28th anniversary . This year I am excited about the new country - Norway. We will actually only visit Oslo, but there's a lot to do there in only 5 days. We will also revisit Paris for 5 days (never visited the Paris zoo!), and also yet another revisit to Amsterdam. Sounds pretty good, eh? Still have 2 months to wait...learning some Norse history. Vikings were actually rowdy farm boys taking a break to go plundering. Also learned some words (Tusen takk means "a thousand thanks" or "thanks very much" but the Norwegians speak English better than many Americans).
We leave for the trip to Paris, Oslo, and Amsterdam tomorrow so let's see if I can upload a picture on to this blog.
Nope couldn't upload pix off camera, so I'm home now...and it's best to type here - especially since I need to focus on STORY and want to enter more text. Although it's easier on this keyboard than my tiny cellphone keyboard, the cell had a microphone that converted to text. But you have to spend hours going back to fix the "typos" and corrections. And messing with it discouraged text entering.
I include this technical history in this blog because it will be read in the future...and we all like to laugh at old technology. When I jumped into to tech field, there was no Internet. And there were 8" floppy disks. Hahahahahahahahaha
When I started this blog, I'd purchased a Samsung tablet. I cringe at how ignorant I was! I couldn't figure out how to move the pictures from the tablet to a laptop (in an Internet Cafe... remember those?) I had no idea that the power cable became a USB cable I could plug into a laptop. I know: hahahahahaha. I'm a little pissed about that because I stopped into several PC shops to ask questions and I realize now that those guys did not know either (or language problem? or mess with the American? I don't know how, in their profession, they did not know this.)
Anyway this info about technology changes is part of my new direction: STORY.
OK why do I keep typing the word story in caps?
Because the editor of the book I'm reading (Best American Travel Writing) said he tossed out any submitals that were just facts (history, where to stay or eat or sign up for the safari) but had no story.
Or a story about a local person and how they earn their living. Or a story about the trip getting a little scary. Or a love story.
So, that made me want to concentrate on what this story is about.
I'd already written much in the ol' journal, much of it just facts.
I flipped through past pages to see if there was a story to our journey. And there was!
Tons of them! Some were about our love story. Some stories are about Norwegian history (Vikings, WWII and the Resistance, The Nobel Peace Prize, the amazing stories in the National Gallery's paintings of rural life, and the story about Oslo's ongoing major city development.) Some stories are of people that I made up as I watched an event unfold (assumptions.)
But the over-arcing theme seemed to be getting older and seeing things change. I'll post stories on those later.
For now, some random pics of the trip - 5 days in Paris, 5 days in Oslo, and 5 days in Amsterdam.
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| The mission: The Paris Zoo - it was so good for the animals that us humans couldn't see them! |
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| We honeymooned in Paris 28 years ago. |
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| Our hotel, the Latin Home, is walking distance from the Seine and Notre Dame. So we started with a walk on a lovely day. We were very lucky the whole trip weather-wise. |
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| We'd never visited the Moulin Rouge before and ended up at the Irish bar right next door (O'Sullivan's) for our anniversary partying. Pigalle district is fun on a Saturday night! |
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| Arc de Triomphe is at the base of the Champs Elysee (which we've walked many times in the past but this time only made it as far as the McDonald's!) |
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| Great weather for a walk along the Seine. |
