Monday, February 25, 2013

21

Hello everyone!  So the main thing that has happened to me in the past week was my birthday, whoohoo!  I turned 21 on Friday, but I’ll get to that later on in this post, first I’ll mention my day today.  I had class and then went to two museums in Oslo that are right next to each other: the Fram Museum and Kon-Tiki Museum.  Both are about exploration with boats.  The Fram centers on the arctic excursions of Norwegians over several years in the ship called (obviously) the Fram.  The other, the Kon-Tiki, focuses on the journey in 1947 by Thor Heyerdahl and a small crew in a raft constructed to address Heyerdahl’s hypothesis that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre Columbian times.  His aim in the expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so.  As you may or may not have noticed with last night’s Oscars, the new feature version of Kon-Tiki was up for Best Foreign Film.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch the Academy Awards because I couldn’t live stream with the time difference and the video files of it now are only available in the US.  Quite a bummer, but oh well.  On to my full week, birthday included!

Tuesday:  I went on a field seminar with HECUA to Civita, a Norwegian economic think tank.  We went to go learn about their perspective on Norwegian spending and the welfare state, and it was a conservative view at that.  Educational nonetheless, biases make for more learning.  After that visit, I had dinner with my boss from Queer Youth along with two of her friends and girlfriend at her apartment.  I had a great time with everyone sipping champagne, red wine, and eating the traditional Norwegian meal my boss had prepared for us meat eaters, aka reindeer.  It was quite good!  Sorry Rudolph…

Wednesday:  My midweek work day times two this time: I had an intern shift at QY helping Ashild (my boss) with organizing the office and also had a shift at Uglebo.  This was the first time I had worked at the student pub on a Wednesday (I’d only done Fridays before) and that meant bartending Quiz Night.  The quiz night produced a packed bar but a calmer one as well.  As usual, Uglebo was fun and I cashed in for a couple beers for the after party.

Thursday:  I got home around 3:00 in the morning due to the after party and slept for only about three hours because I had a Skype date with my gal pals Felicia and Kathleen in SF at 7:00am my time, 10:00pm PST.  After chatting for a half hour or so, I went back to bed for two hours then dragged myself to class.  This was a difficult day to get through and after class I worked hard to finish I paper I had due the next day.  I wanted to be done with my essay before midnight so I wouldn’t be writing it anymore on my birthday.  I finished around 11:45pm, booyah.

Friday:  BIRTHDAY!  Turning 21 doesn’t hold as much weight in Norway as it does in America, but I knew that coming into this semester.  The drinking age here is threefold: you can buy anything from a grocery store that’s alcoholic and go to student pubs when you’re 18 (so primarily beer), at 20 you can buy hard liquor and have mixed drinks, which means you can go to the majority of bars, and lastly (and most disappointingly) some places are surprising 23 and older.  I was turned away from a bar my first weekend in Oslo for not being 23, which I didn’t expect.  But I think it’s up to each bar whom they want to serve so there’s the third age characteristic in Norway.  

Anyways, I woke up and my friend Many made me crepes for breakfast, yum.  Then I went shopping on Karl Johans gate right off of downtown (refer to pics from a previous entry).  After doing some spending, I went back to my apartment to prep for a party in the evening I was hosting.  When I got home, my lovely roomies had decorated the kitchen with balloons, had a cake in the oven, and presented me with a card!  I sure lucked out with my flat mates, as I’ve written in prior posts.  Love those guys <3  So I had a party in my apartment and that story will remain a 21st birthday mystery =)

Saturday:  Had a pretty lazy Saturday, then went to a party (another birthday actually) in a building close to mine in the same student village and after a little while we all headed to Amatøren.  As I’ve mentioned, this is the student pub in the student village (Sogn) but it’s not usually open on Saturdays.  This night was different because it was Latin Dance Party Night.  The bar pretty full by the time we got there and when I left about an hour and a half later it was packed.  I had a good time.  Who would have thought I’d been doing the Macarena or dancing to Mamba Number 5 in Oslo?

Sunday:  This was an indoor day mostly at my computer.  I caught up on some work and watched some online TV, which I hadn’t done in a while lol.  I did pick myself to go out to Amatøren for a second night in a row because Sundays are movie nights.  And last night the pub screened Skyfall, which I loved in theaters.  Watch it if you have or haven’t, I highly recommend it.  Viewing the latest Bond on a good sized projector screen was a nice way to end another great week in Norway.  And now I’m 21.  Time flies!

Only a few photos this week, sorry folks!

  
Delicious!

I love my roomies: Nini, Claudia, and Davide

Monday, February 18, 2013

Homecoming

I arrived in Edinburgh (Ed-in-bur-ah) last Monday evening and my short time there was wonderful.  My heritage is very highly Scottish and being in the capital city of the nation of my family really was an experience of a lifetime.

Here’s the lowdown of my time in the land of plaid, whisky, and bagpipes.

Tuesday: My first full day in Edinburgh.  The previous night I had checked into my 6 bed mixed (aka unisex) dorm at Smart City Hostel and had just stayed in for dinner and an early bedtime.  I woke up and headed up the Royal Mile, the historical main street of the city.  The goal of the day was to cover the western half of Edinburgh which consisted of the following:
  • Storming the Castle (yep, Princess Bride reference).  The Castle is beautiful and huge, and it can be seen from all over the city.  I paid my 14 or so pounds (pay it, totally worth the expense) and went on a self-tour which took about an hour and a half and there was plenty to see.  It mostly has military displays, since the main purpose of the castle was defense, but there are also some more extravagant displays like the crown jewels, royal apartments, and great hall.  Military wise, there are prisons, honorary museums, memorials, a dog cemetery and more.  Other spots are the chapel and the several gift shops, including the whisky shop.  I picked up a quick breakfast of tea and a scone at the Castle’s Redcoat Café.
  • Walked around Grassmarket, a little square of bars, restaurants and coffeehouses.
  • Headed up Victoria Street to one of the inner city bridges (there are three main ones).  Stopped by The Elephant House (the café where J.K Rowling started the Harry Potter on a napkin).  With Platform 9 ¾ and The Elephant House, I got to see two HP sites this trip.
  • Then I went to the largest museum in Edinburgh (aside from everything at the castle if you add all those exhibitions into one big sum of history), the National Museum of Scotland.  Half the museum is dedicated to the transformation of Scotland as a nation, with each floor representing a different time period.  The ground floor starts with the early peoples in the BC years and the top (6th) floor brings Scotland to the last century or so of its history along with where the nation stands now and what its future may or may not look like. The other half of the museum is like a handful of museums made into one to cover all the bases: art, science, culture, the animal kingdom, and other exhibits make up this more holistic half.  I stuck mostly to the Scottish half, but the entirety of the National Museum of Scotland is definitely a worthwhile way to spend a few hours, and it’s free!
  • New Town, the northwestern part of Edinburgh, which as its name suggests is the more contemporary area of the city.  Princes, Rose, and George are the three streets over there which hold more modern shopping and hustle and bustle.  Wandered around and grabbed lunch on the go to head towards my next stop.
  • Across from the stores on Princes Street, which is the main strip of New Town, is the National Gallery which holds a small but mighty collection of artwork with its basement boasts only creations done by Scottish artists.  This is another wallet friendly visit to hit up in Edinburgh for the price of free.
  • After the gallery, I headed back to Smart City for a little bit and then ate dinner at No. 1 High Street, a pub on the Royal Mile.
Wednesday: Second and last full day in the Scottish capital.  This time the eastern part of the city was my focus.
  • Woke up to snow falling but wasn’t too concerned, Norway has never been without snow during my time in Oslo.  Headed east to take the hike to Arthur’s Seat, one of the best ways to see Edinburgh as the city’s volcano.
  • Going up Arthur’s Seat was scenic and manageable; the trail is pretty flat until you get right to the peak.  By the time I got to the top (a hike of about 40 minutes), Arthur’s Seat was straight up scary because of the weather.  The snow had started to come down hard and the wind was howling and whipping so fast; I was worried I was going to fall off!  And due to the snow and wind, there was no view to see as well.  Slowly and steadily I made my way down but slipped more times than I have in a month in Norway.  I was sore and cold and ready to move onto a safer, indoor part of my day.  In short, Arthur’s Seat is a must in Edinburgh and I’m glad I did it, but CAUTION and best wishes to you if you choose to go in the weather I went in.
  • After reaching street level, thank God, I went to the Palace at Holyroodhouse aka Her Majesty’s abode while in Scotland which was so elegant.
  • Following the best audio tour of my life, I went to the Queen’s Gallery which had “60 Photographs for 60 Years” to honor the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
  • Unfortunately I couldn’t go inside the Scottish Parliament because it was closed for recess I guess, so that was a bummer.  Oh well, the walked up the Royal Mile to have a quick visit into the Museum of Edinburgh (another freebie, pretty quaint), had a great sit down lunch of great salmon at The Outsiders (a few doors down from The Elephant House) and then did all my souvenir shopping.   
  • To conclude my day, I had bangers and mash and a Rob Roy at Whiski right up the street from my hostel.
Thursday:  I took the Air Link bus to Edinburgh Airport and flew back to Oslo on a noon flight with Norwegian.  This was one of the emptiest planes I’ve ever been on; I guess Edinburgh to Oslo isn’t a popular route.  When booking, this was the only direct flight within three days so head’s up if anyone is hoping to go between these two cities in the future.  Anyways, got to Oslo around 3pm Norway time (it’s an hour ahead of the UK, so a two hour flight) and made my way back home to Sogn student village.  Relaxed the rest of the night away.

*The UK was a great decision to see for my break, I definitely see myself going there again sometime.  Hostel wise, my experiences in London and Edinburgh were good in different ways.  In London, at Equity Point, I was in an eight bed all female room.  It was near the Paddington Station, had breakfast included, and was very pleasant.  All the girls were nice and easy to share the space with, and I slept well every night.  In Edinburgh, at Smart City Hostel which is just two blocks off the Royal Mile and has a hip bar/restaurant with great prices, and I was in in a six bed mixed room that was a true mix, 3 girls 3 guys.  The bathroom was much bigger than the one at EQ and the room was cheaper for less people.  Both Edinburgh and London are on the pound, with the same coins but print their own cash (English vs. Scottish), but currency is worth the same.  Edinburgh was slightly less expensive than London overall, not just the hostel.   One last thing about pounds: You can use either bills in Scotland no problem, but I read that you’ll get a weird look to say the least if you use Scottish pounds in England.

Friday:  I went into Queer Youth today to make sure I had a shift this week.  I usually go in on Wednesdays but being out of town made for that to be obviously not possible.  Anyways, my main task of the day was putting this together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzyxoOkjYoo.  It’s a quick little compilation of QY’s summer camp powered by Windows Movie Maker.  Man, I miss producing.  One of the main things I miss about home/being on campus is USFtv, excited to return in the fall.  After a good shift of video making, I had dinner with my friend Many and then a shift at Uglebo.  This was my third night bartending and the fun is constant with compensation at the end in pints of beer; it’s a sweet gig and one of my favorite things I’ve picked up doing in Oslo.  

Saturday: With a week of plan packed traveling and yesterday with double work, I took an easy Saturday.  That meant grocery shopping, laundry, and watching online television.

Sunday: This was another low key day, but I didn’t even leave my flat, ha.  I worked on my ISP midterm report which was due today (Monday) and picked up watching more TV.  I did do a little socializing, leaving my computer to have dinner with my roomie Rebecca and her friend Linda.  Feta and veggie flat bread, a glass of wine, followed by a beer, and good conversation all made for a good evening.

Now onto a full week back in Oslo!


This is the strip in the city that starts at the Castle and ends at the Palace. Name makes sense huh?

In front of the Castle of my ancestors, got a little teary eyed

The entrance of the Castle: “No one attacks me with impunity”

Need a kilt or scarf?

My childhood thanks you Elephant House

All smiles on the way up, different story back down

The top of Arthur’s Seat


Courtyard at the Palace

Monday, February 11, 2013

London Called and It Was a Circus

Hello from Scotland everyone!  I arrived by train to Edinburgh this afternoon from London and am here to report my time in the land of tea, literature, and Will and Kate.

First, I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday in Norway for classes and then headed to the airport to fly with British Airways Thursday night.  My days in Oslo last week included a very fun and cultural heavy roommate dinner on Tuesday night which included Swiss macaroni, waffles and Georgian vodka.  I really lucked out with who I live with =)  Other than that, I had classes, an internship shift with me helping apply Google translate to the Queer Youth page and making lunch for the office, and a visit from a young Conservative party member to see another political perspective from Norway after meeting with Labor Youth last Monday.

Anyways, with a quick summary of my time in Oslo done, on to London!

As mentioned I flew out on Thursday night (it’s about 2 hours from Oslo to London) and got to Equity Point London (my hostel) around midnight.  Equity Point is in Paddington, five or so blocks away from the station where the Heathrow express train stops which was a major perk.  I’d never stayed in a hostel before and my four nights at Equity Point went really well, everyone was nice in my eight bed female only dorm room and the location plus amenities (free breakfast!) were great.  I paid about $20 a night and my stay exceeded its worth.

So, in total I had three full days in London: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the whole weekend.  I usually go day by day with paragraphs for my blogs but this time I’m going to list my trip with bullet points.  Paragraphs this time around would be way too much to read!  I also met up with two USFers studying in London with the BU program, my pals Katherine and Erin!  They were such great hostesses.  Alright, here goes with days and buddies next to them:

Sights:
  •  Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (Friday)
  • Science Museum (Friday)   
  •  Piccadilly Circus (All weekend)
  • Oxford Circus (Friday)
  • Harrod’s Department Store (Friday with Katherine, five floors of extravagance)
  • Victoria and Albert Museum (Saturday)
  • Borough Market (Saturday, Katherine and her roomie Rebecca) 
  •  Camden Town (Saturday, Katherine)
  • Trafalgar Square for Chinese New Year (Sunday)
  • Big Ben (Sunday)
  • Westminster Abbey (Sunday)
  • The Eye (Sunday, from afar, no ride)
  • Parliament (Sunday) 
  •  Rode the Tube all weekend long! 
Food and Drink:
  • Indian, mmm Tikka Masala! (Dinner with Katherine)
  • One of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten (Borough Market, buddies above)
  • Fish and Chips (Dinner with Erin)
  • Plenty of beer (Erin)
  • Cider (Erin)
  • All the ones with Erin were Sunday informal, two girls out pub crawl kind of thing with three different ones in Kensington that all ended with “Arms” ha
  • Tea and pastries (Afternoon tea at Kensington Close Hotel with Katherine)
  • Various desserts (crepes, cookies, mousse)
As you can probably tell above, my time in London was packed.  Three days left me wanting more, the city is huge and there’s so much left to explore.  I got a taste for London and will definitely go back.  The city has so much to offer, even if you’re on a college kid budget.  A ton of museums are free like the ones I went to and I highly recommend market food, where everything is fresh and really decently priced if you don’t mind waiting in lines and eating standing up.  All in all, London was a dream come true, I’ve wanted to visit it for years.  In addition to spending a quality weekend jumping all over the city, I also got to have another dream come true before getting on the train this morning.  Childhood fantasy realized, scroll down to see the magic, pun intended!

This post is my experience in London in a nutshell, and a few choice photos below out of the dozens I took.  The camera I brought from home actually died two hours into my first day and I had to pick up another one to make sure I could document my time in London and now Scotland.  It was quite a stroke of bad luck that led to a grouchy visit to buy another camera, but my trip was well documented after I shelled out 90 unexpected pounds!

Check in next Monday for a blog post on Edinburgh, ta ta til then!


British manners on every sidewalk! Actually more like a warning, jaywalking is super dangerous in London, drivers will run you over

Ohhh, science! For free!

I wonder if the Tube scene in Skyfall was at the Bond station =P

I’ve been to London’s Time Square before the actual Time Square, ha.  This is Piccadilly Circus
And art, also for free! Victoria and Albert Museum

Om nom nom

A market in old time horse stables? Yep, in Camden Town (The land of many markets, this is just one)

Oh you fancy huh Ben? Without a doubt

A spot of Earl Grey and more

YES, EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS YES

Off to Hogwarts! Scarf and childhood wish made reality provided by King’s Cross


Monday, February 4, 2013

Norway: Where Clothes are Cheaper than Beer

Happy Monday all, and happy February as well!  I’ve been in Oslo for exactly a month, time has flown by.  I’m going to start out this post by trying to explain my program setup over here, which has proved a little difficult each time I’ve been asked by other students.

I’m in Norway with HECUA, a study abroad organization, not a school.  I applied to my program after learning about it at USF, my school.  The way it worked out is that USF has sponsored programs for studying abroad which means it has partnerships with other schools, especially Jesuit ones, and organizations like HECUA.  Being in a sponsored program means I pay the same tuition as I do when on campus in San Francisco.  So, in a nutshell, I’m paying what I would in the states but get to live abroad for a semester… Who can turn that down?!?

Anyways, my classes are where it gets hard to explain.  I’m taking three classes here, two that are sit down with attendance and my ISP, and my only classmates are six other Americans.  I’m taught by one professor for my two meet up classes, who is also American but has lived in Norway for five or so years. All this in mind, I study at the University of Oslo but with HECUA courses.  Meaning I never registered, my classes were the ones I knew coming in, and so I don’t have classes with other UiO students.  If you’re confused that’s totally understandable, I get that reaction a lot.  I recommend looking up the HECUA website if you want to learn more! (www.hecua.org)

I wrote for a little bit about my program because today was a great example of what we do in our American small group.  We started out on campus for a class session about Norwegian politics, with the main topic being about the country’s most successful party: the Labor Party.  After our class discussion, we went out on what’s called a field seminar.  Today we got the chance to go to the Labor Youth Party’s headquarters and meet with Trygve, a 24 year old policy advisor for AUF (the youth party’s acronym).  Every Norwegian party, there’s nine total with seven in Stortinget aka Parliament, has a youth party which as a Politics major had me so envious.  There’s nothing comparable in America to the youth parties here.  Trygve is a part of the largest youth party; Labor is the largest party as a whole so that makes sense as well as the fact that young Norwegians really identify with the center left ideology of Labor.  According to him, there are about 13,000 members in AUF with an age range of 13 to mid-30s.  And AUF really can have influence over its mother party; having a youth voice on policy can sway those sitting in Stortinget.  Plus, those involved in the youth party can feed into the mother party.  All in all, youth in Norway have a much bigger opportunity to become politically involved with the country’s parties than any way I’ve seen in the US.  Like I’ve mentioned, as a Politics major this was a great field seminar.  We’ll also be meeting with other youth parties in the coming days/weeks like with the Young Conservatives.

Moving on to the past week!  Here’s the breakdown:

Tuesday:  Class was awesome today!  One word: Borgen.  That’s the title of the really popular Danish show about a female prime minister.  Like the quality of The West Wing.  As I said, awesome. 

After class I went back to my room and locked myself in for the night to finish a paper that was due on Wednesday.  It was difficult because I had only the night before to work on it as well because I had been in ISP proposal mode til Monday morning which dominated my weekend (refer to prior post).  Anyways, essay writing took up most of my Tuesday.

Wednesday:  Turned in my paper in the morning (huzzah!) and then headed to my internship at Queer Youth.  Today was my first full shift after a little difficulty with the front buzzer.  I met up with Ashild, Eirik, and the rest of those from the floor since Queer Youth has a connected kitchen with its mother organization LLH.  My main tasks of the day were two things.  One was helping do some mega meal planning plus grocery shopping for the national gathering this weekend for QY (all the regional offices from across Norway were coming for three days of meetings).  And the other was to start the ground work on a blog QY’s Transgender Committee wants built.  I’ve blogged before (derp) but have only done ones for my personal use.  This one is going to be much more sophisticated with its design and has seven bloggers.  I talked with Emil, who is going to be part of it, about what the group wants and am going to build what I can for them.  This is will a cool project and learning opportunity so fingers crossed it goes well!

The other thing about QY today was having lunch with both offices and explaining my program (like above) and what our course material is.  Telling Norwegians about what I’ve learned about Norwegian identity and nationalism is something I’ll remember forever.

After my shift I had dinner (tacos!) with my pal Erica and we worked on our presentation for the next day.  One of the other things we have to do in the HECUA program is lead integration seminars where a pair has to engage the rest of the class in the subjects of the week.  So Erica and I made a rockin’ Jeopardy game about Norwegian politics, oh yeah.  Candy and a mug were picked out as the prize for the winner.

Thursday:  FINALLY got my resident permit squared away at the police station, hope I never have to go there again.  Had to go twice, once for my early morning appointment and again after class since the computer system went down.  Done now, waiting for the permit to come in the mail.  Then I’ll be a legal resident of Norway, woot woot!  As for the integration seminar, it was a hit.  Nailed it, and everyone had fun.  Jeff, our professor, really liked the idea of our seminar because apparently back in the day he was on Teen Jeopardy, no big deal… Yeah right.  That’s a serious big deal; I wish I could be on Jeopardy any time of my life!  Maybe someday…

After my second trip to the police station of the day I went out to hit up the last of the January sales.  Oslo has a ton of shopping, and I swear the number of H&Ms is second only to convenient stores.  I found two shirts from low and behold H&M of course.  I know we have the chain in America, but cute clothes are cute.  And two shirts for 149 NOK (about $27) isn’t bad at all in Norway.  My shopping was less expensive than grocery shopping.  A six pack of good beer can easily get close to 120 NOK, more than one shirt, ugh.  I learned the hard lesson a while ago that a Smirnoff ice four pack was about 130 NOK.  Alcohol is pretty ridiculous here; stay tuned for what I paid on Sunday.

Lastly, I finished the night at the student pub Amatøren for Quiz Night which is really popular here.  And I think the winners get a free round of beers, so that makes a lot of since why people love going to Quiz Night.  Just kidding, it’s also fun to merely play as well.

Friday:  Second shift bar tending at Uglebo!  Another fun shift and another early morning return to my apartment (5:30am this time) that included a stop to the 24 hour McDonald’s.  Great night and fun people.

Saturday:  Slept in til about noon and then went to Uglebo again in the evening but this time it was for a work party. As volunteer student bartenders, we’re called interns which I find kind of funny, so it was an intern party to be specific.  And while we get intern pieces normally on every menu item (the selection is plenty of beers, wine, and alcoholic cider), this party had hard liquor.  That may sound standard for America, but here in Norway that is a really something to celebrate.  The cocktails were amazing cheap for Oslo, 40 NOK for any mixed drink offered that night.  Forty kroner is about seven bucks which about matches US prices so I was in total bliss.  I definitely took advantage of this chance to drink since it was a rare one.  Beer is the norm in Norway, so mixed drinks for 40 NOK was near miraculous.  Anyways, major perk of bar tending, super glad to be appreciated with a great party!  Everyone was really nice, affordable booze was flowing, and I had a wonderful time.

Sunday:  I was planning to have a really lazy Sunday, with laundry and an early night in.  Laundry yes, early night no.  My roommates and buddy group wanted to go to a club downtown called BLÅ (sounds like blah, means blue) that was free, age 20 and up, and has a live band every Sunday night.  I had heard about it already and how great it is so I thought, sure while in Norway why not?

I met up with some people from my buddy group, one of my roomies, and a few others for a pre party and then headed to BLÅ, meeting up with another roomie and his friends.  And I’m really glad I went out because BLÅ was really fun!  The band was snazzy, with lots of energy and a sax.  The music kind of reminded me a little of Ska.  The place was packed with people and everyone was having a good time.  The prices of drinks were high even for Oslo standards, 68 NOK for a pint of beer and I even paid 92 NOK for a rum and coke.  I’ll let you do the exchange rate since I cringe at the thought of it.  But oh well, BLÅ was worth it!  And I paid for plenty of other drinks the night before at the Uglebo party at very decent prices so I’m going with the logic that the two nights even out.  Come to think of it, I went to bars four nights in a row, ha.  But back to BLÅ: I danced, I meet new people and hung out with fun ones I already had meet before, drank, laughed and it was a great time.  Glad I went out and that wrapped up my weekend.

Wow, this was a long post!  All the photos below are from my wandering during shopping on Thursday.  I didn’t take any other pictures because, well, I was too busy having fun/working to document it, ha.  Enjoy the ones of sunny downtown Oslo!

Also, to conclude, it’s important for all you readers to know I’m heading off to the UK in a few days for my midterm break.  This means one of two things will happen with the blog: I’ll either post next Monday as usual or have a double feature piece in two weeks!  Til I write again, cheers!


One of the many H&Ms

A pretty day downtown

Old style building meets consumerism

One of the main strips, and the palace down the lane

Stortinget, the hub of the Norwegian state