the people silhouetted against the sunset. Will got a beautiful pano of a boat in the water, the sunset, and a seagull watching him. From there we went to see the tiger statue, took some pictures, and walked through the pedestrian tourist area. On to Harald’s Vaffles, where we split a traditional waffle with sour cream, jam, and brown cheese. It was really good. Then back to the apartment. I stayed up too late, but here we are, and now it’s time to go back to Vienna.

Jan 6, 2020 Poetry Friday

In a Norwegian farmhouse

I lay

Under eiderdown

Snug in borrowed feathers 

Outside Thor blows 

a mighty wind—

The kind that launched Vikings 

and made them 

heroes 

or 

dead men. 

I will not fly today 

for I lay 

grounded 

under

down.

From my quiet office to your ears, until next time, be well and let your light shine.