Guest Entry from My Favorite Sister

Hello blog reader friends!
Martha has been having quite a lovely time here in Norway, as I’m sure you’re aware. However, there has been a huge, gigantic, unfillable hole in her life for the past few months that she has not mentioned here because it is too painful for her to talk about. That hole, my friends, is her dear, darling, favorite sister, Lisa. THAT’S ME! AND NOW I’M HERE!
I flew in to save the day last Friday, December 16th. I braved public transportation (which was mostly communicated to me in Norwegian, a language in which I have approximately zero knowledge) and met Martha at the main train station in downtown Oslo. We shared a beautiful reunion moment, where there may have been a few tears shed. (There were actually no tears, but doesn’t that paint a better picture?)
I had a goal to stay up until 8:00pm to prevent jet lag, but, since I had been awake for about 26 hours already, that did not happen. So, Friday was a fairly dull day for the Torstenson sisters. But, we did go to the grocery store! Exciting sister adventures!
I slept for about 14 hours that night, so on Saturday, I was ready to start our real sister adventures. We talked about what landmarks and activities we should definitely do with our week here in Oslo, but decided we did not need to be über ambitious about it. On Saturday, we experienced the major downtown adventure. I saw my first glimpse of the royal palace, which apparently is one of the smallest palaces around. Fun history fact: the architect designed it to look bigger than it actually is by making a maze of hallways dinner guests would walk through to make it seem like they went super far, when really they just walked around the entire castle. Those mischievous Norwegians!
Then, we went to the modern art museum, which was right by the fjord. The museum was super cool and modern. There was even a real (dead) cow! Also, lots naked people. Also, lots of art from the US, which I thought was strange. In the gift shop, there were posters of city landscapes you could draw on, but there were none of Norwegian cities, just NYC, LA, and the US as a whole. Did I even go abroad, or were we in some sort of secret corner of America? Was this all a conspiracy?????
After the museum, we tromped around downtown Oslo for a bit. So many string lights above the streets! Oslo has got the jule-spirit down, I gotta say. It also surprised me how much outdoor seating there is at restaurants, since it is very much winter.
After the sun set, we went to the Opera house and walked on the roof. Gorgeous view, but SO ICY! Martha and I shuffle walked around, giving us a sneak peek into how we will get around when we’re 90 (spoiler: very slowly). This is assuming we’re still sisters and we still like walking.
To round out the day, we went to the Christmas market, which, at that point in my life, was the most Norwegian/festive/Christmas-y thing I’ve ever seen. We didn’t buy anything, but we got some good free food samples! And, let’s be real, isn’t that the point of going anywhere?
SLEEP INTERLUDE
Now came Sunday! And we all know what that means! Sunday Tour!! (This is a classic Norwegian thing, I am told. Everything closes so people can go outside. In terms of things I want, this is one of the things.)
We celebrated this tradition by taking a hike at Nordmarka. The plan was to hike to the top of the hill and see the view of Oslo/ Holmenkollen. Martha had taken this walk a few times before, and it was a wide, well-marked trail, so there was no way we could get lost. Right? WRONG.
Really tough to say how it happened, but we ended up on a different trail, then on a road, then on this very narrow trail that went up the back of the hill in a steep and winding fashion. It was actually quite a fun adventure. Norway’s nature is gorgeous. It was a foggy day, but we were above the fog. When we finally got to the top, our view was the fog, Holmenkollen, a few other hills, and the sun, which just looked like a sunset all day. Absolutely stunning.
We were invited to the Tørvald’s for dinner, the family of one of my dad’s college friends, Dag. We had a very lovely dinner of super fresh cod (as in it was caught the day before). Their family is so nice and welcoming and they all lead such interesting lives. I aspire to live their lives.

SLEEP INTERLUDE
Monday was the day of culture. We went to the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, a museum that Dag and Siri recommended. It seriously had it all. The indoor exhibits had traditional clothing, folk art, history of Christmas traditions, knitting, clergies, and just everything. What was so cool about this museum, though, was the outdoor part. All of the buildings were reminiscent of old buildings from different parts of the countries, so we could see how people used to live. We also saw Stavkirke, which was an old church built in the 1200’s. With all the old buildings and the rad fog, I felt like I was back in time. Almost. I knew I wasn’t actually. No hallucinations. I’m just saying it was a GOOD MUSEUM.
After lunch, we traversed to Frogner park, which is one of the key parts of Oslo, the largest sculpture garden from one artist in the world. It was still quite foggy, which gave the park a completely different vibe than I’m sure it has on a sunny summer’s day. Very eerie. My favorite sculpture was of a baby that did NOT look happy to be there. I would gander that it was better than a real grumpy baby, because it wasn’t making any noise.
We then ventured to the National Gallery, where we saw the über

famous art like the Scream. Fun history fact: the reason the sky is red in that painting is because the volcano Krakatoa made the sky red at the time that Munch painted it.
After the classic art, we went to my personal favorite exhibit: the gingerbread house competition! The theme this year was movies and TV shows, so the houses were inspired by things such as Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, and Up. The magic some people can create with gingerbread is truly inspiring. Aspirations.
SLEEP INTERLUDE
Since this was our last day before the family arrived and we went on

our hectic-as-heck trip around the country, we decided to make Tuesday rather chill. Our main goal for the day was Holmenkollen, since it was one of the three attractions Martha decided everyone HAS to see when they visit Oslo. The weather this week had been less than ideal, so we had been putting it off. But, since this was our last day, mere weather would not stop our adventuring! Unfortunately for us, however, the weather on this day was the least ideal out of all the days I had been there. The fog was INSANE. I am not exaggerating when I say you could not see further than 30 feet. Complete white-out. We stood at the bottom of the jump and could not see the actual jump. So not the best time to see the view of Oslo. But it was a FUN! SISTER! ADVENTURE!!!!
That evening, we went to Peppes’ Pizza for an “Authentic American Experience” with Ingeborg, her daughters, and her cousin Ingerlise. It was a very lovely evening. The friendship that Ingeborg and Ingerlise have is what I aspire to have one day. They were laughing together the whole night. I also was trying, throughout the course of dinner, to figure out which of Ingeborg’s daughters I was and which one Martha was. I am fairly positive that I figured it out.
Hilde is older, but she is a cardiologist (science-y) and she ordered chocolate lava cake for dessert. Anette is younger, but she is an accountant (math-y) and ordered apple pie for dessert.
Martha is a math major, and I’m more interested in biology. And guess what we ordered for dessert??? I got chocolate lava cake and Martha got apple pie. Seriously, the similarities are impossible to miss. We are basically the same people!