9 Months in Norway: June - outdoor fairs in Oslo

Shorter post, but the next two will be longer because they were some really fun trips. Just to give you a preview, the next one will cover our trip to Stavanger on the the other coast of Norway and our 5-hour round-trip hike up Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). The 2nd June post will cover our visit from Bobby & Caitlin and the gorgeous 16-hour Norway in a Nutshell tour that took us all over the place by train, ferry, and bus.

As summer arrived in full swing, the weather was so wonderful and I think everyone was keen to get out and enjoy the sun and the heat after our record cold winter. I wish I had a picture to show you this next bit, but I'll try my best to describe it instead. We live on a wharf with a long boardwalk lined with restaurants and little kiosks that sell ice cream and other treats. In the winter, the place was quite deserted and the kiosks closed. But with the warm weather it was like watching birds flock back from migration. All of the sudden there were people everywhere, sitting on all the benches all along the boardwalk with little wiggle room to spare, basking in the sun and I swear everyone - from the smallest child to the oldest adult - had an ice cream cone in their hand! It was quite a sight :-)

The nice weather also brought some fun outdoor fairs; three that we enjoyed were the Beer & Food Festival, the Thai Food Festival, and the Medieval Festival.

The Beer & Food Festival tickets were rather pricey, but I found an awesome deal on Groupon (pretty much the only coupons I've ever found here in Oslo) so we decided to go. Without the coupon, definitely would not have gone. It was fun though - with our tickets we got 12 free samples of beer and they had HUNDREDS of different beers from all over the place! They weren't huge samples, but it was really fun trying all the different beers and tasting the difference. Some were definitely better than others.

The Thai Food Festival took place over a couple weekends in one of the squares downtown. There were tons of kiosks set up by Thai restaurants and food vendors from all over Norway and they had a stage with different performers demonstrating ethnic dances or singing (what were apparently) hit songs in Thailand. Their embassy had a kiosk giving out tourism information and gave away free purple orchid buds - so pretty :-) The aromas wafting from all the food stands was intoxicating. We tried spring rolls and other yummy things, but the best was the chicken satay from this one booth - delicious! Unfortunately their restaurant is located in another city several hours away, but at least we got to enjoy them that day. There was a guy demonstrating fruit carving, which was really neat to see how he carved such intricate designs into the melons and other produce.

best...satay...ever!!!

fruit carving and fresh, crispy spring rolls - yum!

minstrels playing :-)

The last one was the Medieval Festival. Let me tell you: WAY better than any I've been to in the States recently. This wasn't a bunch of girls in trampy outfits and cheap knock-off stuff being sold at exorbitant prices. These folks were serious. There were high-quality handmade bows and arrows, forged weapons like swords and battle axes, and people dressed in actual traditional garb not some cheap bustier with all their stuff on display. We were really impressed and had a lot of fun. We played with all the weapons, shared a candied apple covered in cinnamon (best idea ever!), admired all the fine craftsmanship; I even bought a nice pair of copper earrings that look similar to a particular style of Norwegian bunad jewelry. Another fun way to spend the day outside enjoying the fabulous summer weather in Oslo.

These bows were amazing. The guy said he carved each by hand. Some had wood or deer antler inlay, others were adorned with different leather dressings. The detail and level of craftsmanship was SO impressive.