When we told friends and family that we were going to take a trip to Norway, we were asked A LOT of questions. So, to try and answer all those questions - and to remember all we can about this trip of a lifetime - I decided to blog again. Here we go...
In March of 2020, as the pandemic rolled over the world and we stayed home, baked bread, read books and watched a lot of TV, I started clicking around on YouTube knitting videos -- I can't remember if I was searching out something in particular or if I had been nudged in that direction by an Instagram post or a Ravelry comment.
Either way, I landed on the Arne and Carlos channel, watched every one of their videos, fell in love with their giggles, knitted their patterns and felt like I had made two new virtual friends in a time when my real-life friends seemed so very distant.
They were from my favorite country: Norway, the country I had studied and drawn and colored and written a report about for my 4th grade geography project. (OK, I'll admit that for many years, Norway has taken a back seat to all things UK - I'm a Mini Cooper-driving, Corgi-loving, Earl Grey tea-drinking, Jane Austen-reading Anglophile. But there is so much history between Norway and the UK, and Scotland is just a couple of days sail across the North Sea from Bergen. Yikes - seasickness, anyone? But more on that later...)
Arne and Carlos love so many of the same things I do - fabric and yarn, Christmas and Christmas cookies, books and dogs. Candles, sweaters, embroidery, dollhouses, Dolly Parton, thrift shops, British TV. I looked forward to every new episode, eager to learn something (the Norwegian purl, aka "cha-cha-cha" changed my knitting life!) or to just relax and listen to them chat.
And they love travel. Their travel vlogs are some of my favorites; you should watch their trip to Japan from three years ago - just beautiful.
They host knitting, garden and museum trips all over Europe, and each year take several cruises up the Norwegian coast. When they announced that they would be hosting cruises again when the pandemic quieted down, Clay and I decided a trip would be a great 40th anniversary gift to each other; we put our names on a waiting list, crossed our fingers and were lucky enough to get spots on a cruise.
We'd never been on a cruise.
Probably because I am not a fan of boats.
Or water.
But as I learned on previous adventures, if you want to do fun things, you need to stuff your fears way, way down.
And pack some Xanax, just in case.
So this is why we went - to celebrate, to be with two of my knitting idols and to explore a new country. And, as it turns out, to make new friends, to eat new foods and to find out that deep down, Clay is a knitter. But more on that later...
Peace.
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