Tuesday, June 26, 2007

My own place

Unfortunately, there are no new pictures since there was no hike on the weekend. It was planned but the rain was so heavy most of the time that it was not really a good idea to walk on slippery rocks.
But I moved to a studio: so now I have my own kitchen with my own fridge and freezer! I am still living in the same building I used to live before but now on the 7th floor (instead of the ground floor) and I have a nice view on the hills around. In addition I have also a balcony where I can sit and watch all the soccer games below me ;) (there is a huge sport area next to the dorms). I chose this place because it was completely furnished and for the start this is good until I can save enough to buy my own furniture and maybe move to an appartment (we will see...;). There is a lot of space here but the only problem is the couchbed which is quite small (I know I am too but for some reason I need a lot of space when I sleep) - maybe I'll buy at least a bed soon.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Hiking in the Norefjell - Augunshaug - Høgevarde

Next weekend - next hike ;). This time we were 4 so the car was full. It is nice to go with more people but on the other hand it takes time to get everybody together and it was much harder to leave early since the guys had forgotten to buy food and Marcus was hungry all the time ;) We didn't make it to the top of the Høgevarde which is 1459 meters high but we had a great time and this is most important.
In winter, the Norefjell is a ski resort and there were many huts and ski lifts at the beginning of the hike. Quite soon we were above the treeline and left the ski area behind. The area looked quite alpine with some remnants of snow:



The rocks there are great and soon all of us began to collect whatever seemed interesting (quartz in many color variations, amphibolites, epidot-rich rocks ...).
Soon, it was time for the first break:



Luiza Evgenyi (with the orange hat) Marcus

Then we came closer to the snow fields:



You can easily see the orange hat further up. Marcus in front looks like he doesn't really want to go further ;)
As expected the view was fanstastic:





And of course we had to play around in the snow ;) First, we took a group picture:



Then we became less serious:



and....



I probably don't have to mention that Genyia hat wet knees and a wet butt afterwards and that snow was falling of his hat and backpack ;)
After this fun we continued and saw the goal for the day (which was not reached):



The pyramid-like mounain in the back is actually the Høgevarde.



There was a quite strong wind in the region:



At a certain point we realized that we wouldn't make it to the top since it was quite late so we turned around. One of the last impressions:



On the way back I stopped for a few sunset pictures:



Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Hike around the Bletoppen

Finally I found some people to hike with me, so Sunday 3 of us went to a hike close to the Bletoppen. Originally we wanted to hike to the top but we left too late from Oslo since the drive is already two hours. It was a very nice day and instead of going on top we had a longer lunch break and enjoyed the sund (which is much nicer at that altitude since there is lots of wind ;)).
As usual in Norway, there were not only mountains/hills but also many lakes. And the hike started at one:



Quite soon the trail went uphill and we had some fantastic views on the lakes in the region:



Further up we reached the treeline and a more alpine region which looked like this:





The trail followed a steam with small waterfalls and still some snow:



We didn't completely reach the top but a good hight to see the mountains around:



There was also a hut in between the lakes:



Another impression:



There is still some snow on the highest mountain on the other side:



Lakes from above:



And another nice lake:





On the way back I had a flat tire - I slightly hit the border of a roundabout and BOOm - huge hole in the tire. Well, we changed it quite fast but now I have to find a place where I can get a spare for a decent price.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Andersnatten

Last Sunday I finally succeeded in trying out a hike described in the book. Since I started after noon I needed a shorter hike and a reasonable drive which was given by this very nice hike to the top of the Andersnatten. This granite coloss is 733m high and from the top you really have a nice view. The mountain got its name after a giant called Anders who was skiing with a child on his back across the Eastern side and left two tacks which actually are two huge veins.
The hiking trail started at a small lake called Andersnattjørnet:



Soon the trail started to go uphill and sometimes it was hard to find it in all the vegetation:



Further above a nice view on the lake was revealed:



Then I saw the proof that there are actually some moose running around in Norway - although these are only leftovers:



Still further up the trail looked like this:



As soon as rock predominated the surrounding, the vegetation became more sparse with individual pine trees:



On top, there was a fanstastic view:





Andersnatten and the lake in its full beauty:



And seem from a distance at the end of a quite large lake:



On the way back I decided to stop by an old church from the 17th century and there was a small road going there. Behind me there was a Skoda with a Norwegian licence plate going quite fast - since I didn't know the road that well and it was quite curvy I thought about letting him pass but there was no place to stop. At the church I parked and the guy passed by, stopped, drove back and parked right next to me. Then he indicated me to roll down the window and I though now I have to explain that I don't speak Norwegian and the first thing he said was: " Wo kommst du denn her?" and I thought I maybe know the guy but I didn't recognize his face nor his son sitting next to him. I would have loved to see my face. Well, it turned out that there is a small German community living close to this church and so he thought he might know me because of the German licence plate. He then invited me for coffee to his place and after looking at the church I drove there. Huge house on a really nice and huge lake - wonderful!
So here the church:

The faces of the Nowegian moose

Alke recently made a list of search requests. This is a nice idea so I copy just this one;). Not many people found my blog via google but the first one was looking for:
The Faces of the norwegian moose - ok let's not talk about which words should be capitalzed and which not ;) but let's think about the faces of the moose. Unfortunately I didn't see a Norwegian moose yet but those in AK look like this:



So should there be a difference between the moose in AK and Norway I don't know about?

And I would advice the person who is desperately trying to find out if he/she should change money before going to Oslo (should I change money before going to Oslo and do I need to change money before I come to Oslo) to at least change a little bit (most things can be payed with cards but sometimes they don't work which happend to me several times).

Then there was someone trying to find "Phd in Oslo" - you get thousands of pages then so I wonder how the person found my blog (so if you were specifically trying to find this blog try the faces of the Norwegian moose ;))

Catching up

Friday finally - so now I am actually capable of catching up on this week ;)
Sunday I was on a really nice hike and pictures and a funny story will be put into another post. Monday we flew to Trondheim for a meeting - never did that before. Just flying to a place in the morning and coming back in the evening. It is actually cool when you don't have to check in any lugage and can pass right through to the gate (well one still has to survive these stupid safety procedures (I always feel like a felon having comitted a serious crime). The train to the airport was full of fat and loud tourists from Italy and GB (the first ones overweight and the seconds ones unbearable loud) - next time I will buy a Norwegian paper and demonstratively read that so that everybody knows that I am not a stupid tourist ;) Unfortunately I didn't see much of Trondheim itself because the meeting was out of town but we went downtown for a coffee before and some food after our conference. The city itself is not soooo thrilling but the region seems to be quite nice (I guess it is worth a longer trip). Anyway - just one picture of Trondheim which is kind of typical since it has these canals:



One thing I should really mention: it is way too hot here (I was hoping moving more than 2000 km north would result in a somewhat cooler climate but NOOOOOO!). I want winter! It was also quite hot on Monday but on the way back we could join Yuri in his BMW cabrio: 40 minutes of wind that was so nice (ok my hair was completely matted but who cares ;))!
And about the milk story - Samo (the guy who mistakenly took the carton) bought me a full one although I told him several times that he doesn't have to (nice guy ).

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Add on

I attached a note to the fridge saying that it is not very nice to take my things ... in the evening Samo knocked at my door and said that he thought it was his milk and he was really embarassed - I told him that he shouldn't worry since I thought that somebody took it intentionally knowing that it was not his/hers ...since it was a mistake everything is quite fine - I think he was not convinced ;)

How could I forget...

...that student dorms are the same everywhere in this world. Without any bad thoughts I am going to the fridge this morning (ok it was noon but I just got up ;))to get the milk for my cereal and my tea and this milk (which I put in there the day before) is gone. There is a carton of milk at a different spot but almost empty and I was sure that the pack I had was at least half full. So the breakfast today was bread (luckily I still had some) and my tea was wihtout milk since my plan was not to buy groceries on Saturday (I hate shopping no matter what!).

We konnte ich nur vergessen, dass Wohnheime überall auf der Welt gleich sind. Heute morgen (ok es war Mittag aber ich bin da erst aufgestanden ;)) wollte ich nichtsahnend die Milch für mein Müsli und den Tee aus dem Kühlschrank holen und ebendiese ist nicht mehr da (obwohl ich sie am Tag zuvor in den Kühlschrank gestellt hatte). Es gab zwar eine Milchpackung aber an einem völlig anderen Ort und ausserdem so gut wie leer und meine war auf jeden Fall noch halb voll. Das Frühstück heute bestand dann eben aus Brot (ja da war ein Fehler drin es hieß vorher Bort)(das ich glücklicherweise noch da hatte) und meinen Tee trank ich ohne Milch, da ich nicht geplant hatte am Samstag Lebensmittel einkaufen zu gehen (ich hasse einkaufen jeglicher Art!).

Friday, June 1, 2007

YES!

Today I got a cheque with the salary for May. Ok, they take 50% taxes but I will get some of it back when the other things are arranged.
Since it was rainy and windy today, I decided to take the T-bane to go to work and I met an African guy at the stop who first asked me in Norwegian then English when the next T-bane is coming. Since I spoke English he wanted to know where I come from and when I told him, Germany he wanted to know if Western or Eastern Germany. Funnily he didn't meet anybody in Norway who comes from Eastern Germany and he was wondering why (does anybody know ? I also only met Westerners). Well, we started to talk about the reunification and differences between Western and Eastern Germans and we finally ended up philosophizing about communism, capitalism and Karl Marx. Funny!