Z is for Zookeeper's Boy

Here is another song for you. This time it's by another Danish band called Mew. They have a lot of nice songs, so if you like this one you should look them up :)

I can't believe the challenge is over! It went by so quickly. I'm going to go to the fruit market now to buy some lovely fruit for the picnic we're planning to have. It's my birthday tomorrow so we're going to take a boat to an island called Hovedøya, it's my favourite place in the whole of Oslo and have a little picnic there, as long as it doesn't rain :)

Have a lovely day and congratulations to all of you who made it to the end of the challenge. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and your amazing support! 

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Y is for Little Miss Y

There is a girl I know, on the other side of the ocean, who I'm just going to call Miss Y during this post. I don’t usually talk about very personal things here, you might have noticed how I’ve kept my posts strictly away from the current news stories from Norway, for example, and I don’t like to talk much about emotions or private matters. But Miss Y is special to me and I would like to share a little bit of her with you.

Things in Oslo started to go downhill for me around mid-September. I had a lot of (after reading what some of you have been through, I’m going to say extremely mild) health problems and some other troubles. Miss Y responded to a post I had written, asking if anyone was in the same position as I was, since I needed someone to talk to, and we became extremely close friends over the next months. It seems that she is my long lost twin, we share so much in common and are so much alike.

Isn’t it funny that with the way technology is these days - we can all find each other, no matter where we are in the world and connect and influence each others lives? For example, I value each of you, my readers, you share my love of Scandinavia and I share your love of writing, fantasy, fairytales, art, literature, travel, science, everything and yet we have never met. I spend hours here and there with you, sitting in my little flat with a cup of coffee and sharing little pieces of my life with you.

Miss Y does the same. She found me when I was feeling lost and she helps me to feel better every single day with her kind words. She is the most creative and talented person I know and she has the kindest heart. I couldn’t be more grateful for the friend she has been to me and she absolutely deserves to have one of my challenge posts dedicated to her. 

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X is for Kisses From Me

X is difficult! And it's Friday! So instead of worrying about what to write about, make yourself a nice drink and sit here for a while and have a look at these links I've collected for you over the last couple of weeks:

Lisa went for a walk one day in London and took some lovely photos

Dana wrote a post about a sweet coffee tradition

This was such a cute story and even made me tear up a little!

I found this sweet wedding idea

Laura has been very busy writing these wonderful posts about fairytales all month

I've been listening to this pretty song on repeat all month

Chocolate planets!!

This place looks beautiful

For fellow penguin lovers

What do you have planned for the weekend? My friend has lent me some films so I think I'm going to have a cozy weekend in the flat. It's very grey and rainy in Oslo at the moment, so I'm going to stay tucked up, warm and toasty, in my little room :)

Here are some kisses, lots of little x's which means I didn't technically cheat!

x x x x x mwahhh!

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W is for The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils was the first Swedish book I ever bought. It's Swedish title is Nils Hogerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, which means Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden. 

It was written by Selma Lagerlöf and published in 1906. She was commissioned to write it as a geography book for schools and it is said that one of the reasons for this was that at the time there was a big migration from Sweden to the US and they wanted to help the Swedes fall in love with their country again. 

It certainly made me fall in love with Sweden. It's an exciting story and through Lagerlöf's beautiful writing, you are taken on a -wonderful- adventure through Sweden with Nils, the mischievous protagonist, who has been shrunk by a 'tomte' (a kind of little dwarf) as a result of his bad behaviour. 

The illustrations are absolutely stunning too! I wish I could find some examples for you but I've searched and I can't find anything!

Nils can be found on the back of Swedish 20kr notes. Actually, this story was the very first thing Björn and I talked about, the evening we met. He showed me one of these notes and was surprised to hear that I know and love the book :)

Have you ever read this story? I think it's quite famous outside of Sweden too. Can you believe we're already at 'W'? Just three letters left now and then my birthday!

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V is for Viggo Mortensen

I'm allowed to talk about Viggo Mortensen because he is half-Danish, which means semi-Nordic, which means yes please and I'm not cheating on this challenge :)

My favourite is when he is Aragorn, but it's not necessarily essential. The Aragorn thing really appeals to my inner nerd but the very best thing would be Aragorn-plus-a-little-less-beard-plus-a-little-more-regularity-when-it-comes-to-brushing-his-teeth. Mmm.  

Do you have a favourite Scandinavian actor? I considered writing a post about Alexander Skarsgård before doing some googling and realising that I'm actually in love with the majority of his family. Maybe S should have been for 'Skarsgård family' but that's kind of creepy...

(pictures lovingly taken from here and here)

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U is for Ulv

Ulv is the Norwegian word for wolf. Those of you who have been reading my blog since I began will know of my ever-increasing fear of wolves. Sometimes I hear the word ''ulv'' on the radio while I'm having breakfast and it sends shivers down my spine while I dream up all of the horrible things that might have happened, even though it usually turns out that it's just a report on how few wolves are left in the forest, therefore making my fear quite unnecessary. 

Have you ever played 'What's the Time Mr Wolf'? It's a truly horrific game that mean kids often make you play at birthday parties. 'Mr Wolf' faces the other way and answers with a number when you ask him the time. If he says 5 o'clock, you take 5 steps towards him, 2 o'clock you take 2 and so on until at one particularly terrifying point you ask him the time and he spins around and shouts "DINNER TIME!!" It's appalling.

When I was little I was friends with this little boy who used to tell me that wolves only ate little girls called Nikki. Somehow I didn't get suspicious that thieves, pirates, monsters and, oddly, smugglers also liked to kill little girls called Nikki...

What do you think about wolves? Are there any animals that you are afraid of? I know most people are scared of spiders and that the chance of a wolf getting to me in a second-floor flat (I refused a ground-floor flat because I'm not stupid and someone told me once that a wolf can jump 6 metres in the air and although that sounds kind of ridiculous, I am not taking any chances) are pretty slim, but for some reason they terrify me! 

I know this post is more 'W' than 'U' but before you complain, chances are I just taught you your first Norwegian word, so there you go. I win :)

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T is for Tiny Capital

Somebody linked this video to me a little while ago and I've been really excited to show you ever since! It's called Tiny Capital and it was made by Eirik Evjen, who very kindly let me share it. (Links to his pages can be found below). 

I wanted to share this with you today because I've been planning on writing a post about Oslo for a while now. I wasn't sure how to show you my new city, which photographs would be appropriate to include or which stories of places I've visited would help you to travel with me around my little town. So it makes me very happy to be able to show you this video, which gives you a fascinating and beautiful insight into this 'Tiny Capital'.

Tiny Capital from Eirik Evjen on Vimeo.

(Please click here to follow him on facebook & twitter :)

PS: who was it who showed me this video in the first place, I'm sure it was one of you but my mind has gone blank. I'd like to say thank you for inspiring my post and for sharing this with me!

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