Family visit from south Italy

Benvenuti in Norvegia, Mariella, Luigi e Dario :-)
For the first time Marco's parents came for a visit to Norway. For his brother Dario it was already the second time.
They came for an whole week in June 2013, actually quite a nice period to visit Oslo and Norway in general.

Thursday, 13th of June:

Marco's family arrived only with a pretty late flight at Rygge airport. By the time they had reached their hotel in town, midnight had long passed. Since I had to get up early the next day to work, I wasn't able to welcome them that night.

Friday, 14th of June:

While I was at work, Marco already started a first sightseeing tour of Oslo...

...showing his parents and brother among others the opera...

...and the royal palace.

 

The afternoon I took off from work and joined them for a visit of Vigelandsparken with its famous sculptures.

 

 

In the afternoon we show them around Aker Brygge and Tjuvholmen area.

Saturday, 15th of June:

On this Saturday we took them up to Holmenkollen, to show the ski jump and the wonderful view over Oslo from up there.

 

 

Back in town...

 ...up at Akershus fortress:

Sunday, 16th of June:

We started around the corner of where we live, showing the area around the river...

 ...before heading by boat to the peninsula of Bygdøy.

 

 

The light at midnight! So bright - at 23:56!

Monday-Wednesday, 17th-19th of June:

For the next couple of days I had organised a mini discovery tour of Norway for the four of them. While I had to work (I simply couldn't take a day off) I had sent them on a "Norway in a Nutshell" tour from Oslo to Bergen and then back. So on Monday morning they left early, took the train to Mrydal where they changed on the famous and antique Flåm Railway train town to the valley of Flåm. The next morning I had booked them on an excursion to the great Stegastein lookout which offers magnificent views over the fjord. Back to Flåm they continued on a 2-hours cruise on the UNESCO World Heritage listed branch of the big Sognefjord to Gudvangen. Arrived in Gudvangen, a bus brought them through the Stalheim valley with its steep, winded roads further on to Voss where they changed back on the national rail to Bergen.
They actually only spent one night in Norway's second biggest town. Just enough to get a little overview of the town before heading back to Oslo the next day.
It decided not to post any pictures of their trip here. First of all, because I wasn't taking part in this trip and second because they had simply taken toooooo many wonderful and fantastic pictures which would simply take me too much time to select. And last but not least, only one week later I went for a similar trip to the same region, taking my own pictures to be posted.


Wednesday, 19th of June:

It was right at dinner time that they arrived back in Oslo, perfect occasion to receive them at our place for a nice and typical Norwegian/German (means for once non-Italian!) dinner :-) On the menu:

1. creamy vegetable soup with all kinds of veggies, ginger and other spices (it was basically a big left over from our housewarming party in May which I only had to unfreeze)
2. oven baked salmon (what else?) with boiled potatos (of course WITH skin - Norwegian/German style) and spinach
3. warm rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream

Their reactions to the non-Italian food:

• Starter: Mmmm, nice! What's in the soup? Ginger, what is that?
• Main dish: Cool, salmon, of course not to be missed. We are in Norway. Yummy! And Lilian, it's nice to see that you can cook :-) (Of course I can cook! How did they think I survived the last 10 years? With pasta and pizza delivery?). Well, I take it as a compliment :-) I think I do not have to mention that they all (except Marco) started peeling off that potato skin... LOL!
• Dessert: What is this? Is it zucchini in there? - No this is rhubarb! - Rhubarb? Aha... never heard of...  And no, this is not a cake and was never supposed to become one. It's simply crumble :-)

Jaja, "wat de buer nitt kennt dat frett he nich" - obwohl, sie haben es ja alles ganz brav gegessen :-)
[Sorry, that part simply needed to be kept in German]

That evening was already time to say good bye. The next morning Marco's parents were taking their flight back home to Sicily.
Marco's brother Dario, though, still stayed until the weekend. On the gorgeous sunny Friday afternoon, after work, we met for a typical BBQ in the nearby Sophienbergpark. I brought along my two trainees Eléa and Caroline to join this event and we all had a great time together.

To summarize this visit:

It was the first time in the 10 years that Marco and I are together that his parents were coming to us/me, i.e. into "my world", seeing how and where I live, discovering something from my culture (well, Norwegian culture isn't too far away from German comparing to Italian). Over all those years, it had always been me coming to them, entering "their world", adapting to their culture.

I was in somehow proud to show them another part of the world, another place which is great to live as well.

I'm really happy that Norway welcomed them with such fantastic weather, especially during their trip to Bergen :-) It couldn't have been better! So I guess they really enjoyed their stay here. They saw now where Marco and I live, that we found a nice and not run-down apartment to stay at, and that we live well here, in a nice city :-)

Hope to welcome them here again soon. Will they maybe have the courage to discover Oslo in winter (I doubt it) or will they maybe take a chance to visit other beautiful place in Norway such as the Lofoten etc.?

We'll see. In any case, Mariella, Luigi and Dario, you're always welcome! Siete sempre benvenuti qui :-)