Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

Above, in the foreground, a Norwegian.com plane alongside one from SAS and Thai Airways on the tarmac at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, around 12:39 p.m. (I told you it was overcast most of my trip!) This particular plane has famed Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus a.k.a. Carl von Linné, featured on its tail. His face also appears on the 100 Swedish krona note, the smallest bill with a security foil strip. As I have blogged about before here, he's scheduled to be replaced on that bill by gorgeous Greta Garbo's face. Ah, Garbo! January 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Meant to post something about this valuable bit of great news a few months ago when I first got the news from someone in-the-know, but it's still worth mentioning all these weeks later now that it was officially made public on Tuesday.
And it's a real game-changer, too.

Starting November 30th, you can fly nonstop between Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and Oslo on Norwegian twice a week starting at $238 each way, plus taxes and luggage charges.
Norwegian's departures from Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood will be on Mondays and Fridays at 9:30 p.m, arriving in Oslo at 12:35 p.m.the following day. 

Departures from Oslo are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3:10 p.m., arriving at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30 p.m. Eastern the same day.

http://www.visitnorway.com/us/Getting-here-and-around/Air-travel/New--Direct-flights-to-Norway-with-Norwegian/

If you're like me, you'll be able to use Norwegian.com as a cost-saving head start on a flight to Sweden and Stockholm -WITHOUT having to waste your valuable time by flying to O'Hare or Newark first, and then hanging around the airport all afternoon waiting for that night flight out of Newark on SAS or United. 
Instead, simply go to FLL and get on your plane and you're on your way.

Introductory fares to Stockholm start at only $269 each way, plus taxes and luggage fees.
Yes, you read that right, $269!
http://www.norwegian.com/us/flight/tips/?D_City=FLL&DestinationGroup=12&SplitDatesInto=3&UseDates=True&D_Day=01&D_Month=201311&D_Day_End=31&D_Month_End=201401&CurrencyCode=USD&IncludeTransit=False

 Copenhagen and Stockholm . The firstCopenhagen flight begins Nov. 29, followed by Stockholm on Dec. 1. Both routes will run four days a week. 

Oslo Airport's press release of April 16, 2013 about the new flights:
http://www.osl.no/en/osl/aboutus/_press/_newsarchive?NOW_YOU_CAN_FLY_DIRECTLY_TO_FLORIDA&id=181-156129

Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport:
http://www.broward.org/airport/Pages/Default.aspx 

Sunday's LIVE telecast of the National Memorial in Oslo can be seen at NRK at 9 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada - Minnesceremoni från Norge

SVT Rapport video: Överlevande åter på Utöya. August 19, 2011.

SVT's Thursday night news segment on the survivors returning to Utøya for the first time since the armed attack one month ago, along with dozens of family members of the survivors and deceased and an army of psychologists.

http://svtplay.se/v/2507829/rapport/overlevande_ater_pa_utoya

SVT Rapport video: Sorgen fortfarande starkt närvarande i Oslo. August 19, 2011.

SVT news segment from Thursday night on the strong grief still being felt a month later in the Norwegian capital.

http://svtplay.se/v/2507901/rapport/sorgen_fortfarande_starkt_narvarande_i_oslo

Both videos available at SVT Play website until August 19, 2012.

--------------------------

Sunday's LIVE telecast of the National Memorial in Oslo regarding the attacks in Oslo and Utøya on July 22 can be seen via computer at NRK at 9 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada.

http://www.nrk.no/video/direkte_minneseremoni_21_august/3D147755BB517E07/

According to the latest information on SVT's website, the following individuals are scheduled to participate:

Music: Kringkastingorkestern, Susanne Sundfør, Leif Ove Andsnes, Karpe Diem, Dumdum Boys, Sivert Høyem, Jarle Bernhoft, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Ingrid Olave, Sissel Kyrkjebø and A-ha.

Readings will be led by actors Aksel Hennie, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Ane Dahl Torp, Adil Khan, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Sofie Gråbøl and Maria Bonnevie.

The ceremony will be hosted by (reporter/singer) Haddy N'jie.

I've refrained up 'till now from writing about what transpired a month ago in Oslo and Utøya on July 22nd for reasons that are not entirely worth getting into right now. Perhaps in the not-so-distant future.

There were some things, though, that I wanted to share now that I think reflect my frame of mind and what I will eventually post here, and will give you some small guidance if you watch Sunday's national memorial service.

First and foremost, as it always does, timing and opportunity rules everything.

I was reading/watching the LIVE reports of the armed attacks in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik -via Stockholm and Oslo- within mere minutes of it happening, even BEFORE it was being reported in the U.S. media, because of the fact that that particular morning -my time- I was already looking at Swedish news websites like Aftenposten, SVT, TV4, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, et al.

I'd also written some recent posts about Norway, so still had the NRK website handy as well on my Bookmark list.

SVT video: NRK:s Peter Svaar direktrapporterar från Oslo. July 22, 2011.

http://svtplay.se/v/2486151/rapport/nrk_s_peter_svaar_direktrapporterar_fran_oslo?sb,k103266,9,f,161015

Above, one of the first on-scene reports of the explosion downtown by NRK's Peter Svaar.

Norska TV2 berättar från Utöya. July 22, 2011.

http://svtplay.se/v/2486325/rapport/norska_tv2_berattar_fran_utoya

Above, one of the first reports from Norway's TV2 on what happened in Utøya, with lots of helicopter shots outlining the island.

I watched the foreign and domestic coverage for a few hours almost continually for days, constantly amazed at the VERY poor and incorrect reporting being done in the U.S. media on this rapidly-evolving story.

In CNN's case, that is, the U.S. version of CNN, that included reporting low casualty figures hours and hours after it common knowledge among the media on the scene that the grim numbers were FAR HIGHER, an upsetting point that I made in some quick emails to some U.S. media friends around the country, some well-known, that I wanted to know the true scope of the attacks, not the old info being foolishly repeated over-and-over on CNN.

One of the emails I sent was this news about an important Tweet warning being sent around the area as people were warned to turn off their cell phone rings.

My subject header was: FYI: Ominous Twitter warnings went out re Utøya: ”Ring inte ön"

"RING INTE FOLK PÅ UTØYA. De gömmer sig för gärningsmannen. Kopiera statusen! (Ambulansen kommer inte fram ertersom det fortfarande är skottlossning)."

which roughly means:

Do not call the island on your mobile as fake cop re-loading gun in search of people to shoot, is listening for rings from phones. Ambulances won't arrive if shooting is happening.

from Ungdomarnas larm från ön på twitter: Hjälp oss, Nyheter, Aftonbladet

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article13364079.ab

I also watched the LIVE telecast on SVT Play via NRK the following day of the Memorial service at the Oslo Cathedral that drew so many notable figures, as well as the families whose loved ones had perished.

Above, right-to-left: King Harald, Queen Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise and her husband, author Ari Behn.

That started at 5 a.m. Miami and was very tough to watch as you'd see people just start crying, tearing-up or sobbing out-of-the-blue.

Especially after the poignant lighting of the candles!

The emotion of the occasion gets to the King and Queen, too.

Above and below are just some of the screen shots of the dozens I took of that church service which I have been holding onto, knowing that it would be impractical to simply post them all, knowing that 99% of you would not have enough context to appreciate what was taking place just from the photos.

While it might not always seem that way to some of you, especially those of you who are in South Florida, I try my best not to be too preachy here on the blog, and I knew that it would be hard to drop ALL those photos on you all, out-of-the-blue, then as now, without seeming either patronizing or...???

Because if you have to explain everything...

So I've held onto them.

But I thought I'd share a few now...

The Royal Family represents.

Above and below, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg addresses those assembled in the cathedral and across the nation.

http://youtu.be/8oPbd9UvZuY

Above, Prime Minister Stoltenberg singing along.

All screen shots on this page by South Beach Hoosier.

In a word: Wow! Terje Sorgjerd and Ole Christian Salomonsen's spectacular videos of the aurora borealis from Norway will amaze you. Häpnadsväckande!

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

The Aurora -Terje Sorgjerd spent a week in northern Norway near Kirkenes, close to the Russian border, and somewhat to his own amazement, captures some astounding video of the aurora borealis in clarity and action that has rarely been seen before.
http://vimeo.com/21294655

To get a sense of how very far North he was when he shot this video near Kirkenes, that's almost exactly the same as the northern-most point in Alaska.
I just checked on Kirkenes and right now, the temp there feels like 6 °F.

I remember 6 degrees -and lower- in Bloomington in January of 1982, one of the brightest sunniest days I ever experienced, where the snow was literally blindingly bright. We eventually had wind chills of -40 to -50 below zero, and I remember it so well because it was the same week the Chargers played at the Bengals for the AFC Championship, the week after beating the Dolphins here in Miami, where I'd watched the game on TV near my mother's home near The Falls. The weather there in Cincinnati was the same as it was at IU, a couple of hours east.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MSNBC photoblog: Northern lights, like never seen before
Article at: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/23/6329101-northern-lights-like-never-seen-before?chromedomain=cosmiclog

Other examples of Terje Sorgjerd's talent at: http://vimeo.com/terjes

And also shot from cold northern Norway, Ole Christian Salomonsen, and In The Land Of The Northern Lights

In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole Christian Salomonsen on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/21419634

http://vimeo.com/arcticlightphoto

Just imagine what the Vikings must've thought about on their sea journeys at night with no land or torch lights visible for miles, and then suddenly seeing these images flash across the sky?
Their own insignificance?

But to get near there from here....






Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) TV commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if486a186YE&feature=player_profilepage

FYI: Starting on Monday the 28th, there's a NEW daily SAS non-stop from Newark to Oslo for only $413 each way.
Promo code: KKUSSC5

SAS homepage for USA -in English: http://www.flysas.com/en/us/

http://www.norway.com/