I’ve always loved the fact that Oslo was such a safe city.  You can walk right up to the royal palace.  You can drive past the building with the prime minister’s office.  It’s happy.  It’s neutral.  Things like this don’t happen.  …Until they do.

This whole thing makes me sad.  It makes me sad for the people who were killed or injured.  It makes me sad to see the trust and comfort of the happy people around me undermined.  It makes me sad to know that Oslo is not going to be the same city for a long time, if ever again.

I’ve walked down that street many times.  The library is there.  I have friends who live nearby.  It’s a quiet area during evenings and weekends, when the government is not at work, and it reminds me that I live in the capital of a quiet peaceful nation.  It will not remind me of that any more.

Now we’re all left wondering, “Why?”  What was the point?  Why now?  Why did it take place late in the day on a Friday during the nation’s summer holiday, when most people were away, and many of the rest had already gone home?  Of course, I’m glad that it did!  Otherwise it would have been an even bigger catastrophe.  Was it a crazy local?  Did it have anything to do with the charges filed against Mullah Krekar (up until now, even our local terror suspect was more of a local oddity than a threat)?  What does anyone have against Norway, other than the fact that it’s an easy, trusting target?

I’m glad that my friends are all fine, and now I find myself refreshing the news feeds, waiting for answers that will be a long time coming.

When I think of safaris (and whenever I hear about them for that matter), they involve expensive safari lodges or fancy safari tents and small jeep tours into the African wilderness.  Since I can rarely justify spending so much on a single vacation, the concept has never held that much appeal.  The idea of visiting Africa and seeing the animals in the wild is certainly attractive, but it would mean spending a bundle to book a safari package, right?  After all, you need a place to stay and eat out in the African wilderness.  And you can’t just go driving around looking for elephants, right?  You need a jeep with a safari guide to take you to the right places and drive you out over the untamed African wilds!

I had no idea how wrong I was.

We headed off to our first safari  in South Africa back in April, invited along by some friends in Oslo who’ve traveled to the area before.  Although we split the cost of the trip four ways, doing a similar trip for just the two of us would have cost under $600 for a 3-day safari (including food, car, accommodations, park fees, etc, but excluding airfare to South Africa of course)!

Thanks to the infrastructure at Kruger National Park, there actually are budget safari options that mesh with our independent travel style.  Park visitors can simply drive around the park in their own cars between sunrise and sunset, and there are a number of rest camps inside the park providing food and accommodations.  There’s no need for a swanky lodge; no need for a jeep and a safari guide; no need to spend a small fortune!

We flew into Johannesburg, where we rented a car at the airport and then spent the night in a guesthouse nearby (since our flight arrived quite late in the evening). The next day we set out driving east toward Kruger.  Our first destination was the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga province.  We had originally planned to drive part of the scenic Panorama Route, but we arrived late in the day, and after a late lunch of pancakes in Graskop, we didn’t have much time to enjoy the views before it got dark.  We did make it to God’s Window, and Lucas convinced the guard to let us in for a quick look at the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, even though it was past the park’s closing time.

Both places were well worth visiting, and I think it would have been a good place to spend a night or two en route to/from Kruger.  Our GPS directions took us back through the area when we left the park (giving us a second chance to stop for pancakes in Graskop), and we were all struck by the scenery along the drive (the weather was much clearer on the return trip).

Since Kruger’s park admission is a little expensive (around $20/person per day) and the best game viewing is in the early morning and late afternoon, most people recommend spending a night on the edge of the park so that you can enter the gates when they open (around 6:00 am depending on the season).  We stayed in a cottage at the very pleasant Komati River Chalets, where we had a kitchen and a braai (barbecue) to self-cater our dinner and breakfast.  We weren’t sure what kind of groceries we would be able to get inside the park, so we visited the local supermarket the night before to stock our cooler with meat for grilling and materials for sandwich lunches.

Our original plan had been to enter the park through the Crocodile River Gate, but the gate was closed due to flooding, forcing us to drive 45 km back to the Malelane Gate.  We left early and got to the park just before the 6:00 opening.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect driving a little Volkswagen Polo around a safari park in South Africa.  How would we know where the best spots were to look for wildlife?  How much would we really be able to see from the car?  Would the car even make it over the park roads?

It turns out that we saw an amazing amount of wildlife, even from the car’s low vantage point.  A lot of animals were right alongside (or in) the road.  As for the roads themselves, even the dirt roads were very well maintained, so driving was quite easy even in the little Polo.  Although you are more likely to see certain types of animals in different areas of the park, based on their climate and landscape, figuring out where to look isn’t all that difficult.  The easiest method is simply to look for a big crowd of vehicles stopped along the road and ask someone what they’re all looking at!  Even with no one else around, a lot of the wildlife isn’t that hard to spot.

We had read and heard quite a lot about the park’s Find It guide that allegedly contains great information for where to spot the different wildlife, but we never actually saw a copy of it at any of the park’s shops.  Instead, I picked up a copy of Andy & Lorrain Tinker’s Kruger Park Guide & Map (The Tinkers are responsible for most of the photos seen on the  park’s postcards).  Along with maps, a brief wildlife guide, and a spotting checklist, the booklet contained a list of the Tinkers’ favorite drives for wildlife spotting and photography.  It gave us some great ideas for some of the best routes to travel between camps, and we got a lot of use out of it over the next few days.

During our three-day stay, we got to see all of “The Big 5” (lions, elephants, buffalo, leopard, rhinoceros) along with plenty of zebras, giraffes, antelope, etc.  Unbelievably, we were even lucky enough to see a pack of wild dogs and a pride of lions with a large kill.

A lot of people have asked if we were worried about being so close to such large predators in our little rental car, but the park has strict rules about staying inside the car except in specific designated areas.  For the most part, the animals are completely indifferent to the vehicles and don’t really pay them any mind.  Of course, a bit of common sense is called for, but as long as you follow the rules, the risks are relatively minimal (to both you and the wildlife).

Since one of the rules is that overnight visitors must be inside the rest camps from sunset to sunrise, the larger rest camps offer sunrise, sunset, and night drives to allow wildlife viewing outside the daylight hours.  We opted for a sunrise drive, which began before dawn, and while we didn’t see much in the dark (even with the spotting lights), the sunrise itself was beautiful.  In retrospect, I might have opted for the sunset drive, since we seemed to find some of the most exciting wildlife in the half hour before the gate closing!

We spent our two nights in the park at Satara Rest Camp, where we opted to tent camp.  On our first night, the camp was fully booked (because of the South African school holiday), but we had reserved a campsite early in our planning.  Arriving just a few minutes before gate closing, we had a bit of trouble finding a campsite, since the spots aren’t really marked, and there is no way to reserve a specific location.  For dinner, we used one of the campground’s braais to grill the meat we had packed.  Satara had a small grocery section in the store, which would have been good to know in advance, since there was no refrigerator.  Instead, we had to keep all of our meat and perishables in our cooler (in the air-conditioned car during the day), and each night we bought a new bag of ice.  Our campsite was right across the road from one of the camp’s “kitchens” which was equipped with sinks and a small electric stove top.  Mostly the kitchen served as a communal charging station, and the many outlets were all filled with digital camera chargers and laptops.  The campground was also equipped with a bath house, so we had running water, showers, etc.

Had we chosen not to pack our tents, the rest camp also contained a number of cabins of varying levels of amenities.  We did opt to eat in the restaurant once, and I was quite surprised by the quality of the food.  It was a little expensive, but the menu had a good variety and some very tasty dishes.

For safety and peace of mind, the entire rest camp is surrounded by a high electric fence.  This was understandably comforting when I woke for our sunrise drive to a lion roaring outside the camp!

Overall we had a great time, and based on our sunrise drive, I think we had a lot more fun going it alone than we would have had being shuttled around on a safari truck all day.

The rest of our photos from Kruger are posted here.  (For reference, all of them were taken with a basic 3x zoom point-and-shoot Canon Powershot.  It would have been nice to have a fancy telephoto lens, but so many of the animals were close enough that it wasn’t a necessity.)

I’ve been a sappy sentimental tourist in Europe before, and I vaguely (but fondly) remember the first time I heard someone playing La Vie en Rose along the Champs. I remember wondering where all the anti-accordion sentiments I’ve heard over the years came from.  While it may not be the most beautiful of instruments, surely it deserves this reputation less than other more irritating instruments (I’m looking at you, piccolo).  On the contrary, the accordion provides ambiance and atmosphere.

I got to thinking that maybe it was simply a problem with over-exposure.  If you have to listen to accordion music all the time, whenever you’re out and about in a European city, then perhaps you do just get sick of it.  Vigelands Park has its fair share of accordion players, especially in the summer, and so I’ve had a chance to put this theory to the test over the past few years.  Every day that it’s sunny, we load up the grill bag and head to the park.  More often than not, there is an accordion player hanging around busking for spare kroner.  I find that I don’t mind this.  Quite the opposite, I continue to enjoy the ambiance and the music lends a hint of the old-fashioned to our modern lifestyle, reminding me of old Audrey Hepburn movies where Europe was a far-away land of fantasy,  rather than an everyday reality.

However…

This year all of my accordion tolerance has finally been drained.  As I said, the instrument itself is not to blame.  Rather, I have finally been exposed to shameful accordion misuse.  Our entrance to the park has fallen victim to the worst accordion player I have ever heard!  I cringe whenever I walk past, and I even have fleeting fantasies of kicking over his little container of donations (no huge tragedy, since he appears to earn no more than one or two kroner per hour) to force him to stop playing for a little while.  I’ve also considered paying him a few hundred kroner to go away, but I fear this might just encourage him to come back.

Imagine the accordion equivalent of the worst American Idol audition, and play it on a continuous loop.  That should give you the basic idea of what this is like.  He “knows” only three songs:  Für Elise, The Godfather theme, and the Chicken Dance.  And none of these he plays at all correctly or particularly well.  He knows a few bars of each and repeats them endlessly until awkwardly transitioning into the next one.  On one occasion, he played his adaptation of the Chicken Dance non-stop for at least ten minutes straight.  The Chicken Dance is far from my favorite tune under the best circumstances, but after ten minutes of an out-of-tune accordion rendition I was about to pull my hair out.  Since this guy plays right across the street from our apartment, he is almost impossible to avoid.

To remedy this kind of problem and to preserve the good name of the instrument, I think someone needs to introduce an “Accordion License.” You can only play in public if you have undergone extensive training and passed a rigorous exam in order to prove that your accordion playing will not harm the general populace.

When tickets went on sale, the Final sold out in a heartbeat, but we had a chance to take our time and get a small group together for one of the Semi-Finals.  Since May is a peak travel time in Norway, we only ended up with a few people, but we were able to get fantastic seats!  We splurged on the highest priced tickets, but we ended up with four seats in the front row of the second floor section:

I love watching Eurovision at home with a group of friends, laughing at the bad acts, admiring the good acts, and cracking MST3K-style jokes through the entire production.  But I have to say that actually being there is a completely different experience!

There’s so much national pride, and everyone is brimming with enthusiasm.  I imagine that the Olympics would have a similar vibe, but Eurovision is free from the emotionally-loaded “I’ve been working for this moment my whole life” kind of feeling.  It’s just pure, unadulterated fun and silliness.  Some of the audience costumes are even more bizarre than the outfits on stage, and everyone is clearly out to have a good time.

It’s also a vexillophile’s dream!  I love flags, and there were some fantastically obscure flags at our semi-final.  When I learned all of the nations’ flags for the Bar Blu pub quiz, it was partly for moments like this one.  After all, how many other times does being able to recognize the flag of Azerbaijan come in handy?

I was very disappointed to have to attend Eurovision without a flag (we toyed with the idea of bringing an Indian flag for Lucas and Paavani).  However, Paavani totally came through for me!  Before the show, she ran up to someone with a badge and a couple of Turkish flags and scored one for us!  At the arena entrance, representatives for Georgia had been handing out flyers with a picture of their hot female singer, trying to convince us to vote for them, but Turkey definitely bought one of our votes with the flag!

Our seats were pretty good, and we could definitely see the stage, but even the show is a little different when it’s live.  The acts are clearly designed for a television audience, and there are often little extra things going on at the sides or in the back that the TV viewers aren’t meant to see.  Costume changes, prop mechanics, etc.  Even some of the choreography doesn’t make much sense unless it’s viewed from the right camera angle.  So while we could see the stage and the performers, the visual appeal of the acts was much different than when I watched the broadcast later.

One other huge difference is in the appeal of the music itself.  At home, Belgium’s talented singer-guitarist was one of our favorites during Semi-Final #1, but in a crowded party atmosphere, the slow songs don’t go over as well.  Everyone reacts so much better to the crazy antics and energy of Lithuania’s silver-shorted goofballs than to Israel’s soulful ballad.  Sadly that means a lot of disappointment when the finalists are announced, since the votes of the home audience vastly outweigh the few thousand performance attendees.  We did feel bad for Lithuania, since their performers spent the rest of the show streaking through the audience in their sparkly silver shorts, waving the Lithuanian flag.

Overall, the entire evening was just so much fun!  The energy level, the fans, the whole experience!  This is one of my personal definitive European experiences, and I’m so glad we were able to go!

So I’ve been excited about the iPad since it was announced, and i pre-ordered one to pick up in the States on this trip. I would have liked the 3G version, but originally I would have been here too early to get it (volcano delays changed that), and we didn’t know if we could get a data plan for it in Norway anyway.

In general, I really like it. It’s a convenient way to browse the web, and I actually like the iBooks e-reader app more than I thought I would. It’s heavier than a paperback, but it’s easier to turn the pages and bookmark my page, and it weighs less than a hardback or heavy paperback. Also, it can take some muscle to hold open a mass-market paperback without cracking the spine (pet peeve), so in some cases it’s more comfortable to read with. Especially in landscape mode, where the shape and size is book-like and familiar.

So far, reading is the only productive thing I’ve tried to do with the device, and there is one productivity pitfall: Whenever I pull it out to start reading (not uncommon when traveling alone), it’s apparently an open invitation to be interrupted. “Is that an iPad?! What do you think of it? I’ve been considering getting one, but I’m not sure. Do you think it’s worth it?”

Since Lucas could already get a job for Apple selling iPhones, MacBooks, and just about everything else the company makes, he would probably relish this, but I’m not much of a talker, and I made my iPad pre-order knowing that it filled a very specific niche in my life. I’m sorry, Mr.Stranger, but I don’t know if you should buy one or not! Though as an Apple shareholder, I should really get my spiel together so that I can convince everyone else to buy one and keep the stock price up. But deep down, I’d really rather just read.

* This post was written on the iPad, making it the second productive thing I’ve done now. But it was in the comfort of my home, with no interruptions from chatty business people.

I’m not sure if it says more about my frugal nature or my disinterest in fashion and beauty, but since moving overseas nearly five years ago, I’ve been using a little dual-voltage travel dryer that I bought at Target shortly before the move to China. When it’s switched over to 220-volt, it only has one setting, and it has a US plug that needs to be adapted to our European outlets. Originally it had one of those polarized US plugs, where one prong is wider than the other. However, since the polarized prong wouldn’t fit into our plug adapters, at some point we took a file and actually filed the prong down to standard size. Later, since the plug in the bathroom faces straight down, we also had to squeeze the prongs together to make the plug tight enough to stay in the adapter.

You would think that such a small purchase wouldn’t be a big deal, but somehow it carries a sense of permanence. I don’t really know why, but as long as I keep using the travel dryer, this is clearly a short-term situation. Especially since it’s a “travel” hair dryer, it makes me feel like we could just pick up and travel somewhere else.

In the last few months the plug has started coming loose again, and every morning I have to readjust it more than once when it loses contact and the power cuts out. When I could no longer find a jury-rigged solution that lasted more than a few minutes, I decided that the time had finally come to bite the bullet.

Luckily, the timing of Elektrofil was perfect, and I was able to buy a new 220-V hair dryer at a significant discount. So if we do suddenly pick up and move, it won’t be a huge loss!

My hearing isn’t fine-tuned enough to tell the difference between an mp3 and a CD, so the appeal of the record player is lost on me, but Lucas swears that the sound quality is better. I understand the scientific argument that the analog recording has all of the original data, beyond what has been digitized into a CD (or even worse – compressed into an mp3), but that doesn’t mean I can hear it. But Lucas can, and that’s what’s important.

But what good is a record player without records? To address this point, we headed down to the market under the bridge in Grønland, where all kinds of junk can be had. After nosing through boxes and boxes of records, Lucas found a few dozen old favorites to start his collection.

There were some good stuff and plenty of nostalgic stuff. And some really random stuff, of course. But among the albums, we found this gem:

It was like a real life Rick Roll. I was astonished that the record was even there, because surely they’re some kind of bizarre meme-inspired collector’s item by now! So of course we had to buy it, for the humor alone. Maybe sometime when Lucas isn’t looking, I should swap out the record in the player, so that he unwittingly plays Rick Astley instead.

Lucas has spent the last two weekends getting his PADI scuba certification in preparation for our trip to Mozambique. Back in Austin, this would be no big deal, but we’re in Norway. And this is “open-water” diving!

Yes, that means that his certification dives were in the Oslofjord. Swimming in the fjord is shockingly cold even in the hottest summer weather, so the idea of going in the water in February/March sounds insane to me. Even some of the Norwegians were surprised to find out that they offer dive courses at this time of year!

Of course the divers wear dry suits, but can you imagine getting in the water when it’s -10°C outside? Even just the thought of standing around on shore in a dry suit and a few layers of wool underwear makes me shiver. I guess the perk of getting a scuba certification in Norway is that you get your dry-suit diving certification by default at the same time. (If you can call that a perk. I personally don’t think I have any desire to get a dry-suit certification!)

But Lucas and his classmates survived, and I’m very proud of him for making it through the ordeal! And I’m sure he’ll be excited to dive in Africa, where hopefully the water will be a little warmer.

We booked our trip to Paris back in December when RyanAir was having one of their crazy airfare sales, and the roundtrip tickets cost only 200 NOK (around $35) per person.  Since we could fly any weekend in February, I thought it might be something fun to do for Valentine’s Day.

Since I’ve been to Paris a few times before, and I spent a few months there during university, the trip didn’t require much planning.  As soon as we booked the tickets, I looked around for a decent budget hotel, and found the fantastic little Hotel Diana in the Latin Quarter (with free Wi-Fi – a huge convenience with the iPhone).

Beyond booking the hotel, I really didn’t do anything else, so by the time February rolled around, I had nearly forgotten about the trip.  I knew it was coming up, but I wasn’t thinking about it, since we were in the middle of an organizational flurry for our Easter trip to South Africa and Mozambique.

Part of that was the application for Lucas’s visa to South Africa, and thanks to an unexpected delay getting his last UK visa, he was anxious about getting the application in as early as possible.  When we finally gathered the documentation and appeared at the embassy, the consular agent told us it would take a week or two, and I was about to ask Lucas if there was a chance he’d need to travel for work when I realized, “We’re supposed to go to Paris next weekend!”  Thankfully the South African embassy was wonderfully accommodating, and they were able to process his visa in time for the Paris trip!

We threw some clothes into our carry-on bags, bid the cats goodbye, and headed to the bus station for the long ride to the Torp airport.  (In true RyanAir irony, the roundtrip bus tickets cost more than the airfare!)  After an uneventful flight and another bus ride, we were in downtown Paris!  Since it was already nearing midnight, we took a €12 taxi ride from the bus stop at Porte Maillot to the hotel, and along the way I pointed out to Lucas the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, and Notre Dame cathedral.

The next morning we began our sightseeing by walking over to the Panthéon, because it was close to the hotel and I had actually never seen it (short of rushing past in a taxi).  From there we walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was eerily quiet.  In good summer weather, the gardens are crowded to capacity, but in the frosty February chill, the entire garden was practically deserted.

From there we walked over to Église Saint-Sulpice.  This was another place I’ve never been, even though I was interested in seeing the Delacroix murals.  At that point we decided that despite the temperatures, Paris in February is somehow colder than Oslo in February (I think it’s the wind chill), and we stopped back at the hotel to change into warmer socks.

Our next stop was Notre Dame cathedral.  Unfortunately, due to the ice, we couldn’t climb the towers and see the chimera, but the bare trees made it easier to appreciate the Gothic architecture of the exterior, and I enjoyed seeing it in the snow.

After a walk along the Seine and enjoying the views from Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts, it was time to find some lunch.  Although we planned to eat French food, the restaurant we were looking for turned out to be closed.  Since we were very close to the street I used to visit for Japanese food, we ended up having yakiniku for our first meal in Paris!

After lunch, we walked past the apartment I shared with Mike and Meera and walked back through Jardin des Tuileries to the Louvre.  The line wasn’t long and security was moving quickly, so we were able to use the main entrance through the I.M. Pei glass pyramids.  As it was a Friday, and the museum would be open late, we had plenty of time, so when I asked Lucas what he most wanted to see, he didn’t believe me that we couldn’t see it all.  In the end, we made a noble effort, and we did cover a lot of the museum!

When museum fatigue finally got to us, we walked over to the Marais and had a leisurely dinner at Vins des Pyrénées.  The wait staff was friendly, and the food was quite good – especially Lucas’s duck breast!  Yum!

Our second day began at the Rodin Museum – surprisingly, yet another place that I’d never visited!  It was snowing lightly as we explored the grounds, and I appreciated the contrast of the dark bronze sculptures against the snow.  We enjoyed the exhibits inside the museum and were amused to find a painting of Rodin’s famous The Thinker by none other than Norway’s own Edvard Munch!

After a quick stop for lunch at a cafe, we visited the Musée d’Orsay, which was quite crowded considering it was February (though it was a Saturday).

From there, we walked over to the Place de la Concorde and down the Champs-Élysées, where we bought a snack and decided to watch a film to take a break from walking.  Afterward we climbed the Arc de Triomphe to admire the views and happened to time it so that we could watch the Tour Eiffel exhibit its hourly sparkling effect (a holdover from the Year 2000 celebrations of my original time in Paris).

While we had Tour Eiffel on our minds, we headed over to visit the iconic structure and waited in the queue to go up.  Due to the late time and the questionable weather, we could only visit the 2nd floor, but the wind cut our visit quite short anyhow!  The one time that I seriously questioned the idea of visiting Paris in February was when I was shivering in the icy wind atop Tour Eiffel!

For our last full day in Paris we took the RER out to Versailles.  In a twist of luck, the weather cleared up a bit on Sunday (Valentine’s Day), so the sun was shining as we waited in line to visit the château, and the weather was much better for wandering around the gardens.

Although I’d been to Versailles a few times before, the Petit Trianon had not yet been restored, and I was happy to have the chance to explore Marie Antoinette’s little realm.  I particularly enjoyed the charming Queen’s Hamlet (Hameau de la reine).  I’m not sure if I just missed it on my other visits or if it’s only been restored in the past decade as well.

We returned to downtown around sunset and headed up to Montmartre, where we visited the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and then walked back down along the winding roads and quiet stairways.  Back at the bottom of the hill, we strolled by Pigalle (because nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like sex show ads and a massive “Sexodrome”) so Lucas could see the Moulin Rouge.

For dinner, we waited in the queue outside Chartier and then gorged ourselves on ridiculously cheap food!

On Monday morning we took the RER from Hotel Diana back to Porte Maillot to catch the bus to Beauvais Airport.

Related Post:  Travel Tips – Avoiding Paris Museum Queues

We drove up on Friday night, and our first cross-country experience was quite an adventure – skiing from the car to the cabin carrying our bags through the dark!  On Saturday, we took a slightly longer ski trip and then spent the rest of the time curled up in the cabin, enjoying the heat by the wood stove and drinking wine.

The trip was a lot of fun, but I have to admit that after a few days it was nice to be back to the cats, the running water, the electricity, and the indoor bathroom!