Meet Aurora

The past 4 days we've had beautiful cold weather here in the north. With it comes the glorious presence of my friend Aurora Borealis, commonly known as northeren - or arctic - lights. Here are some pics that have been popping up all around facebook the last couple of days. This phenomenon is pretty hard to catch on camera, and I admire those who have the ability and patience to capture it for the rest of us to enjoy. These were taken about 2 hours north of where I live. Purdy!

I posted a video of the lights below, captured on film january 21st and 22nd. Pretty amazing, if I may say so myself.

Nordlys i Januar

Videos from Parkenfestivalen

Robyn is a tiny little swedish woman who has gained enormous popularity these last 5 years. She was DYNAMITE on stage, I don't think I've ever seen a more energetic artist. What ever she's on, I WANT IT! Although, you can't really tell from this video clip. I kinda suck at filming during concerts:P

Good crowd, nice weather, good times during The Hooters:

Ed Kowalczyc from Live did an AWESOME show, with all my favourite songs. Epic!

Lissie went on first on Friday, and although I missed my favourite song "When I'm alone" this was probably my favourite show that weekend. If I were in to girls, Lissie would be at the top of my list:)

...and theeeeeeen.....Iggy Pop finished the whole thing off:)

Bunad

Woman in traditional bunad, 1892.

It hit me that this is something I should have written about a long time ago, since I always get questions about it. The Bunad is the Norwegian national dress (or "suit") and I know a lot of my friends in the midwest have heard of it, or maybe has a grandmother who owns one, or has seen it in a scandinavian suovernir shops.

Wikipedia says: "Bunad is an umbrella (ella, ella, ellah..) term encompassing, in its broadest sense, a range of both traditional rural garments (mostly dating to the 19th and 18th centuries) as well modern 20th century folk costumes. The Bunad movement has its root in 19th century national romanticism, which included an interest for traditional folk garments not only in Norway, but also in neighbouring countries such as Denmark and notably Germany. However, in Norway, national romanticist ideas had a more lasting impact, as seen in the use of folk inspired costumes.The designs are typically elaborate, with embroidery, scarves, shawls and hand-made silver or gold jewelry known as sølje. There are bunads both for men and women, although women's bunads are more diverse and popular. However, according to daily manager Turid Liss Agersborg at Husfliden Oslo, they now produce and sell more men’s bunads than women’s for the first time in history. 

A number of books on the history of bunads recount the story of how once when on holiday in Hardanger with her Danish husband the British Princess Maud of Wales thought that the Hardanger bunads worn by the women in Hardanger were so beautiful that she had one made for her. At that time she could have had no inkling that a decade and a half later she would return to Norway as its queen, the matriarch of a new dynasty of Norwegian kings. She later wore this Hardanger bunad at numerous public appearances in Norway, a tradition maintained by the present Queen Sonja, the Crown Princess Mette Marit and Princess Martha Louise, although Queen Sonja and her daughter wear the East Telemark bunads, Telemark being the ancestral county of the Queen's own family. In Norway, it is common to wear bunads at various celebrations such as: folk dances, weddings, and especially the May 17th National Day celebrations. In recent years, its use has reached far outside folk dancing, folk music, and particular holidays. Accepted as proper gala attire, it is increasingly common to see people, and especially women, dressed in bunad."

Now, I don't do a lot of folk dancing or galas (note sarcastic undertone), but I take great pride in having a bunad and wearing it for our independence day, and other celebretorial occations where a cocktail dress is not apropriate, or baggy jeans are too casual. I got my bunad, like most girls I know, for confirmation when I was 15. It was a gift from my parents, and mind you, this dress costs anywhere between $2.000 - $10.000, depending on what kind you get. It's normal to get the design originated from your region or the region where your parents where born. No hard choice for me there, both my parents were born in Nordland, and so was I! Imagine that. I don't mean to brag, but the Nordlandsbunad is often refered to as the most beautiful:) Personally I think the ones from Telemark, Trøndelag, Troms and Finnmark are incredibly beautiful as well, and hey, if you have norwegian ancestors, you should look up what bunad belongs to your heritage.

Now, because of all the jewlery, it takes a long ass time to put on, and in my case the whole thing is made out of thick wool (except for the shirt), meant to stand for cold weather, so I only use it for special occations, and preferably not midsummer nights:) Still, I plan to have it for the rest of my life, and I love wearing it. Makes me feel extra viking'y :) I considered bringing it over to the states on one of my visits, but I'm pretty protective of it, and it would take up a LOT of room in my suitcase. Plus, your midwest summers would kill me in this:) Enjoy the pics:

Mythbusting...

Meanwhile, in Norway....time to put some frequently asked questions to rest.

...no, polarbears do NOT walk around in our streets. They also do not "swim over" from Svalbard, just to hang around.

Out seasons are just like yours, but our winter is pretty long. Spring starts in late april - may (up here in the north), and from this time, until august we have almost constant daylight. It's great, unless you get insomnia;) What I consider a hot summerday is around 70 - 80 degrees fahrenheit. They get up to the 90s too, but this far north that is pretty rare, we might get 3-4 days like that during one summer. About mid-august the temp drops and we start getting fallstorms and lots of rain, but there is always a sunny day waiting and fall is GORGEOUS here, with all the colors in the mountains. First snowfall can be anywhere from late september to late november, I'll keep you posted:)

....the industrial revolution HAS hit Norway too, believe it or not. So we do NOT live in cottages in the mountains, and herd goats, wearing furs.(Yes, I was actually asked this) I'd love to try and live off the land like that but I'm just to attached to my internet and hot showers.

Norway is NOT the capitol of Sweden. That's like saying the US is a part of Canada. Anything else you wanted to ask me?:)

Frost

It's pretty......pretty AWESOME:) And it sparkles! All of these were taken in the area around where I work.

Smooooke on the waaater...no, wait..?

Frosty car

Cool leaves. Get it? Cool..?:P

Yes, I have a thing for frost and water.

Frost on the kajacks and canoes.

Funny how old, rotting leaves can be so beautiful. Frost pimped you right up, leaf!

First snow

I took these about a month ago (or maybe it's more like weeks....?) when we had the first snowfall in the mountains. I got excited. Now we still haven't had a snowfall, and this stuff is still taunting us from the mountaintops, with false promises of winter wonderland. And next week is supposed to be real warm. Oh well.

Valnesfjord

Here's a youtube video made up of pictures from my little hometown, really shown from it's best side. She's a looker, she is!

Hippievikings

The Parkenfestival is a musicfestival held in Bodø every year, over two days towards the end of august/beginning of september. It was first held in 2006, and they expected around 2500 people to show up. The crowd exceeded that by about 5000 individuals on the second day, and it continues to sell around 7500 tickets every year. The festival has previously hosted international artists like Chris Cornell (he was awesome!), CunnunLynguists, The Roots, Clutch, Danko Jones, N.E.R.D, Manic Street Preachers, Kelis, The Hives and many more!
This years festival was held august 19th and 20th, and boy was I there! It was my third time attending, and it rocked some serious face!
This years list of awesomeness consisted of, among others, Lissie, Iggy Pop and Ed Kowalcyk from Live, plus a number of great norwegian and scandinavian bands. It was an amazing weekend, and I'm still coming down from the high of all that good music. Seeing Lissie and Ed from Live were just unbelievable, and if you ever get a chance to see our swedish cutie, Robyn, I strongly recommend it; she is a FIREWORK on stage! So good!! Of course I have alot of pictures, and I'll share a few with you. The videouploader is being a bitch ATM, so I'll post the videos later.

Lissie<3 Beautiful, talented, american Lissie:)

A very happy viking, watching Lissie, and obviously in need of new beer.

Look at all those people! Oh shit, am I in the way?

Eva & the heartmaker is an up and coming norwegian band that I really dig.

Drunk and happy vikings.

Foo Fighters

June 24th I went to Oslo to see the Foo Fighters live for the first time in my life. Naturally it was no less then completely epic. The whole day was about as awesome as they come; we spent all morning and early afternoon at the amusementpark I wrote about earlier, which just made me hyper and super extatic for the night to come. I was not let down. 20 000 people from all over the country showed up to see the show. Dave Grohl told us he had never played in a footballarena that hot before. It was like a sauna in there, but it all just added to the awesomeness of it all. Dave has got to be the nicest guy the music industry can offer, and they put on an amazing show. There was some trouble with the PA system; Dave goes "Excuse me? Are the Foo Fighters to loud for the PA-system?" and he just kept right on playing semi-acusticly. The highlight (oh but there were so many!) of the night, I gotta say, was when he played Wheels. I was conviced they wouldn't play it, cause it wasn't on the setlist from Stockholm, so I almost cried from joy when they did. It took WEEKS before I came down off that high, and I am DEFINITELY going to see them again.

VERY excited for the show to start!

Hell to tha yeah!

Telenor Arena before the show, not quite full yet.