B is for Bjartur

Bjartur of Summerhouses is the protagonist of Icelandic Author, Halldor Laxness' book Sjálfstætt Fólk (Independent People). This was the first novel I've ever read by a Nordic author and if I wasn't already in love enough with Iceland, this pushed my obsession over the edge. 

His daughter, Asta Sollilja describes him better than I ever could: “She peeped out from under the blanket, and there he was, still sitting on the edge of his bed, when all the others had gone to sleep, mending some implement or other. No one stirred any longer, the living-room fast asleep; he alone was awake, alone was chanting, sitting there in his shirt, thickset and high-shouldered, with strong arms and tangled hair. His eyebrows were shaggy, steep and beetling like the crags in the mountain, but on his thick throat there was a soft place under the roots of his beard. She watched him awhile without his knowing: the strongest man in the world and the greatest poet, knew the answer to everything, understood all ballads, was afraid of nothing and nobody, fought all of them on a distant strand, independent and free, one against all.”

I highly recommend Independent People, the rich landscape and cultural descriptions begin on the very first page and there is nobody more equipped to introduce you to this magical country than Bjartur himself. 

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B is for Botanical Gardens

When I arrived in Oslo, one of the first places I visited was the Natural History Museum. To get there you take a path through this beautiful area called the Botanical Gardens.

Founded in 1814, it contains approximately 7500 different plant species and aims to draw awareness to the importance of plant diversity.

My favourite area in the botanical gardens is Oldemors Hage (Great-granny’s Garden). It functions as a “living archive” of plants that aren’t available commercially any longer and that have been collected from old gardens. It is set in a little area of its own, surrounded by a cute little fence. There are benches to sit on, facing out towards a breathtaking view of Oslo.

One of the nicest features of the Botanical Gardens is that they have been specially tailored towards certain groups of people. For example, 'Oldemors Hage' is “particularly designed for people suffering from dementia – the familiar scents, old-fashioned benches and other traditional elements have a comforting effect and improve their memory.” Continuing with this idea, there is another area called 'The Scented Garden'. This garden has its plants built into beds set higher up, for easier access to wheelchair users and all of it’s signs are in Braille.

The gardens are best viewed in the spring and summer, when the beautiful flowers are in bloom, however, I took a trip there a couple of months ago and visited the greenhouse. A lovely and warm escape from the snow and cold air, the greenhouse is like a little summer sanctuary, filled with themed rooms, such as the Mediterranean Room and the Desert Room. Here, you can walk around a pond covered in giant waterlilies, visit rooms filled with tropical plants or just take in the warm atmosphere and pretend you are somewhere exotic for a while!

The garden is free to visit and I recommend visiting both the Natural History Museum and the Geology Museum too, if you ever go there! More information can be found here.

(pictures lovingly taken myself, for once. Help yourself if you like them, but please link back to my blog :)

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