Susan--

I hope you are having fun! Sure sounds like it. We will expect a full report!

melanie

report #2, just went up to dinner, the only restaurant in the hotel and there is wynona and her entourage again! unfortunately, i feel like i'm coming down with something, so it's back to the room for me! I have mild skin crawly symptoms, I feel cold, and my stomach has been queasy all day...maybe from the shrimp oopen face sandwich the night before. ugh.

WOW! Way cool! Hope you feel better soon. Have a great time!

sounds like a great opportunity..
Sure hope you are feeling well enough to enjoy the concert.

Florence

You lead a charmed life! I hope you got your flu shot, though. Feel better quick!

Wow Susan! what a neat opportunity for you!
..but sorry about the food poisoning. If it was that, it probably started just a few hours after you ate, usually a dead give away! Hope it has run it's course, with luck!
Anyhow up to then, it sounds like life was exciting and you were having a lot of fun. Hope you are better very soon, and do not miss too many beats. Incredible, how short the days are!!!
Pauline - VI

Well, last night, as we were all ready to go to dinner, I bowed out at the last minute, I just wasn't feeling well. Got back to the room, and proceeded to have a fever, then chills and felt yucky and just stayed in a prone position and watched some BBC comedy, one after the other.. DH came back shortly after midnight, said I was missed, and now, this morning (still in bed at 9:15, hey, it's dawn, remember?) I THINK it may have been just a 24 hour bug, I think I'm feeling better. Time will tell. I had visions of a 5 day flu and a 9 hour flight back on Tuesday, but I just may escape that misery. Fingers crossed! So, I'm thinking it was a virus and not the food.

Hi Susan, please take pictures, you know we love em. Have fun!!

Carla

Today was amazing! My daughter was able to attend the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo City Hall, but we could not. so we just sort of walked up to near the entrance of city hall. there were other people gathered, and a formal norweigian band played near the entrance. there were police, but the public was able to get very close to the entrance. so we stayed there and soon enough the band started to play and then one after another, these cars would pull up with flags on them from whatever country they were from, and these dignitaries would get out and walk through the entrance with the band playing. There was a huge black chevy suburban, which i think were people from the u.s. in it, the car didn't have the flag on it. We stood there for about an hour. and finally, the norweigian king and queen came and walked up a red carpet at the end and then the recipient of the nobel peace prize came after that and waved to the crowd, etc. we also saw sharon stone get out, she's a host for tomorrow night's concert, and we saw angelica huston with her too. It was amazing, sort of seeing representatives from all over the world come together in this small entrance to the Oslo city hall. And, the access was incredible, if it were in the U.S., the public could not get within hundreds of yards, and we were 30 feet away from the entrance with the press on each side of the steps up to the entrance. So exciting!

after that we walked a bit and found this big tent which we thought was a xmas shopping village thing and went inside and it ended up being a big, very decorated tent for the public to watch the nobel peace prize presentation inside. there were big screens all around the tent, the tent was heated, and they gave away a scarf/gloves/head band with the insignia of the nobel peace prize on it, and we were able to watch the entire presentation in the tent and listened intently to his whole speech. It put my small problems in context, that's for sure. they had food in the tent, and all sorts of stuff there. it was just amazing. the whole thing, with people from all over in the tent. People were clapping at intervals in the speech. Such an atmosphere I will never, ever forget.

Tomorrow we're going to the concert with all these artists and the peace prize recipient and the norweigian royals and all sorts of people. it's going to be crazy. I hate to tell you this, but we forgot our cameras! We were in such a rush to get there, we left them behind and brought the cam corder and everything. oh well.

Thank goodness I'm feeling better today...it was obviously a 24 hour bug! Still a bit queasy, but almost all better! going out to dinner soon. more soon.

Gee, Susan, how exciting! How about the language? Is that a problem for you?

I am so glad that you are feeling better today. I am anxious to hear more.

Sammy

When we went to Oslow in the summer of 2005 we stayed at the Grand. Isn't Oslow a beautiful city. And yes it is soooo expensive but we loved it. We were there in July so we got about 4 hours of dark a night.

Rozanna, you stayed at The Grand, wow!! That's where they had the banquet after the nobel presentation, that's some hotel! The language is fine, they all speak English. Don't ask me how they understand one another in their own language!

We're getting ready to go to the concert now. I didn't take any pictures, me the major picture taker, in the city, but I'm bringing it tonight. and, tomorrow bright and early, we begin the trek home. 9 hour flight from stockholm, ugh. At least I have 2 batteries for my computer and there's internet on the flight, so that's good. Add a few home magazines from the oslo or stockholm airports, and i'm good. well, not really, but whatever.

Wow, what a wonderful travelogue! Thanks for letting us know all the things you are seeing on our trip. I almost feel like I am there.

Kathy

Just got back from the concert, it's midnight and we're leaving at 6 am. This concert and this experience has been one of the best experiences of our (me/DH) lives. It was incredible. At the concert, there were 9 rows ahead of us, then a passageway, then a level 2 steps up, and we were in the front row in the center. Probably the best seats in the house! I don't think there are words to describe the evening. Interspersed with the artists were snippets of films of Professor Yunus, the nobel recipient, talking about his work. and, at one point he was brought up on stage and talked more about his work which was so inspiring to say the least. THEN, his daughter, a singer at the NYC Metropolitan Opera, came out to sing. They hugged, she sang, they walked backstage arm in arm.

I'll never see a concert like this again, I even hesitate to call it a concert, more a celebration. The acts were mostly all very good. Yusuf, the former Cat Stevens, was very good. Lionel Richie, who I NEVER cared for EVER, I am now A BIG fan!!! That guy is one fabulous entertainer. perhaps it comes with age. He was fantastic. Not too much, not too little, just right with a ton of enthusiasm and spirit. Lots of spirit. There was a Bangladesh dance troupe who were so good and at the very end after they said good night, they were up on the stage, in their amazing costumes all taking out their little cameras and they were all surrounded arouond Sharon Stone and one of them were taking pictures of them all with SS, which was so adorable. John Legend was really good and there were more. Here's a link, and mind you, this was over less than an hour ago!

Here is a link that might be useful: Nobel concert photos

WOW---Susan---what a fantastic experience for you and DH----I'm happy you are feeling better so you were able to partake of the festivities.

Florence

Ooo, pics please! It sounds awesome. How cool that your daughter could go with!

[nerdy tidbit: the dudes who discovered the cure for my disease [pernicious anemia/scd of the cord] got the Nobel Prize for it in the 40's... it was always fatal until then].

Wow!! what a terrific trip!! What an experience, to be present when the Nobel Prize is awarded!!!

Susan, you are truly blessed! Tell more!

Debra

Fantastic, Susan!

Inspiring to read about people from all over the world celebrating the arts and sciences--and peace-
incredible that you were able to be there and report back to us--a bit of light in the dark news that comes our way daily--

I admire your willingness to grasp opportunities for new experiences when they come your way!

pat

"Hi Ho The Glamorus Life" sounds fun

I just watched the photos as a slideshow -- how interesting! I didn't realize there was so much fun to be had at a Nobel Prize ceremony, thinking it was just a formal, stodgy affair.

Happy to hear about your fascinating experiences and thanks for sharing them with us.

The presentation IS a formal affair, very formal. The slideshow pictures were of the concert, the next day. That's when they all broke loose!!

What a collection of pictures! What memories, and memories with your family at that.

I am so glad that you are sharing all of this with us.

Sammy