“I hear you are looking for your relatives in Norway. Well, here we are!” Those were the words that brought so much emotion to me when I received an e-mail from someone in Norway. How did I realize who he was? In my previous writing, I wrote about a lady, Jan, who gave me so many interesting facts about my family and told me that her dad was the keeper of all the family history and would love to talk to me. She asked if she could pass on my e-mail, and she gave me her dad’s. His e-mail address started with oteide@ and continued from there. The email was wonderful and full of information, but it was what he finished his writing to me with.

“Best wishes from Ottar and my sons, Oystein and Jan-Olav.” Once again, I was overwhelmed with what I was reading. I remember the name Ottar from my childhood. He is my mom’s uncle. But the part of this story that made me laugh was that Jan is not a woman as I thought I had been talking to. With the language barrier, Jan is pronounced Yan in Norwegian, and he’s a man. So now I had found a great uncle and 2 second cousins. The world continues to get smaller.

Countdown to Adventure

We are now less than 5 months from flying out of Canada and onto our adventure. Jason has worked so hard on every detail of the trip, from car rental, accommodations, booking tickets to the Oslo Opera and organizing the list of over 130 things of interesting things that we’d like to see and do. He’s looked into tickets for the Flam train that will take us high into the mountains, booking dozens of ferries that are a must when traveling the western coast of Norway, and, as it’s still too early to book some things, he’s got alerts on his computer so he will be ready to book tickets to events as soon as they are available. One of those is a Jazz Festival! He has it all laid out in a special calendar for us to follow, or not, if we wish to change it some as we go. I couldn’t have done all this. I just sit back, relax and find even more interesting things to do and see to add to our list and for him to fit them all in.

Icelandic Detour

On our way home in June, we will be visiting Iceland for 3 days. One concern that has us worried a bit is the volcano activity in southwest Iceland which has erupted, spewing molten rock into the air. So far the airports are still running on schedule. We may have to check our hotel out as it is not far from where the greatest activity is happening. It’s many months until we are there. The situation could get better or worse, so we will be keeping up to date with what’s happening. I know Jason would love to be in a helicopter right now flying over it and taking pictures!