Coffee Talk: Emotional Carousel and Oslo Love

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that in the end my summer will be Scandinavian. After much back and forth, it looks that I will still join my husband who is working in Oslo this summer (first, the idea was that I go with him, next, that I stay in Barcelona, and in the end he got a bit emotional because two months apart is too long. Just to give a little idea of how our family works 😆).

I didn’t know what to feel. Happy to escape from the heat and noise of Bcn (and to hug my Oslo friends) or sad to leave the summer for the Norwegian weather unpredictability? But then I decided to look at the brighter side of things – took my journal and jotted down all the things I am looking forward to do in Oslo.

And the list got quite long and happy.

Here some of the points:

– to go for coffee to my favorite hipster place Supream Roastworks opened by the Norwegian barista champion. It was just around the corner from our old apartment and it gives me a lot of good memories of  sharing coffee with my friends (this photo is from there).

– to go dancing salsa (this is strange and funny but I ended up more eating and drinking and socializing than dancing in Barcelona, so Oslo looks like my own dance capital this year 😆)

– to sit at the waterfront of Aker Brygge and eat local ice-cream Kroneis

– to browse my favorite hipster stores like Mitt Lille Hjem and the streets of my dear hood Grunerløkka (though it is said to be a total chaos of reconstruction now)

– to walk along the river Akerselva

– to ride the blue city bikes

– to eat barbecue in the park and the sushi from my favorite place, Sunshine sushi by Sofienbergsparken

– to lie down on the grass of Frognerparken

– to walk the vacation-empty streets of Oslo

– to listen to the relaxed sound of Norwegian language

– to walk my favorite neighborhoods of Frogner, St. Hanshaugen, Rodeløkka…

I must admit, I got surprised to see how much place Oslo takes up in my heart. And I still add points to this list 😊

I realize that all those names and places that sound weird and unfamiliar to the most of people, are so precious to me. Because they have become a part of me and a part of my story.

I am getting already in the mode, half of my heart here in Barcelona, and half of it there as my husband had already landed in Oslo. I am listening to this song about Oslo, and the singer is Jo Nesbø, the internationally famous author of criminal novels (did you know that he has been singing in the band for quite a long time? The band’s name is Di Derre. And the song I am talking about is “Oslo by”, meaning Oslo city. Just in case you would want to check it out).

The song starts about driving to Oslo from the North and there are these words:

“Soon it arises, what we call home

And what others call Oslo”

At this I got a pang in my heart, tears in my eyes and went to hide in the kitchen. You see, our home can be quite emotional at times, and it was just enough then. I just wondered what it was… I would never think that I would cry for Oslo.

So, if we were having coffee, I would tell you that humans are so strange. We tend to give so much value to things we loose, but while we have those things we are not so full of love and appreciation. We tend to overestimate the happiness (or misery) an event may bring us. But when it is there, we feel something else.

And if we were having coffee, and you would ask: “So why not choose one place and stay there?”, I would answer that I prefer to live between two places than staying in one. I prefer this emotional carousel at times, crying, looking forward to, missing, loving. Because this is love. And this is life. Life is feeling. Feeling life.

May your days be full of life!