Norway?! Yes way!

Hello hello!

Welcome to the next edition of the crazy antics with your world tour guide, Tony G!

In this week's blog, I will take you through the beautiful country that is Norway.  Let's take a look at what you're getting yourself into if you read on any further:

• My first ever hot wing eating contest
• Fjords galore!
• A beautiful view from the top of a mountain in Drammen
• Beer called Aass (hehe)
• Falling in love at a local brewery

Getting Into Town

When I first arrived at the Oslo airport, I grabbed a train from Oslo to Drammen which is about an hour south as the crow flies.  My cousin Kevin is studying in an international school in Drammen and I was really excited to be able to make the trip to see him.

The first thing I noticed was that the country is just absolutely beautiful.  Everywhere you look there are bodies of water and the architecture is all quite homogeneous which gives it a very warm and welcoming aesthetic.  

One of Kevin's friends, Michaela told me that one of the reasons behind this is that there is a relatively narrow spectrum of colors that home owners can choose to paint the outside of their house.  Although it is a bit limited, it helps the cities really come together and they are quite colorful and inviting.

I also have to say that the sunsets rival that of my native Colorado which is no easy feat! Here is the sunset from the first night I was in town.

After arriving in Drammen, Kevin took me to a local bar with some of his friends so we could enjoy some local pints and so I could see what the bar scene in Norway is like.  We ended up at a cool little dive that was relatively empty and got a couple cold beers.  The temperature the whole trip was right around ~35 degrees Fahrenheit but a cold beer always hits the spot.

Here is a picture of the 4 of us enjoying some libations.

Here is a picture of a local church at night.

Take a Hike!

The next day Kevin had to work but his friend Michaela (pictured above on the left) offered to take me around town a little bit during the day.  It was very nice of her so I decided to take her up on it.  We went to grab a quick lunch and then the sun came out which made it a perfect day for a hike.

They don't have mountains in Norway per se but they have nice-sized hills one of which is within striking distance of Kevin's apartment.  Michaela and I started the hike and I soon had to take my jacket off because it was quite warm and the exercise really boosted the body temperature.

It was such a beautiful hike through and through.  As we walked through the forest, she pointed out an old long jump that was used for skiing and we stopped by an outdoor obstacle course which is quite common in Norway.

Once we got to the top, she dug out some cookies that are very traditional for Norwegians to bring along on a hike.  They are more or less chocolate covered cookies made from oats and are quite delicious.  I took several pictures from the top and here is a panorama that turned out quite well.

Halloween Party

That evening, there was a Halloween party being thrown in a nearby student housing building so Kevin and I grabbed some beers and headed over to enjoy the festivities.  We didn't have costumes but we quite enjoyed hanging out with friends and neighbors.

As the night drew on, we decided to call it quits as Kevin had class the next day and I was a bit bushed from the hike.  We headed back to Kevin's place and retired for the evening as we had big plans for the following evening!

How Hot is 2 Million Scovilles?

It turns out, it's frickin' hot!

The next day, Kevin and I headed into Oslo to partake in a hot wing eating contest and then follow it up with a trivia night.  We first stopped by some local landmarks in Oslo including the Nobel Peace Center.  I don't think it should come as a surprise that this is where they award the Nobel Peace Prize.  Here is a quick pic of the building.

We then proceeded to a cool spot that had a wide variety of beers both local and imported.  We ended up settling on a Murphy's stout and then to my surprise, I saw that they sold small pours of Sam Adam's Utopia which is a barley wine that is around 17%.  I bought a small pour and Kevin and I split it.  It was actually quite nice and definitely did not taste like it was 17% alcohol.  It's probably a good thing that we only had a few sips each because we were buzzing after just a few minutes!

We lazily got back on the road and continued on to Kevin's buddy's place. I was quickly introduced to a local named Patrick along with an Aussie named Greg who was to be our trivia host later on.  We had a quick beer at Patrick's place and then headed into town to torture ourselves with some spice.

When we got to the hot wing eating contest, Greg, Kevin and I threw on a contest t-shirt and a pair of latex gloves to protect our hands from the spice - that was a bad sign from the get-go!  We signed a waiver, put on a bib and then psyched ourselves up for the misery that was to come.  Here are a couple pictures of Kevin, Greg and I before the competition.

The rules were that we had 90 seconds to consume 3 wings and then had a minute of "burn time" to sit through.  There was a bottle of milk in front of us but if you drank it, you were automatically disqualified as it was only for the end of the contest.  The first batch of wings that came out was a mere 50,000 scovilles. Child's play right?! Ha! Here's a picture of Greg and I after the first batch.

They were spicy! I enjoyed the flavor but I was already sweating and it was only round 1 of 4.  No one dropped out after round 1 and after a minute of burn time, we were ready for the next round. 

Bring it on!

Round 2 upped the game to 250,000 scovilles.  I was a little concerned but when the timer started, I actually found them to be not quite as spicy as I had anticipated.  It's possible that my taste buds were already toasted from round 1 but I got through the 3 wings relatively easily.  I looked around after the eating time had expired and all 25 or so of the contestants were sweating but in high spirits.  We hit the minute of burn time and that's when I heard the announcement of the next round...

Round 3 wasn't messing around, they jumped straight to 1 million scovilles!  I knew that I was not going to complete the challenge right then and there because I was already in misery (I'm actually sweating as I write this just remembering that moment) and didn't want to condemn myself to the fiery hell that it sounded like.  The wings came out and as the timer started, I resolved to just take one or two big bites of a wing and then called it quits.

That was a great decision and I'm really glad that I did not try to eat all 3 wings.  Kevin got through two of the wings and then called it quits but Greg powered through!  He destroyed his 3 wings and as the burn time set in, he said he was going for the win.

As I chugged my bottle of milk to douse the flames, I looked around and saw that about 2/3 of the contestants were doing the same.  Here's a photo of Kevin and I after round 3.

As we psyched Greg up for the final round we heard the announcement. "2 million scovilles" the host said over the microphone.  I just about yelped when I got the first whiff as you didn't need to eat one to tell that these things were going to rock your socks off.

The timer started and Greg tore into his first wing.  I really have to hand it to him because he didn't wince or dance or show any emotion - he just set in with gusto and put all 3 wings down! He threw his hands up to show that he was finished but unfortunately was about 2 seconds behind the soon-to-be crowned champion.  

Everyone that had partook in the fourth round looked like they had been whipped in a sauna for about 10 minutes. They were not only drenched in sweat but it looked like they were in physical pain!  It's no surprise that a milk chugging contest took place right after that...

After seeing their faces, I am so, so happy I didn't attempt round 4.  I'm glad that I got to participate as it was a lot of fun but I'll be ordering my wings "medium" from now on.

Trivia Night

After the contest, we headed to a nearby bar for Greg to recover as he was hosting trivia that night.  The four of us settled in for a couple pints during the interim and I got to know Patrick and Greg a bit better.  They're both really stand up guys and I was very happy to have met them.  Here are the four of us hanging in Oslo.

Once trivia got under way, Kevin, Patrick and I started slaying it!  I'm usually pretty terrible at trivia but between the three of us, we had most of the questions covered.  We continuously toasted ourselves after every question (this was Patrick's favorite way of making everyone drink more) and soon we had put down several pints and were having a fantastic time!

At the end of the night when it was time to count up points, we ended up losing by a tiny margin but we were really proud of our score.  We noticed that the winning team consisted of 6 people so we held our heads high reveling in the fact that just the three of us almost pulled off the 'W'.

We decided to call it a night and headed for the train back to Drammen.  I was sad that I didn't have more time to hang out with the good people in Oslo but "short and sweet" was where we had to leave it.  Kevin and I got back to Drammen and took a nice stroll along a river that runs through town on the way back.  It was a very serene picture as the water was pitch black and perfectly reflected the city back at itself.  Again, what a beautiful country!

Falling in Love at a Local Brewery

Over the course of the week, we had been drinking a lot of beer by one of the local breweries called Aass.  Contrary to its spelling, in Norwegian it's pronounced like the Spanish word for two: "dos" without saying the 'd' at the beginning.  I tried several different styles that they offered and most of them weren't bad.

Kevin mentioned that there was a local craft brewery he enjoyed going to so my last day in town we made it a plan to stop in.  We started by taking a long walk through the city along the waterfront.  We walked for about an hour to get to an opening in the river and it was a vivid scene.

We grabbed a beer out of our backpacks and sat back to enjoy the view for awhile.  Here's a short video of what it looked like.

After enjoying the scenery and about half a beer, we continued on to the craft brewery to see what we could get our hands on.  As we walked in, we were greeted by the bartender, Ragnar and we took a quick peek at the menu.  I opted for a raspberry stout as Kevin grabbed a pale ale.

I took an unassuming sip of the stout and the sparks immediately started flying - I was in love!  I fancy myself to be a purveyor of beer and I've had quite a few different brews in my time, but this beer was just... amazing.  Kevin saw my face and I told him he had to try a sip.  It was no surprise that about a half an hour later he ordered the same thing as his second round.

I was really close to ordering it again, but I figured I would try some other local fare. Plus, Kevin ordered it so I knew I could get a couple sips from him!  Along with our second beer, we ordered some sausages served in a potato tortilla called a "pølse." I followed the lead of some locals and topped mine with potato salad and mustard.  It was really delicious and went quite well with the beers.

We decided to head back to Kevin's place as we had bought some other local Norwegian fare that day to munch on.  A popular food item is a potato tortilla with brown cheese.  The brown cheese is hard to describe but it was cheesy and almost peanut buttery.  It combined savory and sweet flavors which is a flavor profile that I really enjoy!  Kevin would heat up the tortillas in the oven then you slap a piece of the cheese on them and fold them up to help it melt.  I put down way too many of them but I couldn't stop eating them! I will 100% be on the lookout for these in the future.

Saying Goodbye

After a night of indulging in tortillas with brown cheese and some great beer, we called it quits as I had an early travel morning the next day.  It was so much fun to hang out with Kevin and I'm really glad I got the opportunity to see a bit of Norway.  For those of you considering traveling to Norway, I would STRONGLY recommend it should you get the chance.

I got back into Germany to enjoy a couple days with my local friends as well as my cousin Mandy but was soon back out the door!

In fact, as I write this, I'm on my final leg of travel to Amsterdam where my good friends Folkert and Else are awaiting me with beers in hand (or at least I hope so)!

I truly hope you have a wonderful day and in fact, I challenge you to take one minute out of your day to revel in the beauty that is this life.  Take that minute and really try to be present in the moment.  I hope you find joy in it!

Cheers,

Tony G