fødselsdag

After the Munch Museum and dinner in downtown Oslo, A.De and I walked past the royal palace. The king's 70th birthday was coming up in three days, so these guys were out in front working on a huge ice sculpture. Apparently it was too warm to work with ice during the day. I never saw the finished product, but I heard it was shaped like a flower and you could walk through it. Awesome.

Chainsaw closeup:

I watched about half of the king's gala birthday party on TV a few days later. It was pretty awesome - about a million royals (ok, 58) from all over Europe, watching a performance by kids from every county in Norway. There was all sorts of stuff. One county sent three boys with three full drum kits. Another sent a pair of teenagers doing ballroom dance. The county where I used to live sent little dancing girls in glitter. (Ouch.)

I was excited when the folks from Sogn og Fjordane, on the west coast, busted out with traditional music and costumes, but the highlight was definitely the performance from Finnmark, in the way way north, where a lot of Sami - formerly known as Lapps - live. So it was a couple of teenagers...rapping in Sami. The dude had cornrows and hip-hop moves, and when the girl was singing, he'd say "yeah." Sami hip-hop - now I've seen it all. They were good, too.