God tur!

Temperature: 21° C
Daylight: 14h 31min

In keeping with the Norwegian adage, I am never unhappy on a walk.

On Saturday night, I had no real plans, one of the hazards of being fewer than 2 weeks in a new country. I had heard a rumor that if you took a certain path up from the lake that's just a 10 minute walk from my dorm, you will eventually come to yet another lake. This one is more remote, which means that there are no spandex-clad athletes clomping around in circles and scaring the ducks.

I learned a few things on this little journey. Firstly, that I’m scared of nature. I was not more than a few kilometers away from my dormitory, but walking alone in the evening, I kept having visions of being jumped by strange forest-dwelling vagabonds and dragged into the underbrush. No one knew I was out here: How long would it take to find my body? Never mind that it’s nature that’s safe, and city streets that are supposed to scare me. But ever since living in Chicago, I find the presence of other people reassuring, and their absence disturbing.

Secondly, Norway is beautiful. Seriously. Oslo is one of the only cities in the world where you can ride the subway directly to our equivalent of a national park. Really there’s not a whole lot more to write about my journey, except to show you some pictures, and mention that, as I came around a bend in the lake on my journey home and saw the bonfires being lit on the other side while the sun went down, I had one of those moments that was so gorgeous I could have cried. Which is what, ultimately, I think, brought me back here despite all the annoying quirks this country also possesses, and about which you can count on me ranting about for months to come, against my better nature.