Adventures

This last weekend was the final weekend of semester. Despite having an exam on Wednesday and 2 papers it was definitely the most eventful weekend of the semester. A professor notified us on Friday afternoon that the stave church at Heddal was holding a mass that night... So Josie, Kim, and I set out to see the largest Stave Church in Norway.

There are 30 Stave Churches left in Norway, all from Viking times. This one was built in 1256!

On Saturday Anjuli, Kelsey, Josie, Kim, Elina and I hiked up to the top of Gygrestolen, a prominent rock outcropping that can be seen from most places in the valley. Gygrestolen is local dialect for 'The Trolls Chair'.

From atop Gygrestolen... there were some climbers below.

The group perched above the valley. Lifjell still has snow!

Kim felt like climbing a tree.

Down hike.

Gygrestolen is the rocky apex behind the trees.

Finally, on Sunday Erik took Chelsea and I to Årmotsdalen and a waterfall that he stumbled upon.

Chelsea was scared and excited with the loudness and power of the water.

Erik and Chelsea

Chelsea, myself and some powerful water.

After we got back from Årmotsdalen it started to rain. It was the first good rain of the spring and I had to venture out into it to take some pictures. Norwegians use the adjective 'trolsk' to describe things that look suspicious or momentarily beautiful in the landscape. This night definitely had some trollish scenery...

Looking out over Breisås studentheim.

Clouds to the left, mountain silhouette to the right.

Trolsk Vær... Trollish weather

The valley towards Seljord.

Bouldering

As I was walking home from school yesterday an acquaintance rode up along side me with a crash pad strapped to his back. I had previously met Morten on a ski day up at Lifjell and now he was looking for a bouldering spot up in the Breisås woods. The sun had been out all day and I had been looking for an excuse to hang out outside so I asked if I could join.

The first thing that we heard was the buzzing of at least 100 bumble bees which had aptly placed themselves underneath the rock wall.

Planning the route...                          ...and then going after it

Blue skies, buzzing bees, and an afternoon spent bouldering.

Couldn't figure out the move to get past this point. We will call it the 'crux' of this 6+.

Happy Hounds

There is not a doubt in my mind that Norwegian dogs are the happiest hounds in the world. Rain or shine, blizzard or blowing snow: Norwegians make sure that their doggies get their fresh air. Fresh air is after all the Norwegian cure-all.
All joking aside though, dogs come everywhere. Ski trips, hiking trips, partying. And they are definitely happier for it. For example, every morning for the last week I have walked through the school parking lot and found a car with its trunk open and two dogs leased to it, just laying in the grass enjoying the passersby.
All of this makes me feel guilty... and needless to say I will be taking my dog on walks and tours much more often!

I don't know their names, but these two friendlies greet me every morning that I come to school

The two dogs asleep in the grass behind their owners car and the schhool.

Chelsea battling with Aleks.

Chelsea wins.

Griseryggen

Translated into english Griseryggen means "the pig back".
I saw Johan at school on Thursday and he asked me if I'd be up for a hike during the upcoming weekend. I answered in the affirmative and didn't think much of it. I woke up to a text from Johan at 8:15am on Sunday morning asking again if I was up for a tour. I had some matè and then replied that I was. I filled up the camelbak, laced up the new hiking boots, and met Emil and Johan in the parking lot aka right outside my front door around noon. 2 hrs up Griseryggen and then 2 hrs down on the lakes trail brought us through at least 4 different types of ecosystems which were just coming to life after a nice long winter.

The DNT (Norwegian Tourist Association) keeps trails marked quite well.

I haven't mastered the art of photography yet and the cloudy skies didn't help, but you can see that there is still decent snow cover on Lifjell on the 2nd of May.

 

Emil found a moose shoulder bone laying in the brush...

I found a Moose antler on the way up!

The antler on top of my camelbak: 5 points!

L to R: Johan, myself and Emil

Johan and Emil disappearing into the trail.

An adventure, to say the least

A couple of friends and I decided about a month ago to set out and see Europe. Anjuli had friends in Bologna, Italy and Vien, Austria so those were natural stops. We also tacked on Duesseldorf, Germany for ease of traveling to and from Oslo. Needless to say, when we set out we never anticipated the Icelandic Volcanoes disruption.

We spent a couple of days in Venice. On both days we were greeted with gorgeous weather. Here, Anjuli and Kelsey chat while waiting for ferry boats that act much like a bus service.

We decided to be classy and ate dinner out on the boardwalk just after the sunset.

A shot of one of Venices busiest tourist areas from one of the 3 bridges that crosses the Grand Canal.

The weather wasnt as nice in Bologna, however there was a break in the clouds while we were on top of the tallest tower there. On top of the hill in the background is The Virgin of San Lucas Sanctuary.

My travel companions checking out the miniature of the Vienna Cathedral (while standig right next to it.)

A pigeon on the toe of one of the stone wrestlers just outside the royal grounds in Vienna.

Sylvia was a terrific guide in Vien, where she is currently studying. She took us all around the city, including the famous Naschmarkt, a huge street market with lots of different vendors.

Kelsey wanted to check out some of the many famous composers who were buried in Vien. Within feet of eachother were Beethoven, Brahms and Strauss.

We decided not to stay in Duesseldorf but rather in Cologne. Sylvia and Kelsey smiling, while Anjuli gets creative.

The group: Sylvia, Kelsey, Anjuli and I resting at the Bonn train station... trying to figure out how exactly we were getting home.

We were fortunate enough to have met a super friendly couch surfer in Cologne who offered up her pad to us for another night while we got our situation figured out. With some help, we located a carpooler who was traveling to Hamburg on Sunday. Unfortunately, upon his arrival he told us he only had 2 seats. So, I hopped on the train and met the girls in Hamburg. We diligently went to the bus station where thanks to Anjuli we explored a couple different options. We found a bus leaving Hamburg at 9:30pm getting into Copenhagen at 2:30am. We took it without pause. Kelsey worked some magic and when we got to Copenhagen we took a taxi to Kelseys friends place where we crashed for the evening. When we woke up, Kelsey and her friend had found a bus for us from Copenhagen to Oslo! 9 hours later we arrived in Oslo in time to catch the late train home to Bø.

Påskeferie - Easter Break

Well, the Norwegians sure take their easter breaks seriously. I am pretty sure that of the 200 students that live in the Breisås student homes there were maybe 20 left over break, and 15 of them were international students. Thankfully a couple of my Norwegian roommates stuck around to study, make some meals, and relax.

The entrance to the Breisås Woods. Ski trail in the winter and absolutely perfect running trail in the non wintery months.

 

To say that I was excited to see greenery after such a long winter was an understatement! This moss covers the forest floor like nothing I have seen before.

 

Another shot from the Breisås Woods.

Winter... trying to hold on.

The camera captured a nice little spill... It turns out ice is slippery, and cold.

Something I never thought that I would eat: whale meat.

The perfect Norwegian Easter dinner? Whale, potatoes, veggies and some milk!

Before Easter

Time has really cruised right by the last couple of weeks.
The culmination of my Friluftsliv class was a 2 day excursion to Rauland ski area with a night spent at the Telemark University in Rauland. As always with Friluftsliv, very interesting things were learned and talked about.

Norway is filled with thousands of small huts or cabins that have this general appearance. Most have grass roofs and some, such as this one, even have pine trees on their roofs.

I have recently been finding out that Norwegians really enjoy riding their bicycles when the roads are passable. Unfortunately it looks like this rider will be snowed in for a while to come...

An outlook from our lodging at the University in Rauland. Kind of reminds me of Wisconsin's north woods. 

(Minus the mountains in the background of course)

Another picture of the grass on the roof. I haven't gotten to speak with anyone about their pro's and con's yet, but it is evident from the regular shingled houses that I have seen that some sort of greenery (i.e. moss or lichen) will grow on your roof, whether you want it to or not.

The fruit of our wandering around the Rauland campus building late at night: Josie plays the keyboard as Kim watches and Kelsey reads up on the fascinating courses you can take at Rauland including "Cooking with Hot Dogs".

After a good couple of days at Rauland, it was off to Rjukan and then Gaustablikk for my first Hyttetur (Cabin trip). Tone, my friluftsliv intructor, has raised my expectation level for a classic hytte, and this was definitely not a classic hytte, it was an absolutely beautiful second home hytte. Tone's definition of a hytte is a building which is not accessible by car and typically must be walked or skied to for at least a half of an hour. On top of this requirement, the hytte should not have electricity, running water, and least of all a television.

Gaustatoppen is up to the left, covered as always in a layer of clouds. Rjukan is in the valley in the back right hand corner.

As I said, our hytte was definitely outfitted. I don't think we were missing a single household appliance and this includes a waffle iron as well as the all important sauna. I have really started to learn that all of those stereotypes that people assign to Norwegians- they are all true. Norwegians love waffles, coffee, sauna's, kviklunsj (a chocolate bar like a kitkat), making fun of the danish, and of course skiing.

Eating waffles with Lise, Ingunn, Ellen, Ulrik, and Andre and playing Geni with Andre and Ulrik. I do NOT recommend sour cheese on waffles with your brown cheese and jam. I do however highly recommend the more common concoction of waffle, brown cheese, and jam!

The same valley as above, only a day later and shrouded in cloud.

With spring time comes spring skiing. The Bø freeride club sets up an annual competition which comprises of three separate races on three different mountains on three different tuesdays. This last Tuesday the 23 was the final race. We hiked up Glekse, approximately 1.5 hours I would guess, and proceeded to ski down as fast as we could. The winner came in a little under 3 mins, myself in 4th at 3:09.

Daniel, trying to model with his one piece suit and 4FRNT VCT's.

The top of Glekse is just up to the right. This picture shows just how beautiful and windblown it really is up top.

Most of the fjellracecup participants nearing the top of Glekse Fjell.