The Paris trip

The weather was beautiful and sunny. Our chosen hotel, The Westin Vendôme, was top notch and situated in a perfect location. And Paris was truly fantastic. I've got tons of photos to show you, I just haven't had the time to sort them all out yet. But stay tuned, and over the course of the next few days I'll share some of the many exciting experiences from our long weekend in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Greased lightnin' - blue version

Finally I got my Christmas present from my my mum and her hubby. They had promised me a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas, I just had to find one I liked. It took a while until I found the perfect one. Earlier this week, while out shopping with my sister, I stumbled upon this tiny electic blue thing. I was so taken by the colour, I knew instantly I couldn't wait to go home and try it out. I'm playing Travolta's Greased lightnin' on the stereo while working my way trough my flat. Suddenly, vacuum cleaning is great fun!

Thanks, Mum and & Torkel! :)

But the shiny blue wonder isn't the only thing I've purchased this week. As I'm departing for Paris later today, leaving the ice and sludge hell that is Oslo, I needed new comfy shoes for strolling the streets of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Alas;

These suede bike style shoes from Vagabond will be perfect with my trusty old Burberry trench. Not that I don't plan on trying out some gorgeous shoes in Paris, too. So in order to not scare the shoe store staff with horrid winter feet, I went and had a pedicure. I chose blue for that also, only a turguoise shade called "Surfing":

It was just an experiment to choose that colour now, but it'll be great for summer when I get a tan. I bought the whole bottle! :)

In other news, I've just been diagnosed with cancer for the third time. I'm waiting for the test results to know if it's the old one that has recurred, or a new one. Treatment will start next week when I return, and the docs know exactly what it is. They gave me leave of absence from the hospital. "Paris will do you good", my oncologist said. I wholeheartedly agree! Thank heavens for sensible doctors! And also, thank you so much all of you for your supportive comments on my last post.

So, see you around - next up will be images from Paris. Have a great weekend everyone!

Postcard from Bali

Fellow blogger M. of the lovely  She Wore It Well  blog has recently been on holiday in Asia, the lucky girl.

To me, part of the charm of travelling to the tropics goes something like: Sitting under a lush, green palm tree by a gorgeous turquoise pool, wearing a big floppy hat, elegant sunglasses and a breezy tunic, colourful cocktail in one hand, pen in the other while writing postcards to family and friends. [Insert lots of beautiful images of all of the mentioned things here].

Now, that's what I'd call relaxing in style. And in my imagination I can vividly picture her as the star of a fashion editorial depicting that scenario, when she wrote me this idyllic postcard from her vacation:

Thanks, M! Getting a beautiful postcard from someone's exotic holiday destination sure lights up a dark, freezing cold day in a dreary winter that never seems to end.

How to lose your luggage fast

(Photo by Jimmy Choo)

Hey, hey -what have we got here? As I was checking out the JC site for news on their spring collection, I came across this addtion to their ever growing selection of accessories - the "Terence" trolley. Now, I love me some spots and I certainly think this little bag is a real eye-catcher.

Immediately, I started daydreaming about going on my spring weekend trip. I could see myself - wearing a light trench, a lovely silk scarf, comfy ballerinas and some fab sunglasses, all while wheeling this little beauty casually behind me. Now, doesn't that sound like the epitome of style? Then reality set in, caused by a glance at the price tag: 3395 euros. Yes, you read that right, threethousandthreehundredandninetyfive euros! That would be the price of a small, used car!

And then another thought hit me - a fact I learnt way back when I started my working career in the travel business - the risk of losing your luggage increases significantly with valuable suitcases. The higher the value, the higher the risk of it mysterioulsy "disappearing" along the way. One brand which the rumours would have it was notoriously known for this, was a certain LV.

(Random photo from the net)

Now, say if you're Paris Hilton, or some other Hollywood A-lister or business tycoon, and frequently travel by private plane, you might not have to worry so much about the airline losing your prized possessions. (And also, in Ms Hilton's case, I'm not completely certain she would even notice if one of her bags should happen to be missing. But I'm digressing). Fact of the matter, I'm neither rich nor a celeb. And as such, I have to travel the way most of us "commons" do, being subject to strict security measures forcing me to check in and let go for a while of even the smallest cabin size trolley if the content includes ordinary sized necessities like perfumes, lotions and potions. Which in my case, it always does.

So, while daydreaming is free, the JC trolley is not. And even if I had been able to afford it, the risk of losing it and the hassle of missing luggage make my old and battered Samsonite seem like the sensible option. In comparison, it's not stylish at all. But then again, it's not especially attractive to anyone else. The look of it clearly advertises "this item's owner cannot afford a new suitcase and therefore the content of this crappy bag can't possibly be of much value either!" Apart from a detour on the way to New York, caused by the confusion in the aftermath of the Icelandic volcano eruption last spring, in the ten years I've had it, it's arrived promptly on the luggage conveyor belt after every trip. As long as it continues to do that, I think I'll stick with it. Till the wheels fall off.

Even if the JC bag is so much prettier.......*sigh*.

Paris in spring

(Photograph by Fred Derwal/Getty Images/Hemis.fr RM, via National Geographic)

A decision made on the spur of the moment....

Just yesterday evening I was marvelling at the gorgeous photos of Parisian scenes in several postings on the blog Carla Loves Photography. I've visited Paris once before, way back in the 90's. By seeing Carla's images I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to experience the beautiful city yet again.

Having coffee with my friend B. earlier today, I casually suggested to her that we should take advantage of a local airline's New Year's offer of cheap airfares, and go on a weekend trip somewhere. Like Paris, for instance...

B. loved the idea! Tickets for a trip in March were booked the minute I returned home. Paris in spring it is. Thank heavens for friends that aren't averse to quick decision-making!

Drive in restaurant - Southern Norwegian style

Just park your vehicle right here...

....and walk straight in:

Visiting my sis and family in my hometown Arendal, on the southern coast of Norway, July 2010. Clockwise from left: My sister's friend, my sis, sister's friend's hubby, my BIL, my youngest nephew and me.

Obviously, none of us had any complaints about the walking distance from the boat! :)

The Croatian holiday, Part two (Hvar and Split)

Part one of my Croatian holiday, about Dubrovnik and Korcula, can be found here. This post starts with our arrival in the island of Hvar. However, I've already covered the beautiful city beach in Hvar here, my tongue in cheek take at Hvar street style here and an extraordinay evening in Split here. So, now for the rest:

From top of the Hvar city centre, looking up at the old fortress

Hvar Harbour

Korcula was a quiet, litte island seemingly full of backpackers, sailors and a handful of other tourists. Hvar, in comparison, while being nowhere near as commercialized as some of the other Mediterranean hot spots, clearly held an attraction with a larger number of tourists, some of them of the very affluent kind. The vessels moored in the harbour sometimes gave the impression that this island is the millionaires' playground, as witnessed by some of the yachts:

Huge, some of them even with their own uniformed security staff

"Mine is bigger than yours....ha ha"

Sailing boats for charter

The hill in the backgound of the harour is where we rented an apartment

There were more shops here, larger hotels and the nightlife more action filled. Apparently, Hvar is supposed to be the Croatian island with the highest number of sun days. Also, it only takes an hour to get here by catamaran from the city of Split, which with it's international airport and huge ferry terminal serves as a feeding point for a large number of visitors to Croatia's attractions.

As soon as we had found a place to stay, we started out by doing what we did in the other places, namely finding the closest beach:

B. with the everpresent floating mattress

The huge hotel situated above the public beach. They had their own pools, so the beach wasn't crowded...

...there was more than enough space for me to happily float about

Every afternoon when returning from the beach, we would sit down in the piazza in the middle of the city centre, having our traditional "after beach"  small beers while engaging in some people watching as they walked along the harbour, across the busy piazza, or were just running their errands or "walking" their dogs...

.

...while just enjoying our surroundings...

At times we also made it into some of the small charming stores or stalls in the narrow streets:

I didn't really buy a lot, but one little souvenir was too cute to pass by:

After several days at the beach, I felt the need for some action. So two of us left Hvar and the hill that we stayed on behind for the day...

 and booked a sailing trip to the island of Vis and the blue (or was it green?) grotto with a company called Hvar Adventures:

The skipper talking to some of our fellow sailors

B. enjoying the elements - only the sound of the wind and the waves

While I enjoyed chatting to the skipper...

...and the view of the grotto:

Afterwards it was time for lunch and a swim:

Whaaaat? No floating mattresses on board? I actually have to do the work myself? Scandalous!

On our last night in Hvar, we all went out for a "farewell" dinner. The others chose to stay behind for the rest of the holiday, and only B. and I would be going to Split. We also had some beer:

One metre, to be exact! (No, I did not drink it all by myself even if I look pretty happy)

The morning after, we had to leave at around 7 AM to catch the catamaran onwards. The normally busy piazza was like a totally different world at that hour:

Ah...here's our (space) ship coming to take us away on new adventures

Split

Coming up later...

The Italian encounter

(Random image from the net.)

Ain't it funny how sometimes completely coincidental happenings can turn into some of the most memorable experiences?

Last week, my friend Hege and I agreed to spend the lovely sunny and warm Saturday evening on my terrace, just to relax, chat and have a few glasses of wine.

(Daytime - My photo)

 What it looked like that night (sorry about the camera shake, but dropped the flash in order to catch the natural light)

While planning for the evening, I decided to ask the other girls to come around, too. It ended up being five of us, enjoying drinks and snacks, and just generally having a good time. So much in fact, that at around 1 AM in the morning we were in the mood for going out and decided to continue the party at a pub in a nearby area called Grünerloekka, popular for it's atmosphere and nightlife.

Incidentally, one of my friends speaks Italian, and through her we met a large group of Italian guys at the pub. Funnily enough, of all cities in Europe, they had chosen Oslo as the venue for the bachelor party for one of them. Funny because bachelor parties usually involve consuming at least a few beers, and Norway, due to the extremely high taxes on alcohol, is commonly known for its' exorbitant prices on all alcoholic beverages compared to almost anywhere else in the world. However, these were well travelled men and had already visited a number of other European cities, so Oslo was chosen as few, if any, of them had been here before.

The combination of wine drinking Norwegian girls and beer swinging Italian men seemed to be a very good one. We got on so well that after the pub closed, we all went back to continue the party and have a night meal in my place. With the weather last weekend being among the best all through the summer, even at that late hour it was still warm enough to sit outside on the terrace. It's just a small one, so it had already seemed full with the five of us earlier in the evening. Somehow, though, we managed to fit in more than twice as many people, excluding the one guy who was so exhausted that even with all the noise the lot of us made, he fell asleep on my couch.

My guests didn't leave till about 6.30 on Sunday morning. Later that afternoon, surprisingly, as I would have thought all of them would have been completely exhausted by then, one of the Italians called me and generously invited me to join them while sightseeing around Oslo. I met them again at the tiger statue in front of the Oslo Central station.

Quote from wikipedia: "The city was once referred to as Tigerstaden (City of tigers) by the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson around 1870, due to his perception of the city as a cold and dangerous place. This name has over the years achieved an almost official status, to the extent the 1000 year jubilee was celebrated by a row of tiger sculptures around the City Hall." (Random image from the net.)

In the warm and sunny afternoon, we decided to visit the famous Vigeland Sculpture Park, one of the most popular attractions in Oslo with tourists and locals alike. According to the official information from the Vigeland museum: "...(T)heme of the entire park: Man's journey from cradle to grave, through happiness and grief, through fantasy, hope and wishes of eternity." There are more than 200 sculptures in the park, all of them created by the artist Gustav Vigeland, who donated all of his work to the city.

The park seen from the air. The main entrance is a bit further out of the image at the far left, above the public pool. The distance from the main gate to the last statue symbolizing the wheel of life at the far right is 850 metres. The fountain is located in the middle, while the Monolith is on the granite plateau a bit right of the centre. (Random image from the net.)

Sinnataggen (the angry boy) - the most famous sculpture, located on the bridge across the pond (Photo from the Vigeland Museum)

The large fountain with the Rose Garden in the middle of the park (Random image from the net.)

The Monolith - 17.3 metres tall, made of a single block of granite (Random image from the net.)

The wheel of life - at the end of the park (Random image from the net.)

After spending several hours in the park, including chillin' in the grass by the bank of the pond with some cold drinks, we spent the rest of the evening first enjoying dinner at The Broker pub in the popular shopping area of Majorstuen, located in the Frogner borough of Oslo, before continuing our walk through the city to the Royal Palace and it's surrounding park. The Palace is at the end of Oslo's main street Karl Johan, and the destination of the Children's Parade on our National Day on May 17th, to celebrate our Constitution that we got on that date in 1814. On every National Day, the Royal family waves to all the children and other spectactors from the balcony.

(My photo)

The parade leading up along Karl Johan towards the Palace on May 17th (photo from aftenposten.no)

Then we continued further down along Karl Johan on to the Stortinget (the Parliament building, random photo from the net).

Since this was pretty late in the evening, the building was closed to visitors, but it is possible to visit it if making an appointment in advance. Through the windows at the second floor we could barely see some of the main hall, but from a previous visit early this spring, here are a few photos that I took inside it:

The main hall where politicians gather to vote on laws.

The painting in the background depicts the statesmen that wrote our Constitution in 1814. Above it is our national symbol, the lion with the sword and the crown.

The view from the Parliament, with the Karl Johan to the right, the Palace in the background, and the round roof of our National Theatre barely visible behind the trees to the left.

Having greatly enjoyed my glorious day with my newfound Italian friends, and guided them through parts of Oslo and our Norwegian history, we concluded our evening by walking Karl Johan all the way down, taking in the views of parts of Oslo's nightlife along the way, and saying goodbye back at the Central station.

I'm rather ashamed to admit that while visiting a huge number of much more far away corners on the globe, I've never been to Italy before. But now that I know someone from there, and with the possibility of seeing some of them again and possibly share an equally pleasant time again sometime in the future, I guess I'll have to put Italy on my travel wish list fairly soon.

This all started out just by a friend suggesting drinks on my terrace. Who would have thought? You never know your luck!