A Day in Kristiansand

We woke up this morning to fog so thick we couldn’t even see the building across the street. We decided to have a leisurely morning as it looked awfully cold and damp outside. I looked through the local paper while drinking a cup of coffee and enjoyed reading a few articles about Easter. There was one huge two page spread on just what people who aren’t Christians will be doing for the holiday break. They interviewed Jewish people, Buddhists, Humanists and Muslims. They asked them if they knew the meaning of Easter, what they felt about all the Christians celebrating it the way they do, and what will they be doing for the five days off for the holiday. Everyone in the article understood that Easter was about the death and resurrection of Jesus, because if they didn’t know otherwise, they said they were taught that in school. They all had tolerance for Christians celebrating it however they wanted, and for the most part, they too were doing what others do this time of year – going to the mountains to hike or ski, eating oranges and Kwik Lunsj bars (Kit-kat candy bars) and/or sitting and reading crime novels. It’s like this whole country takes comfort in being the same. Individualism doesn’t seem to be admired here like it is in the U.S. – being like everyone else and conforming – now that’s the goal, it seems. I find that so odd for some reason – especially coming from a country that has so many incredible athletes and explorers. It’s the strangest thing how everyone likes to be doing what everyone else is doing. Everyone goes up to the mountains with their oranges and candy bars so much so that another article I read said that during the week before Easter, Norwegians buy 17 million oranges! For a country of only four and a half million people, that is just unbelievable. Good thing I like oranges and Kwik-lunsj bars or I might feel like an outsider. (They are a lot sweeter to eat than lutefisk or potato balls, I must say.)

By the time we ventured out of the hotel, the sun had burned off quite a bit of the fog and we could at least see down the block. Kristiansand has some beautiful old buildings, but not hundreds and hundreds of years old like other towns, as Kristiansand has suffered more than one devastating fire that’s taken out a lot of the downtown area. Most of the buildings were built in the 1800s. The town today was all a-bustle with pre-Easter shoppers and everyone in a hurry to get to their cabins in the hills. We walked the whole downtown area seeing what there was to see. We also had to get a few grocery items as NOTHING will be open the next two days – not even most restaurants, so we needed to get some food to tide us over during this holiday break.

Kory’s cousin, Morgan, lives about an hour from here and he called to arrange a rendezvous with us for dinner. He said he was definitely going against the flow of traffic on his drive into the city, as there was a mass exodus going on in the opposite direction. We had never met his wife, as he is the one and only cousin that moved away from Aalesund when he got married thirty years ago, so it was really nice to spend some time with them. We felt bad we didn’t have more time, but so many things in town were closed today due to the holiday week, that we promised Kaleb we’d take him to the circus tonight, because that was something that was open and he had never been to a circus before. So after a quick dinner with Morgan and his wife, Ruth, we headed for the big tent for an evening of family fun.

I love to hear Kaleb laugh, and tonight I got my money’s worth. He loves slap-stick comedy, and the warm up “clowns” at the circus had him doubled over more than once, he was laughing so hard. I don’t remember the last time I was at a circus, but this one was impressive. The talent of all the performers was incredible but there was definitely a difference between an American circus and one in Europe. For one thing, there was no safety equipment. I had a hard time watching the acrobats knowing that if they lost their grip from on high, they would be killed right in front of us (ugh). I felt the same about the woman who let the elephant step over her and about the fire breathing guy. There were so many dangerous moments I even had to close my eyes a few times for fear I’d see something tragic. But all-in-all it was a great show and Kaleb loved every minute of it. In Norway, after any kind of performance, everyone applauds, but then after a minute or two, they synchronize the clapping so everyone is on the same beat. I’m not sure how they do it, but it happens no matter what the venue – at church, the symphony, a play or the circus. So even though our day started out slow, it definitely ended in a way that deserved much applause – synchronized or not.