Eventhough we've lived near Scandinavia for ten years, in all this time I haven't visited much of it.  Kinda like living in Queensland and never having snorkelled on the Barrier Reef.  You know you'll do it someday, so you don't hurry to do it - and visitors from other parts of the world wonder if you have rocks in your head.
The last four days I was on a work trip in Norway - a country I visited for the first time.  Although we didn't do too much sight seeing, we enjoyed views of modest red wooden Norwegian country cabins on the edge of lakes, or in the middle of rolling countryside on the way up to the town of Hamar.
Norway, as far as I understand it, is one of the richest countries in the world.  Latvia, last time I checked, is one of the poorest countries in the EU.  So needless to say we found Norway hideously expensive.  In anticipation of the prices we (3 colleagues and I) had brought bags of food along, and we mostly opted for making our own meals in the museum apartment we were staying in, rather than buying crappy 700 crown (about $20) hotdogs for dinner.  A humbling experience - and seeing as we specialize in emigration, I kept having visions of WWII refugees living off loaves of Latvian rye they had taken from their homeland.  I've gotta say that after day four with a dwindling supply of rye bread and cheese made the Latvian refugee experience all a bit too real, and I broke out on the last day to buy food that made us feel human again.
We mostly spent time touring around some of the museums in and around Hamar, and were impressed by the resources invested by Norway into cultural heritage.  Norwegians themselves are reserved, and sincere, and in terms of character very much suit the Latvian disposition.  We felt comfortable with our Norwegian colleagues, and from the visit I think I better understand the equally  modest super-style of Scandianvian architecture and design.
After the trip I know I definitely want to return to Norway as a tourist, not a museum  professional - with a huge pile of cash and a wide-angle lens ...


Hedmark museum - medieval ruins preserved by a modern construction by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn - a fabulous synthesis of new and old, creating a light, airy gallery for the artefacts within.





A couple more details from museums.  Above, the Alf Proysen museum (a Norwegian musician and children's entertainer).  He grew up in a fairly poor farmhouse, which was on the "shadowy side" of the valley - literally.  In Norway this is kinda like being from "the wrong side of the tracks".


Double mmm.  Norwegian creme brulee ice cream - just what we needed to wash down our rye with cheese