Mountain Adventures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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...