Sunday, February 28, 2010

Day 8: Are we road warriors yet?




This morning, as we were packing to leave for the bus station in Oslo, to head now to the far western side of Norway (ten hours by bus) we mused at the fact that after only one week on the road we were beginning to feel like seasoned, weathered road warriors. We were happy to have the forced rest of a ten-hour bus trip, and I am writing this blog as we travel through the magnificent, snowy terrain of Norway. We have passed along waterways with mist rising in the wintry morning air and graceful rolling hillsides covered with many feet of snow. In some areas the trees are outlined in a fine delicate shimmering ice that sparkles in the morning sunlight. Our bus driver spoke solely in Norwegian and we, of course, remained clueless to his directions. Luckily, a kind and alert bus patron interjected with a “heads up” every time we needed to change buses.

Ta Ke Ti Na class in Oslo with Mikael Khei

In the evening we set out for our Taketina class and concert with Mikael. The bus journey there was fraught with bus changes, advice seeking and walking this way and that until we finally found a kind young man and his iphone who managed to figure out where the workshop address was. We arrived late to the class, only to be ever so warmly greeted by a most gracious group of Norwegians and an inspiring Taketina experience that included movement, rhythm and voice. We loved the class and the healing concert of didgeridoo and singing bowls that followed was the perfect ending to our magical day in Oslo!

Candles in the Cold


After quite a time in the frigid cold, we found ourselves sadly needing to return to warmth. There is something quite magical and ethereal about this city. Many of the coffee shops and restaurants have little candles burning everywhere, little sparking reminders of warmth on these cold winter days, somehow just seeing the candles made us feel a bit warmer inside.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

More Fun At The Sculpture Gardens!


As you can tell, we had a great time at the Oslo sculpture park!






















































Our Norwegian host, Kristin, tells us that this pouting baby sculpture has been stolen and replaced many times over the years, it certainly is engaging!

Our time in the Oslo Sculpture Park



Today we had every possible layer on to brave the weather for our visit to the outdoor sculpture gardens, we felt somewhat like the Pillsbury doughboy or a young child wrestled into a huge snowsuit as we walked to the sculptures. They were completely worth braving the cold for. Situated right amidst a busy commercial district, you walk upon this amazing open area that is filled with incredible sculptures of people in all walks of life (naked and varied in body and posture), of all ages, and interacting with one another in as many ways as one could imagine! It was a feast of form, shape and movement and we took great delight in interacting with the sculptures (as you can see in these photos).

A beautiful night in Oslo


The nights in Oslo are lovely and we were so glad to capture some of the magic on film!

Day 7: The Magical City of Oslo


As we had initially envisioned for this journey, today was a most serendipitous one. We finally were on line at the hotel and received an email from our friend John, who works for REMO drums in LA who had emailed his friend, Mikael, who is a drum circle facilitator in Oslo, and instantly we had a new friend in Oslo! We had the great fortune of being invited to Mikael’s Taketina class and healing didgeridoo concert.
Here is the site address
http://www.maguti.com/Maguti_English_pages/Workshops_and_events/Innlegg/2010/2/23_Taketina_in_Oslo_every_Tuesday_from_16th_of_february_to_16th_of_March.html

We ate a hearty breakfast (so as to last most of the day we hoped, as food is very expensive here). The jellied fish we tried, but sadly cannot recommend. Next, we headed out for the Edvard Munch museum and the Oslo Sculpture Gardens. The museum was small, but great and we learned Munch was quite a fascinating Norwegian painter, we only knew his “Scream” painting- but he truly has an amazing body of work in which you could experience his inner soul struggles. Many of his paintings reflected the early and untimely death of his sister in childhood. He also spent much time in this later years painting thoughtful (and vulnerably striking) self-portraits of an old man facing his mortality. In one piece, his form is positioned between an antique clock and his bed.

Arriving in Oslo


We got up early and flew Norwegian airlines into Oslo, Norway- very easy, and great flight. Spent most of the day in Oslo getting our bearings and walking around the part of the city where our hotel was. Turns out we saw more people from foreign countries (including Iraq and many African countries) than locals. A bus driver tells us that we were in the “low rent” district, no surprise being frugal travelers in a costly country. We had to fumble through and figure out yet another new currency, the NOK or Norwegian kroner.
It is VERY COLD here, even for the locals. We are putting most of our clothes on at one time (five or six layers deep!). If we appear a little “cinched” in pictures, it is because no area of our flesh besides our faces is breathing. Slush and snow prevail! Locals carry cross country skis on buses and trams, as they ski for transport around the city. Shop keepers sweep huge amounts out of their stores, but it is truly a slush fest here! We suffered a few slips, but no injuries at the time of this blog.

Fabulous Fish Feast!


Fabulous Fresh Fish Feast at Louisa’s home!

The gourmet Austrian sisters, Louisa and Racy, had already cleaned and filleted our early morning catch, by the time we reached Louisa’s house. Unfortunately the knife that Robin had dropped off earlier in the day to fillet our fish was dull enough to “ride it to Vienna” – a bit of Austrian humor! The superb dinner of fresh mussels and yellow tail snapper was the perfect conclusion to our eventful London day!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Giant "ENT" like tree in Regents Park, London

Here is a picture of one of these wonderful trees that we considered to have human qualities.

Sunny Afternoon Walk on the Hunting Grounds of Henry the VIII:


We joined Robin and a musician friend of hers, Sue, for a lovely late afternoon walk in Regents Park. It’s a vast and beautifully landscaped park with herds of deer wandering among joggers, horse riders, cyclists and families out to enjoy what happened to be another sunny day.  The park was built upon ancient burial grounds and at it’s highest point there was a large telescope that looked over the city of London, BUT, as our hosts happily shared with us, if you turn the telescope around, you can look through it and view St Paul’s Cathedral which happens to be TEN miles away!  The old gnarly trees that we encountered on our walk through Isabella’s Plantation were tangled reminders of the ENT trees well known from The Lord of the Rings. We left the park as evening began to fall.  We watched as two opposing groups of agitated deer huffed and paced, sizing one another up in what appeared to be something of a “stag rumble”.  Sue tells us this is where the term “stag night” comes from.

Nia class on Saturday


Afternoon NIA class with Nefra: After watching the sun rise over Big Ben on our way home from the fish market, we took a short rest at Robin’s apartment and then managed to TUBE back downtown to attend a NIA class in a Quaker Meeting House quite near Trafalgar Square and the theater district. The graceful Nefra guided us through one hour of much needed movement after all of our travels during the past few days. Our moods were quickly transformed from exhausted to energized and this class kept us recharged for the busy afternoon and evening ahead.

 

Our favorite fish to look at was also our choice for dinner!

Saturday: Five am Fish Find on Isle of Dogs


Up before dawn, we traveled across London in search of Billingsgate Fish Market, which was about one hour from our 5W host Robin’s apartment. We passed many important London landmarks, barely visible in the dark foggy morning. Luckily we were greeted by a host of charismatic Cockney fish merchants,  sliding, slapping and selling huge quantities of every kind of sea creature imagineable. The first fish we noticed were beautiful yellowed tail snappers (where they were from only the Cockneys truly knew)- in the end, after splashing through the many rows upon rows of  fish stands we settled on the very first fish we had seen and purchased them whole, fins, eyes , tails and all for the evening fish feast.

The Gerkin building in downtown London

We discovered this building as we walked along the London streets! Robin tells us it is called the Gerkin and is an offcie building. Amazing, isn't it?

Day 3: London excursion to Brick Lane area and White Chapel museum


Today we moved all of our belongings over to our next 5W host’s home. Robin lives in North Earling in a wonderful Tudor style apartment set on a large estate with many lovely Tudor buildings, trees, and even a few flowers beginning to peak out in the lawns. It was another sunny day, HOORAY!! We spent the day with Robin, riding the tube to the east side of London, visiting museums, walking through the Brick Lane district which is rich with Indian traditions, restaurants, fabric shops and wonderful grocery stores filled with spices and exotic items that we had never seen before. 

Friday, February 19, 2010

We ate traditional scones with cream and jam at this fun and funky Spitalsfields Market (we love the name of things here!)

London Tube Sax : )

Day 2: Exploring the Rainy streets of London



Today was much more typical of an English winter day, cold, damp and dreary. Jubie and I explored the city of London today via the Underground (or as they say, the “tube’) system. Easy to use with great maps everywhere to track your journey and destinations. The English accents are so much fun to listen to, that each tube ride becomes a musical experience. There is a rhythm to the speech that I love, and so many fun phrases that we are hearing. Jubie and I will smile when we hear something that catches our ear and lean over and quietly say the new phrase to each other, just to see if we can catch it. “Mind the gap”…you hear that every few minutes onboard the tube, reminding folks not to step into the space between the platform and the train!

 

As expeditions of discovery go, we set out to find Trafalgar square, but did not have a map. As we wandered about, we discovered the outskirts of China town, which had brightly colored lanterns hanging from buildings everywhere. Then found the theater district with many plays that looked fun to see. Much like the theater district in New York. We ate fish and chips so as to celebrate English food (it was great) and stopped for tea several times to escape the chilly rain. We found a walkway in the business district of London titled the Jubilee walkway! Of course we had to take a photo! Turns out that Jubilee is a popular word around here and turns up everywhere.

 

After much meandering, we finally found Trafalgar square and the portrait museum that we were hoping to visit. The museums are free and they were full of people, all ages, as it is winter break for school students here. We started on the third floor in the Tudor room and learned about the early monarchs and Lady Jane Grey, who ruled only nine days before she was killed for being a Protestant. None of the monarchs looked as if they were happy in the their given roles. The majority of the faces that we saw were extremely stoic and seemed to express very little joy. I loved the fact that we could cozy right up to the artwork and really take it in, rather than standing trying to view it from a distance or behind glass as we do in the states.

 

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Day One: More to tell

Our 5W hosts: Christine and Leigh

Day 1: Jubie and I arrived in London at 11am, after a long flight. We were both amazed to walk out of the airport into a perfectly sunny day.  The English, obviously not accustomed to the great, glowing orb in the sky, seemed in a puzzled state of squint. Not one person had sun glasses on, we decided it must be that this kind of bright sun is rare here. Our 5W host Christine Bowman, had given us clear directions as to how to purchase Oyster cards for the underground “tube” system and we managed to negotiate this pretty well. We got on the Picadilly line and followed this to Earls Court then off at East Putney where Christine picked us up. Her home is in a lovely city neighborhood with many houses in a row, built in the same style. She says this is a typical London home, and although people try to make them modern and different from one another, they really do turn out to end up much the same as one another.  The “loo” has it’s own room adjacent to the sink and shower room.  She lives near the Thames, so we took an afternoon walk down to the park that runs along the river.  The park was filled with people, women pushing babies, children playing, people on bikes – as it was a rare sunny day in London, as if spring had paid a brief and unexpected visit amidst what Christine says has been an unusually cold damp winter. On our way back through the neighborhoods we stopped for a beer at two local pubs, wanting to take in the local atmosphere in many ways. The second pub was called the Hop In, which I did as I promptly stumbled over the deep step as you enter. This pub was very Irish, filled with maps of Ireland and fun old posters of Irish beers and such on the walls. Men were drinking Guinness beers and discussing politics and life as they sat at the bar.  We distinctly overheard an Irish brogue stammer “they should all die!”.

 Christine is Scottish, a German teacher and has lived and when she was in her early twenties she joined many other teachers that went to work in Kenya in the school systems that the English government were setting up there. She taught English for a few years, but was then asked to teach German, which she did for many years. She returned to London and taught here until she retired a few years ago. She has recently returned from a trip back to Kenya with her new partner Leigh, who is from Zimbabwe and has lived in London for two years. Christine talked of visiting one of her former students at the school where she taught German in her twenties and she was surprised to learn that they now have a vital and active German language program with student exchanges to and from Germany as well! What a wonderful legacy!

 

For dinner Christine cooked a typical Scottish dinner that is one that Scots around the world eat in late January to celebrate their beloved poet Robert Burns. She says it is common to have a Burns night where poetry is recited and people eat haggis, tatties and neeks. It was delicious food and we loved both the food and the dinner conversation, which included talk about Leigh’s life in Zimbabwe and South Africa and his visits to America which included New Orleans and Disney World. 

Day One: Arriving in Sunny London!


We arrived on Wednesday morning in London and much to our surprise, and the surprise of  locals, it was a beautiful springlike day! We took a stroll in Wandsworth Park along the Thames river, which is quite close to Christine's (our 5W host) home and visited a local pub to check out the neighborhood! 

Welcome to Our Great Adventure!!

Welcome to Mary and Jubie’s Great Adventure Blog! We are happy that you are joining us as we make our new friends around the world. This adventure was initiated by a desire to take time in our lives to explore the quality of joy. It seemed to us, that in order to embrace this broader concept, we needed to become “students of life”. We decided to become “international” students of life, shedding our professional personas (i.e JOBS) and packing only what we could into our carry-on bags and heading for the great big world of intriguing cultures in distant places. In June, we became members of an organization Women Welcome Women Worldwide or 5W that promotes world peace through cultural understanding. We are excited to be traveling this winter/spring throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North Africa, and Indonesia on a journey to explore other cultures, including ways in which people live and celebrate life. We will be exploring music, dance and as many cultural traditions as we can during the next few months. We are curious about life transitions (including birth/death), and the way cultures unite, celebrate and ritualize these experiences. We plan to share our experiences with others as we travel, and after we have returned home. The focus and intention of our journey is the discovery and expression of joy in life, including life transitions. It is our belief that we will learn much about both the similarities and differences in people all over the world as we travel.