Norweigian National Day in Oslo!

My friend Jeetu had been asking me to visit Norway on 17th May, which happens to be the national day of Norway. Oslo is about 3 hours by bus from Gothenburg. So on 16th May evening I started and reached there at about 7 PM. The way to Oslo was very hilly and there were few really long tunnels. The panorama in Norway was remarkably different from what’s seen in Sweden. I felt Oslo must be the greenest capital in the world. There are huge valleys, wide-spread fjords and lush green hills around the city centre.

Jeetu had come to pick me. We boarded the fast train to his spartment in Alsker, a beautiful and upscale sub-urb in Oslo. His apartment was on a hill and it was quite adventurous to walk till there. This was one of his flat-mates birthday so had nice cake and ice-cream to eat as well. Jeetu cooked some Indian vegetables and rice. Retired early that night as we had planned to see the national day celebrations in the city centre.

Day 1:

Got up early and reached the Castle where the parade from all around Oslo ends. It wasn’t the kind of day I had expected it to be. It was extremely cold and I wasn’t rightly dressed for it. Temperature had dropped about 15 C in a day. It began to rain which in some time turned into snow. There wasn’t much happening there at 8:30 AM in that bone-chilling cold. So we asked one of the residents and we were directed to the right street. And voila, there it was.. the procession a la our republic day parade sans display of military power. There was fun and festivity in the air and every single citizen seemed to be on the streets. Elderly, middle-aged, youth, boys, little kids all carrying the national flag and yelling the war-cry out of the lungs.
We joined the parade and it felt good to be a part of it. Norway was ruled by Denamrk and Sweden for decades and the Norwegians seemed to value the hard-fought independence.
They were just going berserk and it was heartening to see such a great participation from the countrymen, young and old alike. The parade gathered near the opera house where many other groups joined. This day also marks the graduation day for the students there. They were dressed in a kind of funny red baggy cargo pants and white jackets.