The WriggleButts on Norway - NORWAY

Time for another little lesson for our foreign friends. Here come the basic facts we should have posted first, but since we had all the funny pictures from Oslo we decided to take things in a less than logical order. We're dogs - what do you expect?

So this is Norway... or a drawing of Norway anyways - and it's a democratic monarchy in Scandinavia a part of northern Europe, but we're not part of the European Union. We border to Sweden, Finnland and Russia and it's a very tall and skinny country. It's not like a pug, but more like a whippet in other words. Area:385 155 km2

This is our flag - so like our friends in the US our colours are red, white and blue!
Our Head of State is His Majesty King Harald V of Norway and our Head of Government is Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

May 17 1814 in the town of Eidsvoll our constitution was finalised and we separated from our union with Denmark. Well... we didn't do it because we were not born yet. But you might remember that one of the guys was from Mom's home town and we've shown you the statue in his memory before, but we'll do it again. Many people believe the unions we were in with Sweden and Denmark before finally getting our independence in 1814 is a reason why we're not part of the European Union. We just love our independence too much.

On our constitutional day all the children and lots of adults gather here - we'll try to tell you more about our celebration in May when the actual day arrives. Mom is actually having the day off this year (very unusual) and we'll try to go out and celebrate and take pictures of all the fun for you guys to enjoy. Unlike in most countries (to our knowledge, anyways) the day is mainly a day for the children.

The currency used to buy dog food, pig tails and other edibles (and apparently other stuff too if you care) is Norwegian kroner (krone = crown) refered to as NOK. 1 NOK = 100 øre. Oh.. and we have 3 extra letters in our alphabet compared to the English version. They are Æ(æ), Ø(ø) and Å(å).

That will do for now - we hope it wasn't too boring and that you learnt a bit! Learning is good for your brain - then you will be even better at doing clever stuff in the future. Like stealing food off the counter or finding that yummy something that's hidden from you.

Kisses,

the (oh so smart) WriggleButts

Pee Ess/edited to add:

Sweet Roxy wondered where in Norway we are - and here we've added another picture to show you. We live in what is concidered eastern Norway - as you can see it's also in the shouth.. (it's too skinny a country to concider the eastern part to go all the way to the top.. Tee hee...)

The WriggleButts on Norway - OSLO

Soo.. We've been getting some questions about Norway in our blog and we thought we'd try to educate you all a bit. Oslo is the capital of Norway and as we live just about half an hour from the city centre we though we'd start out giving you a tour of the city.Compared to the capital cities most of you will be used to Oslo is a rather small and green city with a population of 550 000 persons. The total area is 454 square kilometers and of this 242 square kilometers are forest. We'll start our little tour from the Central Station. Oslo is also known as "Tigerstaden" or the Tiger City. This was originally a name used to describe Oslo as a dangarous and merciless city. It was first used in litterature by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in the poem "Siste sang"(Translates to the last song) in 1870. Today it's a name with positive associations and this tiger statue and Bajas' buddy was placed outside the station in 2000.
Oslo is the oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, and its history goes back to 1000 years ago, when the first settlements were built at the inlet of the Oslo fjord.After the Great Fire that destroyed the city in 1624, the Danish King Christian IV, decided to rebuild the city in brick and stone, and named it Christiania. Three hundred years later, in 1925, the citizens decided to rename their city Oslo.

Above you see the Akershus Fortress. The building was commenced in 1299. King Christian IV had the castle modernised and converted into a Reneaissance castle and royal residence.

This statue is placed below the castle by the fjord in memory of the 158 who died when Scandinavian Star sank on its way from Oslo April 7th 1990. In this case it looks like the little boy have forgotten something very important - Coco. The Statue of Whippety - located close by.

Oslo City Hall.Stortinget - the Parliament.

The Parliament is guarded by two lions - and as you've allready discovered Bajas tend to befriend the large cats. Tee hee..

The view from the Parliament towards the Royal Palace.
Roxy and Lucky wondered why there is so little car traffic. This is a rather quiet street because most of it is just for walking. This part of it is, however, open for cars - but it's not usually a convenient route. Plus it's Easter and a Sunday so most people would be elsewhere.
Soo many dogs have walked along here - it's almost impossible to keep up with the humans if you want to smell it all!
The old university - Mom sang at a concert here last fall. It was actually part of the Chinese Culture Festival and her choir had two concerts with Inner Mongolia Guangdian Arts Ensemble. They sang traditional Norwegian folk songs and the Inner Mongolian choir sang their folk songs. The plan is for the Norwegian choir to go to China this fall.

The Royal Palace was built from 1824-1848. The royal family do not usually stay here but outside the city. If you're interested in them they have a website here. The Palace Park is a popular recreational area with small lakes, statues and green areas where you can have a picnic or something.

This is Haakon VII king of Norway from 1905-1957. Well. It's not him, really. It's a statue of him. But we hope you got that before we pointed it out. We might get into some more Norwegian history in the future. Either way he was our first king as an independent county.

We hope you learnt a thing or two and that you enjoyed our sillypix.

Kisses from the WriggleButts