It's getting cold !

Yippie! Well, I can read and hear it everywhere ... people are complaining about the temperatures dropping and fall coming. Recently the weather wasn't so bad - we had a few sunny days with blue sky and the trees showing fall colors - it was so beautiful but of course it was during the week so I sat inside and worked. I have to admit that I really like the cold and extremely fresh air, the ice cold wind when biking downhill in the morning and I even don't have to sweat when biking uphill. In addition, it is getting darker and darker - I almost cannot wait for the first snow!

Question

How do you recognize a German in a grocery shop?

Hardangerfjord

Just some impressions of the Hardangerfjord in the evening:

Hardangervidda II

As promised for a long time: pictures from a hike to the Hardangerjøkulen. My mum and I tried to reach the glacier while hiking an unmarked trail along a river but unfortunately we missed the trail at the beginning so we lost quite some time and energy and couldn't make it all the way up to the glacier. Nevertheless, the hike was great and the Hardangervidda is such a fantastic place as you can see here:


This picture was taken shortly after we parked out car.


Soon we reached the river we were supposed to follow for the rest of the hike but we had to cross it first (fortunately there was a small dam ). After crossing the river we didn't find the trail so since we were supposed to follow the river, we tried to stay as close to it as possible. First we had to fight the bushes:




This picture taken by my mum shows it better ;).


Then it became more a climbing tour because the border of the river turned out to be very steep.


Finally, we found the trail and very soon we got a better view of the glacer.




We also met those guys.


And continued on the trail.




Further up...


...and up.


And this one is to show that I was really there ;)

Actually...

... I planned to put in more pictures but I am so extremely tired and hungry and desperate for a shower when I come home. In addition I have these stupid thermodynamics equations in my head (you don't really have to understand what I am talking about since I don't even understand it myself;)). It all started because my crazy Russian supervisor decided to organize a workshop as kind of birthday party for a guy working at ETH in Zürich and that guy wrote a program to calculate phase diagrams, pseudosections etc. (for non geoscientist - ignore). So we (mostly the PhD students) were supposed to do some projects in order to understand what he is dealing with and also because we want to have solutions ourselves - to cut a long story short we just didn't have enough time so it was thermodynamics all day for one week. The workshop at least is done and was quite helpful but unfortunately our solutions are not done yet so I guess we have to work more on this project.
Anyway - tired- bed - night ;)

Odysseye

You probably think that doing the laundry is a pretty easy job. And it actually should be - just sorting the clothes putting them into the washing machine, add some washing powder and choose the appropriate progam ;) Well, this part is the easiest here in the student dorms (I don't have my own washing machine and drier so I have to go to these laundry facilities they offer here in some of the buildings). Since during the week I come home so late that I cannot run the machine and the drier (the rooms close at 11 pm), I have to do it on the weekends and unfortunately almost all other people seem to do that, too. So on Sunday I move my stuff to the closest laundry room, put my clothes into the machine, add some detergent, put in the washing card and want to start the machine but it refuses to start since suddenly there is not enough time for the machine to run because there is a reservation of exactly this machine. It could not tell me before .. NO! Ok, so I am looking for another free washing machine - three are busy and the other two are out of order so I have to go to another laundry room (before I try to get out most of the washing powder because I didn't want to leave it there). In the other room I finally succeed to get in my laundry so I come back and am happy that there is one free dryer - so I put in all my clothes and then realize that the door is not closing. Well, all clothes out again and to the other laundry room to put the laundry in the dryer there. The same thing is done with a second load of clothes and when I start the second dryer the machine claims to be busy since I stopped it too early so I put in the wet clothes and let it run for some more time (it does that without paying again) and tried to start the machine later ... that worked.

Nice weather...

... and I cannot walk (not to talk about hike, bike, jump, climb). Well, everybody is telling me that soccer is bad ;) Sure but it is fun to play and this was the first time in a very long time that I actually got some injury. I guess, it will be fine in two or three days. Anyway since I didn't feel like working all Saturday (Friday, I stopped working on our actual project around 0.15) I was just doing some random reading an stumbled upon this (found here):

Your Score: Linear B

You scored

You are Linear B. Even those who can follow you think you're all Greek to them. Which, after all, is true - Linear B being the first known text for written Greek. To most people, you're incomprehensible. But what do you care? You're tough, hard, long-enduring and have greater nobility than most. Naturally, you don't admit to borrowing extensively from your brother Linear A.

Now I wonder...is that really me?
And I don't get this picture in the right format - annoying!

Since...

... I am home earlier than expected - twisted my ankle while playing soccer, I have now enough time to answer Alkes questions:

1. Wenn Du fortan als Person in einem Buch leben müsstest, welche wäre das?
If from now on you would have to live as a person from a book, which one would that be?

That would probably be Miss Marple, that somewhat nosy, old lady who has so much spare time to solve all the murder cases in her surroundings. Well, ok she is quite old and sometimes annoys people but I always liked that character created by Agatha Christie.

2. Welches Buch hast Du zuletzt gelesen?
Which was the last book you read?

A German crime story (did I say that I like crime stories ;))called "Uferwald" by Ulrich Ritzel. The main point why I am reading the books written by this author is, because his stories always play in Ulm or close to Ulm and since I was born there and know many localities it is just very cool to have a picture of the places in your mind. In addition the plots are very complicated and I think he is a good writer - quite thrilling.

3. Welche große Erfindung könnte von dir stammen, wenn sie nicht schon erfunden wäre?
Which invention could have been yours, if it wouldn't exist already?

If music counts as an invention than I would keep to that. With music you can move people, you can express any mood, you can connect people. Otherwise I would probably want to invent paper - what would any civilization be without books?

4. Welche 5 Vorteile und 5 Nachteile hat Norwegen, verglichen mit Alaska?
Which 5 advantages and disadvantages has Norway in comparison to Alaska?

That was actually not so easy because I always compared Alaska with Germany, and Norway with Germany ;).
Advantages:
1. Norwegian is such a cute language , it sound so nice (even bad words), English (or better Alaskan American) can not compete with that.
2. AK is (although so far away) still part of the USA so all that visa stuff is quite annoying if you want to stay longer. In Norway you have to go through the effort get your social security number but once you have that you can stay quite long in the country at least as European.
3. Norway is closer to Germany.
4. There is a quite good structure of hiking, biking and skiing trails in many regions of Norway. In Alaska, there are a few marked hiking trails but otherwise it is much harder to find paths to walk on without having to cross huge rivers.
5. Not everybody in Norway has to have a huge pickup and drive even the few meters to the post box. People are still more active.
Disadvantages
1. There is less wildlife to be seen in Norway. I know that animals are supposed to be around but they are not showing themselves that often. It is much easier to get wildlife in front of the camera in AK.
2. Norway is not as cold as AK.
3. Some nice regions are not accessible because people have their properties there. In Alaksa the great places are so far away from any shop and infrastructure that there are basically no humans living there.
4. Which is a little bit connected to 3: in Norway, you have to pay for almost everything - so if you want to see a nice waterfall, you have to pay for the parking lot and of course for every stave church you have to pay. In addition, you have to pay for the roads. In AK at least nature and roads are for free.
5. Norway is more expensive.

5. Was hast Du zuletzt so richtig schönes beobachtet, dass Du schmunzeln/grinsen/lachen musstest?
What have you recently seen which was really beautiful that you have to smile/laugh?

Tromsø seen from the top of the mountain.

So if anybody wants: write "interview please" and you will get 5 questions asked by me ;)

Sometimes...

... I really wonder why a toddler who is still capable of screaming for half an hour during the day (so estimated age 2?)is AWAKE at 1 o'clock in the morning. I can hear the kid talking, jumping, running as well as the parents talking back and they are in the apparment above me. Well, I thought I could stay here for a little while but since people living here are regardless of other's people privacy and are not only loud all day (which is not affecting me since I am not there most of the time) but also almost all of the night (very strange that I want to sleep at 1 am when I am working 9 hours a day)I'll have to find a new place quite soon. I thought I could have at least a little bit of peace. Damn!

Vøringfoss

Is 145 meter high and the 4th highest waterfall in Norway (if I remember that right).
In addition it is one of the most visited - no wonder since it is easy reachable from the main road all these bus tourist go there ;)
It is also interesting to walk up the old road coming from Eidfjord.

By the way...

... thanks to the very funny person trying to annoy me with stupid search requests ;)
And I am neither famous nor very famous! The funniest thing was the dishwasher and dryer part what has that to do with me? You probably don't know what else you should do on a Sunday afternoon?

Map

It seems that many people are interested in hikes around Oslo so I decided to add a map with the hikes I did:



Hike number 1 (in red) is quite short and pictures can be seen here.
It first follows the trail along Sognsvann, then takes a hiking trail (blue marker) in the direction of Ullevalseter but I turned around before and on the way back took a broader trail which is also nice for bikers.

Hike number 2 (in green) follows the same trail this time all the way to Ullevalseter and then follows a more Western trail until one reaches Sognsvann again. For pictures see here.

Number 3 (dark blue) also starts like the other two but then crosses the river and takes the old Nordmarks trail (for a short while) until it goes back to Maridalsvannet and from there back to Sognsvann. Pictures.

Tromsø III

The last day in Tromsø was free of conferences for me so I could go up to the mountain Storsteinen which is about 420 meters high. There is a cable car leading up (the nothernmost cable car in the world) but I decided that I want to hike up. The trail was very nice but a little bit strange - it lead almost half around the mountain until it went straight up (a slightly more gradual slope would have been nicer). The trail was quite muddy and slippery since it had rained before so I decided to go down by cable car. Above the tree line there were still blueberries everywhere and I couldn't resist to pick them ;) In addition it is just very nice to sit there (in the sun) and look at Tromsø and the ocean.

Tromsø II

During these conferences not every talk is really interesting so there is usually time to sneak out and walk around a bit like I did on Wednesday walking over the bridge connecting Tromsø with the main land:



This is the Arctic Sea cathedral which is quite famous - the sun is not a reflection but shining through the windows there:



And this is the view to the other side:

Tromsø I

Luckily I decided to fly on Sunday afternoon to Tromsø so I had some time to explore the city and surroundings before the conference started on Monday. From the airplane one has a spectacular view on the mountains and I also took some pictures but the window was quite dirty so I will not upload any. But these are nice enough (taken at the Southern peak of the island where the main part of Tromsø is located):







And the climate is even so mild that they have palm trees there which is called the Tromsø palm tree ;)(called acanthus - Riesenbärenklau):

Back again

I just wanted to say that I am back from one of the most beautiful places in the world (at least to my taste). Since I decided that 3 days of exhausting conference would be enough, I didn't join the field trip (I am pretty sure there will be other chances to go to the west coast and see the rocks). But except for being strenuous, the conference was extremely interesting and helpful in many ways. I met so many great people which are always willing to help with data, advice, references and discussions - almost everybody is so friendly and I felt so much accepted as a scientist although I just started and was unexperienced. Some people there had children in my age but I didn't feel the difference in age at all. Funnily enough I also met Bernie from Alaska. I once took one of his courses in geophysics and he still remembered me - telling people that he tried to convince me to quit geology because I was too good (that is Bernie always making jokes). Anyway I was quite surprised that he really remembered me and then somebody said that Bernie always remembers people ;)
Well I will not bore you with all the science but I can say that Arctic Research rocks and I am so glad that I have the chance to take part in all these activities going on.
By the way: the next International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM) will be in Fairbanks (huuuuuuraaaaaaaaay). Well it might be in 3 to 4 years but that fits almost perfectly with the end of my PhD - beginning of a Post Doc, we will see.
And Tromsø is such a perfect place. The city itself is not so thrilling but the surrounding are just amazing I will have to put in more pictures soon but just one appetizer:

gone for short

Tomorrow I will fly to the place I dreamed about for such a long time: Tromsø.
It will only be for a 3 day conference but I managed to fly a little bit earlier and leave a bit later than the actual duration of the conference so I hope that I will have the chance to get at least an impression of the city and its surroundings. Right after I might be on a field trip at the West coast but that is very unsure at the moment - so I'll be back 12th of September at the latest and hopefully bring back wonderful pictures.
So long!

Hardangervidda I

The Hardangervidda is the largest mountain plateau in Europe. The highest point on the plateau is at the top of the Hardangerjøkulen glacier, which reaches a height of 1,863 m. The height of the Hardangervidda only allows a quite cold, alpine climate which enables the presence of arctic species like the arctic fox and the snowy owl. Wild reindeers are also found in that region.
In other words: just wonderful!









And this is just the first part when we were driving through - the second part will show pictures when we were hiking there ;)