Thinking Allowed: I'll take the trees, please

Norway is a country that really got a healthy dose of natural beauty. It is no wonder that in the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy books, it is used as the example of a perfect landscape. As usual we spent a picture perfect summer there soaking in the crisp summer air and scenery that is the start of endless impressionistic paintings and good children's stories. Our last few days in Norway were filled with so many fun activities it made it hard for the kids to leave the country. We went on boat rides, ocean swims, town visits, ate cake overlooking the fjord, and scarfed down raspberries with a frenzy characteristic of the preemptively nostalgic. We drove up scenic winding roads into the mountains of Telemark where we hiked up a mountain whose summit boasts both views of 1/6 of Norway and freshly made waffles with jam. We stayed with family where the children jumped on the trampoline until their hair was thoroughly tangled and their cheeks red and took turns riding horses with good posture and serious expressions. We spent a day exploring Norwegian heritage in Oslo and finally we drove ourselves to the airport to the protests of the children and a chorus of little bossy voices proclaiming the need to return.

And after a dozen hours on an airplane we arrived in Bangkok. Nothing makes a big Asian city seem even bigger and more overwhelming than arriving from the Norwegian countryside. It is like going from a string quartet playing Bach in a sun dappled forest clearing to a marching band playing heavy metal in a typhoon. It probably didn't help that we'd been up all night in the plane, nor that Jakob started vomiting as soon as we landed. We did have a great time roaming around Bangkok with friends eating but neither of us felt too bad that our Bangkok stay was only two days long.