Diary of my Oslo Trip: December 5th 2010; The day after

I cannot believe it is already over. I had purchased those tickets so long ago and now my time here in winter wonderland Oslo is already flying by.
I woke up with a big smile on my face influenced by the great time I had last night.
We started the day with a nice long breakfast,dwelling in memories of the concert.
Then it was time for reality and some serious sightseeing.

Katja chasing me with an icecicle
We set off to Oslo Aker Brygge which is the part of town that is located down at the harbor of Oslo.
There was so much to see:

The Fjord,

the townhall,

the Institute of Alfred Nobels Peace Prize( which gives away the Peace Prize each year on the 10th of December) All the other Nobelprizes are given away in Stockholm, Sweden, which I was fortunate enough to witness in Sweden, years ago.


We saw tons of snow and water aswell.

Lots of art all across town

and plenty of lil cafes and restaurants(this one is for my niece Olivia; Love you girlie!!)


Made a friend at the christmas market

Anyone Moose burgers????

Mini avalanche at the christmas market ;)
Last but not least the Christmasmarket was located down there,too.( Julemarket). This is were I found and bought the coolest hat, designed and handmade by a norwegian Designer( she was even present there).

What can I say, I love, love, love my hat and it will always remind me of all the fun I had with Katja and a-ha in Oslo.Quite expensive, once again but, oh well,this will be a memory forever. I´m already picturing Stella asking me in 20plus years: Mami, where did you get this cool hat, can I please borrow it, pleeeeeaaassssee. And I will tell her all over about this trip. YAY!!!
Waffle break for lunch. ( I did not spend any money on food,which was ridicioulus expensive,instead I spent it for memorable things) Good job, Verena
All warmed up, off we went to see the Opera house of Oslo, which was built in 2005. An amazing architectural sight.




We walked on the snowy rooftop and enjoyed the sunset and the great view over Oslo.
It was pretty tricky to get down without sliding down on your bottom ;)
A wonderful way to end the day!

PS This lil guy reminded me of my little Lucien, and not because he has such big ears ;)

Diary of my Oslo Trip: December 4th 2010/Ending on a high note

The day of the days!
After quite a walk in minus 18 °Celcius, we passed the royal castle and went to the National Library of Norway to see an exhibition about all of a-ha´s glorious 25 years.

There was a long line of people waiting to get in. We decided to come back on Monday due to the fact that we wanted to be at the Spektrum concert hall way early today for tonights show.

With great dissapointment we heard that they had closed the gates for an early entry at 1pm ( we were there at 1.30pm) cause there was such a huge crowd ( some of them even slept outside in minus 18)
Anyway, we decided to go back to the hotel to some more free waffles( YUMMY) and harvest some extra energy for the big upcoming event.
We finally left the hotel to be in line for the show at 5pm. Boy, those were the coldest 1,5 hours of my life.

Waiting in the cold
Luckily we had a nice group of people from all over the world waiting with us. Talking to them made the time go bye a little faster.Once we got in, we realized it was not so bad that we did not make it in earlier this morning.We stood close to the stage and got to purchase our shirts.( the most expensive shirt of my life, but it came with a free book( which made me feel a little less guilty about paying 80$ for a piece of fabric ;) )


Since we did not want to hold the books for the entire time and since they were wrapped in plastic, this is how me made sure we would not loose them. Wie hat Rainer so treffend gesagt: Ich steh auf a-ha ;)
8.30, the concert began

Everyone was thrilled. Mortens voice was still amazingly strong even after a goodbye tour that lastet over a year and don´t even get me started on his looks.

He is still hot!

Old songs mixed with new songs, a lot of very personal and emotional words, beautiful arrangements made this show just magical.

Enjoying the concert
The crowd was just plain happy to be there. I even got to see the Princess of Norway ( Ich liebe royale Grossereignisse ;) )
Time just flew bye and before we knew it 20plus songs were played and it was time to say goodbye a-ha and Tusen Takk.

I thought I travelled far for this concert but not only me. I have seen people from Brazil, Argentina, Japan,Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria....
Everyone came to see them play one last time, it was amazing.

Famous!!!!!
The concert ended with their most known and popular song Take on me( of course!)

Happy and sad at the same time we left to go back to our hotel to admire all the pics and videos we had taken during the concert and stuck our noses deep into our free a-ha books til deep in the night.

Sitting by the warm fire place, reading about a-ha´s 25 glouious years was the perfect ending for a perfect night
Setlist

The Sun Always Shines on TV
Move to Memphis
The Blood That Moves The Body
Scoundrel Days
Swing of Things
Forever Not Yours
Stay On These Roads
Manhattan Skyline
Hunting High and Low
The Bandstand
We’re Looking For The Whales
Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)
Crying In The Rain
Minor Earth Major Sky
Summer Moved On
I’ve Been Losing You
Foot Of The Mountain

Cry Wolf
Analogue
The Living Daylights

Bowling Green
Take on Me

Diary of my Oslo Trip: Friday December 3rd 2010

Wow, I´m awake for 30 plus hours now. I´m exhausted, let me tell you, but very happy!

Everything went well. Caught my connecting flight in NY just in time( a little running was involved in that, but hey I made it).When we reached the coast of Norway the sun was rising and unfolded one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.I have never seen so much snow before.
Gorgeous but COLD (-18°Celsius) and coming from the mild weather of Louisiana did not really help.

First picture in the snow
I flew in two hours earlier than Katja, which gave me plenty of time check out the latest styles in Norway. I saw so many pretty girls with even prettier boots on; boots,boots everywhere...I wish I could bring a pair back to Louisiana, but they would just sit in my closet forever( Gotta spend my money a lil wiser)
Katja and I took the train downtown, found our hotel with no problem, warmed up with waffles and coffee before we strolled off to explore a bit of Oslo.



Reunited


Every ten minutes or so we had to go and visit a store to warm up and to let our hands and ears thaw out.

One was the bookstore where a-ha signed their autobiography the day before. Of course there was no signed copy left ;) But a good place for a silly fan-picture.

A nice dinner, chilling and chatting was the perfect end of a very long day. Now I´m more than ready for bed in my cozy hotel room.

Fire place and lobby

Bedroom and breakfast area

Don´t you love this wallpaper?????

Tomorrow will be such an exciting day!!!
BTW We are not the only crazy people flying in for the concert. I have seen plenty of a-ha groupies from all over the world.
Words learned in Norwegian: Ankomst=Arrival
God jul= Merry Christmas
Tusen Takk= Thank you very much
Hej Hej= Hello
Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world
1$= 6 Kronors
1€= 8Kronors

Diary of my Oslo Trip: Thursday December 2nd/ Leaving for Oslo

I´m leaving for Oslo in an hour( hopefully,they just announcedmy flight to NY will be late) Fun stuff. I miss Ricky and the babies already but I´m also looking forward to spend some fun time Norway with Katja.
But which half way normal person flies to Norway in the freezing beginning of December?????? It is -15 °Celcius( almost 0 Fahrenheit)
I guess just true a-ha fans.This is going to be so cool. I will be there for their very last show ever and it will be recorded for a DVD release later on( Gotta make sure to scream and sing extra loud).

Yes I know I am not 17 anymore but neither is the band ;)

I will meet Katja at the Oslo airport later on today and together we will set off to find our ways downtown to our hotel, if I ever make my connection, still waiting.....

Let the adventure begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!