National Day

And then we were in Oslo

Pictures after the jump

We went walking in the forest and found these magical children and we enchanted them.  Or maybe they enchanted us?  JK this is actually DP's niece and nephew.  His sister lives in Oslo and hosted us.  Aren't they so cute? No, Norwegian kids don't dress like this all the time.  We were in Norway during their National Day, May 17th.  That's like our July 4th except they are way, way more into it.

Gabriel loves Smoky and the Bandit

I tried to take a family portrait but it is a little blurry.

Then we took the train downtown near the king's palace.  All the kids iin Norway dress up and parade.  These photos are funny because we were standing near a giant pile of horse crap, which stank, and everyone would spot it and quickly try to step around.  And now it's in all my pictures! Revenge of the pile of crap.

This is a crazy thing and kind of hard to understand.  In the weeks leading up to finals, Norways high school seniors do a thing called "russe".  They party a lot, and some of them trick out buses with giant sound systems and roam around getting wasted.  They also all wear red overalls with the top folded down.  They blast eurodisco, such as this song.

Here are some guys who were partying inside their bus for the camera.

These kids are not just drunk, they are the kind of wasted where you can tell they can tell they stayed up all night drinking.  They stink like beer. 

Now, further, there's a t hing called a "russe card" which they carry around and hand out and throw around.  People collect them, especially little kids who get really psyched because it's a big kid thing.  You can see a parent holding up a little girl to get one.  DP's niece and nephew collect them, too. 

We realized after a little bit that not every kid does the bus thing, and the ones who do are what we in America would call "popular kids" or "jocks".

Here's the king's palace

And there he is, tiny, waving to the crowd

These russers posed for a picture with their bottle of moet

More russe busses

These kids seem passed out.  And their parents would be there talking to them like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Little girl getting a russe card.

We went to a rad bar called....

They had this beer that's a collabo between Norwegian Haand Brewery and Dutch De Molen

Here's a sample Russe card with the quote "I'm sitting on the toilet eating a chocolate candy bar"  Most of them had quotes in Norwegian.

Check this quote!

We splurged on a special Drie Fonteinin beer because once you paid 20 dollars for a falafel money loses all meaning.

Quaint folk dancing. So cute.

I probably took this picture after 10 pm.  Oslo was the farthest north we went and in mid-May it stays light until past midnight and starts getting light around 3 am.  I loved it! It's very energizing.  I would not like to have to go to work early, though, or to live through the winters where it barely gets light at all.

Not to belabor the point of the prices, because Norway is rad, but this sandwich probably cost me like 7 or 8 dollars.  I put my thumb in for scale.