My Matzah Came Strait from Holland

Turtles in the Madrid Train Station

Home-made Brumost

Well, I just got back from a string of amazing nights in Madrid. But before that, I found a farmer's market in Oslo. In it, I tried a moose burger, homemade brown Norwegian cheese (Brumost), elk sausage, and horse (didn't know it until after I'd eaten it, guys). Full of free samples (one of my favorite things in life) of things I've never tried, the market was one of my favorite finds in the city. After that, we finally explored the awesome Norwegian fort that was far too icy to explore even two weeks ago! Grass is apparent, and snow is turning into mudmudmud. Definitely an awesome thing to watch. This Norwegian winter is unbelievable long, so any inkling of change is great!

Madrid in a nutshell:

- No night ended before 6AM
- The first day, we woke up and it was 3PM. Sightseeing was cut a bit short.
- Spain does a fantastic thing that we should adopt in every bar in America. When you by a beer, they give you food! Real food! Potatoes, meats, cheeses, deliciousness! Tapas. The bomb.
- Irish people are crazy. Especially when they're on vacation.
- They have a bunch of little guys running around with grocery bags full of beers, sodas, and sandwiches all night since, other than Tapas, Spain's late-night food is a little lack.
- English = not prevalent. My talkingwithhands improved immensely during our trip.
- The train station is like a rain forest with a pond full of hundreds of turtles!

So Madrid was a lot of fun. But we also went on a nice little day trip to Toledo, the old capital of Spain. Unlike Toledo, Ohio, it was gorgeous, historic, full of stone buildings and windy streets, and specialized in selling decorated knives, scissors, and letter-openers. I bought the most ornate pair of beard-trimming scissors that I have ever seen. Other than that, we (my roommates Chris and Grant, Grant's girlfriend Sarah, and I) roamed Toledo stopping to check out rolling hills and great architecture in weather that will never reach Oslo. You can check out more pictures here.

After coming back and catching up on sleep, I went to the Oslo Chabad for the first night of Passover. Out of 800 Jews in Norway, almost 150 people were present to hear the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Full of Jews from all around the world (Brazil, UK, Israel, Norway) along with Norwegian non-Jews present just to learn more about the Jewish culture, I had a passover Seder unlike any I've ever been to. And since the Hagaddah was in both Hebrew and English (as opposed to being in Norwegian), I was able to follow, sing familiar tunes, and have a grand ole time.

Today, I cleaned my room and did my laundry. It may not seem like an accomplishment, but you should've seen my room. And my clothes.

Holy Toledo!

My Matzah came from Holland,

Jonathan