The Musings of a Fernicle

And then there was reindeer racing

2010-02-14T01:36:00.000-08:00

Last weekend J and I had a day out in the city at the reindeer races!
Despite what you might think, this is not an everyday occurance in Tromsø. Last week was Sami week (a week celebrating the indigenous folk of Scandinavia) and so a range of different Sami activities and hand-made products were on offer in the city. One of these was reindeer racing. It involved a senior and a junior competition where two racers on skis are towed behind reindeer running at about 60km/hour. It took place in the main street of the city and it was awesome!
It began with the different reindeer owners greeting each other in the marshalling yard.
Then each of the competing animals was paraded up the racing runway, with a guy on a loudspeaker enthusiastically declaring the name of the owner and the beast, where they were from, past wins and previous times etc. Many of the reindeer were incredibly flighty being paraded along the runway, with quite a bit of bucking and kicking going on.
Before the race, the reindeers are placed in their starting boxes, which often took some time given the aforementioned flightiness.
Then they are released and charge up the track going as fast as they can, towing their racers behind them and kicking up a flurry of snow in their wake.

After a range of heats and finals, the winners are declared and awarded their trophies. Both the racer and the reindeer owner get a trophy and a cheque for a wad of cash.
While the reindeers don't appear to get any reward, I certainly hope that they are given some special treat for their performance from their owner when they get home. Although I must say, I do fear for the losers, given that in the laavo beside the track you could buy a kind of hot reindeer bone broth to help warm your frozen body...
I could not bring myself to try this after seeing the beautiful beasts running their little hearts out, but at the urging of some of the locals, J happily gave it a go. He said it tasted like reindeers smell and I am not sure he would buy it again. Perhaps it is a vegemite thing, you have to grow up with it to appreciate it. After it was all said and done though, J and I decided that we really enjoyed reindeer racing and perhaps we might make the trip out to the frozen inland area of norther Norway in easter where a large international competition is held every year. In fact, J enjoyed it so much he decided he might actually have to learn how to ski so that he might be able to try his hand at this sport and perhaps even compete in next year's competition. I think his form looks good. Heia J, Heia J!
xxx

Let it blow

2010-01-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

It is now mid January in the arctic and I am yet to go skiing or snowboarding here at all this winter!

It is incredible to me that I can be living so far north, have arrived at the point of mid winter, and yet have still not seen the conditions right for snow fun activities. Around Christmas was perhaps the best so far, and J managed to get in one good snowboarding session on the backyard mountains, but unfortunately the closest I have come has been walking and slipping around on the mountains with the dogs (none of whom really wanted to have their photo taken with me) :)
Fortunately they were happy to have their picture taken on their own and J was happy to tolerate my need to capture our arctic Christmas eve on the mountain top.
As you can see from the pics, there has been snow, but it has just not really been enough to cover the rocks and bushes that we need for good snowboarding. There has also been rain and this rain has currently turned the snow to ice, and this is the real problem! Today was a very slippery walk with the dogs along the coastline and to make matter worse, we now have a severe hurricane like storm raging all around us and threatening to sweep us right into the fjord!

This week has been blessed with some joy though, because on the 21st we offically welcomed the sun back above the horizon.
Well, apparently. On the actual day, the whole of Tromsø was covered in a very unusual fog and so the sun, and everything else beyond 5m in front of you, was effectively invisible. Fortunately we still got to celebrate in the traditional way of the north, by eating jam doughnuts (sun balls apparently) and drinking hot chocolate. Since the official sun day, I have unfortunately always found myself in the shadow of some mountain or another in those precious few moments when the delicate sliver of the sun peeks her head up over our horizon, which means I am still yet to see that magical orange orb. Strangely though, the long dark arctic winter has not bothered me nearly as much as I thought it would. There have been some problems encouraging the body to sleep and wake at the right times, but apart from that, it has actually been rather lovely. There is someting quite charming about the lights twinkling in the dark and walking under a full moon in the blue light of midday.
Of course I still look forward to seeing the sun again, I just hope that she brings light and not heat for a little while though - I still hold out my hopes for some snow! Given the feeling of this intense oncoming storm we have today though, it may just be that I live to regret this wish. xxx

Big in Japan

2009-12-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Recently, J and I took a 10 day holiday in Japan. Ever since I studied japanese in high school it has been a dream of mine to visit that pearl of the east. I do, however, have a slight tendency to descend into panic attacks in large city crowds so was always rather nervous about the prospect of tackling Tokyo on my own. This year, a good friend happened to be living and working in Tokyo so I figured this was the perfect excuse to make the trip happen. This was helped by the fact that earlier this year I won $10,000 as part of a prize for excellence in research. For those of you who don't already know, Japan is famous for being extraordinarily expensive to visit so the injection of unexpected cash really helped me realise the dream. Part of my dream was also to try and experience an older more traditional side of Japan, the rural Japan you read about in stories rather than just the uber modern Japan you see on TV. Also, ever since I began snowboarding, the lure of lush Japanese powder has also become part of the appeal. Luckily for me, the 10 days we spent managed to contain a little of everything I wanted and was therefore absolutely perfect. What a fascinating, gorgeous, intriguing, beautiful, friendly, wonderful country! If you have ever thought you might like to visit Japan, my only advice would be do it, do it now, but start saving yesterday!

Our trip began by spending a quick night in Tokyo with our mate and then together all flying out at 5am the next morning to the north island of Hokkaido for 4 days of snowboarding adventures. While it was too early in the season for the conditions to be perfect and all the lifts open. There was snow, there were open runs and we therefore managed to have a tonne load of fun :)

While we were there, our mate invited another Aussie friend of his to join us for the weekend and luckily for us, he spoke fluent Japanese. This became super important when we entered a tiny local drinking hole and were confronted with a pack of rowdy drunken locals! J was great with them as usual, communicating in some way or another and impressing them with his tattoos, but having someone with us who could speak the language helped us be quickly embraced as friends rather than ignored as undesired foreigners.
After our fun in snow, we returned to Tokyo for another quick night before taking the bullet train out to Nagano, from where we took another small train out into the countryside. Here we stayed in a traditional ryokan hotel in a tiny hot spring village. Wow, what an experience! Great hot spring spas all through the hotel and the streets that we could soak in at will. We loved that we were expected to wear our cotton kimonos at all times and were given toe separated socks and wooden thongs if we wanted to walk outside on the local streets.
And the food! OMG! While the food all throughout Japan was generally amazing, the meals we were served as part of our stay in the ryokan were simply unbelievable. A 14 course dinner and an 11 course breakfast were standard, and we never got exactly the same dish twice in all 3 days of our stay. Truly amazing! Even though we could not identify half of what we were served, the flavours were absolutely incredible. Believe me when I say that you have not had japanese food until you have been to Japan, not a stick of sushi in sight! I miss japanese food already actually...
While staying in the village, one day we walked up into the mountains to see the snow monkeys that survive the freezing winters by hanging out in the hot springs there. That was an amazing experience - both walking up through the forests and past steaming holes in the ground and being surrounded by monkeys who couldn't care less that you were there invading their home.
We also had a great time walking around the mountains at the back of the village and discovering all the old abandoned temples and buddhist statues scattered amongst the rambling bamboo.
We absolutely cacked ourselves though when we found a 'tobacco diety' where we were instructed to leave a burning cigarette as an offering to help ensure our good health. Of course both of us could not pass up that opportunity!
After our great stay out in the countryside we headed back to Tokyo to spend our last night in the big city. We met some friends and squashed ourselves into the busiest metro line in Tokyo, got bustled across the totally crazy 3 way pedestrian crossing at shibuya, ate in a funky underground restaurant and ended the night drinking in an absolutely tiny (max capacity 10 people), ruby red, elaborately decorated, super chic bar where the beer was served in goblets.
All in all it was a fabulous trip that was worth every penny because the memories we created will without a doubt last as long as my lifetime :) xxx

blog off

2009-10-18T09:07:00.001-07:00

I know i have been the world's worst blogger of late...there are many reasons for this.

1. I have been swirling around in a whirlwind of work/travel entanglement. It has been exciting & exhausting, fun & furious, frivillous & deeply philosophical. I have been through seattle, vancouver, klemtu, the great bear rainforest, amsterdam, paris and home again. I have hung out with grizzly bears, run 2 international workshops on 'imag(in)ing the nanoscale', and added some touches to J's tattoo with my own hand. In short, i have felt like I have had little time/energy to blog.
2. Facebook. I have shared news and photos (with captions) of most these adventures using this alternative online medium. Somehow I found time/energy for that! I deem this to be because of its more interactive and networked nature. I started blogging to share photos and stories of my travels with friends back home, and I have to say that facebook is allowing me to do that more easily of late.

I have actually been asked to review a few academic articles about facebook lately, and the more I learn, the more I am (quite frightened, but mostly) amazed at the dynamic of how society adapts to and is altered by new technologies. It is truly fascinating. Think of life without the internet now. Life without the mobile phone. Without the home computer. Without the TV. Without the refrigerator.

What is life as we know it? Things will always be different tomorrow.

The constant change of not just society but nature in general has been stunningly brought home to me lately living here in Tromso. The leaves were bright orange when I returned from Vancouver. When I returned from Paris the mountains were covered in snow.
Light is visibly fading by the day. I get up at the same time and take the same bus to work in the morning but the colour in the sky and the reflections in the fjord differ everyday.
It is a truly beautifully magical place to stay.
I guess the joy of the blog is that you can ramble a bit more! In fact, you can actually write, i.e. you can explore ways of expressing yourself that do not have to be short and punchy and end with a :) or a :D or a :( or a :/ or a :*

But then this creativity in the use of written language is also fascinating...

blog. don't blog. just don't let it become institutionalised.

Institutionalisation inhibits adaption to the inevitable change of life on earth?
thought for today... xxx

the other side of a whirlwind of work/travel entanglement

2009-10-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

butterblock mountain

2009-08-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend J and I went off for another little hike in our local area. We didn't leave home until 4pm but with the light still lasting well into the night up here in the arctic, we figured we would be alright. We headed out towards our local surf beach and stopped at a lake along the way. From there we began to climb and climb and climb. This is a shot from about half way up the mountain, looking back down towards the road, the lake where we started and our home fjord in the background.
From here you could see what looked like the remains of an old glacier high up in the surrounding mountains.
While we had a map and thought the path seemed obvious (see dirt track in first pic), once we approached the top, paths went off in multiple directions. After a while we realised that they were all probably just little paths carved upon the mountain by multiple little sheep feet. We eventually found the lake on top of the mountain that the map told us we were aiming for, but we did not appear to have come by the traditional route of course. This didn't really matter as the end point was the same. From the top of this butter block mountain, we could look out to where our fjord, Kaldfjord, meets a neighbouring fjord, Vengsøyfjord, and both flow out to the sea. On this day the meeting was blessed by a rainbow.
On the way back down we tried to follow the map indicated path and passed above our local surf beach. Once again, no surf to be seen.
We did see a little family of quail like birds though and that was really nice. Mina, who likes to think of herself as a great bird hunter was perhaps the most excited, although luckily for the birds she was on a lead at that stage so all potential for feathered heartattacks was fortunately avoided. It was a lovely little walk, even if J and I were both feeling rather drained on the haul up! I hope we can do it again before we are snowed out by the winter, but this weekend I am heading back to the walk from the last post to see if I can't find some patches of ripe and ready to pick blueberries :) xxx

Sunday Stroll

2009-08-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

J and I had a rather hungover headachy thirsty lay on the couch watch movies and eat junk food kind of day yesterday. We spent friday night across the fjord with our new buddies, grilling and singing and dancing and seeing the moon for the first time in months (winter must be on its way!). This left us feeling a bit flat on Saturday. Thank goodness it was raining so feelings of guilt about doing almost nothing except consuming fat, sugar and hollywood movies were kept to a minimum. Today, however, we felt the need to do the Norwegian sunday stroll thing so we headed off into the drizzle to climb the mountain we see outside our kitchen window. It was a bit of a dodgy day but we didn't let that get to us and I loved that we got to walk up through a little forest full of bright orange mushrooms and masses of blueberries. I did not get any pics on the way up as it was too wet but when we stopped at the lower peak to the right of our kitchen view, I got a couple of snaps in before being rained out.

This one is looking back down Kaldfjord and out towards the sea. Our house is nestled down there somewhere on the left hand side :) This second one is looking out along the road towards Sommerøy. There is a great little white sand beach down there about 20kms. J and I took the motorbike down for an afternoon with friends not so long ago, but today that was not such an appealing option for what to do with the day.
Down from this peak was a lovely little mountain lake. There was evidence of prior fires and I could totally understand why. On a nice day it would be a lovely place to stop and swim and spend some time. The Norwegians love an outdoor grill. They get a little wood fire going, roast a sausage on a stick and put it in some flat tortilla like bread. Luckily I have found one place in town that sells soy sausages and am now stocked up for such occasions. However, I still have not found a shop that sells tofu, how weird is that? Not a single one. Feel like I might be living in the middle ages...not helped when at the party the other night everyone was eating dried fish as their snack with beer. Strangely enough, I actually didn't mind it...
J and I had hoped to be able to then go on and ascend the higher peak that we see out our window to the left. When we got there though, we could not see any path traversing the gulch between the two peaks. After quite some debate, we decided to try and bush bash our way up. Here we are pausing in an amazing patch of blueberries about two thirds of the way up.
Mina learnt to pick blueberries while we were here. I gave her three little ones and within no time at all she had worked out that she didn't need me and was off stripping the bushes all on her own (see video on facebook). After this stop, things became quite a bit more hectic though. The ground was very uneven and you could not see the gaps between the rocks because it was all covered in bluberry bushes and ferns. It was very steep and very slippery in the wet and we were clinging to spindly trees to keep us from toppling backwards down the mountain. Mina decided she did not want to go any further so J went on a bit for a look and unfortunately, we decided we had to head for home. We will try the ascent from another direction another weekend though and I will post some more pics then :) xxx

Life - Wild

2009-07-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

I have moved to a spectacularly beautiful landscape.

Rugged snow capped mountains shining in the midnight sun. Mountains drenched in flowers, berries and a multitude of feeding bugs. Sun reflected sparkling along the fjord. Fjord filled with fish jumping in the early evening. Fish that I can catch for dinner right from my front lawn. A seaweed covered shoreline covered in hidden mussels, crabs, sea urchins and coastal snails, all sought by fast flitting minks. Skies painted in squarking seagulls, sea eagles, ravens and ternes, crested by the occasional slow moving heron. They tell me otters reside on the other side of the fjord, and while I have not met them yet, I have watched porpoises slide on by between us. At least three kinds of jellyfish have also been seen blobbing along the water's edge. Reindeer wander the roads and stop traffic as they graze on people's lawns and pick through their gardens. They will be gone in the winter though when their Sami owners come to collect them and herd them inland. For now they are left to tend their short horned calves alone. Of course there are also people, good hearted, generous, simple-life loving people. How blessed I feel, by all of it.

I am currently reading 'The Road' and am even more grateful than ever for this abundant speldour of biodiversity with which i share my backyard.

Bergen Dog Walk - School Park

2009-06-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today on our last dog walk in Bergen, we went to the same place that we went to on our first dog walk in Bergen. We call it School Park. I think it is officially called something like Storetveit parken but whatever. On the way today we saw a couple of gorgeous poppies out playing with the sun. So beautiful. As I was photographing them, one of my favourite creatures in the whole wide world, a bumblebee, flew in. He was so sweet bumbling and buzzing around in there. I couldn't see him after he crawled in, but I could certainly hear him! Busy little bee he was. And no wonder he flew in there! Look at that magnificent eye! The poppy stares back at us. The inside perfectly matches the bumblebee's fluffy body and colours too, a real safe haven with the feel of home :) Heading to School Park takes us past the secret turnoff to Sherwood forest. The dodgy little road takes on a covering of trees for a small section and Mina usually stops to ask/suggest we take the track to Sherwood. Today though, she got the 'not today' answer to her question and we pressed on to the park. On the way, we pass the local church, starting from the cemetary side.

It may sound strange but I actually love the cemetary. I like the reminder of my mortality. It helps me enjoy more of the small beauties of the daily dog walk. I also find this cemetary aesthetically beautiful, in all seasons.

They replant the plants around the gravestones to match the seasons, so that there are always living flowers. In the winter, they light candles in little lanterns so that they are shining in the darkness when we walk on those cold dark mornings. A local friend told me that it is often young school kids, around 16 or so that are hired for the work. She said she did it for a few summers and enjoyed using the lawnmowers and driving the little cart :) There are defintely worse things to do all day than plant flowers and contemplate your feelings on death.

We then go on up past the bell tower... that charming construction that rings at 10.00 and 10.30 on weekends, as well as all over the place on weddings, confirmations, religious celebrations etc. I love listening to them on lazy morning weekends, 10am is right about the time it starts to be okay to have bells ringing I think.

Finally we hit the park! A couple of retirement villages sit at the end near the church and a school lies at the other. Here is the path between the two...

Today being Sunday, people were really out and about. The group of guys on the soccer field in this shot were flying a model stunt airplane, and doing so very well I might add! Lots of tricks and turns and rolls.

They had a captivated audience!
I love that the woman had been picking flowers from the meadows of the park. As you can see, it is left rather wild, but that is for good reason! There is a rather rare bird species that calls this meadow home - so dogs must be leashed and all plants allowed to grow. Today I was lucky enough to see one amidst the daisies.
They make the craziest call when alerting you that their babies are nearby, really like an old school computer game firing sound, pyanng pow, pyang pow pow pow. So cool.

When it is sunny and warm, people in flats use the park as a backyard and heaps lay around with their shirts off in the sun, and why not?

Once we have done a lap around the park, we take the path back to the main road, which I always find most lovely when it is covered in snow...

Along the main road we pass our vet clinic. The smells are just so intriguing that Moj thinks he would really like to go in! Mina is not so sure though... :)
And that is that - our regular bergen dog walks - school park, sherwood forest, slettsy lake and king's lake. How very appropriate it is that I finish this blog series, on our last walk in Bergen, the day before we leave for Tromsø. How crazy and exciting! J and I are all packed up and are waiting for the removalist to pick up our boxes first thing tomorrow morning. We will then pack the car, do the last run round of cleaning and carpet washing and we are out of here! We are taking 4-5 days to drive the 1800kms up the country. We will have the dogs and our camping gear and plan on taking some of the winding tourist roads along the coast. Personally, I am super excited to our see our new home on a fjord above the arctic cirlce, but also excited to enjoy the whole journey along the way :) Next blog coming to you from Tromsø...xxx

Dog Walk - Sherwood Forest

2009-06-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a perfect day for taking the dogs for a walk in Sherwood Forest.
In reality it is a little, old and largely abandoned side track between two streets in our suburb. It is one of the places nearby where the dogs get to run free range and they love it as much as we do. The only downside with what we affectionately call 'sherwood forest' is that the track gets very muddy in the rain, which in Bergen, is very often. But really, that only makes me extra appreciative of sunny quiet days, like today, when the dogs and I can linger over all the lovely sights and smells of the sherwood forest track.
On our way to the Sherwood track, we go past my favourite house in our neighbourhood. In winter it is covered in snow with red green apples clinging to a bare branched tree in the front yard. In the spring, its lawn becomes a sea of daffodils. In summer, it looks like this!
One of the great things about this track is that its entrace is rather hidden and you really have to be looking for it to find it. Fortunately Mina is very good at finding it! One time she even started running up it again when we passed by on the way back.
You have to kind of scramble up the embankment for a while before you get to trot along a little worn dirt path.
Eventually you reach a high point where it opens up and you get a lovely view of the mountain over cute little grass roofed hut.
Mina loves wiling away the time in this lovely open meadow section.
Mojo, however, leads us down from the meadow back onto the dirt track.
The whole track is littered with small sections of old rock walls. I guess they were from the time when the track was part of one of the large farms that used to occupy the area - the area that is now covered with the houses of our neighbourhood. I think there is something really lovely and precious about moss covered rocks walls set amidst ferns in the shade of a forest.
After a while the dirt track turns into a cobbly stone path.
At the end of the forested part of the track you reach some old farmhouse buildings, with fences and 2 absolutely beautiful old trees. Their branches reach all the way to the ground to form a canopy on one side. Again, that is Mojo's fluffy bum leading the way.

That is the end of the forest track and we then head back out into reality.
We turn for home and here, you can go left and follow the main road back, which I sometimes do in the mornings if I am in a hurry and trying to jog with the dogs, but on lovely days like today we take our time and turn right to go up past the old folks home at the end of the park...
on by a sculptors studio...
and down past our local church.

This then leaves nothing left to do but to walk down

and home. xxx

Bergen Dog Walks - Slettsy Lake

2009-06-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here is regular dog walk number two, around the other lake in our neighbourhood. The lake is actually called Tveitevannet, but because it is near the Slettebakken shopping centre, J and I call this the walk around Slettsy Lake. In the fabulous early summer weather that we are currently enjoying, the walk starts by going past the gorgeous flowers in our front garden.

For some reason, almost all of the houses in our neighbourhood are taking the opportunity of the great weather to replace their wooden walls and roof tiles, our neighbours included and hence the scaffolding in the picture above. From the end of our driveway we take a right and head up the hill.
Then we sneak under the main road using the pedestrian underpass tunnel...
and pop out at our local bus stop for buses heading into town. You can't see this here but it is actually on the edge of the lake. The older woman in the wheelchair in this picture loved the dogs and had to stop and have a little chat and pat. It is amazing how many of the older people here love the dogs and have to stop and have a chat about them. Luckily my Norwegian is good enough now that I can manage the small talk, but they are always super surprised when I tell them that these particular Norwegian elkhounds actually come from Australia! After a little detour through some streets where private houses own one side of lake, you come out to a beautiful view of it peeking through the trees.
Once you get past the trees, you get an even more beautiful view. This is looking across the lake in the direction of Bergen city.
From the same point but looking a little further to the right, you can just make out the path winding around the lake and the fabulous duck viewing table and and jetty.
Today was a great day for duck viewing because just at the end of the jetty, a mother duck was out with her babies, keeping a very watchful eye on me and the dogs!
The ducklings were soooo cute, nibbling around the edges of the waterlilly pads and ducking under the water like big grown up ducks, little legs waving in the air! When I got a bit too close though, mumma gave them all the super quacks and told them to swim off to safety. She was a good mum and definitely had her wings full trying to control this little gang of cheeky adventurers!
From the duck jetty, we walk pass one of my favourite modern churches in Bergen. I just really love this shining glass sail that stretches above the trees and glints in the sunlight.
A little further along you can look back over the lake towards Lovstakken mountain and the area where our house lies.
The only other man-made structure of note along the walk is this strange enormous vase out in the water. Not sure what it is all about exactly, but I assume it is considered art.
The path around Slettsy lake is very popular, especially on Sundays, which is a kind of traditional day for walking for Norwegians, with almost everyone going out at some point during the day for a good long stroll. Today being Saturday it was not so bad, but there were still people out and about, pushing prams, riding bikes, sitting around and feeding the pidgeons and ducks.

Once we cross the duck feeding bridge, we turn the corner and start heading back in the direction of home.
At the end of this straight stretch is a shell service station, where we often stop and get bread and milk, especially on Sundays when it is the only place open to do so, in accordance with the Norwegian rule that all shops should be closed on sundays so that people can be home spending time with their families. If we don't need the necessesities of bread and milk, I sometimes still stop for lollies, icecreams and/or DVDs. Strangley, the Norwegians are not that into the idea of renting movies. There are some places that do it, but it costs 50kr a night and you can buy the same movies from places like your local servo for 99kr. Needless to say, JJ and I now have a rather enormous DVD collection. While not into renting movies, there are very into the choose your own lollies idea and J and I have also spent a lot of money filling our little paper bags with a great mix of sweet and sour treats. Today though I stopped for icecreams and as always, the dogs were waiting patiently for me when I came out.
From the servo we go back under the underpass and take the same roads home. On the way we pass one of my favourite houses. In the winter it always has the oldstyle street lamp in its front yard on. When it is dark and the ground is covered in snow, I love seeing this little lamp burning, it makes me feel like I am in Narnia and could run into Mr Tumnus at any moment.
Not long after that and we are fluffy bum trotting down the stairs at the side of the house leading into our garden, and that is it, we have arrived back home! xxx.

Bergen Dog Walks - Kings Lake

2009-05-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

It is now only three weeks until J and I pack all our things and head for Tromsø, so I thought it would be nice to blog my regular dog walks from home in Bergen. These are the walks, in various directions around our neighbourhood, that all take about 45mins. They are therefore the walk routes that the dogs get regularly. They can be walked in various parts and combinations depending on short cuts and roads taken, but I will try and present them in their original forms.
The first is what J and I call 'Around King's Lake'.
It starts of course at the top of our driveway, and today was a beautiful, warm, clear, late spring day.
On the way down to the lake we pass the local rubbish collection point, boring but useful :)
Then we pass a motorcycle store that keeps J tortured with the fact that he is, for the first time in god knows how long, living without the joy of a motorbike.
We then pass by the kindergarten that you assemble when you need one in a real hurry to meet campaign promises. It was put up in a couple of weeks and was functional within a month. No dogs allowed in that playground though.
Opposite the kindergarten is a newly built soccer ground, also for the kiddies.
Then Hoorah! We have made it to the lake! King's lake it not that popular a walk with most of the locals, so very often when we go there I can let the dogs free range, and they absolutely love it!
Lovely little ducks live on this lake and they are particularly popular with families with kids that come and feed them (with the dogs often being lucky enough to also find the odd bit of bread). There are 2 mother ducks there this year, one with seven babies and one with four. I hoped to get a snap of them today but they were out cruising the reeds on the far side, so I just got one of the dads.
After we've strolled down one side of the lake we walk up into a little stretch of forest on the south side. Here you can also go left up through the local church and home, or as we did today, turn right and complete a full loop around the lake. The dogs were very helpful in deciding which way to go.
At the end of the forest edge you are presented with another choice of walking routes.
If you turn left, you can take a stroll down to the King's weekender castle and through its gardens (which is why we call it king's lake walk). That is about an hour and a half round trip though, more if you want to amble and enjoy the views of the fjord, so it not one of the walks I do regularly before going to work. If you go over the bridge, you can stroll through the forests at the base of the mountain Lovstakken, very beautiful but also a longer round trip. So, today I went right and down the other side of lake.
Bergen has wonderful displays of rhododendrons (spelling?) in the spring, and although they are no longer in their prime, they still look absolutely beautiful.
Looking back over the lake from this side, you see some crazy glass business buildings and our house tucked away up the back, although it is only really visible in the winter when the trees lose their leaves...
From the lake we turn at the NRK building (Norwegian ABC) and head for home. Here we see the mountain Ulriken in the background and today a very lucky paraglider.
Up the hill past the sign telling you it's 10 points for each kiddy...
Up our odd little street...
And then there we are, home again home again jiggity jog. xxx

Travelling Kit

2009-05-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just a note to show off some pretty pics of my current travelling kit. Well, the one I use for short business style city trips that is...and somehow it seems like I have been doing a fair bit of that lately. Thank you Norwegian Research Council :)

This is the brown bag that I bought from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I had been searching for ages for something in this style. I saw a girl on a plane once with a really old school brown leather bag from, like the 70s I guess. I fell in love with it and eyeballed it the whole flight. Of course I have been completely unable to find an original old school one, but when J and I spotted this one in the Bazaar, I knew I had found the bag I was looking for. We haggled of course, but basically I was prepared to pay a decent price to own this baby.

The laptop-carrying type bag that accompanys it is usually this one, J and I found it in a super cool second hand store in Amsterdam.
It is a Harris Tweed jacket turned into a bag, with elbowpad leather corner covers and front pocket. Cute. Couldn't resist. In a strange way, it rather comforts me in meetings with academic silverbacks to have a Harris Tweed hand bag :)

The next layer in the kit is a gorgeous little green number J convinced me to buy in Venice. I have NEVER regreted it. It folds done flat and I often stash it in the main bag. I can then drag it out for nights out or days tourist walking the streets. In that tiny green baby, I can put my camera, wallet, phone, cigarette pouch, lipgloss, map and wrap/fan. Perfect. The little grey one in the photo is my old cigarette pouch made by J's mum. Even though I generally only smoke tobacco once a day - when I get home from work, when travelling and hanging in cafes etc, I generally enjoy a smoke more often.
The final layer inside this travelling bag extravaganza is my two bathroom bags. The brown one at the back was a gift from my Dad back when I was a teenager. He had been in the US and this was a deer skin bag with native patterning. It must be one of the best gifts I ever got from my travelling Dad as a kid, I still use it daily and love it dearly. It is my general makeup holding bag, and when travelling, I store a bunch of earrings in the pocket on the side and put all my liquids, in their under 100ml containers, in the new bag in the front. It came from a funky, and slightly odd, place on Bergen habour that sells modern kitsch.
So, what do you think? Far too extensive and completely over indulgent of course, but don't you think it is pretty? xxx

Amsterdam Tattoo Session

2009-05-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

J and I recently had another weekend in Amsterdam, to have the third session of his half-sleeve tattoo done.
We always go to Rosanna at Dermadonna custom tattoos. This time, J had a session on both Saturday and Sunday - poor guy! It was a total of about 12 hours of needle grinding pain.
It was all more than worth it though because the tattoo is looking fantastic! There is about one more session to go, to put all the detail in the sky and finish highlighting the inside arm, but the rest is basically done. It is full of fabulous fairytale-like fantasy characters and creatures.

A new little one emerges at each turn...

Although I only have a photo of this guy before some of the other detail was filled in.
It is so cool! I just love looking at it, which is lucky, since I will be looking at it for quite some time I imagine :)

The best thing about Amsterdam this visit though, was the festival that was in town. I asked what we were celebrating, but all I got as an answer was 'April'. I guess it was something about feeling good and celebrating the arrival of Spring. On the first night, J and I went to the small square just down from the tattooist. They had live music, outdoor bars and a few old school looking festival rides. The best one was a tiny toy-looking ferris wheel. When you bought your ticket you could order a drink and two people could sqeeze into the little open cabins and take a slow small round while they chatted with each other. It was just lovely. I did not get a good photo, but here is what I managed...
J is not good with rides or heights so he refused to go on this one with me :( So we cacked ourselves watching this one go round and round.
It was a kind of double swing where people could face each other or go back to back in a little wooden caged seat. They spun around and around and if they are not making their own journey adventurous enough, the ride master would toss them about to upset any established patterns. It was total madness! People were crashing into each other all over the place and at the end, the engine actually blew up and spewed masses of smoke. It was very dramatic!

After that night, when J refused to go on either of these awesome rides with me, I decided that I had to go on one on my own. I selected one in the main square the next morning. 60m in the air, with a fantastic view over the city, but spinning a little too fast for you to take it all in completely. It was dizzying in a lovely light hearted kind of way. I was smiling from ear to ear when I hit the ground. This whole visit felt like a whirlwind in a lot of ways, but we both had another a great time and it seems as though Amsterdam is fast becoming one of our favourites for a weekend city break. xxx

Birmingham in Spring

2009-05-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago I had to go to Birmingham for work...

It was for a seminar on 'Critical Studies of Public Engagement in Science and the Environment'. I know it probably sounds boring as hell but actually it was rather interesting (I know I am a nerd!). It was well attended by bigwigs in the field and when they put us in small discussion groups in the afternoon, I was lucky enough to be in a group with one of my PhD examiners as the facilitator. Unfortunately, I still have such a huge level of respect and admiration for the guy that I become kind of unable to articulate myself properly in his presence, but he was super friendly and supportive, which was nice.

It was another fly in fly out kind of a visit, where I really only got to see the suburbs that lay between the walk from my bed and breakfast to the University (which turned out to be rather long as I got a little lost for a while). I did, however, also take a train into the city one afternoon to stroll around for a while but I quickly got bored by the endless blocks of standard shops and malls - after i had bought a few cheap DVDs from HMV that is! Including 'The Neverending Story', which I can't wait to watch again! While I am not sure I would say I know anything about Birmingham as a city after this visit, it was lovely to get a real sense of spring.

This photo is from my walk through the suburbs into the uni...gorgeous blossoms and tulips and bulbs everywhere!
The homes in that area were ENORMOUS! Really old school rich british style constructions...
Just as you start thinking this all looks very nice and maybe you could actually contemplate living in England, you see something that reminds you of why living amongst the poms may not be so desirable after all...
It was, however, rather relaxing to visit an english speaking city for a change, even though this did mean that I could actually understand all these signs inhibiting my sense of fun and freedom! After a couple of days in Birmingham I flew off to Amsterdam to meet J for the weekend - a city where english is very widely spoken and signs inhibiting your sense of fun and freedom and very much reduced :) Perhaps I can post some pics from that visit next time... xxx

Easter Mountain Walks

2009-04-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

Norwegians traditionally go to the mountains for easter. The aim, for most, is to go cross country skiing...and there is something about taking oranges and kitkat like chocolates called Kvikk lunsj with you. J and I, however, decided against battling the crowds and the traffic to go snowboarding, and decided instead to stay in the almost deserted Bergen and hike some of the 7 mountains that surround the city. We climbed a couple last year and decided we better get a move on if we wanted to conquer the rest before we move to Tromsø in June. During the long weekend of this easter we therefore hiked 2 more - Lyderhorn and Damsgårdfjellet.

Lyderhorn was first.

Although we are technically not supposed to, J and I love to let the dogs off the lead and have them free range on the mountain. Mina absolutely loves it and is a born mountain dog. He trots and hops and scrambles up slippery rock faces, making it all look super easy. Moj goes rather slow in comparison because being a male he has to stop, sniff and piss every few steps of course. Both of them were fantastically well behaved though. Mina went ahead and found the tracks, would stop and wait for us at each little ridge top and both came or waited when they were told to. Amazing. Here is Mina all smiles at the top - doesn't she just look right at home?
We chose to do Lyderhorn on a day when the weather was far from perfect. It was overcast, a little drizzly and there was an absolutely bone chilling cold wind at the top, but if you wait for perfect weather for walking in Bergen then you may never leave your house! This just meant that our view was a little diminished, but you still got a pretty amazing 360degree panaorama of islands, ocean, snow capped mountains and city.
Today when we did Damsgårdfjellet though, the weather was absolutely perfect! Clear skies and sunny! Probably about 16 degrees, with a lovely soft cooling breeze. It was a classic fantastic spring day in Bergen. Here is the view we had while we sipped our thermos coffee.

While Lyderhorn gives you a stunning view over the islands around Sotra on the ocean side of Bergen, Damsgårdfjellet gives you a great view into the heart of the city.
And over to the snow capped mountains where most people are off skiing over easter.
Even though it is a bit of a slog to get there...
The delightful views from the top of these mountains makes it all worth the effort.
Hopefully we can manage the last three before we leave, but I'll keep you posted. xxx

Istanbul in dots

2009-04-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Dr Kylie and a room of my own, I have decided to do a quick blog on our trip to Istanbul, that just lists some highlights in dot point style. And here we go....

* Being met at the airport by a guy holding a sign with my name on it
* For J, being allowed to smoke on the bus driven by the guy who met us at the airport holding a sign with my name on it.
* Cruising the crazy backstreets of the dodgy neighbourhood around our 5 star business hotel and checking out the way people lived.

* Having a colleague with me to confirm that these were in fact the worst and most frustrating project meetings in the whole entire world
* All the free nibblies (nuts, carrot sticks, popcorn) that came with drinks in the hotel bar after long long days of boring boring meetings
* Having J there with me to share drinks in the bar after long long days of boring boring meetings
* The heated outdoor swimming pool - 39 degrees - and the steamroom in the hotel fitness centre
* Cruising the local food market and taking in all the sights and smells

* J would say the turkish delight and turkish tea
* I would say the prolific availability of baklava
* Leaving the business hotel and heading into the old city to stay
* Discovering the blue mosque out our bedroom window
* Drinking free wine on the rooftop terrace as the sun went down
* The walk home along the waterfront after dinner
* The crazy meal in a random local restaurant where the waiters just kept bring delicious dish after delicous dish
* Finally seeing the Grand Bazaar
* Finally finding my perfect brown leather travel bag, at the Grand Bazaar...I am soooo looking forward to using it for my next travel in a couple of weeks...shame that Birmingham and Amsterdam don't offer quite the same sense of exotic allure as Istanbul...oh well, can't be spoilt rotten all the time :) xxx

Mozzie Hill

2009-03-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

While we back in Oz on our flying two week visit to family and friends, J and I dropped in to check on our little beach shack in Tasmania - Mozzie Hill. We have been renting it out for the last 6 years or so while living in Coalcliff and Norway. For a while it was privately to friends and friends of friends, but now it is with an agent and 2 new tenents. After being a rental property for so long, of course any gardens we had have returned to wilderness, but we were pleasantly surprised that inside the house was holding up okay. Well as good as expected for a shack :) It was so lovely to see the place again and so sad to think about all the things we would do with it if we were living there again. One day I hope... For those of you who have not seen our shack before, I introduce you to Mozzie Hill! Filled as it is with other people's furniture and in the state of disrepair that only a long term rental property can be in... :)

Here it is as seen from our sandy driveway in the collectively owned estate behind the dunes of Clifton Beach.
I think we may have an aboriginal midden in our front yard...
Here is the house closer up. The little yellow shack on the side is called the mozzie hut - with mosquitos painted on the little glass windows on the front! It is basically just a little room with polished boards and power inside. We used it for storage and as a spare room for drop ins :)
Downstairs you have a lounge room with an open fire place and a kitchen with windows around your knees :)

Downstairs you also go out the back of the lounge, through the laundry to the bathroom, with a real bath! Oh how I miss living in a house with a bath...

To get upstairs you have to take on the radical stairway we have. The old part is from the last doubledecker tram that ran in Hobart. Museums and documentary photographers have been interested...and then J and his Dad created the lovely blackwood stairs at the bottom. Must be handled with care when pissed.
Upstairs is just one big room with sliding doors out to the balcony at the front. I would love to put a new edge on that balcony one day, and now it is rusted through and definitely needs it, but who knows when that will happen. It could be a lovely place for soaking up the sun and listening to the surf though.
The view from the end of the balcony, and out the window over the bed, is towards the sand dune. Walk over that little baby and you find yourself on a gorgeous, scallop shell covered, kms long surf beach.
The upstairs room is really quite large. It also has an open fire place and used to have bees nesting in the walls!
The backyard has a couple of water tanks, a couple of tin garden sheds, a wood pile, a compost heap, a few veggie garden beds and a bunch of trees. The way it is at the moment, you just see a bunch of trees...and J :)
From over the dune on the beach, the view is across the water to Nubeena on the Port Arthur peninsula.
Seeing this little place again and the beautiful beach it is on...
had us starting to wonder why we ever left...
At least it is always there for us to go back to :) xxx

Fire & Ice

2009-02-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

My Backyard.
My Roads.
My Dog.
My Newspaper.
My Homeland.

Front page news. Australia Burns - Over 100 feared dead
Burning heart in a world of snow and ice. Thoughts and love go out. xxx

Lofoten

2009-01-25T10:00:00.001-08:00

One thing that I have not managed to blog about yet is the trip J and I did to the Lofoten islands. We had heard about a surfing competition being held on this crazy set of islands above the arctic circle and as soon as we knew that a friend of ours would be competing, we decided we had all the excuse we needed to visit this spectacular place nestled in the far North Sea.
Fortunately we happened to visit in autumn. All the islands were painted in yellows and reds. It was truly beautiful.Every corner we went around just seemed to offer another stunningly spectacular view!
Water, mountains, autumn colours and occasional splashings of snow.
It was lucky it was so stunning though because the weather was horrendous! Gale force winds, literally! The flight on the small plane in was heart stopping. As soon as we got in the plane, the hostess announced that we were expecting extreme turbulence and that we should not undo our seatbelts at any time. Not even she left her seat from start to finish! Just sat there with a smile pasted across her face as we bounced around the sky. Weirdly something went wrong with the aircon system too because it just kept getting hotter and hotter in the plane, with everyone playing with their vents trying to get some air. J and I were actually supposed to land and then take off again and head to another part of the island group, but J flat out refused to get back on the plane and we hired a car from where we landed :) It was bad! When we got there, the caravan park where we had arranged to hire a cabin told us that because the surf competition was on and it was going to be noisy in the park they were putting us in our own little house 100m down the road. So funny! It was a real little shack and suited us down to the ground. Here is the kitchen to give you a sense of its shackiness.
The weather was so incredibly bad the whole time, there were many times when we thought the roof would blow off the house and when we thought we would literally blow off the road. Clearly this weather was normal for the locals though as there were quite a few houses that had concrete walls facing into the breeze.
The funniest thing was was that the surfing competition went ahead despite the weather. In the beginning the waves were big but okay, but the swell built continuously throughout the day and in the end it was total madness! Surfers were being washed down the beach by the current as soon as they got in, they would then have to get out and run back to the start again. If you could catch one you stood a good chance of winning the heat! In the end I resorted to taking pics from the car :)
Despite the weather, J and I had a fantastic time! And in a way, the weather was exactly as it should be on islands above the arctic circle! To cap off the weekend, our mate won the longboard competition. Unfortunately he is the rep for ocean and earth in Norway and therefore could not use any of the mechandise prizes that he won. All those near death experiences just for the fun of it I guess ;) It was some consolation though that one of the kids he sponsors as part of the ocean/earth team won the shortboard comp, while another took out the free surfboard prize for best young talent.
Seriously though, if anyone reading this ever gets a chance to visit Lofoten, surfing competition or not, don't hesitate, just go, it will be one of the most incredible places you ever experience. xxx

First Lesson in Cross Country Skiing

2009-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

After our luxury ski resort Xmas in Geilo, J and I headed further towards Oslo to meet our friends Kamilla and Karl Arne and head to one of their family cabins in the mountains. There they gave us our first lesson in cross-country skiing, an absolute must try for foreigners because Norwegians are said to have 'invented' the sport. While not everybody here skis, of course, staying in mountain cabins and going on ski tours for the holidays it is an astonishingly widespread practice. It is also a deeply embedded part of national identity and culture. I was particularly thrilled to get the chance to try it, J might have been happier snowboarding, but had fun nonetheless ;)

The snow was not as much or in as good condition as hoped so the idea of skiing around and across a big frozen lake was off the cards. I was quietly grateful with my visions of falling through the ice, but the lake was beautiful and we did walk on it later with the dogs.
The best thing about not being able to have our first cross country skiing lesson on the lake was that the piece of forest we used instead had real life moose tracks! I was super dooper excited!
And even more super dooper exited about the little hard blocks of real life moosey poo.
J and I were given the basic instructions from our wonderful instructors and we set off in some small circles around the moose track tract of forest. Once we got a sense of the gliding striding action, which was a rather delightful sensation when one managed to get in the swing of it, we were asked to take on the mountain!
Okay, well more like the hill we had been circling around, but it did prove to be quite a challenge. K-man led the way and gave instructions for climbing up the hill fishbone style. Unfortunately, this is where J came unstuck. Quite literally I am afraid. After a couple of falls trying to fishbone up the hill, J ripped off the entire bottom of his borrowed boot and it was game over for him. I soldiered on without him though don't worry!
After a while I managed to work out the going up part, and even rather shakily, the turning around on the slope part. It was the going down that proved difficult! I extended my run with each attempt but never quite made it to the bottom standing up unfortunately. Note the snow on the bum as I watch K-man demonstrate super smoothly!
Oh well, it remains something for next time, when J actually may actually manage to keep his boots in one piece for more than a couple of hours :)

Xmas 2008

2009-01-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

A white one!
Not snowing but snow covered. This was the view from our room on Christmas morn.
High in the Norwegian mountains we even had real reindeer. Real reindeer in the hotel that is, with santa giving out presents in the bar. Odd to say the least!
Our hotel also let us have our dogs in the room. We just had to hang a little note with 'Dog in Room' on the door handle. So cute. Mina looks like she is enjoying the floor here but don't be fooled, both her and Mojo were straight up on the bed the moment we left the room. They are not idiots! They also loved running up and down the corridors when we would get back - their feet sounded so cute pounding the carpet!
We stayed in a ski resort town called Geilo, about halfway between Oslo and Bergen. It had a pretence of being a bit flashy but was actually as good as empty in comparison to other major European ski locations, which was just perfect for us! Being Christmas, most Norwegians were celebrating with their family at home or in their cabins, so the hotel had just a handful of guest families from various places staying in it. They served a huge Christmas dinner buffet with traditional Norwegian dishes on the 24th: included cod, birch boiled lamb, mashed swede, salmon, various other seafoods and salads. No complaints from us. Well perhaps one little one when it cost us over $AUS100 to buy a bottle of wine to accompany the feast! On Christmas and boxing night we were served a set three course menu where the food was absolutely delightful! We also got massages and hung in the sauna and enjoyed the spa as often as possible. But of course the real reason we were there was for the snow, and board it we did!

Here I am specially dressed in my red, white and green contemplating the mountain on Christmas morning.
We spent all Christmas day and boxing day exploring different trails down the mountain, repeating the ones we liked and scaring ourselves a little taking on the main drag with enormous jumps splashed in various people going crazy all around us! My favourite track was one that took large tracks of quiet, gently sloping trail through a forest. It also had sections of wider faster dashes down to various lifts onto various other levels. Here I am resting at a turn in the forest, having just videoed J scoot past me at 100 miles an hour and throwing snow in my super slow face.
While the snow was a little short on the ground, a bit hard, and occasionally icy towards the end of the day, I did manage to use the terrain to really start working out my toe turns. J gave me some pointers early in the day and for the first time in my snowboarding experience (all of one whole season!) I managed to really pull them off, and to link them with my heel turns. This was a major progression for me and at times when I was in a little zone going through the forest on my own I was quite proud of myself. Of course there were many many other times when I fell on my arse and was not so proud - one occasion actually resulted in some serious pain, the kind of pain that involved little involuntary cries when trying to move around. I ended the days with a black as pitch knee and a deeply bruised coccyx, that is actually still too painful for me to roll over. No pain no gain though, right, and it was all in good fun. I actually can't wait to try my moves on some serious powder in the near future. As soon as I get the new snowboard boots to replace the ones I broke that is - sorry, still a sore point at the moment, let us not speak of it further.

Sorry for all the snowboarding talk! We also tried cross-country skiing this Christmas so I promise more about that next time! xxx

Xmas Foods?!

2008-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

There are some things here in Norway that are packaged and marketed as foods that I am rather dubious about. As we all knuckle down and start preparing whatever version of our lavish extravaganza constitites the Christmas feast in our lives, I wonder, is there any place for these new 'food' items J and I have discovered?

First on the menu...Reindeer snacks! Naturally good they tell us...

Reindeer jerky no good you reckon? How about some dried fish snacks then?
Both of these were offerings in the mini bar at the Radisson Hotel in Tromsoe. Let's just say we let them they stay there! Perhaps you think these are not 'christmassy enough' though - well, except for the reindeer of course...mmmm rudolph...let's kill him, dry him out, sprinkle him in herbs and eat him... so here is a real Christmas offering. Juleskum. Translation? Christmas skum. Sounds delicious!
Or how about we make a political statement and mark our christmas celebration with, what else but Fluff?

No good? Let me keep searching then. Lots of christmas work parties had traditional offerings of half a sheep's head with potatoes and mashed swede. Tempted? Sorry no photo of that, but let me see what else I can find! xxx

Last Holiday Installment

2008-12-03T10:37:00.001-08:00

Here is the last installment from my summer holiday - and about bloody time considering that the Christmas holiday starts in a couple of weeks! Not to mention all the other trips I have failed to blog about while trying to finish this summer extravaganza! So, let's get into it without any further ado...
After J and I spent time on the summer slopes of Strynfjellet, we headed off to find a nice little camping spot along the banks of a fjord somewhere. This trip began with an incredible drive down to Geiranger fjord.
Yep, that would be an iceberg floating by along the way...
And these I thought looked like troll houses!
After travelling down one of the most winding, narrow and hair pin bend filled roads I have ever seen in my life, we arrived at Geiranger. Here we loaded the car onto the ferry and enjoyed the ride down the fjord. PS, that is NOT us in the canoes! :)
There were various lovely waterfalls along the way, but this was one of the most beautiful. On one side of the fjord was a fall called the 7 sisters because it had seven streams to it. This one on the other side of the fjord was apparently a man, who upon having been spurned by the 7 sisters, had turned to the bottle. Sad story but really beautiful waterfall!
Once we left the ferry, we began our search for the next camping spot. After having such wonderful camping locations already, we had some very high standards that places had to live up to. We spent almost all day driving in the direction of home and checking out potential camps along the way, all of which had one problem or another - too busy, too far from the water, too ugly, full etc. Finally though, all our searching and all our driving paid off. We saw a sign for camping off onto a tiny little winding road and followed it for about 10kms, thinking we were just getting increasing lost as things became more and more remote. Finally we arrived at Botn campground though and it was perfect! We found a spot right on the fjord where we could feel alone and shield ourselves from all prying eyes...not that there were many around!
Here is the view from the bed...Sognefjord
And here is looking back at the camp...and yes, that is Mojo drinking the rest of the milk out of the carton!
J and I decided the best way to spend the afternoon was to head down to the fjord to try our hand at a spot of fishing...
J had some luck, but only when he swapped from lures to the questionably legal piece of ham. We didn't keep this little fellow but he scared us when he floated for a very long time after we threw him back! Luckily he sprang to life with a little gentle prodding with the fishing rod!
While the sunset was spectacular...
The moon rise was even more beautiful!
So there it is, the most fantastic summer holiday ever! A great time spent with family travelling around some of the most beautiful cities and locations in Europe, being able to show my Dad and Sis my new home, and then an equally wonderful road trip in Norway with J and the hounds. My summer holiday really could not have been any better! So now it just remains to be seen how the Christmas holiday measures up...stay tuned! xxx

Norwegian Road Trip - Snow

2008-11-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

After J and I had satisfied our sun, sand and surf craving, we headed off in the direction of Strynfjellet - the mountains of the Stryn valley. Here the aim was to find some summer glacier snowboarding. The scenery along the road looked very promising...

When we arrived in the general area we decided to spend the first night in a little cabin, to get a good shower and prepare ourselves to take on the glacier. We found this great place with the traditionally grassy roof. Very cute, very cool.
The view from the front was really lovely green mountains with the sound of cascading waterfalls echoing around the valley.
After a great night's sleep, J and I were ready to take on the winding drive up the mountain to Strynfjellet summer ski resort. Our neighbours hitched with all their gear and got a ride no problem.
The sun was shining. The snow was slushy. The crowds were minimal. The view was spectacular.

It was so warm and lovely that J and I stripped to boardies and bikinis. Seriously. So warm and lovely. Well okay, it was mostly for the camera :) but we were in T-shirts all day.

I must admit, I struggled with the T bar for quite a while, including a ride on my back half way up the mountain! Fun. not. Painful, physically and emotionally... :) But with some help from some local competents, I finally got it together and J and I had an absolutely superb day. It felt like a completely random way to spend a summer holiday. After playing in the snow for a few hours, we drove the winding road back down to the local campground, Folven.

What a wonderful landscape. Such a fabulously fun day. Great place to camp. 2 Good dogs. Good times, I tell you. Good times. xxx

Norwegian Road Trip

2008-10-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

After holidaying with Lies this summer, J and I spent a week in Cedric on the road in Norway. We went in search of both surf and summer snowboarding. Our first stop was a penninsula out in the North Sea called Stadlandet, in a little camping ground right on the beach in tiny Hoddevik. Stunning.

When we arrived the weather was not really promising a wonderful summer camping holiday. It was rather cool and rather wet. This made our first descent into Hoddevik like a descent into some kind of strange mist drenched mystery.

As the clouds lifted a little, the view from the beach and the campground was just spectacular though. A white sand beach about a km long, nestled between two enormous green mountains. A handful of committed surfers and adventurers camped along the edge. Lots of time and space to roam with the dogs free range.

Then the sun came out. The surf picked up. And both J and I spent a couple of days playing in the water. J was out surfing what he calls 'perfect glassy right-handers' at 11pm as the sun was just starting to set in the northern summer sky. Can I say it again? Stunning.

On a hot Sunday with wonderful waves, the beach and the campground filled with people and we got to experience Norwegian beach culture. Not quite like Australian, but not that different either. The big thing here though is grilling sausages on the beach on what they call 'one-time grills'. You can buy them almost anywhere and they are basically a small aluminimum tray with a bunch of heat beads and a wire grilled top. Lots of rubbish generated to eat minced pigs ears if you ask me :) The locals are getting a little bummed that they are starting to have to share their waves now surfing is growing in popularity, but they are also benefiting from the business. There is one shop in Hoddevik that rents rooms, showers, boards, wetsuits and of course offers lessons. I am really not sure what people would do to survive in this isolated little outpost if surfing was not on offer. But then they have done something for years since before I was born I am sure!
Funnily enough for us, we happened to camp beside a guy named Seamus - Seamus from Wollongong if you can believe that! And his wonderful Norwegian woman Maren. Seamus is the newly established Norwegian distributor for Aussie company Ocean and Earth. They were great companions to have while camping and of course, they ended up knowing people we know. It may be a cliche but it really is a small world. We have since caught up with them again at a suring competition in the Lofoten islands, but that is another post. To end this post, I just want to say that J and I had a delightful time at Hoddevik and we only left because the waves went flat and we had a mission to find some snowboarding as well. Leaving Hoddevik the weather was a little different, and the summer road trip holiday really felt like it was kicking in and looking up.
xxx.

Rosendal

2008-10-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

When Liesl and I returned from our most splendid european adventure, we were blessed with the presence of my Dad for a few days. It was truly wonderful to have both my father and my sister visiting me in Bergen - it really made it feel like home. Strangely it didn't feel strange at all. Just as if they always popped in for a weekend here and there! Of course now it doesn't feel like that anymore and I sorely wish I could see all my family more often. Especially my brother, his lovely wife and their three gorgeous girls. And super especially Matilda, my new little god daughter, who because of my overseas absence I could not even be at the christening of. Anyway, such is my life at the moment and it is a life I chose so I am not allowed to complain too much, I just wanted to let everyone know that I miss them very much!

While Liesl and Dad were in Bergen, we took one day and did a boat trip out to the village of Rosendal. Here are some pics from that event...

My loved ones along the way...
Do you get the impression that is was cold? It was! It was a fjord trip in Norway afterall...

My loved ones and me and some kind of alright scenery..
Approaching Rosendal
Approaching the harbour
In Rosendal on the way to visit the Barony (sounds far more impressive than it actually is but this waterfall is far more impressive than it seems in this photo)
The Barony...not really but not far off!
In the rose garden of the Barony, very pretty, Lies and the garden!

xxx.

Croatian Coastline

2008-10-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the fabulous places we visited during our week sailing the Croatian coastline...

On the very first day, within a couple of hours of being on the boat, we disembarked to take a bus ride up through the mountains to go white water rafting on the Cetina river. Unfortunately I did not take my camera on this trip - threat of getting drenched etc - but here are a couple of pics that one of the crew took for us.
The river may look calm...
But it got a little more intense...
The trip was really a lot of fun but the most amazing thing was seeing this beautiful river. I have never seen sooooo many dragonflies and of so many amazing and diverse colours. It was truly spectacular! Seeing a swimming snake and swimming ourselves was also a huge buzz. A really really beautiful river and rafting was a really really fun thing to do. What was not so fun was the bus ride - feeling a little scared for our lives on that rattling rust bucket called a bus - the door didn't close, the roof had holes in it and the brakes squealed like a pig. All part of the experience though I suppose!

The next day we stopped off at Mljet national park. Liesl and I went for a little walk and these are some of the sights we came across.
Incredibly blue blue lake water...
Amazing butterflies...
And a lovely little old monastery

The following day, we stopped in Dubrovnik - a truly spectacularly beautiful city...a beautiful city that nearly killed us with its heat! While walking that famous wall around the city, Liesl and I were amazed that at almost 7pm at night, above the city, and surrounded by the ocean there was still not a whiff of breeze! No sea breeze felt like a crime after such a long hot day! The view was far from criminal though!
The only breeze came from the wings of the hundreds of swallows spinning through the air!

The next stop on the journey was Korcula. What I remember from Korcula was a truly wonderful cocktail hour(s!) watching this view...
And waiting an unbelievable long time to get the cheque at the restaurant, such a long time that I took to drawing attention to our needs by the most obvious way possible...
Or maybe Liesl did it in the most obvious way possible...
From Korcula, we travelled to the island of Hvar, where Liesl and I partied until dawn and learnt more about Croatian history and culture with some of the locals :)
This is where the cocktails started!
From Hvar we moved on to my favourite island of the entire trip - Brac. This place was totally beautiful, with a really laid back vibe, but it also had lots happening in terms of windsurfing, diving, rollerblading etc. Definitely somewhere I would happily go back to and spend some real time...hopefully one day!

This is where we had cocktails on Brac...are you getting the sense we drank a lot of cocktails? We did, and it was great!
From Brac we sailed on back to Split, and the trip was over :( The last night in Split we all kind of got takeaways and hung out on the white stone pavements of the wharf before going further into the city for, you guessed it more cocktails.

I lost Liesl for a few hours that night as she got her own personal guided tour of the city by Scooter, but overall I must say this was a great end to an awesome journey.
xxx

Croatia

2008-09-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

So it seems as though the position I was going to take in Italy next year is no more :( They have been investigating a problem of how they were going to fund the position for the last month or so but then last week I found out that now it looks like the research group I was going to work for is going to be dismantled - therefore without a research group and without funding, the position is unlikely to be filled. On one hand it is a shame, as I had been quite excited about the opportunity, but on the other hand I am feeling happy and settled in Norway so staying here also has an appeal. Anyway, that is the update on the Italy position and with that, I would like to close the Italian chapter of this blog and move on to one equally as exciting and beautiful - Croatia.

Liesl and I had booked a week on a sailboat to cruise some of the islands of the Adriatic off the coast of Croatia. We flew from Rome into the city of Split, stayed in a great room in a private house, had a rather unusual morning trying to find anywhere that would serve us a breakfast, located our boat and boarded ready for action. To our surprise, everyone else on the boat, about 25 people all around the age of 25, were all (except one) Australian. Most of them were Australians living in Europe (London, Zurich, Frankfurt etc) but all Australians nonetheless. Most strange. But then we found Croatia in general to be crawling with Australians - every backpacker or tourist you saw seemed to be an Aussie, it was really incredible. Especially after spending such a long time in Norway and being amazed any time you stumbled across anyone else from down under. Here is the crew of Aussies (and one guy from Crete who was dating an Aussie) that we spent that week with. The shot is missing two of our favourtie people from the trip - sorry Zoe and Paul but you take an afternoon nap and you snooze you lose!

Yes, it was very very hot the entire trip and that is why we are all half naked, and yes, that is a guy in a mankini. Strangely he had a wife who didn't seem to mind and even stranger, we ended up getting used to seeing him in it too. It was never very pleasant but it became familiar somehow.

Let me first say that this was a wonderful trip and anyone who is thinking about visiting the Adriatic should definitely go, as soon as possible. It is stunningly beautiful. Here are a couple of teasing shots of some of the views from the boat, just to convince you of this point.

Basically our schedule was get up, eat some breakfast and leave the dishes for the staff, change into bikini, read on the deck and watch the fabulous views roll by, swim when the boat stopped for some hours, snorkel if feeling energetic, eat the three course lunch the chef had prepared, snooze, sunbathe, swim again, change into something nice and go ashore in a new city every night for cocktails and a restaurant meal. Totally divine.

Okay the rooms were small and incredibly stuffy little sweatboxes but we could always sleep on the deck. Yes the Captain was kind of an alcoholic but we travelled safely and generally didn't have to have anything to do with him. Yes we were trapped on a boat with random stangers but most of them turned out to be great people and those who drove us crazy only did so towards the end. Yes the concept of being a vegetarian was taken to mean omelettes and sliced cheese were needed as protein supplements, but then I like eggs and cheese. So despite all the potential issues, I would still recommend the trip to anyone. What I thought I would do, is to use the rest of this post to put up some pics of the boat and then in some that will follow, show you some of the fabulous locations we stopped at.

The first pic shown in this post is me relaxing outside the door to our room, while here you can see the deck of our boat, one of the swimming locations we stopped in, and another boat just like ours in the background.
Here is the dining room packed to the brim at lunch hour
And finally, here is the deck where we sat in the sun, read, sipped G&Ts and watched the islands approach and drift by. Man, I miss that tan already :) xxx

Rome Round 2

2008-09-13T11:32:00.001-07:00

So I guess 'tomorrow' is fern language for sometime in the not too distant future! Sorry about the break, that annoying little thing called work kind of intervened. Last week I was away in Manchester attending a meeting for an EU research project I have recently joined. Perhaps more on that later, but I have so many cool holiday places still to blog about that work in Manchester may not get a look in. I really need to get on with this holiday blogging thing though as it was now months ago that I was tripping around with Lies and sunning myself on foreign shores! So without any further ado - here is the rest of our visit to Rome.

On our last day, Liesl and I decided to sneak in a quick visit to the Colosseum before we went to the airport. Again, it was fiery hot and I looked jealously on at this little pigeon who had by far the best seat in the city! To help our maintain our sanity while standing in the sun with the lines of other people also waiting to walk around the ruins, we both bought chinese fans from some street vendors. This was the best investment of 2 euros I made during the whole holiday, both for that day in Rome and for the rest of the holiday in Croatia! That fan was truly my saviour - in the lines, in the underground, in the stuffy little ship rooms, and in any other location where the air hung around us as heavy as lead curtains. You may therefore see my little friend fan pop up in quite a few of the photos from now until the end! Now though, some shots of that big famous ancient Roman battleground.

First, the classic view...

Second, the view from inside...

Third, a detail view of the inside walls...

The brickwork was so diverse and so beautiful that even though this may look like a boring pic of a brickwall, I took it to remind myself of the detail and creativity of the ancient craft and to wonder why we don't build like this anymore...

Here is Liesl and I and the Chinese fan as tourists...
Now me as a lion...

and finally, Liesl as a gladiator :)

And that was our holiday in Italy! Absolutely fabulous. Great food. Great coffee. Great weather. Great sites. Great life. Would go back tomorrow if I could and still have my fingers crossed to work there next year - although that unfortunately is looking less and less certain with all kinds of problems facing the funding of the position. More on that though when I know more. Next post - we are off to Croatia! xxx

Roma

2008-09-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

To move on to our next location - Croatia - Lies and I had a flight out of Rome. Rather than just arrive and fly out again, Lies and I decided that Rome was a worthwhile enough location to spend at least a couple of days. So we booked 2 nights accommodation and planned a super whirlwind tour of this incredible city. First though, we had to get there, and that took some effort!

We took a ferry from Capri to Naples and the plan was to take a train from Naples to Roma. The trick was that we had to get from the Naples ferry terminal to the Naples train station. On the map it looked like an easy couple of kms walk, so walk we did. And regret it we did!! It must have been close to 40 degrees. Our packs weighed a tonne and Naples is, as I mentioned before, a completely insane city. Crazy and dirty. We slogged our way along the streets, through the rubbish and around the traffic for what felt like 20kms in the stinking heat. We kept asking people if we were going the right way for the station and we just kept getting looks of sympathy and fingers just pointing straight ahead. Keep going girls! We were absolutely drenched in sweat when we arrived at the station. And I mean drenched! Wring your shirt out kind of drenched. Beetroot faces kind of drenched. Hate your pack with a passion kind of drenched. That walk became the low point of the whole holiday for Liesl, because it was, excuse my French, an absolute bitch! It didn't help that we saw a guy from our hotel on the train looking fresh as a daisy, he must have taken a train or a taxi. That hurt! I think I can convince myself that it was a rewarding experience though. In that we got a sense of Naples and we felt like we earned that rest on the train. It did, however, make me claim that I would not care at all if I never returned to Naples ever again! We did, however, eventually arrive in Rome.

Both Liesl and I were initially pleasantly surprised by Rome. As it had not been a planned stop as such, we both had rather low expectations, but after walking around and seeing some of the sights on the first day, we decided we liked the city, that it indeed did have some charm and class and that we were very glad we stopped over. Some of the sights we saw that first day were the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Can you find me on the steps? Once again, we were amongst thousands of other tourists in Rome, it is completely overrun with them! And hot, OH MY GOD was it hot! I think the heat was intensified by the fact that previously we had been able to swim when we felt like the heat was overtaking our ability to think straight, but in Rome, we just had to sweat it out. Am I talking about sweat too much in this post? Well that is the way I remember Rome! Sorry. Sweat and bedbugs.

Originally, Liesl and I were very happy with our chosen bed and breakfast accommodation in Rome - good location, good room, good services and reasonable price. After the first night though, I was no longer so happy with it. For the 5th time in my life, I was attacked by bed bugs and unfortunately, suffered my usual allergic reaction. After waking and realising that I had been made a meal of, I was forced to retreat to my yoga mat on the floor, which Liesl of course thought was so funny that she had to record the event for all eternity. Thanks Lies!

This meant that the next day when we headed off to see the Vatican, mostly to see that most famous ceiling painting of the Sistine chapel, I was itching like a bastard! Those little bites swelled up to enormous hard lumps and drove me completely spare. I bought a thousand drugs and creams, none of which seemed to work, and I suffered terribly for the rest of our time in Rome. One of the ways Liesl helped me cope with the situation was by playing the game where we named the worst of the bites and followed their development with interest. Meet Vesuvius...not sure he shows up in all his glory in the pic, but he was a real beauty!

Enough of my self pity though, here are some pics from the Vat...although not of the hand of God because there was no photography allowed in the chapel, and in fact no talking was allowed in that most hallowed location!!

One of the things i was most astounded by in the Vatican was the sheer enormity of the art collection. In my mind it was completely obscene, far too opulent for the religion to be demonstrating any spirit of generosity. Surely the more Christian thing to do would be to sell half that shit and use the money to feed the starving millions. But then maybe I am missing some point about a greater glory...maybe.
It was pretty though, no doubt about that.
My favourite aspect of all the artwork on display though was the incredible mosaics on the floors. The detail was truly stunning.
Now blogger is having another little fit about posting photos so I will tell the rest of the roman holiday story tomorrow. xxx

Around the Isle of Capri

2008-08-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

One day when Lies and I were swimming around in the mediterranean, an old guy passed by us in a little boat. I made a joke about him nearly running us over and he assured us that we were safe and puttered on along. Shortly he puttered on back and asked us if we were enjoying ourselves and if we were friends. We said we were having a delightful time and that we were sisters. He then asked us if we had seen the green grotto. We said no. He asked if we wanted to come with him for a swim in the aforementioned location. Liesl and I politely refused. He asked why not. We said we were quite happy here but thanks. He said it was a beautiful place to swim and that we would be quite safe with him. We asked him how much he wanted and he said, come on, it's free! Feeling rather vulnerable but wanting to feel alive enough to take some risk, I decided to swim over and climb aboard. Lies somewhat hesitatingly followed. At this point I should say that the guy was old, like in his 70s old, and was so wiry that I thought if push came to shove, I could take him. That is how we ended up on the boat of Antonio heading to the green grotto.

After about 10 mins of cruising, we arrived at an archway over stunningly green water. Antonio told us to jump off, swim through and he would pick us up on the other side. While the thought crossed our mind that he might abandon us there, we took another risk and swam through.

Antonio was waiting faithfully for us on the other side and when he saw us, he dived his leatherback body in to join us. He had a snorkelling mask and told us to come and see the champagne grotto. We swam over to one of the white cliff walls and he pointed to a tiny hole smaller than the size of a head. We laughed and said no way, and with that, he put on the mask, dived under, disappeared and resurfaced on the other side of the hole. He implored us to come and join him. We told him he was crazy. He kept pleading, that it was beautiful, that we would love it, that we should just come on. Finally I grew some ovaries and decided to attempt it. I failed. The wash from the waves was quite stong, I had no idea how far I had to swim and backed out after not making it immediately. He passed me the mask through the hole and asked me to try again. With the mask I could see the swim was easy and I soon surfaced inside a tiny simmering silver and shell encrusted grotto, rising and falling with the waves. I told Lies she had to see it, passed her the mask and she too swallowed her fear and came inside. As beautiful as it was, this special little secret grotto, we are ashamed to admit that both of us wondered if Antonio might not see this small enclosure as his chance to take advantage. He didn't, and we swam out and back to the boat in safety. On board his boat again he gave us a soft drink and drove us back to our original swimming hole. We thanked him enormously and departed, thinking maybe the scam was that someone had stolen our gear off the beach while we were gone. They hadn't. There was no scam. We had just been treated to a delightful experience by a lovely old Italian man. We both felt very sad and ashamed that we had questioned him the whole time and that we could have such a negative image of the world. Antonio restored our faith and the next day we wanted to try and thank him.
We realised that the boat Antonio was driving was one in a group that the hotel organised tours of the island on (for an rather large fee of course). We booked a trip for the two of us and asked if we could please have Antonio. Liesl got some very strange looks for this personal request and they said they would try to organise it. As we were waiting at the jetty, we watched a number of boats come and go with their guests, but no Antonio. Then we saw a shirtless hunk steaming towards us. We heard a guy from another boat call out to him, to Antonio, and suddenly we realised why our request might have raised a few eyebrows! Funnily enough, as much as we would have been happy cruising with this new Antonio, he was not our captain either. We got another crusty old man, who did not say a word to us, but who provided us with a lovely tour anyway. Here are some photos we took from this trip around the most beautiful isle of Capri.

First, here is our boat, our captain and those infamous fraggles in the background!
Some of the old roman ruins that litter the island
The famous, crowded, and rather surreal blue grotto
Looking back at our boat after climbing up into the white grotto.
Kicking back on board
And cruising back into the little bay where our hotel was nestled. Home sweet home.

xxx

Capri Part 2

2008-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

So I was in the middle of telling all about how we took a thousand photos of the fraggle rocks because they just looked so beautiful throughout all the changing light of day and night. Here is another example, just to prove my point beyond any measure of a doubt.

While we had a great view of the fraggles from our hotel balcony, we also loved the view to the other side, which was of the classic milk and pink rock cliffs of Capri, constantly swirled by soaring squarking seabirds. Stunning.

Liesl and I really enjoyed our lovely little balcony with its wonderful views from all sides. It was just perfect for those early evening wines...here Liesl is about to enjoy hers, accompanied by some Reese's peanut butter cups...perhaps not the most traditional combination but we were on holidays!

Crystal blue seas, stunning white cliffs, wine glass and bikini, one of the many ways that I will fondly remember our days on Capri.

Kylie asked in a comment on the previous post how we ever managed to leave such beauty...I know what she means and indeed it was truly heartbreaking to leave, but in many ways, it was truly bank breaking to stay! Liesl and I had a meal one night that cost us more than I dare to admit...but our committment to doing it the proper Italian way with multiple courses resulted in us receiving a second free dessert. Have you ever seen such a delight?

Unfortunately Liesl lost her favourite sunglasses in the restaurant that night, which kind of tainted the memory. Fortunately it meant we had to spend some serious time trying on a thousand new pairs in a fancy store with a scrummy salesman! Things just always had a silver lining on Capri!

In the next and final post from this delightful isle, I will take you on a photographic roundtrip tour from our private boat built for two. If you thought it seemed dreamy up until now, just wait until you see what tomorrow has in store :) xxx

Capri: Part 1

2008-08-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

From Sorrento, we took a ferry over to Capri, where we had booked a fabulous (and rather expensive) hotel room for three (or was it four?) nights of total and utter relaxation. While this will not mean anything to anyone else except Lies and me, at this point I just have to say..."'ello 'ello, cherrie, cherrie, verie sweet cherrie!"

The hotel room was splendid, totally perfect. This first pic is the view from our verandah. Totally divine and perfect for that early evening glass of wine!

During the day Capri is also complete chaos - people take day trips to the island in their masses, but in the evenings, it empties out almost entirely. It is totally worth spending the money to stay overnight, although I must say, you will have to spend quite a bit of money. It has a reputation for being expensive and lives up to that reputation, and that is saying something coming from Norway!

We stayed about 10 minutes drive out of the centre of Capri, on a quiet side of the island and that was absolutely perfect for us. We had a fabulous little beach where we could swim and bake just 2 minutes walk away. Even though in the heat of the day, the tiny stretch of rocky beach was full, it was full of Italians and that helped make the experience feel authentic. And the water, oh the water! So clean, so clear, so refreshing...and so salty! I could literally do a vertical float! So fun. Lies and I just LOVED it.

Here I am casually soaking up the sun in front of what Lies and I affectionately called Fraggle Rocks.

Here is another shot of the full fraggles, of which we took about a thousand photos! They were so sweet and stunning in the various shades of light we saw them bathed in that we just could not resist.
Unfortunately blogger has had a little fit of some kind and is not letting me post anymore photos...so they will have to wait for next time. Hope these couple of shots of the stunning Capri have whet your appetite enough to make you wait! xxx

Positano & Amalfi

2008-08-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

One day Lies and I bought a bus ticket and ambled on down through the towns of Positano and Amalfi. Positano is perched rather precariously on a cliff face, where it seems that all the buildings are clinging to each other for stability!We exited the bus at the top of the cliff and on the edge of the town and worked our way down. After a while, this zigzagging of our way down gained increasing urgency as one of us, namely Liesl (hehehe), becaming very close to bursting to visit the little girls room! As the urgency reached near breaking point, we decided that we had to stop in a cafe and buy a drink as an excuse to use their loo. Fortunately this was a wonderful reason to pause and really soak in the full gloriousness of the view.

Point of interest: when you order a lemonade in this part of Italy, you get real crushed lemon, water and ice, with some sugar on the side to add should you so desire. Really fantastic! The area must be perfect for citrus because lemons were everywhere!! The best part of this though was of course all the limoncello, which we became quite fond of sipping a shot of after our evening meal. So delicious! Especially when a sweet waiter had given it to us for free :) Anything else? No thank you. Maybe just a little limoncello? Okay, maybe just a little limoncello!
Again, my memory of Positano is that it was very pretty, but that it was also incredibly hot and unbelieveably crowded...a little too much of both for it to be enjoyed as it no doubt should. Liesl and I therefore chose to move on to Amalfi, with the expressed purpose of taking a swim there. Again we hired a little sun chair and did very little else other than read, lie in the sun, refresh ourselves in the water and drink the pama we had smuggled in! The best part was the way you could treat the lifeguards as waiters! When we were asked if we were okay, our answer was 'Actually no, we are a little thirsty', to which our chunk of bare chested italian lifeguard would trot off and buy us some lemon soda to mix with our pama. So funny! And then we had a devil of a time trying to convince him that we should pay for it! That I really loved about the Italian beach experience - the superb towel side service. So good! Unfortunately, that was literally all we did in Amalfi, so no pics from there I am afraid. I will post this one from Positano though because it shows one of the plants that was just everywhere along the Amalfi coast, and if anyone knows what this beautiful purple flowering gem is I would love to know the name of it!
At the end of the day Lies and I boarded a bus home and had a very interesting couple of hours beep beeping our way around a thousand corners along the road that hugs the coast back to Sorrento. Funnily, we got stuck for quite some time in a traffic jam because some people had stupidly chosen to park on the road, which has two directions of traffic using it but which is actually only wide enough for one. Therefore having these 2 lanes of traffic on a road built for one negotiating parked cars during a rush period became impossible. Lies and I were on holidays though and so not bothered at all. We read our books. We laughed at all the Italian hand gesturing. And we took photos of the pretty view as the sun slid down.
xxx

On to the Amalfi Coast

2008-08-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

When Lies and I left Paris, we headed to the Amalfi coast. First stop was Naples. All we had to do there, however, was get from Naples airport to the train station, to take a train south. Right from the beginning, we observed the difference between French and Italian hospitality. The bus driver was super sweet to us, helping with bags, helping with tickets and then making a special stop for us at the smaller train station we had to use when he was supposed to only stop at Central station, he did it to save us the walk he said. We were most pleased with this walk saving, both because of the weight of our bags (see earlier post) and because when we landed in Italy, we began to experience real European summer heat. After being on the bus for 10 minutes we also quickly realised we were additionally glad to have been saved the walk because Naples was a COMPLETE AND UTTER madhouse! Houses piled on houses, people piled on people, and scooters, cars and buses all fighting for a scrap of road in any direction. We laughed ourselves silly at the chaos of the traffic, and particularly at the way scooters would take over turning buses on the inside with nothing more than a little 'beep beep' to let the driver know they were coming through. Super scary! We arrived at the station no problem and got on a train no problem and were soon heading out of crazy Naples for the divine shores of the Amalfi coast....Ahhhhh.....
We had booked accommodation in Sorrento and planned to spend a few days there taking day trips down the coast to see some of the other coastal villages. That first sight of water from the train was an absolute delight as the journey was long and un-air conditioned. The feeling of heat was enhanced by the knowledge that we were circling the base of Vesuvius. Unfortunately, this is the only pic I got of the famous volcano, can you see it hiding amidst the fog/smog?
I really think I have lost some of my ability to cope with heat while living in Norway, because I was really struggling. Just after that train ride we were both sticky little sweat boxes. Unfortunately, once we arrived in Sorrento we had quite a hike to our hostel and that only increased that saturated feeling. An old man had told us that all we had to do was walk to the end of this street. It was just that that street seemed to go on FOREVER! After arriving, we were most glad to dump our weighty bags and were pleased we could see the city unburdened. The road we had to walk along to get there had some seriously stunning scenery, and the water looked clear as crystal.

The city of Sorrento was very sweet, and very very crowded. Tour buses must have arrived by the dozen because the streets were really jam packed full of people. I guess you should not really expect much else, but the extreme mass of humanity that is European hotspots in summer never ceases to amaze me. While it felt a shame to have to share this sweet city with so many others, it was still pleasant to roam the streets and alleyways.
As pleasant as it was though, Liesl and I were really hankering for a swim in that crystal blue green water...
It therefore didn't take us long to head down to our local beach for the Italian beach experience, which meant paying a little cash and being given a delightful little lounge chair in the sun. The chair was fantastic, the water totally refreshing, and the pama we smuggled in perfect with frozen lemon soda. While the lifeguards didn't really measure up to Australian standards, they seemed to be there more to take care of the chairs than to save lives, so we forgave them their lack of form and settled in for a delightful first day of doing not much more than reading a book, sipping a cocktail and working on the tan!
The best part about the stay in Sorrento though was the cocktail/s we had every night at our local as we watched the sun go down. Sweet view. Attentive waiters. Lots of free drinks and snacks. And some wonderful company to share it all with. That was truly the life.

xxx

Paris Part 4

2008-08-06T07:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, hopefully this is the last post from the Paris visit...it seems to have gone on and on and there are so many other wonderful adventures in so many other fabulous places to cover!

On our last day in Paris we went to Versailles. This is something I had wanted to do for ages but never managed to get around to doing. Unfortunately it did not measure up to my expectations.

Sure, it's a palace. Sure, it's ornate. Sure, the gardens are huge. Sure, kings and queens lived here in some very dramatic periods in history. But...it just did not impress me as I had hoped it would. Maybe it was partly because the front of the building is currently being restored and was therefore hidden behind scaffolding and canvas (with images of what you should see printed on it!) Maybe it was because the fountains in the garden were not operating and therefore it lacked that over the top sense of splendour. Maybe it was because the gargens were actually just lawn, trees and hedges. And maybe it was because the place was SOOOOO damn crowded! I was seriously getting claustrophic in some of the rooms, especially when the massive tour groups would swallow all the available space while they heard about this painting or that fabric. I hate crowds and I particularly hate crowds in small spaces! The best part of the visit by far was when Liesl and I lay on the lawn beside a little lake with ducks and swans and almost fell asleep in the sun. Which, let's face it, we could have done in any one of many gorgeous parks in Paris itself. I don't wish to sound bitter, but Versailles? Ngjeeee...nothing special. Okay, that is an exaggeration...it is something special, but if you only have a couple of days in Paris I would recommend you do something else!

Some of the other things we did in Paris that I have forgotten to blog about previously were: pay our respects to both Jim Morrison and the semi naked dancers of the Moulin Rouge. The strange thing about Jim was that his grave is just kind of tucked away in the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, crammed up against some other stones in a tiny little plot. Not particularly pretty and not at all spectacular. I have to say I would rather a quiet resting place under a big shady tree in open plains somewhere, but then I am not Jim! Love your music Jim, but thought your grave was a bit squeezy and square. Sorry.

Actually though, the cemetary itself was quite lovely. Enormous and packed with gravestones, but generally green and peaceful...except around Jim of course where the American tourists were telling everyone what they thought about anything and everything. I remember having a really lovely little break though when Liesl and I just sat on a little park bench overlooking the grounds and the city, drank our tap water from the hotel and ate some of the Granola bars she had brought from the US (maple syrup and muesli a top combination!), together with some fruit bought on the way out of the metro. The simple pleasures hey?

Okay, not all of our pleasures were simple! Here is me getting VERY excited about the cakes we had with our coffee at our local patisserie one day...mmmmm...the cakes!

The Moulin Rouge was hilarious! When the dancers first stepped out in glitter suits and did a few one step forward, arms up, skippty hop backs, though, I thought this was going to be an expensive show that had not aged very well at all! I also remember thinking, thank god champagne was included in the price! But then, when the woman dived into a tank full of pythons and the red feather headsets came out, everything changed! The show was fantastic! The variety acts were superb (I will always wonder about the real identity of the talking dog!), the costumes stunning, and the bouncing breasts well worth the money!

One of the funniest things of the night though actually happened after the show. Liesl and I were trying to take some pictures of the windmill (see above) when I ran over a hot air vent and my skirt flew up over my ears. As I was pulling it down and cacking myself, Liesl and I heard a guy in the throng of photographers say, "Do it again, I was aiming too high". We thought it was so hilarious that Lies made me do it again, only this time Marilyn style - see below...

And thus ends the Paris adventures...stay tuned for the next installment - the gorgeous Amalfi coast of Italy! xxx

Paris Part 3

2008-08-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

In part three of our Paris adventure, Lies and I strolled along the Champs Elysees, which was rather fabulous actually! I had not done this in my previous trips to Paris. May sound crazy I know, but there is just so much to do in this incredible town!

Liesl fell totally in love with the Arc de Triomphe, and we spent quite some time cacking ourselves at the super crazy traffic whizzing around that beast! It really seemed like complete mayhem. This was of course before we got to observe the absolute and total mayhem of Italian traffic, but more of that later! While I too found the Arc beautifully impressive, I also had to give some love to the under- appreciated neighbours!

One of the craziest things about the Champs though was that they actually trim the trees with a scythe like instrument. Liesl and I saw this guy hanging out of a cherry picker like contrapment, miles in the air, swinging this blade along the tree edges. Imagine your arms at the end of the day if that was your job! The Champs is long man! Very very impressive!

After we had walked up the Champs, we walked back down the other side to visit the Louvre. Again, I had been there before, but with so many kilometres of gallery, once will never be enough! I was, however, most pleased that Liesl found the Mona Lisa as intriguing as I do. There is just something about that painting that is different in real life. You see so many images of it, and it is so familiar to you, that you would almost think that there is no reason to see it; but really, there is something incredibly engaging about that smile in real life. She really draws you in. When I see her in the flesh, it never feels right for me to photograph her - she gets lost in reproductions anyway. Even though you are surrounded by loads of people, all chatting and clicking away, somehow, for me, they just all seem to fade away when she is there smiling in front of me. Seriously siren like! So all I can say is, if you get the chance to see the Mona Lisa, you should take it. Here, however, you only have the chance to see me, lining up to see the Mona Lisa!
xxx.

Paris part 2

2008-07-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

After Lies and I had dwelled among the skeletons for a while, we skipped off to do what you should always do when you are visiting Paris for the first time...the tower!

After waiting over an hour to see some bones though, we were rather apprehensive about the line up to go up the tower. Sure enough, when we got there there were a few people about and Liesl, I assumed somewhat jokingly, pointed out that if we wanted to take the stairs up we would not have to wait in line. She was right of course, there was no queue to climb the stairs at all! When I laughed it off, she said she would have done it if I was keen. That was a flat out challenge. So climb we did. I don't know how high it is or how many stairs it was but I think it is safe to say that it is a fair way up.

Actually, it turned out to be not as bad as you might imagine and of course the views over Paris from the top and from the viewing points along the way were well worth the effort...and surely they look more stunning after you feel like you have earned them. One of the best things about walking up was all the little signs along the way that gave you some trivia about the tower and gave you an excuse to take a breather. Did you know that some crazy kooks actually rode motorbikes down the stairs sometime back in the 70s. Crazy!
We were indeed a long way from home...
And you never know who you might meet along the way! You have to assume this guy had a sense of humour but he was walking around as if wearing a Napoleon replica hat was part of his everyday life. So funny.

Of course everyone wants to have their photo taken in front of the tower, so Liesl and I took several 'selfies' to try and achieve this. This one is my favourite. Can you see the tower? I promise it is there...somewhere :)
On the way to the tower, we walked through Luxembourg gardens, which are always beautiful.

This time, all around the edge of the garden was an exhibition of huge photographs that had over the years appeared in a French current affairs magazine. They all had small captions explaining the shot. They were so beautiful, so sad, so uplifting, and just so stunning that strolling the streets was given new meaning. This is one of the things I love most about Paris. Art, beauty and unexpected inspiration surrounds you at every turn.
Makes you want to skip with joy...

xxx

The Sister Adventures...part 1

2008-07-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Liesl and I have just returned from a wonderful 3 week adventure , which I am again going to have to blog about in pieces! As this was her first visit to Europe, Liesl insisted that we visit Paris. Of course I was only to happy to acquiesce to that request! Paris is truly a lovely city. And I am not a city loving girl! But once again, I was completely charmed by it and easily managed to find wonderful things to see and do for the full 5 days we spent there.

The trip did not have the easiest of beginnings for poor Lies though. She came over following a 6 month stint working in Kentucky at a horse hospital there. She had a hell of a time getting out of the USA and lost her luggage along the twisted mad dashing route from Lexington to Bergen. This was made complicated by her arriving in Bergen late on Friday and us scheduled to fly to Paris early the next morning. This meant that she had no stuff and could not dump all the things she meant to leave in Bergen while we backpacked around. Fortunately we got it in Paris eventually. Unfortunately we had to drag a huge amount of unnecessary shit around for the rest of the trip. Fortunately, much of the unnecessary shit turned out to be useful...especially the bottles of booze, the sewing kit and the nail polish remover!

We began our stay in Paris with a stroll along the street market by our hotel and coffee and lunch in a cafe. Then we headed for the Catacombes. Spooky.

You descend straight down into unbelieveably long tunnels under the city. All stacked with the bones of formerlly living breathing people just like you and me. Kilometers of them. Arranged from floor to ceiling. Bones. Human bones. Human bones beautifully arranged in tunnels under the city. A city seething with living breathing people that will end up as bones. Bones like the thousands of others you see. Bones of people just like you and me.

It was a rather intense and very interesting experience.

Surprisingly there were loads of other living breathing people just like you and me that also wanted to see the catacombes that day. We lined up for over an hour to get in. We lined up to see skeletons. We lined up with hundreds of other people to see skeletons that day. Strange?

True.
xxx

Bologna

2008-06-14T00:46:00.001-07:00

This will be just a quick blog to post some pics and tell some stories of our visit to Bologna - the medieval city that actually looks like a medieval city! Lots of crazy brickwork and towers everywhere. Beautiful, in a kind of dark way...

There was also lots of covered walkways...about 40kms worth actually! And thank god there was since once again it poured with rain for almost our entire visit!
J and I stayed in a bed and breakfast that was in a fabulous garden rooftop apartement, with a super eccentric owner and who knew the history of Bologna like the back of her hand and was more than happy to spend hours telling us about it and about how she was, well, a witch. She was very sweet, crazy, but sweet. The offer to drink her wine at any time sent J a little crazy!

One of the highlights for me was being able to visit the University of Bologna - the oldest in Europe - so old that Copernicus was a student there! Now that is old! Established in 1044...if you can believe that. Around the library are university crests from around the world, very beautiful!
Of course the real reason we were in Bologna was because of the birthday present I gave J this year - a trip to visit the Ducati factory and museum. J said that his life long dream was fulfilled that day....awww....
I actually found the factory very interesting but I think the opportunity to see, smell and sit beside Casey Stoner's world championship winning bike from last year was J's highlight...
So that was the trip to Italy! Well actually, after Bologna I went to a conference in Rovigo for a couple of days but all I saw there was the inside of a conference room. Although as it turned out, I knew a bunch of people there and actually had a really fun time! I am actually starting to feel like a part of a research community, especially when I go to an international conference and know at least half of the scholars there...some of whom are actually really great people! Surprise Surprise!

I had to blog about Bologna today because tomorrow my sister and I will take off for our three week European adventure - Paris, Rome, Sorrento, Capri and sailing the Adriatic. So can't wait! And I really can't wait to see her at the airport today and show her my home here in Bergen! So I guess this will be all for a few weeks until I return home and can tell something about all these wonderful new places we will see! xxx til then...

Venezia

2008-06-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

After visiting the JRC and Lago Maggiore, I took a commission bus for commuters back to Milan on Friday afternoon. It was lovely to drive through the countryside and have a small but impressive bus tour of Milan before I arrived at central station around 6pm. A short stroll to a hotel room and I must admit, I totally collapsed. It was the first time, day or night, that I did not have an activity arranged for me for over a week (even though it was arranged that I would be on a train at 8am the next morning). When I found an english movie on TV, I ordered room service and lay back to do absolutely nothing. I was constantly nagged by guilt for not going out and exploring Milan, but I was also exhausted enough to ignore it. The justification was that if I move to the area next year, I will have plenty of opportunities to explore Milan. So sorry, no pics from Milan...yet!

The train I was on the next morning though was to Venice, and I do have a few pics from there!

J and I had said we would meet at the Vaparetto (Water Bus) stop outside the railway station. I got there no problem. J got there with lots of problems. His problems began with a strike at Bergen airport, which meant that to even start the journey he had to take a 9 hour overnight busride to Oslo. When he got to Oslo they told him the flight was closed. When we finally got to Venice, the airport bus did not show up. When one finally did arrive, he got off at the wrong stop. When he took another train and arrived at the main stop, I could not see him. Poor guy. Thank god for mobile phones. It hurts me to say that. When we finally found each other, we both spun out at the beauty of Venice.

In a way it was exactly as I imagined it would be. My imagination did of course include it being packed with tourists and having the unfortunate accompanying cheesy side! The real delight for me though was that it was not all like that. In fact, it was incredibly easy to escape the crowds and get a sense of Venice as you think it should be, as it must once have been, as parts of it still are. Just a couple of streets off the main drag and away from the 'must see' sights, you just become lost in tiny, quiet, gorgeous, little canalways with window boxes full of flowers, hidden court yards and runabout boats tied to steps down into the water. I think our experience was greatly helped by the fabulous place in which we stayed. It was a guesthouse, so a private house, just a few narrow winding streets and bridges from the action, but in an area that felt completely quiet and local. The owner served us breakfast in their large garden courtyard and told us wonderful places to eat that were also frequented my locals, and directed us to some of the special sites that were not on everybody's radar. The best thing about our accommodation though was undoubtedly the view from the room.
Here is how it looked straight ahead through our swinging shuttered windows...

To the left...

And to the right...

For me it was classic Venice. I just loved seeing and hearing the whistling gondoliers paddle under the window and when I woke up at night I loved to sit up and see the footpaths and canals all glowing under streetlamps. It was really very very beautiful. Even though it rained, and I mean completely poured, torrentially rained, for a lot of the time we were there, that is not what I remember. J and I killed ourselves laughing at how crazy it was when thousands of tourists, all with umbrellas, were inching their way through the couple of popular narrow streets and at how hilarious it was that the covered footpaths around St Marks square were packed like a rock concert moshpit while the enormous square lay empty and under about a foot of water. The rain did not dampen our mood or our enjoyment of this wonderful city though. In fact, J enjoyed it so much he shared the joy by dolling out cigarettes to the bums. Awwww... the kindness that kills slowly...

At just a couple of hours by train away from where I could be living next year, anyone who comes to visit me would be mad not to see Venice! xxx

Lago Maggiore

2008-05-31T04:49:00.000-07:00

After the Gorizia workshop, I headed off to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, situated in the small village of Ispra. Ispra is one of many little villages scattered along the shores of Lake Maggiore, which is, incidentally, the second largest Lake in Italy! I was going there to present my research, chat with colleagues/friends, and as it turned out, to check the place out as a potential place of work. A few weeks ago, and long after the visit had already been arranged, the centre put out a call for grantholders to work on research on "Emerging Technologies: Governance under Conditions of Uncertianty and Complexity". Surprisingly, this could be considered exactly what I am doing! So I applied, which means I sent off the 2-3 page CV required under the European template. Fortunately for me, before travelling to Italy I was told that I had been ranked as the best candidate for the position, and that there would be no interviews, just offers!

While in Gorizia I was hanging out with and chatting with two of the people currently working on this topic at the centre - the previously mentioned Silvio and the as yet unmentioned, Matthieu (who was, incidentally, the organiser of the nanotechnology group in Gorizia and is the guy on the right in the group pic of the previous post!) Matthieu gave me a lift from Gorizia to Ispra (about a 5 hour drive, with food and fuel breaks) and served as my totally fabulous and delightfully attentive guide for both my visit to the centre and to the whole lakes district as an area. The tour began in Varese. ..

This is the largest city near the research centre and many of the people working there live here and commute, Matthieu included. Although Varese is not on Lago Maggiore as such, it does have its own lake to make it feel special! After arriving from Gorizia I spent one night in Varese and took a small walking tour of the city with Matthieu the next day. The smell of money was evident in both the size of the hotel beds, the style of the city parks and the design of the government buildings facing the park...

Very beautiful areas also surround the city, which feels very green when you head out into the suburbs. Matthieu showed me the area where he lived, his local park (also beautiful), and his incredible house. He is renting a converted old stables of a huge villa that sits within a enormous fenced gardens in the suburbs of Varese. This is the villa (that the owners use for about 1 week a year in August). No joke. After seeing this I must say, the position was looking appealing...

After getting a feel for Varese, we headed off to the research centre (JRC in the local lingo). It was about a half an hour drive but of course the Commission has buses cruising around all the surrounding areas so as to take care of their commuters. After passing various intense security checks, I was in. It is a strange centre in a sense. Long sterile hospital corridors, lots of shared offices and various layers of division where people do not tend to know each other or intereact much in a work sense. You basically work on your own most of the time, which at the moment also has elements of appeal! It is also strange in that it is an almost totally contained little world. About 30 odd buildings within a fenced forested area, complete with 2 huge canteens and a separate coffee bar, where staff briefly gather for their schluck of espresso after lunch. The people I met were all great though, and my talk seemed to highlight exactly how closely both my current research and PhD interests fit with the action group I would work for (the action group, incidentally, is called "Quality of Scientific Information for European Policy"). After the first day of visiting the centre, I had a rather mixed impression - it was no doubt a great opportunity, but it would also clearly involve some sacrifices in terms of a really healthy, enjoyable, and productive collaborative work environment at Bergen. I was to continue mulling it over as I spent the night in Angera, a village about 10mins from the centre and on the lake shore.

Matthieu and I had long discussions over yet another delicious meal and some fine red wine, and after a lazy morning stroll along the shores of the lake the next day, I decided to say yes and accept a position working in Italy next year. Of course there remain some hurdles, me being Australian rather than European, and me wanting to start later than they would like. Things are in motion though and it is now looking like a very real possibility. Very Very Exciting! A little overwhelming, but Very Very Exciting!
xxx

Italy Adventure

2008-05-24T08:48:00.001-07:00

I have just returned from my very first visit to Italy. As it was a jam packed visit covering 5 different locations and a range of work and leisure activities, this Italian blog may come in a couple of stages...

The adventure began with a 4 day workshop in Gorizia, in the far North East corner of the country and right on the border with Slovenia. The workshop was for a European research project called 'Risk Bridge' in which so called experts from different fields came together to talk, exchange insights, and apparently engage in mutual learning on the topic of risk. The different fields covered in the event included climate change, electromagnetic fields, stem cells, sediments and in my case, nanotechnology. Can you say Junket? When the conference dinner involves 9 courses, some of which include a kind of guinea pig pate, you know that you are not in Kansas anymore Toto!

Before the workshop began though, my boss Roger and I were taken on a wine tasting tour of some of the fabulous vineyards popping up all over Slovenia. With the alps as a backdrop, the countryside was just absolutely stunning, so stunning that these photos can not do it justice!

In addition to all the wine that was sampled, there was also some grappa, of course!

The most interesting of which was one made from celery, which not only had a very distinct celery flavour, but which was also celery green in colour!

One of the wonderful things about this wine/grappa indulging jaunt in Slovenia was that not only did it occur in a fabulous cellar in an ancient castle set in the beautiful Slovenian countryside, it was also guided by the fabulous company of one Silvio Funtowicz and his wonderful wife Bruna De Marchi. If you don't know who they are, don't worry, but if you do, I hope you are suitably impressed! Here is the one and the wine...

While the risk bridge workshop itself was a little dull, on the last day the nanotechnology group had their own separate meeting and that was wonderful. A really great collection of people debating ideas and sketching collaboration projects, all the while enjoying the fabulous coffee that Italians are deservedly famous for! Academia as it should be! At the end of this day, the group was again escorted by Silvio and Bruna into a fabulous little outlying area for some more spectacular food and wine. This time we went to a town called Cividale, established by another guy you might know, a little someone called Julius Caesar...

Cividale was so beautiful that the whole group had to stop and admire it!

And as it turned out, Bruna happened to know a man that owned one of the medieval towers in the village and he allowed us to come in, climb, and admire the view of the city and surrounds from the top. It is not every day that that happens!

Unfortuantely I have no pics from the very top as I was worried about climbing the rickety ladder and squeezing out the tiny hole with my camera in tact, but here is one from the window before the final climb! Also rather beautiful I think you will agree.

All in all the trip to Gorizia was really fantastic, but I must say it was more for the food, the wine and the company than for the quality of the work :) It is a tough life I am leading here in Europe I must say! Next time, news from Lago Maggiore...xxx

Final Hurrah

2008-05-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, J and I travelled to the mountains with some friends to enjoy the snow for the last time for the season. Six of us drove up to a friend's cabin in a place called Oppheim, about 2 hours from Bergen. All Norwegian families seem to have a cabin that they like to escape to on weekends and holidays. Sometimes it is in a great position for winter activities, sometimes for summer, and sometimes for both! The cabin we went to was one of the latter I would say. Situated on the edge of a huge (currently frozen) lake with an amazing view over the mountains, it has a top quality skiing resort only 15 mins away. This was the view from the verandah...

Here is a shot of the cabin, good old Cedric and a hound or two happy to be free range out in the countryside!
These Norwegian cabins (from my limited experience) all seem to have similiar elements of design and decoration. To begin with, the walls inside must be wood paneling...lots and lots of wood paneling, can't get enough of that good stuff and oh so scandinavian! Then there has to be lots of single bunk beds, especially in the attic, so as to fit in as many people as possible. Then there has to be games of the old school variety, cards, board games, wooden puzzles etc, and of course, a few Donald Duck comics...in Norwegian! This was a particularly super fabulous cabin, with all these essential elements in place, and it provided a wonderful place for us all for the weekend. Here is the clan sitting around the kitchen table...

Of course lots of time was spent telling stories, drinking red wine and generally having a good time...

When we went to the slopes on Saturday, it was raining and threatening to be miserable. The three guys and me had snowboards while the other two ladies were going cross country skiing for the day. We agreed to meet in the cafe to eat our 'matpakke' (packed lunches - sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper and some fruit) in a couple of hours and headed off into the drizzle. To celebrate the end of the season, a live band was playing, a grill cooking, and a competition water jump was even set up. It was almost for the benefit of no one though as the conditions meant that the whole place was almost deserted. The boys immediately headed to the top of the mountain while I chose to practice my new footing arrangement on the beginners lift and slope first. After an hour or so they came to 'kidnap' me to take me to the top. I was initially highly dubious about my abilities to ride a snowboard on a T-bar for 3kms straight up a mountain face, but somehow I managed it and it was amazing! Up the top of the mountain it was snowing rather than raining and the conditions were fabulous, with not another person in sight...well except for once or twice...It was really great fun and I finally managed to pull off a few forward turns without completely eating it :) Oh, I ate it plenty of times trying to do them don't worry, but sometimes, just sometimes, it worked! As this was the first time I really managed this, I was very excited. It felt great to return to the same resort we started snowboarding at and see how far we had both come. The first time J and I didn't even buy a lift ticket! While the last time, we were riding the T bar right to the top and pulling off some fancy moves all the way down! Unfortunately I have no photos from the snow on this day as the rain/snow conditions did not make for ideal camera conditions, and besides, we were having far too much fun to take any photos!
So here are some photos of the dogs having fun instead...

And finally, a picture from along the way home. Take a good look, it will probably be the last blog about snow for quite a while...xxx

Epic Spring Snow

2008-04-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend J and had an absolutely delightful day on the slopes at Eikedalen - about an hour from our house. The sun was shining, the longest chairlift in northern Europe (about 2kms straight up) was operating, and all was right with the world. The view from the top was truly breathtaking...

I had decided to change the bindings on the snowboard so as to try tackling going down the mountain goofy (right foot forward). I just felt like this would be a more comfortable stance and I was pumped to try it!

At first it felt completely different and it took me a while to just get used to moving the board while strapped to it in the opposite direction. There were sections of the run that were just perfect for my practicing though - soft powder, gentle incline, not another person in sight. Sooooo good! But there was also one section, cutting across from the powder back down to join the main track, where things got a bit hairy.

The first time I slid most of the way down on my arse but after a couple of times I found a way to scoot along the face of it for the most part, easing my way down. And the view on the way down was so stunning that I never minded stoping to take a break and look around. J just wanted to go straight down! We now recognise we have different approaches to the mountain and don't try and do every run together. It was so much fun for me just playing up there that day, we both really enjoyed ourselves and feel a little more addicted to the sport each time! With spring in the air here in Bergen now though, I am not sure for how much longer we will still have our weekends away at Eikedalen.

So as it might be last time, here are some photos from the drive home. Starting at the carpark...

On through one of the many tunnels we pass through along the way...

Past one of my favourite little spots, a little village by a fjord surrounded by mountains, with an old shack perched on a small island in the middle of the water...

Finally, just some of the general scenery...

Lots of sweet spring kisses to all...xxx

Australia Visit

2008-03-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

I had dreams of lying on the beach. I had cravings for some real heat from the sun. I had hopes that this visit would be relaxing and rejuvenating. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but things didn't work out quite as I imagined! The weather was chilly, the beaches were windy and the schedule was packed...but! I did get to catch up with almost all my family and friends and that was fantastic! While my trip photographer (norwegian friend Karl Arne) has yet to pass on his pics, I do have some to share from the adventure (mostly care of my other norwegian friend Kamilla). Hopefully more will follow in the nearish future and this is just a taster...

Here is an example of the weather we encountered, as seen from my parents verandah. Mum's ashes were scattered in the rose garden seen to the left. Sorry if that is more information than you would like.

With all the rain I thought this might be my one chance at actually seeing water in Lake George...unfortunately not!

Some water I did get to see was the great Murray river when we stopped for a night in Euchuca while driving from Sydney to Melbourne. I just love the bird life that swarks and caws in the skies over that river, it really made me feel like I was home.

Hanging with friends, whether in the bush near Melbourne, on the coast around Coalcliff or at the Gong campus, also made me feel like I was home. Miss all you guys a lot!!

One of the best things about being back though was hearing Kevin Rudd say Sorry. What a momentous occasion! It feels strange to actually be excited about the leadership of my country for once, I am not used to that at all! While I do not have a photo of the Sorry event, this is a relevant one I took while attending the Sydney Road festival in Melbourne. I really hope that one day our flag is just the stars without the stripes...

The absolute best thing about being back though was being with my family - even when it was on the ultra competitive field of the bowling green at my grandparents place!

Love you all so very much and miss you the mostest! xxx

Adventures in the Snow

2008-02-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

I know I have been a bad blogger! I have been feeling rather busy and stressed of late. Yes too stressed to even post on my blog. Strange but true. To make up for it I thought I would make a quick post showing some pics from recent adventures in the snow.

While we were in Tromso J and I both bought snowboards as a way to help us enjoy the winter. Unfortunately we did not have enough snow while up there to try them but since then we have hit the slopes every weekend at various places around Bergen.

It has been soooo much fun! Very painful at times, but really a fabulous experience and a great excuse to get out and see some amazing mountain landscapes.

Last weekend we went to the highest point between Bergen and Oslo called Finse (where they filmed the snow landscape in Star Wars: The Emperor Strikes Back).

We went for a friend's 30th birthday and while it is generally a flat place renowned for cross country skiing and kite skiing, we found a fabulous slope that we could hike up and snowboard down. We had some of the best conditions and best runs yet. It was really amazing. What was not so fun was our arrival on the first night. We got off the train in the dark at about 7pm and had to walk what we were told was about 2kms (actually turned out to be more like 4) on a path by the railway line to our hut. We were carrying backpacks full of food and wine and our snowboards, plus we had the dogs on leads. The Norwegians who had been there before lead the way and we headed off into the snow. Well, after trekking about 2 kms in what was knee deep snow at times the Norwegians began to get worried. The wind was picking up, we could still not see the hut, had never really found a path, and could not really see more than 20m in front of us. They decided we should turn back. Long story short, we got lost in blizzard like conditions for about 3 hours and had to be rescued by a man on a snow scooter. Our angel!

The snow scooter driver said it was too dangerous to drive us to our hut so we ended up renting another one closer to the train station. It was quite a dramatic beginning to the weekend! The next day dawned sunny though and we got some fabulous snow boarding so all was forgiven. We decided we liked Finse afterall. Here is me going up...

And me and J coming down...J is the one with style!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics from the snow and know that I leave for 4 weeks in Australia on Friday so this may be some of the last shots of snow for a while. No doubt J will keep waving the snowboarding flag for me!

Tromso Trip

2008-01-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

After Christmas, J and I flew to Tromso in the far north of Norway to get a taste of what winter is like above the Arctic circle. We had an absolutely marvellous time and I wanted to share some stories and pics from the experience. Unfortunately the quality of the pics suffers from the lack of light available but hopefully they still give you some sense of the place nonetheless.

The first thing that surprised me was in fact the presence of any light at all. I had expected that having no sun would mean total darkness all day and night, but to my surprise and absolute delight, even though there was no sun, around midday there was a kind of twilight. This meant the sky went all the amazing colours that you normally see after the sun has gone down but it is not totally dark yet - purple, pink, orange blue etc. It was absolutely beautiful and really amazing to see and experience! Here is a pic of J sitting in a flat we rented looking out over the fjord and the city bathed in a sea of electric blue. This was a particularly surreal shade of light I thought, but so so beautiful!

Tromso as a city is actually situated on a small island in the middle of a fjord and surrounded by amazing, snow capped mountains. It is a very small city though so we tried to get out and do/see some other things in the surrounding areas while we were there. After the first night we went out to an island called Kvaloy (whale island) where we visited the Tromso wilderness centre and the biggest dog kennel in Norway - with over 220 Alaskan huskies! We had hoped to do some dog sledding there but unfortunately the unseasonal lack of snow on the lower grounds made that impossible, much to our disappointment! What we did do though was camp out the night on the property. This gave us the perfect opportunity to freeze our butts off, and more importantly, to scan the skies out of the city for the Northern Lights. After feeling ourselves going slightly mad trying to keep our eyes on all parts of the sky, around 11.30pm we were blessed with an amazing display of flourescent green bands of light dancing, disappearing and reappearing all over the sky. At one point, they emerged from behind a mountain and turned the whole mountain top green! It was totally amazing! Unfortunately I have no pics of this. I made one small attempt to take a photo, discovered you needed to know much more about camera settings etc than I do, and decided not to miss the display by trying to capture it through a lens. The mental photographs will stay with me forever though! Here is a picture of our camp for you instead!

Also, here is us killing time taking photos of ourselves while we waited for the lights! It was so funny, J commented at one point that it was not actually that cold, but then we counted the layers of clothing we had on, I think I had seven! The wilderness centre lent us snow suits and we were most grateful for them!

After our night in the tent, we were served a wonderful breakfast in a lavvo, sami style accommodation. It was really 'koselig' with the fire and the reindeer skins after the chilly night in the tent, just a shame that the pics do not accurately capture the warm orange light and campfire smell we got to dine with!

As we could not go dog sledding as planned, the centre let us help feed the dogs after our breakfast. We were put on puppy duty and got to feed all the young dogs their mix of whale and chicken meat....mmmm delicious! They are really serious about their sledding at this place, and the owners completed the alaskan iditarod race last year (over 1000 miles!), which was really amazing to hear all about! The amount of dogs at this place was totally amazing and the view almost even more so!

After feeding the hounds we took some of them for a walk in the mountains, made a fire and grilled some sausages on a stick, the Norwegian way. One of the dogs killed a lemming and even though it was dead, I was very excited to see my very first lemming! Apparently it was a good season for lemmings this year, which ironically means a bad season for lemmings, if you know what I mean?

After visiting the wilderness centre and their dogs, we headed back into Tromso for New Years. In line with Norway's highly exorbitant prices, we paid almost $100 for a bottle of red with our dinner but it was almost worth it when our waitress told us the northern lights wer eon display outside. Even though we were in the city, this second display we saw of the lights was even more amazing than the first, with huge intense dancing beams spanning from horizon to horizon. The earth was putting on its own display of fireworks! After dinner we hit one of the recommended pubs for our big night out. At first we thought we would be home in bed by 10pm - the whole city seemed completely dead! Most places were closed and what was open had no more than a couple of tourists in it. Quite unexpectedly, we hooked up with a couple of other Australians who had chosen the Blue Rock pub for their night out and got on so well with them that before we knew it it was time to run out and watch the fireworks! This was the last year Norway was allowing the public sale of fireworks so the people had gone completely crazy. Even though there was an official display going off on one of the mountains, we were totally surrounded by fireworks right in the city and even had to dodge the odd one or two! After the display we went back into the pub and discovered that the Norwegians had just been waiting to watch the fireworks before they went out. The place was packed and the rest of the night disappeared into a kind of blur! All I know is that it ended at 5am when J and I found ourselves on a Norwegian fishing trawler discussing the state of cod stocks. Crazy night! And we both got the hang overs to prove it! In fact, all the next day we hung in our hotel room watching crap television and ordering room service. The only time we left our room was to buy a kebab. Now that is hung over!

After New Years we decided to pursue our desire for dog sledding a little further afield, and we booked a trip to Tamokdalen about an hour and a half inland from Tromso, where there was snow on the ground and the promise of mushing! Here is a photo through the bus window on our way out there. I can understand why so many landscape artists go to Tromso.

Here we finally got to try dog sledding, and in fact, J got to drive our sled for 20kms through some very rough terrain. It was absolutely amazing! We travelled through a gorgeous valley, crossed frozen rivers, (that actually weren't always entirely frozen and I thought I was going in at one stage!), tripped through frosty forests and hammered up and down hills with our little furry companions. We followed a guide the whole way but it never really felt safe to be honest with you (in fact, the other english couple that did it with us stacked their sled twice). This only made it more exhilarating though and J might have actually missed his calling because he was an excellent musher!

We also saw some amazing things along the way like huge wolverine tracks in the snow with paws as big as a mans hand, a massive king eagle bigger than any wedge tail I have ever seen, and a little frosty otter skipping across an icy waterway! It was truly wild country out there and it totally took my breath away.

While we were up in Tromso I also gave a talk at a research institute for gene ecology but that experience paled in comparison to seeing the spectacular green of the Northern lights dance across the sky and speeding on a dog sled through a snow covered landscape shrouded in pink light! It was a truly unforgettable trip and we hope to venture back up there again in summer to experience the same landscape under the magnificence of the midnight sun. xxx

Christmas in Bergen

2008-01-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late, but I wanted to post some pics from our Christmas in Norway...better late than never you know! It is also going to be a little short in the description department unfortunately because I am nursing the horrid combination of an intense New Years day hangover and the flu...hmmmm...tasty combination!

So...Christmas. Unfortunately we did not get the white Christmas we had been hoping for, but we did get a traditional Bergen Christmas with rain, which was nice! The good thing about the rain was that I got to wear my big red gumboots with cream sock trims - very Mrs Claus!

The weekend before Christmas, J and I decided that we really needed a tree and some decorations to help make us feel like it was Christmas. I had bought a couple of pretty little wooden decorations when we were in Prague for my Mum to paint and decorate, but when she passed away I brought them back to Bergen with me. I coloured them in with my crayons, hung them on a dead branch with some green moss and silver ribbon and voila...a tree..of sorts!

Together with a red and green paper chain, some presents and some wonderful drawings from my beautiful nieces Charlotte and Rose, we had a real little Christmas corner happening!

We had Christmas lunch with my boss and his family and friends at his place, and that was lovely. Although, it must be said, their tree was a little more specatacular than ours! The best part of the Norwegian Christmas tradition was after lunch when the family all held hands and danced around the Christmas tree singing carols (in Norwegian of course!) It was just a lovely little bonding moment and a tradition that J and I think we would like to start in our family...although we may sing in English I think!

Because the Norwegians celebrate on the 24th, we got home around midnight and opened all our own presents at home and tried to talk to our families on skype. It was a different Christmas, and missing one very special person, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I hope everyone else had a wonderful day and I promise to blog soon about our New Years holiday in Tromso! xxx

Third Floor - Knitting Room

2007-12-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here we are - the third and final floor. Well actually, after the knitting room is the sewing room but since it was being restored, the knitting room is the final room on the tour.

This is where all kinds of crazy machines, of varying shapes and sizes, turned the spun wool into webs of woven wonder. So exciting!

One thing that really surprised me was all the machines knitting in rounds. Of course up in the sewing room they would just cut the pieces and make whatever they wanted, but I was surprised that so much of it started in circles.

It was also amazing to see that each machine was knitting in different patterns. Some, such as this one, typically Norwegian in style.

The colours were especially lovely in the area where they knitted lots of small details and trims...so pretty!

The most astounding machine for me though, was the sock knitter. It knitted pairs end to end and spat them into a collecting tube. So funny! So clever! Seeing those socks just streaming into the tube, a new one every minute or so, really made me look industrialisation in the face. Kind of entrancing really...

So I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the Salhus knitting museum. The next post will be all about Christmas in Norway. Wishing everyone and their families a very Merry Festivus ;) Eat, drink, eat some more, drink some more, snooze in the afternoon and be merry! Loves of Love and Special Christmas Kisses...

Second floor - the spinning room

2007-12-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Moving on to the second floor...the superbly splendiferous spinning room! Mmmmmm...

This is where women, and children entered the production process. The women operated the machines and the kids ran the errands :)

First the wool was spun from the big bobbins downstairs onto more manageably sized cones.

While the enormity of some of the machines spinning the thread from the bobbins to cones was truly astounding, the view from the window was not bad either!

As you can see, a lovely light pink shade at about 2:30 in the afternoon...

This is also where they got to do cool things like spin different colours into one thread, so we can all make cool things like gorgeous speckly socks! Yay!

Next time I will spin us from here up to the knitting room....wooohooooo.....

Salhus Knitting Museum, Tour of the Bottom Floor

2007-12-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Well winter is well and truly here.

Darkness has set in and I know this because I have had to buy a 'dawn simulator' alarm clock, which wakes me by slowing lighting my room with all the power of an artificial sun. The cold, dark, long, lonely nights (okay not so lonely given the delightful presence of J and the hounds!) have reawakened my desire to deck myself in wool and wile away the hours click click clicking on some knitting needles. And yes Dr Kylie, the first thing I decided to knit was my very first sock!

A lovely Spanish girl and fellow GM crop researcher and activist who is currently visiting my research centre for 3 months, Miss Rosa, kindly offered to be my guide. She is in the process of knitting socks and many other wonderful things herself. In honour of the birth of my first sock, on sunday we decided to celebrate in style and visit an old knitting factory on a fjord in Salhus - about half an hour bus ride out of Bergen.

So glad we did! Very interesting! And surprisingly beautiful! For someone who had never visited a textile factory before, it was completely fascinating! I was intrigued by the cold metal of the machine against the soft supple touch of the wool. I was fascinated by the complexity of the whole process from sheep to sweater. I was amazed by the scale of the operation. I was amazed by the speed of the operation. Humbled in my own little struggle to create a single baby sock. Pondering the difference between mechanical precision and the art of the handicraft.

In this first installment, I send you some pics from the bottom floor. The start of the factory process. ..The 'men's work' floor, where the wool was combed and spun onto massive bobbins.

In it goes...

The combing cogs in natural colour

The machine that places the wool on the arm length bobbins...

Like I said, the boys floor of the factory...

Next time...I will take you to the spinning room - are you excited yet?? xxx

QnA

2007-11-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night.

Dr Seuss
2. What were you doing at 0800?

Sleeping while snow fell all around the house

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?

Norwegian homework

4. What happened to you in 2006?

Got my PhD...woohoo, Mum got sick...boohoo

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?

Is that okay on your legs?

6. How many beverages did you have today?

Crickey, could be too many to count...5 hot ones at least...

7. What color is your hairbrush?

Don't own one and can't remember the last time I used one...must have been when I was burdened with long hair...hehehe

8. What was the last thing you paid for?

Milk, lollies and a DVD (The Last King of Scotland) from the local servo

9. Where were you last night?
Snuggled up at home with a fire burning

10. What color is your front door?

Boring Brown wood baby

11. Where do you keep your change?

In a little ceramic pot on the shelves inside the front door

12. Whats the weather like today?

Around zero, snow, and blustery blizzard like winds

13. What's the best ice-cream flavor?

All fruity ones are good - strawberry, banana, boysenberry, raspberry, lemon etc etc etc

14. What excites you?

Visiting new places and climbing into bed at night

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Big time! I miss my Carly....

16. Are you over the age of 25?
Yes but who's counting really?!

17. Do you talk a lot?

Mmmm...sometimes.

18. Do you watch the O.C?

Fraid not.

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?

Yep, I know a few of them. Does it count if they spell it with a ph?

20. Do you make up your own words?
Stephen with a ph is not a made up word!

21. Are you a jealous person.

I try not to be

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter 'A'.

Ana

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter 'K'.

Karl Arne

24. Who's the first person on your received call list?

My Dad, god love him

25. What does the last text message you received say?

Yep, I think so.

26. Do you chew on your straw?

Mmmm...sometimes

27. Do you have curly hair?

Oh how I wish! always been a dream...

28. Where's the next place you're going to?

Apart from work on Monday, yesterday I booked a trip to Tromso for new years, almost 400kms north of the Arctic circle...dog sledding and ice fishing here we come!

29. Who's the rudest person in your life?

That is a bit hard to answer on a public blog!

30. What was the last thing you ate?

Lollies from the local servo

31. Will you get married in the future?

Not likely

32. What's the best movie you've seen in the past 2 weeks?

Babel - was surprisingly good.

33. Is there anyone you like right now?

This little hound with his heavy head on my lap is kind of okay!

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?

Me personally? Day before yesterday maybe? I have a good house husband!

35. Are you currently depressed?

Not this minute

36. Did you cry today?

Not yet

37. Why did you answer and post this?

Because I do not have any particularly exciting news to report and enjoyed reading Kylie's answers on her blog :)

2007-11-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

Words

Tell me of a sunset.
Sing me a waterfall.
Teach me the words of the wind!
My child, I'm so sorry,
I can do none of these things.

Play me the sound of a fire in full flight.
Show me the sight of stars without night.
Teach me to fly and how to grow wings!
My child, I am sure, I can do none of these things.

Show me the sound of an avalanche breaking,
Tell me the feeling of a child in the making.
Sing me the sense of sun on my skin!
My child, I know I can do none of these things.

Then teach me to laugh without making a sound.
Tell me the feeling of being wrapped in goose down.
Describe to me the smell of a rose.
My child, this would be like showing you the emperor’s new clothes.

There is only one way to know of such things.
Only one way to feel all that life brings.
You must live with both your eyes and your mind,
Opening your heart to all that you find.

You must be aware and alert and in awe,
Prepared to embrace all that life has in store.
It is a magical world we are blessed to live in.
Take your time to remember,
Breathe out and breathe in.

White Weekend

2007-11-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hei! As you can see, we had some snow this weekend!
It has been wonderful to see the world turn white again. I have also been studiously observing the many different forms snow can take and can now understand just why it is that the eskimos have so many words for it. There can be anything from large fat floaty flakes to tiny hard hailstone like kugler, (sorry, Norwegian taking over, I mean balls) ... and of course everything in between. Now I know that people who live in areas where it snows regularly will already know all about this, but for me it has been an interesting learning curve! I am also learning about where it is safe to walk on snow and ice covered roads...a sometimes painful learning experience :)

J and I really are like kids when it snows, we get so excited! And just have to keep telling each other about it - it is really falling now, check out the size of those flakes, wow it is thick on the ground, don't the trees look pretty, etc etc etc. The dogs also love it though. They have spent lots of time this weekend rolling around making their own little snow angels in the backyard. Then they get the sillies and run around in circles like mad dogs before falling down and rolling around again. So cute.

Everything just looked so beautiful that I decided to take my camera out on my usual walk with the dogs and snap some photos of the neighbourhood. I hope you enjoy them...

This is a photo of the mountain called Ulriken, bathed in a fabulous moment of sun!

Looking across the park to Ulriken, yes that is a snowman and a grown man on a sled in the foreground - real winter fun I tell you!

One of the paths around the park...

Looking from said path back across the park to Lovstakken - the mountain we see from our backyard.

Now I also know that I promised you some pics of my beloved Kombi, so here they are...isn't she a beauty?!

Not so easy to ride in the snow though!

Wait a minute...look at me go! xxx

Autumn in Aarhus

2007-11-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

Okay so I have been convinced to continue! Thanks! But I have also been convinced that the blog does not have to be about other people and readers, that it has value to me as documentation of my travel and as an exercise in writing. So here goes....

J and I were fortunate enough to get a long weekend in Aarhus Denmark last weekend. I travelled there courtsey of the uni to attend a workshop on toxicological and environmental aspects of nanotechnology. Yippee. J travelled there courtsey of frequent flyer points. Double Yippee.

It was great to have J along for company in the evenings, especially as it helped me avoid spending an excessive number of hours in the company of members of the NanoEthics Network - not that they weren't nice or anything, most of them were, but after hanging with them all day at the workshop, 2 conference dinners seemed excessive! And besides, they were not exactly the people I wanted to share the hotel spa and sauna with, if you know what I mean!

The bad thing about having J with me though was of course that he got to go out and be a tourist in the city while I sat and stared out the windows of the workshop! That means that he got lots of fabulous photos of the old city part of Aarhus while I could only snap those parts of the university grounds that I got to see during a 40minute lunch break! It was such spectacular autumn weather though that I hope some of the colours make up for the lack of location diversity! The uni was in a nice area of town, about 40minutes walk from the city centre. For those of you who don't know already Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark and a port town...but as I said, you will not be seeing photos of any of this below, just some lovely autumn pics from around the uni campus!

It is really lovely to be watching the seasons change so dramatically, and today marked an extra special moment - the first day of autumn that I left the house for work and saw snow on the mountains. So beautiful! Sadly this may also indicate the slow decline of my bicycling to work - peddling home in the dark and the snow sounds far more desirable than it actually is! Especially when you are battling the constant threat of being blown off your bike and copping the tyre wash of every passing car and truck! Hmmm...we'll see how things go. Hopefully I can post pics of my beloved Kombi bike next time. xxx

PhD Course

2007-10-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

Some of you might remember that a few weeks (was it even months??) ago I was involved in teaching a course for people doing their PhD in Norway in something nano related to get their ethics and philosophy of science credits. There is kind of a requirement here that all PhD students have to do a course in ethics and phil of sci at some point in their degree.

We held our week long PhD course at a lovely little place up in the mountains called Vatnahalsen and took one afternoon off teaching to walk with the students down the 20km track into the Flåm valley and up (ouch!) to a lovely eco/local food only farm for dinner, before catching the train back to the hotel/course location. It was a lovely time so I wanted to share some of the photos.

Front of hotel getting ready for the walk...yes notice the wet weather gear on most (all except our one philosophy student in the middle - he did not believe in the reality of rain) and man did we need it, we got drenched!!

This here be the beginning of the track down...

This is the tunnel of light - when we walked into the tunnel it was pouring and when we came out it was hot and sunny, very very strange!

Strolling after the tunnel of light

Farmers look away, there was no shortage of water here...

The killer uphill climb at the end of the day

Finally the great farm house and food at the top!

This was a lot of photos and there is a reason for this. I am thinking about making this my last blog. You see, with the facebook revolution, I am not sure how many people (except dear Kylie) are actually checking this blog. It is far too time consuming to post for no/one reader so if you like the blog, hate the facebook, let me know by leaving a comment and I might be persuaded to continue! xxx

Pics from Paris

2007-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a long time between posts and for that I apologise. Those of you who know me will know why. I thought I would make it up to you though by posting some pics from my recent trip to Paris. Yes it was a business trip, I was there for a conference, but who says you can't see some of the sites at the same time ;) Hope you like them as much as I enjoyed being there. It really is a truly magnificent city.

Perfect Prague

2007-08-27T09:46:00.001-07:00

Ahhhhh Prague! What a wonderful time we had and how sad it is to be back. Such a beautiful city and so cheap in comparison to Norway - we were in heaven. The beer was literally cheaper than water and the cocktail prices were laughably low. This meant everytime we felt the need to take a break from strolling the streets and seeing the sites to sit down in a cafe, we inevitably had to go for beer and cocktails.

I also think J ate a slab of meat every single night we were there. One night he even ordered the 600g pork knee, just to make sure his body got the flesh he so sorely misses in pricey Norway! The weather was also perfect - hot and sunny during the day and light rain on our roof when we were tucked up in bed at night. The ancient city, the dark history, and the rain on the roof also all made a perfect setting for reading the final Harry Potter book out loud to each other!

The only minor downfall was the sheer mass of people, which was simply unbelieveable (for example, check out the people on charles bridge below).

Somehow we adapted though, blissed out on cocktails perhaps, and in the end, not even the throng of tourists could detract from our joy. We strolled the castle and the maze of cobblestone streets, attended a classical concert in a spectacular venue, shopped ourselves silly and just generally had a magical time. It is such an interesting city, with an intriguing sense of a dark and disturbing history lurking just below the surface. We hope to return again sometime soon, but in winter next time so as to get to know the city when it is grey and cold and not so crowded. We hope you enjoy these photos from when it was coloured and sunny and packed to the max though! xxxx

Wenceslas Square

The red rooves of the city

The Rudolfinum where we saw a classical concert.

And Us - blissfully happy and radiating joy in the sunset!

Garden of Life

2007-08-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hi All!
Sorry for the delay between posts. I have just returned from a totally exhausting and utterly exhilarating week hidden away in a hotel in the mountains. I was there teaching a course in ethics and nanotechnology to around 20 people working on PhDs in science. The students were all fantastic and we had an absolutely wonderful time, which was certainly a little unexpected given the nature of the undertaking! It was such a glorious location that I really wanted to post some pics on this blog but unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera (something about the leaving the house at 6am!) Some of the other people there took photos though so hopefully I can post some from them soon and tell you more about that adventure at that time.

In the meantime though, I thought I would brighten this blog with some shots from our garden. While I loved watching this little snail slide around the flower, I do not enjoy Bergen's major slug problem! Apparently the species I see everywhere in the rain (so almost every day lately) is not native and is a major pest. I didn't post a picture of them because they don't deserve it! I spent quite a few weekends digging up and preparing a nice garden bed and then planting and tending vegeteable seeds in the hope of using all the rain and long daylight hours to grow some tasty treats. Of course after the constant rain of late and my inability to be vigilent while sleeping, the slugs have eaten everything! Grrrrrrr..... can I be a still be a treehugger and dislike slugs? I guess I am not a slughugger...

Enough ranting about slugs though! The good news is that on Tuesday I will jet out of Bergen again to rendezvous with J in Prague for a four day holiday...wooohooo! J is currently in Brno watching motorbikes go round and round and from all reports, is having a fabulous time. So I believe that my next post will not be for a while but should contain lots of pics of Prague when it arrives. After a week in the stunning Norwegian mountains and before I week in the sumptuous city of Prague, I feel fantastic, and I can only hope that all who read this are also happy, healthy and breathing deep with the wonder of life. XXX

Hurrah for Huts

2007-08-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

I only have photos from the first day of our hike from hut to hut in the national park of Hardangervidda, because my camera ran out of battery power - doh! But in some ways that is okay because the landscape did not change that much over the three days - rocky mountains covered in snow patches for as far as the eye could see! Well of course that is not entirely true...there were lots of subtle changes. Some areas were covered in wild blueberry bushes that were like a form of ground cover rather than a bush. Unfortunately the berries were not ripe, which really was a shame. There were also patches of a local berry the Norwegians call cloudberries, also not ready unfortunately. In some very select places were also little fields of flowers.

The most dramatic change though was when we passed by a glacier, which is of course not captured at all well in this photo because that ghostly blue just does not show through.

The first day was actually a lovely walk. Relatively easy, lots of flowers, fields, snow, fjords, lakes, and a glacier.

The dogs of course loved the snow patches and everytime we crossed one would both have to stop and roll around in it for a while. After climbing some of the peaks I was tempted to join them myself on occasion! At the end of the first day we stayed in what is called a half service hut, tucked away in a mountain valley beside a rushing river. Basically this hut in the middle of nowhere had everything you need.

You get a bed, a pillow and a doona, just need to bring a sleeping sheet/sack. They have a kitchen full of gas appliances and cooking equipment, and even a pantry full of food. Any food you choose to use, you just add it to a list on your registration form, put down your credit card number and voila, your done! Great system. There was no running water at this hut though so you had to fetch it in buckets from the river, but thank goodness because otherwise it would not have felt much like a hiking trip!

It may be best if you don't ask me too much about the next day of hiking. It was a horror. To begin with, it rained all day. The map said it would be around 4 hours and it took us, without any breaks longer than 5 mintues, more like 6 and a half. The first four hours was slogging through mud and trying to find safe rocks to hop from one to the other. The mosquitos were as thick as I have ever seen them in my life and basically, it was just not much fun.

The most interesting part of the day was when the dogs had to cross a swing bridge over a river.
Mina did great (even if she did try and turn around and head back half way across!) but Mojo lay down at the beginning of the bridge and squealed like a girl! Somehow I managed to drag him across and they were perfect for the rest of the day, crossing really large strong flowing rivers with ease! Here they are relaxing at the first hut after a thoroughly enjoyable time back in their natural habitat. The only sad thing about taking them was they had to be on a lead the whole time - bad year for the reindeer apparently, and it must be because we didn't see any! - but they seemed to have a tops time anyway and having their pull going up the hills was fantastic!

Anyway, at the end of a long second day we arrived at a full service hut and when they say full service they mean it! Showers...ahhhh... a three course dinner with a bottle of wine, and a full buffet breakfast. Of course you pay for it, and being Norway you should never convert back to Australian dollars unless you want a heartattack, but Ireally appreciated it at the end of that day and didn't care what I had to pay.

I think the hut system here is really fantastic (certainly lightens pack loads) and only wish some of our national parks offered the same service. xxxx

Mountain Adventures

2007-07-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, J and I were invited by my boss, Roger, and his family to spend some time with them in the Norwegian mountains. Like almost every Norwegian family, they have a cabin in the mountains that they retreat to in the holidays and we joined them there for a few days. After an interesting 3 hour train ride with the dogs through some of the spectacular countryside between Bergen and Oslo, we arrived at our location. On our first day, we all went for a hike in the mountains around the cabin. The following are some photos from that adventure.

This is a photo of J and I with the 'adults' of the family, Roger and Kjellrun at the top of the 1500m hillock we climbed. Of course the teenage girls, Idun and Eirill, were too cool to take part in this set up photo at the top of the mountain! While not a great shot, I thought some of you might be interested to see what my boss actually looks like...not sure this shot actually captures his 'uniqueness' very well though.
The next day I agreed to go horse riding with Eirill because she is a horse fanatic (riding at a riding school in Bergen 3 times a week) and no one else would go with her. Little did I know that it would be for 3 and a half hours and that I would be left with no skin between my butt cheeks afterwards! It was worth it though because we rode through some unbelieveably beautiful landscape, crossing multiple snowy rivers and ascending a mountain for a view that I doubt will ever be surpassed in my life. Unfortunately I did not get more than a mental photograph of that amazing view (too focussed on not falling off the horse!), but here is one I took from where we watered the horses at the bottom of the mountain. In the shot is our guide with both his and my horse (the dark one in front).

On the following day we just took a short walk and I tried to recover from the horse riding induced aches, pains, bruising and bum burn. Then J headed home on the train with Eirill and Idun, Roger and I headed off for three days of hiking through the landscape, staying at National Parks cabins along the way...but I think I will save news and pics of that for the next post! xxxx

Summer Holiday in Stavanger

2007-07-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took Cedric on our first weekend away - chasing sun, sand and surf in the southern city of Stavanger. The journey began with a ferry ride...

The landscape from the ferry was specatcular, although the weather was looking ominous.

We had two ferry rides on the way to Stavanger - one for about an hour and the other for 10 minutes. The ferries are very professional and well equipped with cafes, just ask J about the polse med brods. We left the dogs in the car during these voyages but they didn't seem to mind.

After the first ferry ride the rain began to fall.

And fall, and fall and fall. When we finally found our way through the city of Stavanger and to the recommended surf beach, we were happy to have arrived, but a little disappointed with the inaccuracy of the weather forecast (1-2m, offshore wind and sunny).

With no chance of surfing that day, we just took the dogs for a stroll and didn't they LOVE being free range on a beach again! Please note the mid-summer attire.

After a crazy night bunkered down in the van, swaying in the cyclonic wind and rain, we woke to blue skies...well a little blue sky anyway, or at least a piece, a fraction, a morsel, a hint, a suggestion, of blue sky :)

At least the surf had picked up...

So we moved location, to a beach out of the 'breeze' and after some wax off, wax on, J was ready to go. Again, please note the mid-summer surf attire.

On the positive side, J had the break to himself, although he did have to share it with a friendly seal at times. While not quite up to Coalcliff Australia standards, he seemed to have enjoyed himself and even claimed that the water was not as cold as he had expected. It must have been true because the dogs and I watched him from the shore for well over an hour.

All in all, it was a wonderful first adventure in Cedric, although the weather could certainly have been kinder - we were on the edge of the North sea though, so what did we really expect? XXXXX

J's Job

2007-07-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

So it is with much sadness that I report the loss of my wonderful house husband. J has got a fulltime job here now, working at a window and door making establishment. You can never tell what that guy is going to do next I tell you! It is about half an hour out of the city at a place called Os. Last Saturday J took me out there to check the place out. Oh, and we went in the car we recently bought - Cedric the big red Chrysler Voyager.

Cedric is going to be our travelling van because he is big enough to sleep in the back of. The public transport is so good here we don't need to use him on a day to day basis, but we are hoping to use him to escape on weekends and see more of this gorgeous country. The trip to Os last weekend was our first venture in him and here are some pics of what we found! The first one being the massive building in which J works - only half of which actually fitted within the frame!

The second is Mina enjoying the view from Cedric...the dogs just love having the visual stimulation of car rides again!

This one is of the gorgeous fjord in Os - still snow on the mountains but also boats on the water.

Then there was the so called "fairytale trail"...

that lead us to the edge of the fjord - beautiful!

We are really looking forward to our next adventure in Cedric this weekend - camping at Stavanger looking for a surf...xxxx

London Calling

2007-07-06T10:03:00.001-07:00

So here begin the promised pics of London...
As this first shot demonstrates, it is indeed a big busy city. This is a shot of Oxford St on a Saturday afternoon. You could call it a little hectic.

Renee K put in a special request for pics of bridges so here we go! The first has to be Tower Bridge I suppose, just because it is iconic. This shot is taken from London Bridge, which is actually a completely unspectacular, simple, concrete, monstrosity. I suppose it is modern and dull because the old and interesting London bridge fell down some time ago. As you can tell from the overall grayness, I experienced some typical London weather.

This second bridge shot has a red double decker bus in it, just to prove it really is London!

In case you are wondering, the purple balloons belong to a massive march of people who were campaigning for more funding for kidney research - who knew so many people cared about the humble kidney! Must say I was grateful for the marchers when I managed to bludge a waterproof poncho off one of them to try and keep me dry while I watched Othello fall over at the Globe theatre. Built in the traditional Shakespeare style, the globe is round and only the stage and the circular seats around the edges are under cover - all the peasants who can only afford standing tickets get wet, and get wet we did! It was worth it though because it made the experience feel even more authentic, if only I had had some rotton tomatoes to throw at the bad guys!

The third bridge shot just gives you a typical view of the bridges crossing the Thames, with the city in the background.

Enough bridges for you Renee??

Okay and now just some of the classic sights for the information of all those who have never managed to see them, and to help spark the memories of those who have.

Buckingham Palace...

Westminster...

And Big Ben...

XXX...

Brussels

2007-07-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from my trip to Brussels. In some ways it is just another big city, an eclectic mix of ancient architecture and high rises. But as the heart of European politics there is also something more. There is a sense of self importance,...although perhaps this is just a side effect of the dominant language being french! It also has the ubiquitous fabulous churches and beautiful parks, which I can't help but photograph.

In one park was a long line of photographs as part of an art exhibition, about climate change, I think...again the french. Australia's spectacular landscape featured in some of the photos so I spent quite some time sitting on a park bench and pondering what it meant for me to be looking at photos of Oz from a park bench in Brussels.

There was also of course a totally amazing town square (the Grand Plass) where I felt totally overshadowed and overwhelmed by the history preserved in a ring of amazing buildings such as this one.

But what I enjoyed most about Brussels was the hidden and unexpected pleasures. The things that weren't in the guidebooks or on the maps and which took me by surprise. The oases at the end of alleyways. xxx

Far Far Away

2007-06-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a week away in Belgium and London. Technically it was to attend a workshop and a day of lectures but most of the time was really spent sightseeing, which I enjoyed immensely. The first few days were in a city in Belgium called Leuven, which had the most amazing town hall I think I have ever seen!

It also had a fabulous cafe culture and I think I spent almost 80% of the time I was there sitting in one cafe or another drinking the fabulous belgian beer, even one that was pink and cherry flavoured if you can believe that!

In my wanderings around the city I came across an old church that was boarded up and appeared abandoned. After photographing it from all kinds of angles I learnt that they had been working on restoring it for the last 100 years. Holy cow hey! I thought it was still really beautiful even though it was apparently a wreck.

I have to run into town to meet friends for dinner (Friday nights really are my favourite!) but I promise to post more pics from Brussels and London soon. XXX to all....

Stones to Ocean

2007-06-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend J and I were invited to join a Lithuanian couple from our Norwegian class (and their teenage son) on a trip to 'the ocean'. It was wonderful to get out of the city and to explore some of the surrounding landscape. We began by hiking out to one of their favourite spots on the rocks...

It was a really strangely rocky and barren landscape but also really really beautiful, with little villages and snow covered mountains visible off in the distance.

We settled down on a perch overlooking the water, chatted in our broken english and norwegian, watched the rock climbers and began some lunch preparations. The Norwegians are big on these things called 'one time grills'. They are basically small aluminium trays filled with heat beads and a grill cover. The idea is that you take them out to a picnic spot, have a little BBQ and then throw them away. As our Lithuanian friends (Ramundas, Auschra & Motiejus) have been in Norway for years rather than months like us, they are integrated enough to use these things. So we had a small BBQ overlooking the North Sea, which was all very lovely. Across a stretch of water from us we could see a tall rock tower. Ramundas told us that it was a viking version of a lighthouse, that they used to light a fire on top of it to help guide ships in. Of course we then had to work our way over to it to check it out!

It was a really amazing area with inlets and islands everywhere.

The tower was basically just a pile of rocks but we certainly felt the weight of history upon us as we stood beside it!

After hiking around, BBQing on the rocks and checking out Viking towers, Motiejus decided it was time to do some fishing, and what do you know, he actually caught something.

So all in all, you could say it was a truly wonderful day! XXX

Pretty Park

2007-06-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

I recently found a new park in our general neighbourhood (i.e. somewhere between our house and the city!) At first I thought it would just be a pretty place to hang out with J and the hounds, but it turns out that the place actually has historical significance. It represents one of the last preserved pieces of the original mail route between Oslo and Bergen. You can see part of the route in the back of this first photo.

It is also one of the last places in Bergen where you can find a real troll hole, as evidenced in the second photo. Okay, so I made that bit up, but you have to agree that if you were a troll, this is exactly the kind of hole you would love to live in! Trolls are a really big part of Norwegian mythology and you find them everywhere - in stories, in parks, and of course in souvenier shops. If I was a betting woman I would say that you would also find one here if you came after midnight on the first full moon of a new season. I must check sometime!

The park also had a couple of other lovely features that I have included pics of below, just to make sure you have pretty park picture overload!

I will leave you with one of 'Kurt's crazy but worth trying exercises' that I actually did on the day I went to the park and took these pics, hope you can find time to try it too sometime.

"On the day before you go on a long journey, find a small stone to bring with you. Keep the stone with you at all times during the journey. When you return home, put the stone back where you found it." xxx

But is it art?

2007-05-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

After a busy long weekend I feel like I have too many things to share in one post...so I will feed you all little pieces at a time! On Sunday I visited an exhibition from a Norwegian contemporary artist most well known for his performance art. His name is Kurt Johannessen and I have just fallen in love with some of the things he has done - lots of hippy, lets explore our relationship with nature, type stuff (see www.zeth.no but be warned that most info is in Norwegian). For example, in one piece he wandered through the mountains and read fairytales to stones. In another he stood waist deep in a river at dusk and slowly moved his hands above the water until it became dark. He also does things with the dust from vacuum cleaner bags and lots of other crazy stuff, but of course it is his treehugger work I love best. In one of his books I bought from the exhibition, he gives a range of less typical exercises that we should all try. I am going to try and share some of them with you over time and will refer to them as 'Kurt's crazy, but worth trying, exercises'....so the one for today is..."Turn suddenly into a wolf"

I am posting 2 pics here from one of his pieces in the gallery that I thought was just fantastic. It was a small corridor covered in mirrors on both sides. If you look closely you can see that one mirror reflected the line 'Everything is the same, it just looks different', while the mirror on the other side reflected the line 'Everything is different, it just looks the same'. And of the course the mirrors on each side of the corridor reflected these lines over and over for as far as you could see. Just fantastic! What I want to know is, what does this mean to you?

Off to see if I can turn suddenly into a wolf...xxx til i start howling...

17th of May

2007-05-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

The 17th of May is Norway's National Day. To help us understand exactly what this means, my project manager at the Uni kindly offered to let J and I tag along with his family to get the full experience. The day began with breakfast at his house - lots of salmon, scrambled eggs and a 'brown' cheese that tastes exactly like caramel. From there we went and watched the big parade in town - lots of marching bands and waving children, the standard parade fare really. Then we had lunch at a sushi restaurant, not at all traditional but dang fantastic food anyway! The afternoon saw us visit the local school, where Roger's daughter played the national anthem with her band. Then we toured the neighbourhood trailing the end of the small local parade. J was even seen waving to onlookers on one occasion - he is really integrating! Finally we had to eat icecream because apparently on the 17th of May Norwegian children are allowed to eat as much icecream as they like - a fabulous tradition I think! The best and most interesting thing about the day for me though was the fact that almost everyone wears 'bugnad' or national costume. They are absolutely gorgeous with lots of embroidery and silver jewellery. They are usually made by hand and there are lots of subtle differences between the outfits from different areas of Norway. They were absolutely gorgeous so I took a few pics of complete strangers just to show you all how wonderful they were! Lots of XXXXs...

The ladies....

The boys...

Old meets new...

Watching the band at the local event...

Springtime in Bergen

2007-05-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally arrived and the city of Bergen looks simply splendid! There are tuilps and blossoms adding splashes of colour everywhere. Maybe photos of flowers are a little cliche but I simply could not resist showing you how pretty the city is looking! J and I have been busy working in our little garden too - cutting up old dead trees, pulling weeds, planting herbs in pots and preparing a veggie patch. Very exiciting! We have also begun a project of painting the outside of the house, just to keep things looking fresh. The landlord has agreed to pay J for some of this work, which is great - his first paid job in Norway!

We have a short week this week because the 17th of May is the National Day of Norway, and hence, a holiday. Apparently we can expect people dressed in national costume, parades through the streets, drumming competitions, lots of alcohol and plenty of sausages. Sounds a little unusual so I will be sure to post with pics after the event, when I am sure the city will look a lot less civilised than it does in these lovely spring shots! Xxxx