The train passed Torpo station without stopping

Through the years, many of the smaller railway stations

from Bergen to Oslo have been closed.

One of these stations is Torpo between Ål and Gol.

By chance I found 16 photos in Hallingdal's local

newspaper Hallingdølen, showing the residents of Torpo

with flags at the station marking the 100 years for

the train between Oslo and Bergen.

Some had dressed up in older clothes.

There was food served.

But the train did not stop.

It just passed the waving flags.

Like it does every day now.

and has for the last twenty years,

according to the article.

Would this be considered nostalgia or a positive demonstration?

For a series of the photos, click here

http://www.hallingdolen.no/hdspelar/bildeserie/article106208.ece

The train from Bergen to Oslo, minute by minute

From the train window on another train trip in August 2008.

Photographer: Cheryl

True, I love going by train.

True, for a period of ten years our family used this train,

for half the distance.

Good memories!

So I am not objective about this subject.

Back then it would take more than ten hours to go the

whole distance. Now it takes a little more than seven hours.

In 1894 it was decided to build a railroad between Oslo

and Bergen - an expensive and difficult project,

but important for connecting the eastern part of

Norway with the western part, over land, using

what was then fairly new technology.

The official opening of the whole distance was 100 years

ago. Parts of the line had been in use earlier, a fact I had not

thought about before seeing a fantastic documentary

following one trip from Bergen to Oslo, minute by minute.

The documentary produced by NRK is called

"Bergensbanen, minutt for minutt".

Three cameras in the front ( straight forward, to the right,

to the left) and one mobile camera inside the train. This

last camera was used to interview passengers and crew,

and sometimes got off for the short stops on the stations.

Few comments, but many songs and musical

parts connected to trains and to the places we passed.

Loved most of those!

When the train entered the numerous tunnels we were

shown the name of the tunnel and the length, and if it was

one of the longer ones , we enjoyed old film documentaries

and old radioprograms connected to Bergensbanen.

Looking at the passing scenery from this specific trip

made in the beginning of October 2009, it was

fascinating to see the milder climate closer to Bergen and

Oslo, and then the snow up in the mountains.

Sounds boring?

I have enjoyed it very much, and if they decide to sell

a DVD of the program, I think I will buy it.

Surprise:

In February 2010 I discovered you can download

it for free from

http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/

This version does NOT include music, video,

side camera, interviews that we saw in the

original TV program.

You can also get a seven minutes taste

of this film on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql2qXpNVTjw

PS. From comments on the internet, at least two

viewers , out of more than one million Norwegian

viewers, claim that when the train finally arrived at

Oslo S, they got up from their chair to leave the train ............

In a spirit of love

You will find as you look back upon your life

that the moments when you have really lived

are the moments when you have done things

in a spirit of love.

Henry Drummond

One gram of saffron!

I bought one gram of saffron at the pharmacy, as

my mother once told me that was the place to

buy it. It is called safran in Norwegian.

She used it for some of her Christmas baking.

I want to use a tiny bit of it for Yellow Salmon Soup

and a little bit for double-braided loaves.

One gram!

Many years ago I was told saffron is more expensive

than gold.

This one gram cost 126 Norwegian kroner - around

21 US dollars, I estimate.

Will it be enough for the soup and the bread?

:-)

Will I have some of it left for further projects after that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron

Makes you wonder

In my second country I still have two rooms filled

with my personal stuff.

Mostly books and files with paper information

I have collected over many years.

A few pieces of furniture I would put in another home

if that home was in my second country.

But I will not bring that furniture to Norway.

Too expensive. Not worth it.

But the books and all those documents, what to do?

And what I really think about, is that after three years

I cannot really remember the details of what I have there.

Makes you wonder how much of it I could get rid of,

without feeling too much of a loss.

Moving in general, but also moving from one country to

another, is very much a mental exercise in defining

your own life, and therefore very exhausting.....

Helpdesk in Medieval times

As one of those in "the older generation" who often

feel a little lost with the PC, the mobile telephone etc,

and who still remember the beginning of my life with a

computer, I loved this Norwegian film clip from 2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Yes, moving from scrolls to books also had its

challenges........

Halloween 2009

As I have already mentioned, my experience of

Halloween is seeing it celebrated in American movies.

Now I know that Kate will grow up with Halloween,

it gets more real.

Here she is in her first Halloween costume.

When we were kids here in Norway there was a custom

for children to dress up (nothing fancy like this costume,

just grownups' clothes) right after Christmas and walk,

in a group of children, from house to house.

I think I participated once. We were the children

from three neighbouring families living a little

outside the village.

We knocked on the doors of each family.

There was some element of scariness , and I really

don't know why.

Because it was dark and cold and we were outside?

We sang some Christmas carols when the door was opened.

We then received an orange, I think.

This custom was called to "walk as Julebukk" (gå

julebukk).

Who or what was Julebukk? A Christmas goat?

Was this some old Norse tradition?

I don't know, so I just looked it up on the internet.

It seems to have been a custom to slaughter a goat for

Christmas, and then children would dress up with a

mask of a goat's head, covering themselves in a piece

of skin with the wool on, and walk from house

to house getting some treats from those who could

afford to give treats.

Do children in Norway still do this?

One internet source told that these days children dress

up in whatever they fancy when they "walk as Julebukk",

and that this custom is probably more prevalent

in rural areas than in towns.

Thinking about now, it seems to have some slight

similarity to Halloween.