Celebrity update

A quick visit with some of the familiar faces in the Norwegian news; Eurovision Song Contest winner Alexander Rybak, Princess Märtha Louise, and expensive Brazilian footballer Denilson, all of whom have featured in this blog.

Happy fiddler Rybak. (Photo: Ernst Vikne

Belarus born fiddler Alexander Rybak hasn’t been in headlines too much lately, but he did take part in the Nobel Peace Prize concert and associated dinner, which resulted in an extremely cute photo opportunity.

Most wanted

Norwegians Google like everyone else, but for things particularly Norwegian, they often Kvasir.  Search engine Kvasir revealed one of the favorite lists for Internet users, the most ‘sought after’ people in Norway. Unsurprisingly, the list is dominated by attractive young women who have gained fame or notoriety in a variety of ways.

Tone Damli Aaberge. Photographer: Ernst Vikne

Pop culture is a quick route to getting to know a place, so this list is a crash course in pop Norway. The winner, Tone Damli Aaberge,

National Pride

May the 17th is Constitution Day, Norway’s National Day – not quite Independence Day, but close enough in spirit. The traditional ingredients include the ‘Russ’, reveling teenagers celebrating their impending graduation by jeopardizing their final exams with weeks of uninterrupted binge drinking in customized buses that are really mobile ‘ghetto blasters’; parades of schoolchildren marching past waving royals; and ice cream and hot dogs in quantities designed to incapacitate young and old.

But this year, the stroke of midnight ushered the occasion in under unusually nationalist circumstances.