This past weekend there was an intensive day of picking — several people picked, but not all day long. There wasn’t too much coffee. So far, this is the least amount of coffee we’ve had at this time of year, including the year with our lowest yield. That year we had stumped our lowest, most productive block, and that’s the case this year, too.
We are finally home. Twenty-nine hours elapsed from the time we wheeled our suitcases out of the Oslo airport hotel to the time we wheeled them home. We visited four airports. Our return was delayed a day since our original flight was canceled due to the Norwegian air traffic controllers’ labor dispute. With almost a day’s notice. we were able to comfortably cope with the changes without being harried and pressured. We had to be at the airport at 4:30am, so we stayed at the airport hotel. Since we were at the airport, we checked in and printed luggage tags the afternoon before we left. That was the afternoon of the morning strike. It didn’t even seem like there had been a strike. The airport was a little quieter than usual, but there weren’t long lines at airline counters or people lying all over the place.
In our last days in Norway, Hubby and I visited another cool, independent Oslo cafe: Fuglen on St. Halvards Gate. It’s in the old part of Oslo, in a little industrial complex that serves the neighborhood. It’s not a touristy place (except for perhaps international Fuglen fans — I did see some Asian ones).
I was very tempted to get Hubby the Fuglen branded Origami (Japanese company) aroma cup, because it had his birth city and birth year, and we were there on his birthday. The price of 599 NOK, however, was confusing me. It is almost 10 Norwegian crowns (NOK) to a US dollar. I wondered, “$6? $60? Can that be right?!” I couldn’t grasp the price. I couldn’t do it. In the end it’d just be another coffee cup in the cupboard. Instead we bought some roasted coffee.
Interestingly, we spent no cash whatsoever during our weeks in Norway. We paid on the phone with Apple Pay and very occasionally used a physical credit card.
Our last Oslo cafe experience, on the day we should have been flying home, was impacted by rain. We were meeting Hubby’s brother and his wife, and we were all on foot. As luck would have it, it rained then. We had been pretty lucky our whole trip. It rarely rained and never impacted our plans. We were going to have coffee at the cafe in the Deichman Bjørvika, the main branch of the Oslo Public Library. It is just an amazing library, very well designed to draw in and serve community. And there are strong architectural elements. I adore it.
With the rain, the cafe was packed, so we had to go elsewhere. We went to the chain Backstube, a fast-casual bakery which none of us would normally choose. Coffee from a machine, where you push the buttons. Pastries that you pick up cafeteria style. There was a microwave by the counter seats. One of the four seats we found was next to it; your left arm could be brushing it. Not a fun experience, but we had seats and were dry. We could watch the action outside the library and central train station. It wasn’t of the calibre of the Oslo cafe scene in this 2025 book: Oslo Cafés: 25 memorable coffee moments.
The photo for this post is not from any of the cafes mentioned in the post. I didn’t take any photos at any of those cafes. The post photo is from the cafe on the second floor of the Nasjonalmuseet.
Well, now we have to reboot ourselves to a timezone 12 hours behind. I anticipate fuzzy thinking and a depressed mood. But it is fantastic to return to home in Kona. Not having grown up here, it’s still novel to me. We’ll see what awaits us on the farm …
Welcome home!
Thanks! We arrived when it was dark. Now that I can physically see the farm, the happiness about returning is a little lower. We have a lot of maintenance to do! I know that’s jet lag depression at work, too.