Midnight Lake

Just came back from a quick boat trip over the nearby lake called Byrtevaten. Because it's summer here in Norway, the sun doesn't really set until maybe 2am. So, our little boat trip with her quirky uncle began late at night~10ish.

An ever-changing landscape. Turn your back for a second and when you look back the view has changed again.

 

I want to grow old here.

I sleep on a Himmelseng.

Curious things my friend has in her 300-year-old Norwegian house. Antiques, folk art...really incredibly old things.

Folk design over a wooden chest. Explained to me as the traditional chest a bride would use to put her things in when she moves out of her parents and into her husband's home.

I really like brunost now. I once put it on bread and nutella, and my friend raised her eyebrow. But she liked it too.

Veldig Bra!

I'm in Norway, visiting a friend. Slight culture shock, no worries. Poor brain is still swimming around in French with "ouis" and "mercis" here and there.

Just last week I was walking through Aix-en-Provence's antique market and stumbled on a little book. I hesitated. Asked for an opinion: two Frenchmen discouraged me from buying it. But just about to put it down, I flipped through it one more time and found illustrations. I bought a 1951, sci-fi book for 1 euro. Cheesy cover and all. 

"Sur cette montagne, nous sommes seuls sous les ciel crible d'etoiles. L'immensite nous envoie toutes ces lumieres pur nous placer au-dessu de la vie, dans une paix heureuse...

-Peu d'hommes regardent le ciel, Minnie. Beaucoup ne savant meme pas decouvrir les beautes de la terre. Ils ont des yeux et ne voient point. -Il faudrait les arracher a leurs preoccupations mesquines, montrer l'inanite de leurs haines, comment ils gachent miserablement leur existence ephemere.

Cecil eut un sourire indulgent."

I also got another book, for free as a 'cadeau,' after I chased down the panama hat-wearing man who bought it with his euro.
"Go get it!" my roommate urged after I grumbled my complaint. "I double dare you."
My hesitation had taken the best of me when I put the book down. But then so did my stubborness: I ran after the man with the panama hat.