The Neutral Zone

I write to you while we are in route to California. We spent two full days in Oslo before departing for home.  First, an observation: The Norwegians are excellent English speakers. In my opinion, the Norwegians were far superior to the Scots we encountered previously on this trip. The Scots say things like, "Yer a wee scunner!" which apparently means, "You're a nuisance." English is a mandatory part of the curriculum in Norwegian schools and we didn't encounter anyone who couldn't speak it reasonably well, if not completely fluently. At no point did we have to explain, "Jeg snakker ikke norsk" (I don't speak Norwegian), and at some point we stopped asking altogether whether someone spoke English, as we realized English speaking was basic and worried this question might almost seem rude. We visited a lot of stuff while we were here, including the Rådhus (city hall), the opera house (for a tour,...

We stayed one night in  Ålesund and for a few days in  Øye. These cities are fun for me at least partly because they use letters unique to the Danish-Norwegian alphabet, the 'a' with the circle on top and 'o' with the line through it (official letter names pending further review). Ålesund  is a port town of about 70,000 on the western side of Norway on the Atlantic coast.  We landed there  around 1100PM, but it looked more like 700 or 800pm, owing to the latitude (about 62 degrees north). Throughout our stay here, I've been very excited about the (nearly) never-ending daylight. The sun sets at about 1130PM rises about four hours later, but the hours between are marked more by a duskiness rather than a true darkness. We only stayed in  Ålesund overnight (if you want to call it "night") before departing the next morning for  Øye, which lies at the tip of a remote Fjord, the Norangsfjorden. Some locals told us that another nearby town, Urke, had less than...

Hannah and I spent five days in London after our trip in Scotland. We were working for most of that time, so it's not like we were whiling away the hours at the Tate or Saint Paul's. Hannah spent her time walking across London from one client meeting to another, so she took in more of the city than I did (I used the tube to commute around), but nonetheless, I think we can keep this pretty short. Also, we've visited and commented on London before (see here , here ). Pedestrian Cross Walks Throughout the UK, and particularly in London, most crosswalks include an advisory painted into the street urging pedestrians to check for traffic by looking either to the left or right (always the direction you are unaccustomed to checking as an American). This is - I think - one of the strongest indicators that people in Britain are perhaps driving on the wrong side of the road. In effect, the British government feels that in order to keep some meaningful number of pedestrians alive a lit...

We stayed in Edinburgh for two days to conclude our Scotland adventure. Hannah spent a semester in Edinburgh in her spritely college days and she remembers it fondly. As we wandered through the city, Hannah would point out various places and reminisce. Here was the restaurant where she would gather with friends to celebrate special occasions (The Outsider), here was the local café they frequented between classes (Peter's Yard), this was the park she walked through to get home (The Meadows), and there is the shitty hostel she stayed in when she arrived (less interesting!).  Edinburgh was fun. We liked it more than Glasgow. Edinburgh had more to see (more ancient castles, museums and monuments) and the city was denser and more lively. Glasgow just felt more utilitarian.  Hannah - of course - led me to the far-flung corners of the city in an effort to find the newest and best food, including marching me straight out of Edinburgh and into the neighboring city of Leith. We ate well...