Day 1

Jason left Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday and arrived at Oslo Airport Gardermoen at 10 am on Friday. Anders and Astrid had to wait for about 45 minutes while Jason lounged in the luggage area...

Pappa met us outside of the airport with A&A's car, which we swapped with his because it gave us more leg room for our big trip.

Afterwards, we met Magnar at his job. He entered the scene in his golf-cart looking Solaris all-terrain 6-wheel vehicle. It was really fast, and he took us up a close-to-90-degree hill, went back again, and backed up the same hill! Then Anders had his turn driving; up the hill, down the hill, and up again... Jason bailed out so Astrid could get a ride. We also went to pick up a car with Magnar, and Anders traded Listerine for snus.

Then we went to Astrid's mother's house for the trips first but not last brunch. We had polar bread, which was pretty good, cheese, nectarines, grapes, ham, and some milk to flush it all down with. Astrid's sisters Tone and Jorunn were there - Jorunn left for Hawaii to study a couple of days later.

We arrived at A&A's apartment in Oslo and unloaded the trunk. Thomas came by for a lovely dinner which Astrid cooked for us. She wouldn't let us near the kitchen, where she cooked up some great chicken and pork chops.

After dinner, we took a walk down by the river Akerselva, mainly to inflate the tires of Astrid and Jorunn's bikes, but also to look around. Thomas hired and brought a city bike back to the condo. The city bike is a service provided by the city of Oslo were you get a four-speed bike for free, but it must be returned to a special bike rack within 3 hours.

When we came home, we ran into Knut Peder Dullum, a nice neighbour who was having a moving-out party. We joined them for a drink and went home to get some sleep.

That was the first long day of many on this trip...