Mastreif, Book Festival, Oslo Culture day!

Mastreif

       So this past weekend was Mastreif (The Oslo Farmer's Market). So the producers that usually go to all the farmers markets all around the country are for one weekend in one place. Amazing amounts of good food, great produce and interesting things. Tons of cheese and sausages though. So it started on Friday afternoon which is when my friend and I showed up. I wanted to beat the rush....

         

        Yes.. this is before the crowd...

    Notice how easy it is to get into the stalls.. as we were here longer the more crowded it became.. be ready for bits of people's arms and such in pictures.

     So lots of handmade goods, olive oil, herbs, fruit, veggies, sausages, artisan cheeses, artisan juices. I picked up mountain picked raspberries and blueberries. Which I enjoy every morning for breakfast now.

  Salmon was huge also, these were small gourmet creations, 3 tastes for 20 kroner. Which was a decent price. I wasn't really thinking and ate before coming to the farmer's market.. silly me.

        They were having a meat grading contest as we walked by, they were staring at various cuts of meats and grading them. It was pretty interesting.

       This lady is a honey producer who is at my farmer's market usually, I picked up some unfiltered honey from raspberry flowers. I found the lavender flowers a bit too sweet for me, but still amazing. She was very adamant about the differences, and they were extremely differing in flavor. I'm very happy with my new, not extremely sweet, with a bit of fruity , honey!

     Hand made amazing chocolates too!
     Yes, I passed them up, I decided that the fruit was a better investment for my money. I'm still very happy with my choice, but I'm also happy I have a picture.

  

  Book Fair!

     We went looking for coffee after Mastreif, and stumbled on a book fair. Not just on this street, but it was all over the area in tents everywhere. Cheaper books, free bags, author's signings. I have a novel I want to read very badly, but it's in Norwegian. I'll get there soon. Here are some pictures from the book fair. Interestingly, not just of stacks of books (of which there were tons!)

     The people running this tent were very kind in letting me take pictures and the typewriter was very neat! I was extremely happy to have run across it!

Oslo Culture Day

      It was also brought to my attention that this day was (also, in addition to everything else that day) Oslo Culture Day. Which meant that all the museums, parliament, the palace, ect were open and had events going on all day and night. My friends met up that night for dinner and headed to the Munch-museet (The Munch Museum)  

     Famous for the painting The Scream

(this image is from the Munch Museum, and copyright to the artist, obviously)

      Interestingly this painting is also one of the most expensive publicly held paintings, thus making it extremely popular to try and steal. So, security at the museum was tight, but not oppressive. Also, we didn't even get to see any of the paintings because as soon as we whisked into the museum, enjoyed the live jazz playing in the cafe, we headed downstairs. We were off to make masks. 

     Masks using our own faces for a base! How do you do this? I'll tell you... (someone else has to make your mask on your face, thus requiring two people)

•        Vaseline your face (all of it, including eyebrows and hairline)- I recommend someone helping you with this, also you can't have enough, put it on thick.
•        Take a strip of saran wrap and lay it across your eyes, protecting them. The strip can go all the way to both temples and into your hairline.
•        Take (max ~1in.) strips of plastercast, dip into water and place on face (make the mask)
•        Be sure to swirl your fingers around to smoothe the plaster around so you dont have so much linen grid showing. 
•        Make sure that the nose ridge is strong enough (or else it will crack when removed. 
•        Wait until it is dry, and slowly remove. You have a mask
•        Add more plaster cast to smooth out edges, fill parts in. Take tissue paper and watered down glue and apply to top and edges to smooth the whole thing out. Paint, or whatnot as liked. 

       It was terribly messy! Also tons of fun. 

       We were not the only adults doing this, but we weren't all adults either and everyone was having a good time trying to make scream masks. 

       After a nightcap of hot chocolates and cortados(expresso with milk, in my case; double expressos) we headed back to the bay to watch the fireworks show. I did take pictures of it, but they never turn out quite as I expect. I should look into taking pictures of fireworks, they are quite hard. All in all a very full, fun, and lovely day. I highly recommend being around for these events next year around September 14th, 2013! See you there :)

Here is your surprise picture, enjoy!