This was the last trip in Norway, who knows for how long.
Coming home from Longyear, I had one day of break for unpacking, washing clothes, getting Uni things in order. The next day (06-20), we flew to Stavanger and actually walked from the airport to the city, which took us 3 or 4 hours, also because we made breaks and took pictures of the nice landscape. In the afternoon, our couch surfing host picked us up from the city centre and took us to his amazing flat, a 30 min walk away from from the city centre.
On 06-21, we explored the city, visited the oil museum.
On 06-22, we went to Preikestolen, maybe one of the most famous touristy sites in Norway. And as it was a Sunday, there was an awful amount of tourists everywhere. Nevertheless it was great view up there - the last time I was here, we saw the fjord for 5 min, after 1h25min of waiting for the clouds to go away.
On 06-23, we intended to go to Kjerag, but ended up not going for different reasons. There has to be something new for the next visit.
On 06-24, we took the train home.
Home to Oslo.
Oslo, home for one more night.
Then it's going to Austria....
My two semesters in Oslo are over now.
2014.06.17 - a glacial walk
At 9.30, we were picked up by our guide - it was just the two of us and the guide, a girl from Canada. We walked up the hill, another cosy Sunday walk up, next to the glacier right next to the city. On the way, we almost stepped onto a female Ptarmigan, we just saw her head sticking out of the snow. On the top we shared snacks and made ice cream (fresh snow with cranberry syrup). We built a snowman, snow angels, and found fossils, and had beautiful weather (snow fall and no wind at all).
At 15.30, we arrived home and had a two course meal before we celebrated our last evening in Longyearcity with a cider.
At 15.30, we arrived home and had a two course meal before we celebrated our last evening in Longyearcity with a cider.
2014.06.16 - Easy day
Today, we did not have booked a tour. But after yesterday's walks, that's just right. So we got more time to look for the arctic fox (we didn't see it a second time) and visit the museum, look around in the rest of the city and write post cards. After checking out the menu at at Mary-Ann's Polarrygg where they serve all kinds of meat that is locally available for mainland prices we went to the "Russian" restaurant and had some delicious burgers. In the "evening" we met a phd student from unis for a chat and a drink. So we are connecting to the locals and we start being recognised by people on the street ;) so after 4 days you are almost a local here.
Situations of the day:
Religion wars are like adults fighting about who has the cooler imaginary friend
Jesus was the first reported zombie
You should only eat zombie steak well done, otherwise it could jump up and try to eat your face
We know why it is forbidden to burry people in Svalbard.... Point a: you can't burry then deep enough so the can return to easily out of they graves if they become a zombie. Point b: if they would be a vampire they would have two whole months where they can walk around without being stopped by sunlight.
In reality people here do not carry their rifles around all the time because of polar bears. It is because of the zombies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Situations of the day:
Religion wars are like adults fighting about who has the cooler imaginary friend
Jesus was the first reported zombie
You should only eat zombie steak well done, otherwise it could jump up and try to eat your face
We know why it is forbidden to burry people in Svalbard.... Point a: you can't burry then deep enough so the can return to easily out of they graves if they become a zombie. Point b: if they would be a vampire they would have two whole months where they can walk around without being stopped by sunlight.
In reality people here do not carry their rifles around all the time because of polar bears. It is because of the zombies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2014.06.15 - an arctic challenge
That was the name of the plan for today- an arctic challenge: taking the kayaks to the other side of the Adventfjord and walk up to the Hiort-mountain (950m). But due to strong wind, we could not do anymore the kayaking and thus had to walk up another mountain named Nordenskiöld (1050). So, we, a group of 12 walked up there. Easy Sunday walk for an Austrian. The occasional snow storms and the strong wind did not bother us that much. Our guide was a friendly Russian called Vladimir, and as the Russian guide yesterday (in Pyramiden), a good guide in Svalbard is a Russian guy with a gun. Always trust the Russian guy with the gun. (Keyword: polar bears. No, we have not seen one so far.). Landscape: no words.
We came home around 16.00.
There were plans to re-do the kayaking part of the hike, so we agreed that our guides would call us if it's possible. But no, the wind came back, no kayaking. On the way outside, we ran across a South African guy who turned out to be tour organiser and needed big fancy camera equipment. He said he's not really good in landscape photography and showed us his 7D with a 10-22 lens. He said: go and play with it. Just wow. At least 5000 Eur lent for the afternoon. That's why we spent the time from 18.30 til 23.00 outside, made adequate pictures, and also saw an arctic fox.
At 2.00, after Argentina won the World Cup game, and all together 13.5 hours outside and walking - good night.
Zitate des Tages:
- Unser Sommerurlaub. Schneeweißer Strand, Blick aufs Meer, keine Gelsen.
- Schade, die Arbeit am Nordkapp wär schon nett gewesen, so weit im Süden...
- Quasi tropisch!
- Uh, ein Mensch!
- Ohne Gewehr. Quasi ein Selbstmörder.
We came home around 16.00.
There were plans to re-do the kayaking part of the hike, so we agreed that our guides would call us if it's possible. But no, the wind came back, no kayaking. On the way outside, we ran across a South African guy who turned out to be tour organiser and needed big fancy camera equipment. He said he's not really good in landscape photography and showed us his 7D with a 10-22 lens. He said: go and play with it. Just wow. At least 5000 Eur lent for the afternoon. That's why we spent the time from 18.30 til 23.00 outside, made adequate pictures, and also saw an arctic fox.
At 2.00, after Argentina won the World Cup game, and all together 13.5 hours outside and walking - good night.
Zitate des Tages:
- Unser Sommerurlaub. Schneeweißer Strand, Blick aufs Meer, keine Gelsen.
- Schade, die Arbeit am Nordkapp wär schon nett gewesen, so weit im Süden...
- Quasi tropisch!
- Uh, ein Mensch!
- Ohne Gewehr. Quasi ein Selbstmörder.
2014.06.14 - Pyramiden
After no night but good sleep (at least for me) and breakfast, we entered the Polargirl (a boat) to a trip into the Billefjorden at 9 in the morning. First we got to Skansbukta, where a trapper station is located. Pyramiden is a Russian settlement that was abandoned in 1998, it was used for coal mining. The settlement had 1200 inhabitants at some point and was used for showing the west how awesome communism is. But apparently communism didn't work out that well and so there is the northernmost cinema, gym, etc, there. Next up was a bird cliff and the Nordenskiöld glacier - landscape and wildlife wise: look at the pictures! No words fitting. At 20.00, we were back in the guest house and while we had our delicious dinner, the floor was still moving...
2014.06.13 - Winter is coming - Longyearbyen/Svalbard
Finally, another trip to another part of the world.
At the airport, we had to show our passport, we were leaving the Schengen area. So, yeah, three hours straight to the north. Far away. The flight over the southern part of Svalbard was beautiful, mountains, snow, glaciers.
Already months before, I tried to find a couch surfing host for us, but nobody wanted to have us. So we booked the 'cheapest' hostel/guesthouse, so at least we knew for sure we didn't have to sleep under a bridge. Shortly after we arrived, however, after we had paid for everything, one of many many requests was answered, we could stay. Whatever.
The city - the 'northernmost city of the world' - has about 2000 residents, the whole island about 2500. There are more skidoos than people, and more polar bears than skidoos. Maybe we will see one in the next 5 days.
One (or several?) of those residents seem to be professional photographers who just sat down in a restaurant, where we allowed ourselves to eat a reindeer burger, after long consideration. And he just put a camera there which costs maybe 30.000 USD. He probably saw all the wildlife of the island..
We walked around in Longyear 'downtown', and within 2 hours we saw already most of the city, went to the beach, and are slowly starting to adapt to the occasional snow showers and the cool breeze from the glacier. We just came home from a walk to an abandoned mine - we would have guessed its around 19.00, but no, it was 22.30. The next night will be in Oslo again.
The weather around 10 in the afternoon (!) was a bit cloudy. At midnight we went outside for a walk, and - wow. Clear blue sky and warming sun at midnight.
At the airport, we had to show our passport, we were leaving the Schengen area. So, yeah, three hours straight to the north. Far away. The flight over the southern part of Svalbard was beautiful, mountains, snow, glaciers.
Already months before, I tried to find a couch surfing host for us, but nobody wanted to have us. So we booked the 'cheapest' hostel/guesthouse, so at least we knew for sure we didn't have to sleep under a bridge. Shortly after we arrived, however, after we had paid for everything, one of many many requests was answered, we could stay. Whatever.
The city - the 'northernmost city of the world' - has about 2000 residents, the whole island about 2500. There are more skidoos than people, and more polar bears than skidoos. Maybe we will see one in the next 5 days.
One (or several?) of those residents seem to be professional photographers who just sat down in a restaurant, where we allowed ourselves to eat a reindeer burger, after long consideration. And he just put a camera there which costs maybe 30.000 USD. He probably saw all the wildlife of the island..
We walked around in Longyear 'downtown', and within 2 hours we saw already most of the city, went to the beach, and are slowly starting to adapt to the occasional snow showers and the cool breeze from the glacier. We just came home from a walk to an abandoned mine - we would have guessed its around 19.00, but no, it was 22.30. The next night will be in Oslo again.
The weather around 10 in the afternoon (!) was a bit cloudy. At midnight we went outside for a walk, and - wow. Clear blue sky and warming sun at midnight.
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