Break out the SPF

The past week in Oslo has seen temperatures threatening to push the mercury into the teens (celsius)/50s (farenheit).  Needless to say after months of mind numbing cold and treacherous ice (I'm not going to jinx my non-falling uprightness streak by mentioning it here), this is quite the development.  Maybe I've assimilated (at least in weather-related matters), because I'm almost as excited as the Norwegians (i dag vil jeg sole meg!)... I say "almost" because I wouldn't consider jumping in to the water in the picture above unlike many of my new countrymen.


This doesn't mean that I'm joining all the Ole's and Maja's in sipping coffee, enjoying outside seating, at the local kaffebrenneriet (that cold breeze off the North Sea ain't nothin' to play wit'!).  Nor does it mean I'm joining all the Mathias' and Linnia's (yes, I'm using this as an excuse to bust out crazy, Norwegian names) in hitting the trails for the last, good cross-country skiing of the season ("Matty, seriously, stop asking!  For the last time, jeg liker ikke langrenn!).  


Though, I will be enjoying the outdoors a little more than usual with some outings to Oslo's places to see and be seen.  There's something about the late winter days here that is hard to describe.  The sky, perhaps unfettered by the abundance of smog and suburban sprawl seemingly omnipresent on the east coast, seems almost to be... bluer.  Its like two shades deeper blue than the sky my eyes have grown accustomed to seeing over the years (then again, maybe that I'm just so unaccustomed to seeing the sky at all here that it just seems more blue).  Anyway, there is something here that I need to see.  And I will...

Pictures forthcoming.