We rang in the New Year with a bang!! Or to be more precise, thousands of bangs. We have never seen so many people set off fireworks than we have here in Norway. Rumor has it that the average Norwegian family spends approximately 180 USD on fireworks for New Year's evening. Unlike the U.S., there are no organized firework events in the city.
I have added some video for your viewing pleasure (notice the rocket that our Norwegian friend lights off shifts a little prior to blasting off, hopefully the neighbor was out watching elsewhere). Anyway, from our spectacular vantage point (Thanks to our Norwegian friends), high above the city, you can see off in the distance multiple explosions as individual families set off their rockets from within the city. It is an incredible sight, and as we were told last night... a rare occasion to have such a clear night, as many past New Years' nights have been fogged in.
We shared our New Year's evening with an international crowd (Norwegian, Dutch, British and American). We started off the night at 7pm with a tasty Indonesian dinner, followed by an Apple Fritter dessert. Sorry, Chris we didn't get to have "black eyed peas". All of this wonderful food was made by our Dutch friend. In fact the Dutch navy has had a tradition of serving Indonesian food to their Sailors on Wednesdays. And this past spring I got to experience it first hand as my Dutch friend organized a great trip to Den Helder, the main port for the Dutch navy. Between the tour of one of their newest Frigates and a tour of the base, we were served a traditional Indonesian meal at the club on base. All this was followed by a personalized tour of Amsterdam.
Back to the party....
The hosts had a wide variety of drinks on hand, to include Margaritas, Mohitos, Hanza beer, Weisbeer, various red wines, Cognac and of course Champagne. As the saying goes "Life is good". The Norwegians have a wonderful tradition of often raising their glasses and saying the Scandinavian toast: "Skål!" meaning "bowl" and referring to the beer bowl everyone drank from at parties and gatherings, from the Viking age up to mid-19th century.
The party ended about 1:30am and as prearranged we ended up staying at our British/Norwegian (he's British and she is Norwegian) friends' house for the night. I got up around 9:30am and made breakfast for the crew. It was a hearty, traditional American breakfast (L.L. Bean buttermilk pancakes - a Christmas gift from my sister's family, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, homemade homefries, Oscar Mayer bacon, Kona coffee and toast). It was a bit of a mystery to the hosts, as they hadn't experienced an American breakfast before. In the end, all appetites were extremely satisfied...nothing better than having happy customers. Then it was off to go see if our cat had survived the night on her own...................(Yes, she did).
All the best to everyone for the New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment