My Norway in a Nutshell

I used the promise to support a group of scholars in Norway starting an academic organization for health humanities and social medicine as an excuse to extend my stay in the country into a vacation using two weekends. Dear Husband had a work trip the same week, but luckily a friend from grad school who now lives in Germany was able to organize her time so that she could travel with me. While you could take the train from Oslo to Bergen in one day and either tack on the side trip to Flåm (pronounced "floam") the same day or backtrack to do it the next day (like the people on our train), we thought that was too much time sitting. We decided to break up the stereotypical "Norway in a Nutshell" train trip from Oslo to Bergen with intermediary stops for hiking and sightseeing--see our itinerary at the bottom of the post. This meant I had to pack for summer in Oslo (70 degrees and sunny + 60s at night), rain in the mountains (50-60 degrees during the day, except in the 40s at Myrdal and at night), and an academic conference (but more relaxed than most).

Packing while toggling between 2025 Eurovision music videos and the Norwegian weather site, I decided to bring my hiking boots and a pair of flats, 2 long-sleeved t-shirts + jeans for hiking, a selection of short-sleeved t-shirts + 2 pairs of slacks for the city, 1 bathing suit for the sauna, 2 pairs pajamas, an assortment of socks/underthings, and the minimum of toiletries. By the way, if you haven't yet enjoyed the 4th-place Eurovision video from Swedish group KAJ about going to the sauna, it's worth a listen: Bara bada bastu.

This is all of my gear for the weather: an umbrella, a kerchief, a knit cap, an Orioles baseball cap, a woven scarf, a fleece jacket, unlined rain/ski pants, and a water-proof windbreaker that can be folded and zipped into its own pocket to make a fanny pack (if you're really skinny!). I ended up leaving the umbrella in Oslo during our train trip and was a little sorry about it, but the combo rain pants (which I already owned) and rain jacket (new investment) plus the baseball cap turned out to be clutch in the mountainous west of Norway, where it rained off-and-on continuously.

 

I was pretty darn impressed with my packing job! I also brought some travel gear: a neck pillow, a smaller day bag, 2 soft knee braces, a pair of arch supports, a sleep sack in case the hotel sheets were suspect, and a dirty clothes bag. I should have left the sleep sack but brought flip flops and a travel bottle of shampoo for the couple of times we had communal showers without supplies. For the saunas we either used the hotel towels or rented some. I also brought my old European converter plug for my phone and laptop as well as 3 books for work: American Disgust: Racism, Microbial Medicine, and the Colony Within by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer (he and I share some theoretical frameworks);  Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High (for my leadership seminar), and Making Disability Modern: Design Histories edited by Bess Williamson and Elizabeth Guffey (for my conference presentation on structural ableism).

I went straight from work on Friday to dinner with Dear Husband on the way to the airport. The 6-hour flight from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik didn't allow for much sleeping. Airplane breakfast: 12 Euro oatmeal, hot tea, and OJ.

On my second trip to Europe, in June 2005, I flew through Reykjavik Airport. Leaning against this angled wall in a jetlagged haze while my companions purchased something in the food court is one of my distinct memories of that trip.

Oslo to Bergen Itinerary

Saturday ~ arrive in Oslo, get sunshine to adjust internal clock, consider partaking of Oslo's fancy food and/or drink scene

Sunday ~ morning train from Oslo to Geilo (pronounce the G as a Y), hike around the lake, hotel has a sauna

Monday ~ mid-morning train from Geilo to Myrdal [we could have taken an earlier one and missed some of the other tourists], hike 1.5 hours down into valley (there's also a zipline option!), rent bicycles for a 45-minute ride the rest of the way to Flåm, then catch the last Naeroyfjord fjord ferry because there was nowhere to stay Flåm that was in our budget. Due to inclement weather, large backpacks with food, and seats opening up on the touristy Flåmsbana, we scrapped the bikes at the last minute and took the train.

Tuesday ~ wake up in Gudvangen and either take a hike or visit the Viking Village, then take the bus to Voss to ride the gondola up for a hike and/or see the (mostly outdoor) folk museum [we skipped this]

Wednesday ~ take the train to Bergen for a walking tour, check out the museums, ride the Fløibanen funicular up for a hike. E.R. discovered a sauna on the harbor that we booked for after dinner

Thursday ~ early morning flights back to Oslo / Germany

1920s garden party at Wilpen Hall

I found out that a lovely elderly couple at church had gifted us a membership to the Sewickley Valley Historical Society when an invitation to a "speakeasy" garden party landed on Dear Husband's desk. We weren't sure if we would know anyone there, but we like a fancy dress-up occasion and can usually entertain ourselves, so we RSVP'd with the "white rose" group and collaborated on our best 1920s-imitation outfits. The lower entrance fee and later arrival time meant we would miss the champagne toast and guided tour of the house but still gave us access to the buffet, gardens, and carriage house. Even though we ran into a few church folk, we still felt like we were crashing someone else' party--maybe that's what made it like a speakeasy? That, and the open bar. A pianist played period-appropriate popular music on a keyboard, and the food was good (especially the desserts). You can see that the evening was overcast, but the rain stayed away long enough for us to wander around the grounds and check out the collection of historical carriages and cars.

Wilpen Hall home was built for William Penn Snyder and his wife between 1897 and 1900 as a summer home in the tony Sewickley Hills area. Snyder was the founder of the Shenango Furnace Company. Designed by George Orth and Brothers in the style of an English Manor house, the residence was subsequently named "Wilpen," using a contraction of Snyder's first and middle names. Today it is the home of a couple of doctors, who got it listed as a historic site in 2021.

This is some of the original sculpture on the property;

there are many more modern pieces, almost all of them animals.

It was a little late for the roses, which must have been stunning at their peak.

The current owners clearly have a sense of humor and wimsy!

There were at least four terraces from the main back yard, to this lawn, a lower level with an abandoned swimming pool, and then a further grassy expanse below that.

Off in one corner was another abandoned swimming pool (to the right, not pictured), and behind me here, a duck pond in which a concrete goose had drowned (not shown out of respect).

To DH's disappointment, there were no fish in the pond. There was however lots of frog statuary.

All manner of antique conveyances

Also 118-year-old horse show ribbons plus old tack. No horses, though.

Come for the conference, stay for the vacation: A photo essay

I have been so busy that I was (am) desperate for a break. So when one of the five conferences I am attending in May-June ended at lunchtime on a Saturday, and it wasn't substantially cheaper to fly home the same day, I decided to spend an extra night at the hotel. Originally Dear Husband had to work that weekend but he needed downtime as much as I did, so he took the weekend off to attend our nephew's high school graduation in Ohio. In Florida I had good time connecting with friends old and new; co-presented two workshops; and absorbed what felt like a firehose of information. At last year's conference I had split my time between medical content, publication advice, and career development. This time I live-Facebooked areas in which I am weak, like the musculoskeletal exam, cardiac devices, and hormone therapy. The organization's staff try to keep things light, so that's me with the conference mascot, a stuffed yeti doll wearing snorkel gear. The plenaries were appropriately inspiring. I was a member of the winning trivia team for the second year in a row (and runner-up the year before that), so I've decided to sit out next time and contribute a category of medical history questions. Then I spent ~25 hours recharging my batteries. 

I was tickled to fly out on Maryland One.

Approach to Ft. Lauderdale.

View from my balcony on the 32nd floor. I think that's the highest floor I've ever stayed on.

It was a looong way down.

Society of

General

Internal
Medicine

They ran out of blue Meds Peds ribbons, so I wrote it on the bottom of my badge.

My institution hosts a dinner for current and former members.

I staged photos of the program as part of my posts. The gold rectangle is my business card holder with pearl inlay that was a graduation gift from My Awesome Parents.

George (NYU) and I defended our trivia title!

UPMC Med Peds had a great showing, especially of residents.

I was sad nobody noticed the scarf that I designed using Renaissance anatomical illustrations.

This medical conference prefers pricey hotels, but I was still shocked that the bill for a working lunch at the restaurant was $54 (one salad, one dessert, no alcohol or tip). I heard they were charging north of $20-35 per cocktail. After the conference ended, I walked to the nearby grocery store to stock up for the rest of my stay. Two lunches, one breakfast (sans yogurt pilfered from the conference), one dinner, and snacks cost $48. I figured out how to make hot tea with the espresso machine in the room.

Hotel pool on my way to sunrise yoga. The clouds protected us from the worst of the sun's rays, but we still sweated through our workout while the yogi--a young man from Los Angeles--explained anatomy, philosophized about mind over matter, and reminded us how "dope" our bodies are for the things that they can do or have done.

During my mini-vacation, I played games on my phone and ate dinner in bed while watching a movie. I got to spend time in the ocean waves and in the hotel pool. After showering and checking out I read on the back deck until the sun was high and the temps were uncomfortable, so I moved inside to recharge my devices and write this blog post, a sort of farewell postcard for both you and me.

Boston's arts and sciences in two museums: Part 2

Because I was too busy completing the book manuscript to propose a new paper, and the poster I made with colleagues studying the organization's early career prizes wasn't accepted, I didn't present anything the big history of medicine meeting this year. This meant I could relax and listen to the panels, which I annotated for Facebook. I did moderate a panel on the history of epidemic disease on Sunday morning.

When the conference wrapped up, I met a friend at the Museum of Fine Arts for lunch and a look-see. To our surprise, the ticket line was out the door, down the steps, and to the sidewalk, as it was Mother's Day, Northeastern's graduation, a family entrance weekend, a Vincent Van Gogh exhibit, AND "Art in Bloom," when floral artists pair bouquets with artworks. After waiting to be seated for a modest lunch, we explored the jewelry and musical instrument exhibits, as well as some rooms upstairs with fin-de-siecle European and American art. 

"Jewelry is everywhere as the MFA. This space and the jewel box gallery on your right feature a small yet broad sampling of an extraordinary collection. This isn't the only space in the museum where you will encounter these miniature treasures. Throughout your visit, look for jewelry alongside other works of art in many of the MFA's galleries." The case has an ancient necklace next to one from the 21st century. My favorite pieces were the "classic" Art Nouveau pieces with filigree work and colored gems.

This small room had fewer instruments than the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, but there was still a nice variety. We particularly admired the guitars with intricate inlays and finely cut sound holes.

I could have stared at this painting for a long, long time.

It is "Orchis and Hummingbird" (c. 1870-83) by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904).

Fancy table with more inlay work.

Hung in a simple wooden frame, "Lady with a Red Shawl" (c. 1840) was attributed to "Artist once known, American, mid-19th century."

I believe this is a Tiffany stained glass window.

Editor's Note : Click here for the medical history museum at MGH.