Today was gorgeous, created specially for the weekend by the Norse travel bureau for filming, I’m sure. Silky white wisps adorned the pale blue sky and though the sun blazed the temperature was in the upper seventies. It seemed the majority of the citizens had been drawn to the Karl Johans Gate street and the waterfront area along the Rådhusgata. Stairs became benches and the grassy park areas were picnicked upon.

And I have now decided that Norway has stolen the title of the most beautiful women in Europe. In Poland I observed that about one in every 10 women 18-30 could be a model, and that one in 100 would leave you dumbstruck. From what I’ve seen here today I’d have to say that about the same percentage could be models, but it seems that even the ones I wouldn’t consider model-worthy are more attractive than those in Poland. And the occurrence of being dumbstruck is more common here.

But Norway isn’t all good things. In the early 1900s the government changed the name of it’s capital from Christiania to Oslo. Roald Dahl said it was a shame and he didn’t know why it was done. I think it started as a snide remark about the service in restaurants. O so slow. You get better service in Hell (also a city in Norway). I believe the custom must be to stalk your waiter and club them to get their attention. I’ve left two restaurants today after not being approached within fifteen minutes of sitting down. I finally did eat in a restaurant but had to practically throw myself in the path of the waitress to get a menu. After that I was attended to normally.

And Norwegians are quite pushy in a bar. They don’t try to squeeze through or tap people, they just walk forward chest first slamming into whoever is on their way, not caring if they spill beers or give you whiplash. It would be annoying except that the women do this too, which is fairly pleasant actually.