Norge: Round I, Part II

After spending the night in Lofthus, we were bound for Bergen, Norway's second largest city, with a pit-stop in Voss. Voss is apparently the extreme sports capital of Norway, although I have to say, I'm not entirely sure why. It's a cute enough town, but I failed to see anything particularly extreme about it. I probably wasn't looking in the right places.

You can't call yourself a town without a church.

It also boasts a lovely lake. Great place for lunch.

We went for a quick jaunt in the woods above the town. Nothing spectacular, but a much needed stretch of the legs after a lot of time spent in the car. Continuing on to Bergen was uneventful- just a lot of tunnels. But what else is new.
Bergen is a cute, if not terribly exciting city. Bryggen, the old wharf area, is quite cool though. It's a UNESCO site, since it is rather historically significant. It was an old Hanseatic kontoret, though none of the current buildings are original, due to many fires. Bergen was already an important port city well before the arrival of the Hanseatic League. In its heyday, Bryggen was where the German merchants lived and did business, and the Germanic influence is very visible in the architecture of these buildings. Interestingly, they really were not at all integrated into the Norwegian society; on the contrary, they were essentially segregated from it.

Colorful and rickety are the best adjectives to describe Bryggen.

A statue honoring the dried herring- source of Bergen's ancient power.

The next day we headed out of the city and up to Flåm, making a minor detour up part of the Nærøyfjord, another UNESCO site. It's name literally means "narrow fjord", so it should come as no surprise that this fjord is indeed quite narrow- only 500m wide in some places. And it's beautiful.

I could live here. Happily.

Artsy dew shots.

Flåm is a pretty tiny village- about 400 residents- on an arm of the Sognefjord, Norway's largest fjord, and the third longest in the world. But it's estimated about a million tourists come through every year, mostly on cruise ships. And it's easy to see why. 

The Flåmbana. The steepest non-cog railway in something or other. Norway?
 Northern Europe? The world? I can't remember.

Kjossfossen.

But we'll come back to Flåm. 
A ways down the valley is the larger village of Aurland. And part of Norway's National Turistrut begins in here, winding its way up to another high plateau. And on the way up is the Stegastein overlook. I first heard about it on an architecture blog, and was very excited to see it in person.

It did not disappoint.

Nor did the view.

The road over this particular plateau is call the snow road. Before the Lærdal tunnel (clocking in at 24.5km long, making it the longest road tunnel in the world) was built, this was the main route between Lærdal and Aurland. Since tunnels are mind-boggling boring (if you seen one, you've seen them all), we opted for this route. And it was an excellent choice.

Most excellent.

More rock piles.

The plateaus are wonderfully barren.

Norge: Round I, Part I

I've spent a lot of time in Norway recently- almost two weeks out of the past month to be exact. And I've determined that I really like it there. What it lacks in affordable anything it more than makes up for in stunning scenery and very nice people. And it has been wonderful to get out of the city. As much as I love Copenhagen, there's something about living in a city that really gets me down. Sometimes I just need to recharge with trees and mountains and fresh air.
I will now attempt to recap my travels, beginning at the beginning. At the start of September, my wonderful parents came to visit. We explored Copenhagen, and I got to do all the touristy things I've wanted to do, but would have felt stupid doing alone. I will write about that later. We also toured around southern and central Norway, and it was excellent. 

Here is the fearless pair. Sorry guys, you had to make an appearance.

Our week-long jaunt began in Oslo. It's not the most scenic or exciting city, but there are some cool museums. And as I wrote many years ago, the opera house is a great building. We went to the Viking ship museum, because, well, how could we not? We also checked out the Fram museum, which is about polar exploration- very interesting. The harbor ferry to these museums was quite scenic. And we checked out the opera house at night, which was very nice to see. I enjoyed the lighting.

Not bad.

The opera house by night.

Bright and early the next day, we headed north to the tiny fjord-side town of Lofthus. On the way, we saw a stave church in Torpo. I think stave churches are amazing, so I was very excited. They're really cool buildings.

Stave churches are very tall and narrow.

And have very detailed carvings.

Even the door hardware is kind of ornate.

Our drive also took us over one of Norway's high plateaus. They are beautiful landscapes, and very unusual looking. I was jealous of all the people who own cabins scattered across it. It seems like a gorgeous, if somewhat lonely place to live.

There are lots of lakes up there.

And building rock piles is apparently the thing to do.

So I built one.

My first fjord!

Lofthus is located on an arm of the Hardanger fjord, almost on a parallel with Bergen. Apparently a lot of fruit is grown in this area, particularly apples, so we got to sample some local apple juice. Very delicious. Unfortunately it seems cider isn't really a thing in Europe, so we didn't get any Norwegian cider. Bummer.

The view from the pool. I could get used to this lifestyle...

It also needs to be noted that the toilet in our room had a massaging seat, and multiple
settings.  It made me nervous.

Yarn Bombing: Norwegian Style

Norway is well known for its knitwear. Cozy and highly detailed sweaters from manufacturers like Dale of Norway have given us high expectations for the quality of the wool goods produced in this long and chilly country.As it turns out, humans aren't only ones who get to rock the snazzy patterns and snugly woolen goodness of Norwegian yarn. Nope, the trees like to get in on the action too.

Just look at that patterning. Fabulous!

Who needs foliage with threads like these?

De Lille Havfrue's 100th Fødselsdag

The Little Mermaid may actually be the world's most underwhemling tourist attraction. At just 4' tall, she definitely lives up (down?) to her name. As you likely did not know, yesterday was her 100th birthday. Since she seems, for some reason, to be Copenhagen's main claim to fame, there was a pretty involved celebration.
And since this is Denmark, the general public was encouraged to help out with the festivities. Because of my enthusiasm for all things Danish, I joined the fun. Ashley and I were a part of the now famous group of 'mermaids' who formed the best number 100 you've ever seen. We were on the news. It was kind of a big deal.
And very cold.

A big thanks to Khara for the screen-cap of our television debut. 

See the news story below for a video. And enjoy the hilariously garbled translation from Google. I'm on the left side of the second zero. 
http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2013/08/23/173005.htm

Roskilde

I have never been to a music festival before. At least not until last weekend.
Obviously it was reasonable to make my inaugural foray into the festival scene at one of Europe's largest: the legendary Roskilde Festival. This was an excellent idea.
For those of you lucky enough to know what I'm talking about, Roskilde Festival is essentially a ten day long P-Day, that just so happens to have some big-name bands playing at it. For those who don't know what a P-Day is, let me first of all say that Roskilde is not definitely a marathon not a sprint. There's a whole mindset that goes along with the festival, called the Orange Feeling. It's hard to define, but at its core it's a feeling of connection and bon homie with your fellow revelers. People are extraordinarily friendly, and they've all got each others' backs; cups of water are passed through the crowd during concerts in the sweltering tents, because lord knows if you're dancing for 12+ hours a day, you need your hydration. It's kind of beautiful. The music, as great and diverse as it may be, is very much secondary to the experience of being there.

Efterklang, a fairly famous Danish band.
Nothing brings people together like excitedly swatting at giant beach balls.

The National.

The best picture I was able to get of Metallica.

Roskilde Festival is an undeniably silly event. If you camp there, you are a resident of the world's largest temporary city. And if you don't camp there, you're missing out on 75% of the fun, though I will concede that festival camping is not for everyone. On the campgrounds, you don't set alarms to wake up; you get up when your tent gets too hot (around 8:00). No matter what time it is, someone near you will be loudly playing music. And you're not angry about it. It's not unusual to forget to eat meals. Naps are acceptable at any time, in any location that is clean. And most importantly, people help each other out.

The preferred napping pose of many.

Clothing is optional.

A very small section of the campground.

In all, I'd rate this experience a 10/10. Will go again.

Fourth of July, Abroad

As I sit here, after an unusually busy and sweaty day in the office, I finally have time to reflect on how weird it feels not to be celebrating the Fourth of July. Sure, I can (and did) blast the most American of music at my desk today- Bruce Springsteen, Creedence, John Mellencamp, Zac Brown Band- you know the deal. And sure, us American (and honorary Americans) can get together and celebrate. I've worked on a few Independence Days in my time. But there's a very big difference between working at Fayson Lakes and working IT support in Copenhagen.
It's also very strange to, for the first time in my life, not be spending this day outside, surrounded by the people I grew up with: family, friends and neighbors. This blog is primarily a place of glorifying travel and exploration and bursting out of comfort zones, of reveling in the semi-nomadic lifestyle. But there are times like today that I'm reminded why there are such things as comfort zones.

New Jersey can be beautiful.

And serene.

I miss the times when this was my office, and the guard chair was my desk.When the soundtrack to my day was the clack of knock-hockey pucks and shouts of 'Dibbles' rather than internet radio. When the most common question in my day was 'Can I get the ball?' not, 'What's the wifi password?' When a rumble of thunder meant a free half hour break. When days started with a swim to Sabeys and ended with swim out to the island  rather than a few laps in a pool and a trip to the gym.

When the end of the work day was signaled by the sunset.

This was a truly wonderful place to be a kid, and, for that matter, an adult- though I certainly don't think of myself as such. This will be the first summer I've spent fully away from the lake where I learned to swim, taught myself to do a backflip, worked my way back to full strength after two knee surgeries and spent innumerable fantastic days and nights with friends and family. 

Sunset is a particularly magical time.

Fayson leaves its mark on you. To this day I can't hear an airhorn without my stomach doing somersaults and my heartbeat increasing. Again and again I find myself wondering why cornhole isn't a thing in Europe. I still think Dibbles is the best water game ever and have tried unsuccessfully to convince my friends here that it will be awesome to play in the harbor. I wow strangers with the diving skills I honed at the dock. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to spend a Friday night will always be sitting around a bonfire or hanging out in the woods. And when I'm swimming in open water, there's always the thought in the back of my mind that there could be a turtle behind me.

So, to everyone back home, I wish you the best of summers. Live it up, and take full advantage of this beautiful place that I'm honored to call my home. Cheers to you all.

It is now approximately 8:00pm, lifeguards are off duty. Swim at your own risk.

Copenhagen Botanical Garden

I have a shameful confession to make: in the approximately ten months I have lived in my current apartment, I have never once visited the Copenhagen Botanical Garden. Oh yeah- I live two blocks from it. And after my visit to it today, I very much regret having squandered all that time. Simply put, the place is beautiful.

Waving grass, city skyline in the background.

Real trees, and undergrowth? In Copenhagen?

Especially for someone like me, who has never lived in a city before, and who is seriously jonesing for a taste of nature, this place is a godsend. It's bigger than it looks from outside, and much more full of trees. There's basically a small, if very well-kempt forest. I love it there.

It has a small lake, complete with fish.

A lake, and trees. It practically feels like home.

That statue doesn't look like New Jersey though. Ah well.

I saw my first Copenhagen squirrel today. He was adorable.

In among the trees, you find the more traditional features of a botanical garden- neatly planted beds of well manicured, well tended plants, complete with tidy little identification tags. Unfortunately, the tags only contained the scientific Latin names and their Danish vernacular names, so I'm not entirely sure what many of the plants I was looking at were. But I'm sure some of the master gardeners I know could...

Danish order.

I don't know what these are, but they were pretty.

I'm pretty sure this is a foxglove.

I know this one. It's a rose.

Again, I have no idea. But really cool looking.

Look forward to the next installment, in which I return during the opening hours of the cactus and orchid houses. Should be a rollicking adventure.