Exploring Lillehammer and Maihaugenn Museum in Norway - Day #2

We slept well, despite me waking up at one point feeling super hot and drenched in sweat as Julien sleeps like a freaking human heater 😂 We were warm and even overslept because I didn't charge my phone before bed - I simply felt slightly paranoid about draining the car battery.

Making plans and visiting the open air-museum Maihaugenn

But by 10am, we've had breakfast in the van and were out to the Tourist Information Centre at Lillehammer and then off to the open-air museum Maihaugenn which features old Norwegian houses from the 16-17-1800s and then some representations of houses from the 1920, 40s, 70s, 80s, 90s. I found it super fascinating. The weirdest thing - some of the houses even smelled like their decade… and that I can't even explain.. Especially how would I know what the 40s, or the 70s smelled like, hey?! 😂

The old houses' rooftops were all green and I think this is such an amazing old and smart technique to keep the houses insulated even.

Another interesting thing I learned was that in Norway, since the houses are made of wood, they are easily ''taken down'', transported and then rebuilt somewhere else entirely.

One of the houses belonged to the princess...or queen of Norway when she was a child and you could walk around and experience it as it was when she lived in it. Her house was also moved from its original location.

I was also shocked to see little houses, that were built as playhouses for the girls that lived in the home. They were basically given a child-suited size house to play in, take care of, cook in and clean. Damn! Talk to me about training female children to see labour as play and keeping a house as a thing they must strive for!

Anyways! We had sandwiches for lunch it was and then an exploration of Lillehammer itself.

After walking up and down the main street, we headed out North to see some sculptures along the way and find a place to shower, refill our water tank, eat dinner and then continue further North - potentially towards the famous Troll Wall Rock formation.

Things I've learnt today about Norway and Norwegian folks…

As we were exploring Lillehammer we walked into a clothes shop, there were traditional clothes and I got curious if it's custom to wear such on occasions or even on the daily (as I've seen folks in Bavaria do). The lady said that it's custom to hand down traditional clothes from parents to children and that these are worn at confirmations, celebrations, christenings etc. She spoke about the people being more often tied to the protestant church or the state church out of traditionalism and being part of a community.

Another interesting stuff I learned from a lady in a bookshop as we discussed books and culture. Apparently, back in the 60s and 70s many Norwegians adopted babies from Korea and China. We talked about the shame they've had to eradicate around adoption and the issue of race. She said they have Northern people called Same that live in tribes and that the Scandinavian countries have treated them badly in the past. All super fascinating cultural things that make you realise how little we know if we don't read or watch documentaries or talk to people when we travel.

It was a great day!