So far, So good

This is my first winter in Scandinavia.  It is striking how many people have tried to scare me about spending winter in Norway: "Are you going crazy?"

I am famously stubburn but not crazy.

So...

I am determined to making the most out of it.

The day gets dark by 3.25pm and by the time it is 4pm then the darkness is here.  This new reality amazes me  - precisely - because it is not what I am used to it.  I never take novelty for granted.

The other difference is that it is still dark one I get out of bed.  It is bit hard - I admit it - to get out of bed, but then again, it is so unusual that I choose to enjoy it.

Nobel Peace Center around 3pm

A different kind of tree

A great hat for bad-hair days...!

4pm by the time we got to the main park

Finally, there is the snow. 

 like it more than it bothers me.  I enjoy it especialy when it is so white, so fresh and abundant that it changes the way my walking sounds...each step I make with my ridiculously comfortable boots, the snow gives me back a funny crunchy noise.  Those are the little pleasures I enjoy which can only happen in the silence of Oslo - one of the few cities left where we can listen to our own walking.