TravelStream™ news feed for member cbass on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cbass en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:18:32 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170050400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170050400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170050400/tpod.html Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:18:32 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Seljord, Norway

I'm supposed to stay in Oslo for the weekend. But plans change. Instead, Thomas meets me at the train station and we take a bus to his home in the middle of Telemark County - a rural area of Norway.


I start off the next day at his parent's place in Flatdal. I'm pretty sure that translates into Flat Valley, for the scenic valley here. I get some exercise when we walk up the nearby hill to do some sledding. Walking in the snow up a hill is a challenge, and I need to get a lot better since I'm going to have a 4 hour hike up his friend's mountain in a couple of weeks for some snowboarding.


That night its Thomas, Andreas, Richard, John Rene, Marie, Elise, Susana and myself hanging out at Thomas' apartment. The highlight of the evening consists of jumping in the partially frozen lake just outside. Don't ask me exactly how that came to be, but I think its my fault since I said I'd do it if Marie did it. I'm partly sure the alcohol's to blame as well. Most of the group actually went in, and it was less painful than I thought it would be. I learn two things tonight: 1-drinking is very expensive in Norway 2-you cannot drive if you have been drinking at all, so hopefully its a short walk home or you have a designated driver.


I also get to go up the hill to Paul's place the next day and snap a picture of where I am staying from above. Its very quiet and peaceful in this city, if you can even call it a city. The time spent here is mostly relaxing and thinking about which mountains we shall go to for some boarding.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171692000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171692000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171692000/tpod.html Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:13:28 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Oslo, Norway

John Renee and Morgan are nice enough to pick me up at the airport. We visit the Kon-Tiki museum, where you can see the balsa raft Thor Heyerdahl used to sail across the Pacific in 1947 to prove...ah, what does it matter. There's also the papyrus reed boat, Ra II that was used to prove something else. He did it all in the name of science, but I'll bet he just wanted an excuse to drink some beer and doing some extended fishing.


We spend the rest of the day just chilling, meeting up with a few friends, and the like. We enjoy a night out at the pub and I get to talk to some highly-wired Japanese guy about baseball. However, we don't get a place to sleep as the only friend we can find to put us up lives in the opposite direction of the airport.


After a night sleeping in the car, I get to the airport, where I fall asleep again. I nearly miss my flight, but I wake up in time to hear my name being called on the P.A. to get my butt on the plane. I make it on the plane and make it home.


Well, the trip is over and I gotta say that it will be good to pay normal prices again...Scandinavia is crazy expensive. I must thank all the people who put me up, and who put up with me. Skol!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171605600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171605600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171605600/tpod.html Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:02:57 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Copenhagen, Denmark

1st lesson here in Copenhagen: don't use the payphones. I never need to call people when I travel, but I had to call Claus to see about meeting up so I could crash on his floor. I should have asked to borrow a cell phone cause the payphone is a Kroner-stealing piece of crap!


Anyways, the city here is nice. There are a few canals throughout the city and plenty of interesting buildings. There's even a Carlsberg brewery in town! I'm sold! I do the usual tourist stuff. Walk around, see some museums, blah, blah, blah. The view of the city from the Round Tower is worth the trip up - there's even a Tetragrammaton on the outside of the building for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.


I enjoy staying at Claus and Kevin's house and even get to hang out with some of their friends on Friday night. We had a fun night, which is bad news for my 9:15am flight back to Oslo the next morning. Stinking early flights...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171432800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171432800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171432800/tpod.html Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:34:44 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Stockholm, Sweden

OK, it took me all of a few minutes to like this city. Just walking from the main terminal to my hostel was nice. I'm staying on a docked red boat on the water right across from Gamle Stan - the old city. I meet my bunkmate in my dorm, Alex. He's a 38 year old Minnesota native that moved here...but doesn't have a work visa...or a permanent residence...and its been 4 months. OK dude, good luck with that one.

Anyhow, there's plenty to see here and the city is just beautiful. The city is actually situated on 14 different islands, so there's nice water views everywhere, which mixes in quite nice with all of the old buildings. You can spend a good chunk of time just wandering down the streets. I happened to check out the palace, including the changing of the guard and the nearby Storkyrkan, which is a church that houses a cool statue of St. George slaying a dragon.

There's also a museum for the Vasa, a ship that sunk immediately after being launched in 1628. Its incredibly preserved after being brought up out of the water after 300 years. I also enjoyed Skansen, an open-air museum that has traditional houses on display (with working staff) and farm and zoo animals. I hesitated cause I thought it would suck, but I actually enjoyed myself.

My only real regret is missing the Ice Bar, where the temp is always -5C and they serve your drinks in glasses made of ice. Oh, and I have to mention how weird it is to buy beer. If you go to the store, you can only buy beer that is 3.5% alcohol by volume or less. Hmmmm...so instead of getting a nice buzz and a bit fat, you just get fat. No thanks. So I found a state-run store where you have to take a number and order what you want and a person behind a counter runs and grabs it from the back. A beer vault if you will. Its not even cold, but hiding it outside anywhere takes care of that problem of course.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171260000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171260000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171260000/tpod.html Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:47:05 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Oslo, Norway

So I spent a cold, snowy day in Oslo before my flight to Stockholm. I gotta say the city isn't very beautiful, nor ugly...its just a city. I enjoy walking the parklike settings around the palace though, and then touring the medieval fortress of Akershus Festning.

There is a resistance museum there about how Norway had an underground battle against Germany in WWII. After they had to surrender the country, they planned sabotage missions and tried to print and underground newspaper. It was pretty interesting. Oh, once outside the museum (in the fortress still), I also learned that you listen closely when a guard with a huge-ass gun tells you not to do something. Yep. But the highlight of the day is getting my duty free (actually affordable) bottle of 10-year old Bushmills single malt. Good times to follow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171087200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171087200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1171087200/tpod.html Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:20:35 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Kongsberg, Norway

I found out yesterday that Paul is sick and so we won't be going to his mountain cabin. Instead, we are going to meet up with a group and board at Kongsberg Skisenter. The highlight of the day is my epic wipe-out. I was coming down this bump/hill that has a steep backside when I saw someone standing right in my way. Having almost no time to react, I turn to the side and try to stop, which is difficult to do since I'm coming off the hill. As soon as I cut over, I get reamed by this skier, pounding me into the netting on the side of the run. I come over the netting and desperately try to hang on to it. I instead flip over the netting, lose hold of it and plunge down the rocky slope. I am extremely lucky as my board gets caught in between two rocks, saving me from falling all the way down, and I come away injury free. Susana has to climb down to help me take my board off and I climb back up with only a story to tell as a result of the fall - which is good news.


The rest of the day went as planned, without any problems. I find out that you can drink beer as a passenger in Norway, so that certainly made the drive back better. We spend the night hanging out with a group at Thomas' house and even make a frosty hike to the local pub.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170914400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170914400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170914400/tpod.html Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:52:14 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Rauland, Norway

Another day of boarding here in Norway. This time it was the 2nd of 3 places to go in Rauland - Raulandsfjell. I enjoyed jamming down the longer, steeper run. It was quite fast because it was a bit crispy. I also hiked up the hill above the chair as there is plenty more of mountain here that is not accessible by chair (or t-bar I should say). There was also some decent tree runs here which we enjoyed.


To mix it up, we went back to the Skisenter in Rauland - where more snow falls. It didn't disappoint today as the snow came down in droves and made for some nice turns. There's not much else to say - its just snowboarding - so enjoy the pics.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170741600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170741600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170741600/tpod.html Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:17:09 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Rjukan, Norway

Its time for another day of snowboarding. Part of the fun is actually just getting to the mountain. We slip and slide all over the road in a few places, which is only "fun" if you don't end up off of the road - which we came close to a couple of times. Also, I can't tell you how spectacular the surrounding mountains are - just on the drive.

Its a snowy day today, and the snow should continue the next couple of days. All of Norway is behind in snowfall this year, so this is a good sign. I get in some good runs and also mistakenly find a pure sheet of ice in one area that definitely does not feel good to fall on - my elbow took the brunt of the impact.

Snowboarding is actually less expensive here in Norway than it is back in the states. I would imagine that one of the reasons is that they use a lot of pomas and t-bars here instead of proper chair lifts. Good for the wallet, but man they can be uncomfortable after awhile.


Anyways, we're going to take tomorrow off and hope the snow builds up for our next day on Thursday. I hope its a good day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170396000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170396000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170396000/tpod.html Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:52:36 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Bergen, Norway

Well, the trip starts off a bit uncomfortably - imagine yourself catching a train at 5AM in a town a half hour away by car; then after a 2 hour train ride, you have 2 hours to kill in another train station and the sun is just barely up. However, it begins to become very nice later on and the scenery outside does not disappoint - especially after we pass the ski town of Geilo. You are surrounded by the dramatic mountain and glacier views. I really only have 2 regrets on this train ride: 1-the snowstorm outside took away from some of the dramatic scenery with its clouds and mist and 2-why couldnt we spend a day boarding in Geilo with all of the fresh snow falling? Oh well.


When we arrive in Bergen, I am attracted to the city immediately. It rains 275 days out of the year, and the rain has mercifully ceased for us today. You can see the colorful houses lining the surrounding hills and walk to the charming wooden buildings of Byrggen lining the inner harbor. Instead of cashing in on our fortunes weather wise and taking the funicular up the hill...we head to a bar. Hey, we were playing cards and drinking beer and whiskey shots on the train, and its a shame to waste a good buzz in Norway - with drinks being so expensive and all. Meriam joins the 3 of us guys later on and we get a sushi dinner that Thomas' company thankfully pays for - some sort of gift. Good thing too, cause the bill was 400 bucks for the 4 of us - ouch!


I wish I could say I spent the remaining days in Bergen soaking up the culture and museums, but that would be giving to much credit to my sleeping habits. Every night seems to get later and later and so it goes for the mornings. It doesn't help that the museums all close around 2-3 pm either. I did manage to walk around the city a bit, and I did a lot of walking back and forth from where we were staying outside the city. Other than that, we hit the pool halls, a few bars and even a couple of danceclubs. Hey, its winter here...I can do the tourist stuff some other time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170655200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170655200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cbass/norway_2007/1170655200/tpod.html Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:23:02 -0500 Norway in the winter? Yes, I'm not very bright.

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Seljord, Norway

Back in Seljord.
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