Carnivale in Venice

In February, Thom took this very cool video of the start of Carnivale in Venice's San Marco Square.

 Everyone gathers and the angel drops from the clock tower on a zipline.

What was especially appealing to me about this event is that it definately felt more locally attended and less like a touristy gathering... probably the time of year too.

See for yourself...

Wordless Wednesday #91

Hiking in the woods at Ekeberg in chilly Oslo we come across this...

Benedicte's Confirmation

A Norwegian confirmation is a big deal.

My Tante Ingunn says it should now be considered the biggest celebration in a Norwegian's life because many people don't have traditional weddings anymore. The confirmation was historically a reiteration of the baptism pledges and confirmations that were required by law in Norway until 1915. Today, however,  it's become a much looked forward to coming-of-age celebration for the country's fifteen year olds..

When Benedicte's invitation came in the mail, we were thrilled and honored to be included as part of the family and made plans to attend..

On the big day, Benedicte put on her new bunad - the Norwegian traditional costume. Benedicte's father gave her this beautiful dress for this occasion. Each bunad dress is slightly different depending on which town or city you are connected to and what traditional jewelry you wear with it. The dress and head piece Benedicte wore is from Kristiansand, where her father's family is from.

In the picture below you can see Benedicte's sister Irene fussing with her hair - trying to tuck it up under her bunad hat. If you are one of my long time blog readers, you'll remember  Irene's confirmation... now here she is, two years later, helping her younger sister for her big day.

Irene helps Benedicte pull her hair up in these handy dandy hair holders... It's the Pippi look!

Actually, Benedicte's lovely long locks are eventually tied up neatly behind the blue hat.



At the church, Thom took video of the youth walking into the church... this is my favorite part of the hour long church service...

 

After the ceremony, we attended a lovely reception and dinner at a nearby restaurant. The decor was charming and of course, very Norwegian. The whole restaurant downstairs belonged to the thirty attending guests. We all chatted and had an aperitif and enjoyed some time before dinner.

All ready for the guests.



Benedicte opened her presents.

Confirmation gifts are usually money or jewelry. Benedicte got a pair of skis too. There they are in the black and white snowflake wrapping.

The attendees usually wear their nicest clothes... suits (or sometimes bunads) for men and bunads for most of the women... otherwise they wear a dress. Below you can see my lovely cousin Camilla in her new bunad. The bunad is often handmade and expensive and Camilla has wanted one for awhile. She is very happy to have one to wear to this important occasion! Standing next to her is Irene, her eldest daughter.

Camilla and Irene

Us halvsies American/Norwegian types wear silly H&M dresses that are too cold for the Norwegian Spring.
Brrr, I was freezing and wishing I had myself a bunad!

And then came my favorite part of Norwegian parties...
Norwegian CAKES!!!

All the kid's eyeing the cakes in anticipation

 

here we are in our fancy clothes!

Carol and Patrick too..

Fresh Air

A beautiful wildflower.

 I've been to Norway in May recently. In fact I've visited Norway in May now three years running. In 2011 and 2012 the weather was pleasant. I remember sweating two years ago at Irene's confirmation in May. Last year we sat outside and enjoyed breakfast on the patio in the sunshine.

However, this year it was just plain colder. I'm told it even snows in May occasionally.

No snow this year but our plane landed in thick gray fog. The next day, Friday, was fogless but exposed naked trees embarrassed to be undressed this time of year. Spring in Norway was just at the very onset. All around, you could barely see that faint tint of chartreuse that happens as the leaves begin to bud. Temperatures were in the 40s and 50s... quite a change from the humid, smoggy 80 degrees we left in Italy. The bonus was that the nordic air was clean and  fresh and there was no snow!

All four of us were very excited to be in Drøbak for the confirmation of my cousin Camilla's daughter, Benedicte on Saturday.

Because the air is often so polluted in Vicenza, when Camilla asked me if there was anything special I wanted to do in Norway, I told her I would love to hike around a bit and enjoy nature and breathe fresh air.

 Sounds silly but it's true.

 

We had a day between arriving and the event so in between the errands on Friday, Camilla suggested we check out Ekeberg which is actually in Oslo. There is a women's sculpture park being built by a wealthy benefactor on some lovely land on a hill overlooking the Oslofjord. The scupture park is quite controversial and nowhere near completion but the land it will sit on is woodsy, beautiful and unrestricted so seven of us piled in the car and headed to Ekeberg to walk around on it a bit.

After a quick hike, we returned to the car and Camilla suggested that we try out this super fancy restaurant on the hillside. I was skeptical but she convinced me. The views from the restaurant were spectacular, we were hungry and so we all headed into this lovely restaurant.

Readers, I'm going to pause here and educate you about something. Maybe you know this already, maybe you don't...

Norway is expensive.

When I say "expensive", I mean $20 for a sandwich at the bus depot. Paying $18 for a beer is no big thing. When I tell you seven of us went to a fancy restaurant with a view, you have to realize that I had a tremulous feeling of dread in my cheap heart.

 

We perused the menu posted outside and determined that we could manage the expense if we all kept to soup or dessert.

 

Once inside, Camilla managed to charm the maitre'd and before we knew it we were sitting at the best seat in the house - at that corner table with windows all around that everyone wants. We three adults in tennis shoes sat with our four children, stuck our pinkies in the air and ordered the absolutely cheapest thing on the menu in our most hoity toity voices.

 

"Oh and ice water all around please!" Camilla said.

 

The cheapest item on the adult menu was the liten Fiskesuppe for 98 NOK (that's a small bowl of fish soup for $17).



Happy Edith with "small" bowl of fish soup
 

Can I just tell you that that liten bowl of fiskesuppe was the best damn fish soup EVAAHHH.

 

We giggled at our richy rich, cheap date, enjoyed the views and breathed the fresh air.

 

Taking the bus around Vicenza

I just have to share this easy to follow post about figuring out which bus to take where in the Vicenza area from my fellow blogger at PCS Italy:

Thank you Peg, this really helped me!

How to use google maps to figure out the bus

Wordless Wednesday #90

Happy Chicks

I totally love this picture of me and Carol.

 

 

One of the reasons I'm so happy and relaxed (besides the unlimited alcohol) is that I discovered that going on a cruise is the only vacation EVER where a housewife gets to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. No laundry, cooking or cleaning. Can't be beat!

And that's all I will say on the topic. I swear. I'm done.

One size fits all

All of my brother's funniest stories involve paper onesies.

2 suits for 3 euro... can't resist that!

Cheap Date

 

One liter of decent wine for 2.35€. I love Italy.

 

 

Happy Friday!

Wordless Wednesday #89

Cool kitchen crap spilling out onto the sidewalk in Athens.

Our Costa Cruise: Dubrovnik, Croatia

 On our last day of the cruise, we stopped in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Honestly, we had sort of run out of touristy energy and had to fight inertia to go into town. Boy, I'm glad we did because Dubrovnik ended up being my favorite port of all.

What an amazing city... and like it was trapped in a time capsule. In fact, I read that Dubrovnik was the locale for the Game of Thrones city of  King's Landing.

We had just two hours here and hurried ourselves over to take a tour of the city walls.   The city walls are all still intact and circle all of old Dubrovnik.

And speaking of running out of energy, I'm spent on these cruise posts... therefore I will let the pictures speak for themselves!