the Akerhus fortress

decorations along Karl Johan street, and one Norweigan Christmas tree that didn't make it to Trafalgar Square

the Nobel Peace Prize Centre

some columns and colours I enjoyed

town hall - looking something between a cathedral and Battersea Power Station!

statue in front of the town hall

random self-portrait, while waiting at a hotel for Andy, Sara and Pat to arrive from Newcastle

we were to travel up from Oslo, by plane and coach, to the centre at Tysfjord

Early the next morning I flew to Bodø, where I pottered around a local museum before the others arrived.

This was a recreation of a Sami dwelling, long-standing inhabitants of the area we were to visit.

On my flight I was reading Wangari Maathai's description of the Kikuyu gichandi. Like a rainstick but made from a gourd, this appears to have been used for storytelling. However the gichandi were collected and systematically destroyed by missionaries, so all knowledge of them faded. Apparently one survives in a Turin museum.

In the Nordland museum they told an identical story about the runebomme - a Sami shamanic drum. Only four now survive, one of which was on exhibition here. I found it very moving to see it, and think of the strikingly parallel injustices from such different parts of the world - from the Equator to the Arctic.

traditional Norweigan chat-up line