Today, for those of you who are not aware, is Norway’s National Day: a day of parades and marching corps and general “hip-hip-hurrah” celebration. Literally all of the townsfolk were gathered on the main street to watch the happenings; I’ve never seen so much people in Horten before (or Fremont/Union City for that matter)–it’s incredible. Kinda makes me think, if Horten, with a population of just over 20,000, had a turnout like this, how would it look like if all of Fremont and its 210,000 citizens were gathered in one place…I think I would feel so small.

I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw a parade, and despite the mucky image it probably invokes in your head, it was really quite a pleasant experience. For starters, I got to wear a bunad (the Norwegian national costume) for the day. I swear, if it wasn’t so expensive I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase one myself. I always thought it kinda sucked that the USA doesn’t seem to have a national costume that could be worn for those exceptional occasions. It was very special to put on late [bestefar] Erik’s old bunad. I think, in the future, when I can afford it, I will definitely come back and get my own, haha.

It was also great to watch people you know in the borgertog (a parade consisting of town clubs, teams, and miscellaneous interest groups). And in between the parades (there were three: barnetog, borgertog, og russetog), we walked around the park, ate some ice cream, and greeted everybody. Which is kinda cool yet pestering at the same time because you can’t walk more than five steps without stopping to chat with somebody. It took us a good 30 minutes to get to the ice cream stands, which was less than ten meters away, and by the time we got there, it had been all sold out. Anyway, afterwards we went home to a hearty barbeque courtesy of Pappa.

And last night, we were witness to Norway’s history-making victory in Eurovision. A great evening spent at the Weschke household with Gayoung and Elaine. Here’s to the end of a very koselig weekend. Skål!