theeuropeantournorway

Friday 3rd of June
Noon: Barks arrives in Oslo by plane from Iceland
Lunch at Grand Hotel
Press meeting
Rest of the day off

Saturday 4th of June
Leaves the hotel in Il Tempo Gigante, an oversized cartoony prop vehicle from a puppet movie
Viking ship cruise on the Oslo fjord
Lunch on board
Visit to The Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy

Sunday 5th of June
Airplane tour to see the fjords
Visit to the Olympic arena in Lillehammer
Rest of the day off

Monday 6th of June
Private visit to Vinmonopolet
Visit to the Nobel Institute to meet with the Norwegian Comics Forum (NTF)
Dinner with Norwegian television

Tuesday 7th of June
Meeting with Aase Kleveland, Minister of Culture
Visit to the amusement park Tusenfryd. Opening of a Donald Duck 60 years anniversary exhibition
Visit to the University of Oslo to meet student fans. Presented with the Order of the Bear

Wednesday 8th of June
Morning off
Lunch with the American ambassador Thomas A. Lofthus
Departure by ferry to Denmark

On Saturday the 4th I had been invited by the DD & Co. editor to row a Viking ship with Barks in, on the Oslo fjord. I met at the shipping museum early in the morning and met with the other guy from the quiz show and the judge, who had been an editor and now is a translator for the Norwegian DD & Co. Apart from us, there were a bunch of other people who knew how to row, owners of the viking ship etc., all in all 16 rowers and a few more people. We set sail and went into Oslo harbour where Barks arrived at 10.
With him were Grandey, Morby, and a few Norwegians. It was a fantastic event, at first we rowed and then we set sail, so that us rowers could talk to Barks. Grandey was a little ill, but a nice guy, although I already knew this and that. Since he allowed only two signatures by Barks per person, I managed to have five - on my Duckmobiles, the Carl Barks Index I coworked on in 1984, a photograph for the press conference, and two of the first DD & Co comics I ever owned. I think Barks was a little overwhelmed, but he was a nice guy who really tried to talk to each one of us even though he had some problems with hearing us. He functions best when he talks with one person at the time. And - what can you say to such a person, what can you ask about that he hasn't answered before, or if not, do you think he remembers anything about this or that in his comics at all? I told him about my experiences as a kid and how grateful I was to what he had done, and he said he had just done his best and was overwhelmed by the reception in Norway.
We were out on the fjord for many hours and it was a perfect trip. The only negative thing was that the editor could have invited more Duck fans and not all those extra rowers from a school ship who never had cared that much about Barks. I had to help him when we landed so that he shouldnt turn over, and when I held him then I thought Wow, this I am going to remember for the rest of my life.
After the trip Barks went to the Viking Ship museum and I went there also together with some of the owners of the Viking ship we sailed in. In the museum nobody seemed to recognize Barks, but children and teenagers flocked around - me! I did my best to persuade them to concentrate on Barks, but I did enjoy all those young people wanting to be photographed together with me - since I was known from the quiz show on TV, you see. Grandey later told me that Barks had said that even if he died on the trip, he had enjoyed it immensely!

On Sunday, Barks was flown in a small plane to view the Norwegian fiords and mountains and glaciers, and they visited Lillehammer with the Olympic arena. Barks told me that he had been impressed by the ski jump, he would not even dare to walk on that slope.

On Monday 6th the Norwegian Comics Forum had rented the Nobel institute auditorium and filled it with appr. 120 eager Duck fans and collectors (space limitations). Bjørn Are reported from this event earlier, he also videotaped Barks, who arrived at 1715 and greeted the audience waving his hand and wearing a huge smile. He sat down to answer questions and was very humourous. Grandey had to repeat some of the questions to him, mostly because of bad pronunciation from the audience.
After that we walked out on the roof in order to have photographs taken, and the 10 Duck experts of the panel (among them me) got to meet Barks first. The kind Carl welcomed me and talked about his impressions of Norway and I introduced him to some of the various people of the panel. The Norwegian DD & Co. editor got quite lost out there, he panicked and shouted: No autographs and We got to go now and This takes too much time and so on, but Barks was content and smiling and didn't feel the audience threatening. He posed for photographs for a long time and talked with a lot of people. I got much more than my fair share :-) , well, we all did, the event lasted much much longer than the expected 15 minutes with prepared questions on beforehand (yes, that trick was also skipped). It was great! And I do think Barks thought it was great also.

On Tuesday I went to Tusenfryd, a children's amusement park some miles out of Oslo, whose name literally means the flower Daisy. This park has earlier arranged Duck exhibitions, and this time Erik Hørthe had arranged a huge Duck and Barks exhibition, a fantastic thing really, with glass show-cases containing lots of collectibles including comic books, books, original art and oils, and walls with information about the various aspects of Barks' work and in the middle an enormous map of all the places the Ducks had been in the Barks adventures. It was terrific, I was stunned, Erik must have worked day and night to be able to dig up so many facts and arrange the whole thing.
Barks went out there at noon to open the exhibition and then pose for photographs. Although it was nice weather, there were surprisingly few people attending, although there was a long queue before Barks' table. I was given the paper cup he had used to drink water - wow, what a collector's item! I then had to leave for the greatest event of all, the Barks seminary at the University.
The auditorium was filled to the brim, there was between 600 and 700 seats and people were standing far into the hall outside. Then Barks arrived. He was greeted with a standing ovation that seemed to have no end. Then he seated on the first row (I sat just behind) and was greeted by a professor. Barks also got an order from the students union, the Bear Order, a polar bear in green silk band, flowers and a T-shirt which he said he would be wearing at his home when he went to work in the garden, and he gave a short talk at the end. He also made a drawing for the students, which will be framed and hung at their club room.

It was a splendid trip, it was incredible, and I will always remember it. Barks fulfilled all my expectations and did his best to make us feel comfortable with him, and just the way he lit up in a smile and waved his hand every time he saw me was a gesture which meant so much for me you cannot imagine.

Geir Hasnes