Hurra for 17. mai!

Me and Marianne outside our local with home made Norwegian flags

How could I have a blog about Norway without talking about 17th of May. It is the Norwegian National day and by all accounts, a very big deal. I have been fortunate enough to experience two of these already with Marianne in England and I'm really looking forward to being in Norway for it next year.

So how have we celebrated Norway day? Well firstly its very important to eat rømmegrøt, which is a sour cream porridge. Very similar to risengrynsgrøt which I have posted about before only more sour and gloopy. Quite strange but I've already built up a slight soft spot for it and done right with lots of sugar, cinnamon and some mutton on the side it does the trick. On 17th May last year I had my first Gul Kaka (yellow cake). Also rather strange, it looks like it should taste of lemon or white chocolate or something but really it just tastes of sugar. Which as a cake is a perfectly acceptable attribute I guess.

I think it would be wrong of me to just focus on the food of this day as its really all about pride and celebration. From what I've seen Norwegians are a very proud and patriotic people, everyone dresses up very smart, waves their flag with pride and has parades to celebrate this most special day., I think this is great and I envy it. As most English will know St Georges Day which is meant to be England's national day to celebrate our patron saint is almost not at all celebrated it seems. For some reason in England we fail to separate national pride from racism and hooliganism. A crying shame but a topic for another day.

I shall end then saying 17 May is a great great day and I cant wait to properly immerse myself in it next year. Norwegians have a lot to be proud of, HURRA!!