Obama, Oslo and the Nobel Peace Prize

I don't think it's a new piece of information for you that Barack Obama was controversially awarded the 2009's Nobel Peace Prize.
Also not new to you should be that the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, currently Thorbjørn Jagland, presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway on December 10 each year (the anniversary of Nobel's death). The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. A diploma, a medal and a document confirming the prize amount are handed over to the Nobel laureate during the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony held at the Oslo City Hall. This is followed the next day by the Nobel Peace Prize Concert with the participation of top celebraty hosts and performers which is broadcast in over 150 countries around the world.

I don't know how far international television reported about Obama being here in Oslo, but I tell you that it had been quite a big event which caused much more than the usual level of security, organisation, precautions etc. Mari who had a group staying at Oslo's most prestiguous hotel, the Grand Hotel, actually had to move the group to another hotel, because Mr. President booked three entire hotels in Oslo for family, friends and staff... among those the Grand Hotel.
I live directly in the city centre, only a few metres away from the Nobel Peace Centre and the City Hall and I couldn't take the usual way to work as everything was closed that morning. Luckily I didn't have any groups or friends arriving, because also the airport had been closed for an unpredictable period of time. For security reasons noone knew the time of arrival of Obama.


Though we (my colleagues and me) couldn't get hold of tickets for that concert (completely sold out and a little expensive) we could be part of this special moment of Obama in town:

We saw him...

• ... and his huge escort on his arrival rushing up Rådhusgata [click here for the video]...
• ... after waiting nearly 2 hours in the freezing cold infront of the Grand Hotel where he waived for 3 minutes from the balcony [click here for the video]...
• ... and the next day passing Tollbugata on his way out of town towards the airport [click here for the video].

Well, that's already all about Obama and his not even 48 hours in Oslo.