One with Nature

I have officially survived three days alone in the wilderness! Before leaving, I challenged myself to build an oven and bake a loaf of bread. About halfway to my intended camping area, I ran across a spot covered in lots of flat rocks. Perfect for building an oven! I stocked up and started on the second, much longer half of the trek.
Without much help from the typically poor Norwegian map, I made my way to the end of a small lake where I set up camp. I spent the afternoon gathering wood and setting up my oven (several times as it was not the most stable structure). I treated myself to a gourmet meal of pølser og lompe before crawling into my sleeping bags for the night.
Up bright and early at seven o’clock! I was way too warm in two sleeping bags and there was fresh snow sneaking in through the tarp I had wrapped around me. It was a combination that made me quite uncomfortable. Breakfast over the fire was a nice refreshment.
I gathered more wood, and undertook the bread baking project on the second day. I thought it went surprisingly well, but I’ll let you make your own judgements by the pictures. I even thought it tasted okay! The oven only caved in once while I was baking. I made two “loaves”.








While whistling away, enjoying the heat of my “oven”, two fellow soloists had come across my tracks in the woods. Cleverly following them back to my camp, they attempted to sneak up behind me as I waited on my bread. But as a seasoned survivor of rugged wilderness, I heard their footsteps approaching before they could get close enough to really surprise me.
Most of my time was spent either getting firewood, cooking, eating, or sleeping. That evening I made an absolutely delicious campfire meal. Salmon grilled in butter with potatoes, carrots and green onions, wrapped in tinfoil in the centre of the fire. Mmmm. And for dessert, a hollowed out orange filled with chocolate muffin mix, cooked in the same way as the salmon. Fantastic.
Nothing new, but the landscape is just as beautiful.

Overlooking Fagernes

 




Some of my favourite singletrack runs along this creek.



































The school has started a program on Mondays called Tro og Tvile (Faith and Doubt), where small groups of students go to the teachers’ houses for an hour or two. This last Monday, as we were were leaving, I said “Takk for alt”, which means “Thanks for everything”. The teacher replied, “Vil i fred”, or “Rest in peace". Apparently it's a phrase normally used only on tombstones. You can also say it when you’re dying.
Today was Familie Dagen. Most students’ parents came to enjoy slideshows, coffee and tea, a presentation by the students, and a buffet featuring “rømmegrøte” (basically pudding made of sour cream- even my Norwegian friends had more brown sugar in their bowls than grøte). The parents of my friend Olof were here from Holland, and I visited with them for while. Mom and Dad, did I mention they came all the way from Holland?
We’ve started our winter schedule now so I have three new classes: Dogsledding, a band class, and swing dancing. The dancing was actually quite fun. I was talking with one of my classmates after, and he said that he found the steps really hard.
”I was having a lot of trouble, so I always had to watch you.”
”No, I think you were always watching me, so you were having a lot of trouble!”
It’s always very difficult to find time for everything you’d like to do and everything you have to do. For instance, you finally find time to go for a run and you come back all sweaty and ready for a shower. Only then, when you’re half-naked, do you realize that you were only half-finished doing your laundry and that your towel is downstairs in the washing machine… Or you finally start writing a blog post when you realize it's two in the morning. Or you finally get to sleep and before you know it, it's time to drag yourself out of bed (but daylight savings time ends tonight so we get an extra hour of sleep!). This last week was absolutely crazy. The solo trip made for a tight schedule. I came back on Thursday in time for a chapel type meeting around the campfire down on the beach. That was great, except that I was supposed to be playing guitar. I raced to print off the lyrics and chords and we practiced right up until the meeting started. It went alright and I even sang some Norwegian songs!
One of the songs we sang was Blowin’ in the Wind. While walking back to the school, my good friend Elise continued the tune:
”How many times must the dodge-balls fly, before they are forever banned.”
I believe she meant cannonballs?
The weather has unfortunately consisted mainly of rain and sleet. But it hasn’t stopped me from training! I’ve been running with a few other people lately; it makes it a lot more enjoyable.
I cannot wait for the snow to come! An hour’s drive from here there’s about 500m of manmade snow for cross-country. A week from now, I think it will be worth the trip. There is no question that the snow is due; the stores have started selling julebrus (a carbonated Christmas drink) so I guess Christmas is supposedly on its way. It would be nice if the snow followed the commercial calendar.
All for now.

Winter is Coming

Last week, a doctor from Fagernes came and did a full day seminar on first aid. There was a lot of information which we put to use the following day in practical exercises ranging from vehicle accidents to frost bite incidents. We practiced our knowledge in six different situations like these, all of which consisted of student actors playing dead, unconscious, or severely injured. However, most of the “unconscious” laughed, smiled, or cringed when we decided CPR was necessary.

Last year’s students held a reunion here last week. On Friday, we were locked in the cafeteria after kveldsmat (evening meal) for no apparent reason. Group by group, we were led outside by torch light at which point we discovered the reason for our imprisonment. We entered the old school building, and were welcomed by candles, cobwebs, and numerous ghosts- murdered by a student in 1929 immediately preceding her suicide (as the story goes). It was quite an impressive setup, consisting of ghosts springing down from the ceilings of bathroom stalls and pitch black tunnels, barely tall enough to crawl through, made interesting by countless hands reaching through the darkness to grab you. While two girls at the front of our group screamed and shrieked around every corner, I only jumped while stepping over a ghost twitching on the floor. With one leg over him, he sat up and grabbed me, nearly lifting me off the ground by my crotch! I never liked ghosts.

The quality, if not quantity, of my sleep here is normally quite good. Saturday night, though, at 1:30am, I was abruptly awoken by extremely loud music in the hall, of the Dr. Seuss genre. They marched up and down the hall harping on their noise-makers for a solid ten minutes in the middle of the night before continuing to disturb other victims. All we could do was laugh ourselves to sleep.
This is actually the second time I’ve been unceremoniously awoken in the wee hours of the morning. In a previous incident, I jumped with a start (almost right out of bed) when my ears perceived some extremely loud, sudden yelling six feet from my bed. The source of the noise turned out to be my room mate- struggling for air as two of our friends mercilessly used him and his bed as a trampoline. Once they’d had their fun, we were once again left alone to sleep peacefully.

Winter seems to be on its way. Temperatures are dropping and the snow is falling- just in time for my solo-trip. Each student in my class is hiking alone for three days. Not everyone is looking forward to it but I think it will be a relaxing and enjoyable excursion.
Yesterday, Olof and I ripped up some snowy singletrack. It was a great ride! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take my camera along, but making the first tracks through the snow is always an irreplaceable experience. I hope to get another ride in before the snow accumulates too much.

If you read a particular blog of mine some time ago, you no doubt remember seeing the disastrous state of my room. I also mentioned that I posted the picture in the name of blogger transparency. I’ve been contemplating and I’ve decided that it would be healthy to abide by certain values outside of the blogging world as well. Please allow me this opportunity to show off my new lifestyle (even if temporary and infrequent).

Don’t miss your chance to win a Norwegian postcard! The deadline is approaching! Please refer to the previous post for contest details. E-mail your answers before the end of October!

Look Carefully

I have just returned from a four day hiking trip. As relaxing and enjoyable as it was, there is not much to tell you about aside from how nice the weather was, and how loudly the girls screamed when I jumped out from behind a tree. So rather than going on about the warmth of the afternoon sun and the cold of the morning frost, I’ve come up with this. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: (Left) Is the photograph right-side up, or upside down?
Question #2: (Right) Which 3 items in this picture have I made myself?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #3: (Left) Which side of the room is mine, left or right?
Question #4: (Right) What has been captured in this photograph?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #5: In what region is this municipality located? (Hint: That’s my
             school to the left.)

 

The contest rules are as follows:
-Each competitor must properly answer every question.
-Answers must be e-mailed to hansasfeldt@gmail.com and NOT posted as
comments on this blog.
-Competitors must include their mailing address in the e-mail following
their answers.
-Only the first e-mail received from a competitor will be considered.
-Answers must be submitted prior to midnight of October 31.

Criteria used in determining the winner:
1. The competitor who correctly answers the most questions is considered the
   winner.
2. In the event of a tie, the competitor who answers earliest is considered
   the winner.

Eligibility:
-Competitors must be human. Google and other search engines are not permitted
for contest use.
-Competitors may participate only if they have agreed to the Terms and
Release of Liability Agreement.

Prizes:
-The contest winner will be acknowledged in a later blog post and will
receive a genuine Norwegian postcard.
-All other participants will be awarded the satisfaction of knowing they
have done their best.

Good luck!

Høstferie Sist Dag (10)

I suppose you could say we ended the trip in the same way we started it.
It was a pretty average morning, and it went off without a flaw:
Up at 5:30- check
Pack bags- check
Take down tent- check
Cook havregryn- check
Eat havregryn- check
Walk to ferry- check
Wash dishes- check
Brush teeth- check
Wait 23 minutes for ferry- check
Board ferry at 7:15- check
…
Due to unsynchronized ferry and bus schedules we waited an hour and a half before taking the bus from Stavanger to Kristiansand. It became obvious while walking downtown at eight in the morning that Saturday night in Stavanger had been a wild one. Benches were strewn everywhere, almost as commonly as the incredible amount of McDonald’s garbage decorating the cobblestone.
While en route to Kristiansand, I discovered that a one hour detour through the mountains on a one-and-a-half-car-wide, winding road meant we would miss our connection in Kristiansand. (There was only one accident during our detour through the mountains; it involved a biker slowly tipping over while waiting for the bus to get around a switchback. He couldn’t lift his motorbike up, so the bus driver got out to help the very embarrassed, leather-clad biker.)
The bus driver told us that because of the delay, we would get half-price on the next bus, but that it did not arrive for another two hours. This wasn’t so bad; we got to walk around the streets of Kristiansand. Unfortunately, it meant we would also arrive in Oslo two hours later. We had planned to catch a ride with a friend from there, but we didn’t expect him to wait for us. After some Subway, we boarded the next bus to Oslo, only to find out that, no, we don’t get half-price?! In any case, we didn’t have much choice in the matter so to Oslo we went. Because our previous plan had folded, we now needed to take a third bus to Leira from Oslo. No problem, right? Our friend Stian informed us over the phone that the last bus left at 21:00, fifteen minutes before we arrived… Now what? I called the bus company and described the situation, hoping that because of the delay we could get some sort of compensation. As it turned out there was a way to make it work. All we had to do was get off at a stop ten minutes before Oslo. The bus to Fagernes would leave Oslo and get to this stop, Lysaker, ten minutes later. That relieved a little bit of stress the stress for a little bit. By looking at the clock and the bus schedule, which I had in front of me, it became apparent that the current bus was 16 minutes behind. This meant the bus to Fagernes would arrive at the stop 6 minutes before we got there. We talked to our bus driver and he made a couple of phone calls. He told us the bus would be there waiting! We jumped out of the bus to grab our luggage, which, conveniently, was at the very back underneath numerous other bags. While Olof and I crawled around in the undercarriage, the bus driver shouted over the passing cars, in broken English, that “it’s gone”. I got out to look, while Olof obliviously continued to wrench out our bags. I couldn’t see the bus, but our driver seemed to have changed his mind and he said it was still there- on the other side of a 6-lane divided freeway. We ran as fast as we could, found the tunnel under the road, and ran back up the hill, finally reaching our ride home. Breathing heavily, we grudgingly paid another expensive ticket. But did we ever surprise Anton! Sitting there with his broken wrist, he could only laugh at the sight of his two foreign friends from folkehogskule, desperately boarding the bus at some small unknown stop outside of Oslo. The last leg of the journey consisted of sharing this long, complicated story and many unsuccessful attempts at sleep. We’d been up since 5:30 and when we finally arrived at midnight, I was ready for bed. But instead, I stayed up for another hour to socialize with the small crowd occupying my room.
What a day! Very chaotic, but we got home eventually. It only took a few phone calls, some really fast running, and a lot of time and money.
A couple of e-mails and another phone call also rewarded me and Olof each a bus ticket to Oslo in compensation for our troubles!
All in all, it was a great trip. We saw a lot and met up with a bunch of friends in different places along the coast. We owe a big thank-you to Ivar and his brother, Rebecca, the Tveitaskog’s, Sunniva and Elise, Sondre, Nils, and Stian (who would’ve given us a ride). You guys were great!
We had rain and shine, and both Olof and I gained some significant travelling experience. It was well worth the trip.













Getting a risky hair-cut from a barber who didn’t speak any English. A mere $35 compared with the $100 price tag at the first shop I checked.





Making pankaker in Tau.



And for now, it's back to school (in other words, a four day hiking trip).

Høstferie Dag 9

There are boats everywhere on the west coast. This morning, we took the ferry across to Tau, where we hoped to meet Nils Terje. I say “hoped” because our plans were unconfirmed and we had no luck contacting Nils. In any case, we docked at eleven o’clock sharp, and sat facing the Atlantic and the sun, wondering what to do. Eventually, we managed to reach Nils, who had yet to get out of bed. “But it’s early!” I guess Norwegian culture isn’t so different after all.
We took to the highway and made our way to Preikestolen, a 626m tall chunk of rock jutting out of the mountain side. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.










Back in Tau, we enjoyed ice cream on the deck with Nils before finding a place to set up our tent (which has been carried for 9 days, only being used twice). We cooked some delicious Norwegian pankaker on the campstove tonight. I’ve concluded that the best meals are the ones you cook yourself, in the fresh air under the stars.
Tomorrow is a traveling day; the alarm is set for 5:30 (and 5:40 and 5:45 just in case!).

Høstferie Dag 8

Well, my aching feet can attest to the amount of walking we did today. With a full day to kill, we decided to walk the seven or eight kilometres to the Stavanger sentrum rather than taking the bus.
It was another laidback day on holiday, spent meandering through the street vendors and canal vendors (selling fresh prawns, crabs and shrimp). I gave myself a tour of the Oil Museum, and found it to be quite interesting. Many displays, interactive exhibitions and scaled oil rigs meant there was a lot to see. Despite the associated reputation for spewing inexorable amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses (which was not mentioned at any point in the museum), I must admit that the                  This model actually preceded
complexity and scale of the technology          the rig itself. Before the 
behind oil exploration and refinery is quite    days of CAD, perfectly scaled
impressive.                                     models were made to verify
As backpackers, Olof and I are bound to eating                     plans.
cheap. We struck a deal at a local grocer and feasted on a loaf of bread, a bucket of potato salad and 1.5 litres of orange juice- all for only 36 NOK (roughly $6, a bargain in Norway)!
We tread through Old Stavanger after lunch, a UNESCO World Heritage sight. It consists of an old neighbourhood with white wooden houses and narrow cobblestone streets. The best part was returning the smiles of all the old folks peeking out the windows at the tourists.
Another promenade brought us back to Sondre’s place for some tacos and Jack Johnson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheels of my Dreams

Eating like Kings (from the Middle Ages)

Høstferie Dag 7

Earliest morning since August 19th! (7:15, it’s a rough life.) We caught a ride to town with Kristi and spent the morning with Elise and Sunniva (friends from school living in Haugesund). Another expensive bus ticket brought us to Stavanger, where we toured around the harbour and walked the cobblestone streets with Sondre, another Valdres acquaintance. The sun has finally found its way through the clouds and it made for a very enjoyable day. The trip has been quite enjoyable in general actually. Olof is of the same opinion, and while roaming through Stavanger’s downtown area today, he mentioned that he in fact liked Norway a lot better than the Netherlands. “In Holland, everyone is really stressed. They’re always horning at each other and stuff.” He has requested for me to clarify that this is due only to English which has not yet fully been mastered (for the most part, I beg to differ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tveitaskog museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Domkirken                              Haroldshaugen

Høstferie Dag 6

Twenty-nine fish! Our work was well rewarded this morning and even more so at dinner. They weren’t huge trout, but they tasted great!
We went to town with Kristi today and watched a short film exploring the area around Haugesund. With most of the picture captured from a helicopter, there were some quite impressive arials. However, what was more interesting than the panorama-style video, was the fact that we had the entire auditorium to ourselves! We also took in a little bit of Viking history afterwards. Unfortunately, the client at the admission booth failed to inform us that the exhibition closed only half an hour after we arrived. All in all, it was another good day on holiday. Although, we have discovered that it is wise to book train tickets well in advance, as they seem to have a tendency to increase exponentially in price, and eventually sell out. Looks like we’re hitch-hiking! (Olof says he would rather try the bus.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Høstferie Dag 5

As I promised, I won’t mention the weather.
After a relaxing morning, Olof and I got together the tackle and packed the camp stove in order to grill some fresh trout amid the wilderness of the Tveitaskog farm. The camp stove could have been left behind, partly because we forgot the lighter, but more significantly and unfortunately, because we didn’t catch any fish. We spent most of the day trekking the varying landscape of rock, water, and forest (in which Hans and Kristi have planted 50000 trees over the last 25 or so years). We came home to some delicious reindeer for supper. Since then, we have gone out with Hans to try a different fishing tactic; we set out five nets, so hopefully we will have better luck in the morning. Despite not catching anything today, we have by no means starved. After putting Santa out of business, we were again treated to an endless supply of Inger’s Norwegian pankaker. Life is good in Haugesund!

Høstferie Dag 4

I appreciated the shelter of the laundry room yet again, as the rain came down harder last night. However, the thermometer read 19.5 degrees Celsius at midnight, which made for a very warm walk up the mountain from town. It was a pretty layed back day, aside from a couple of minutes spent catching the bus. We were very fortunate to catch a ride with Ivor’s family to Stord (halfway between Bergen and Haugesund), so the bus ticket wasn’t as expensive as it could have been. (While proofreading, I realized that this makes it sound like we missed the bus in Bergen… Don’t worry, we had planned all along to ride with Ivor, it was in Stord that we nearly missed the bus!)
In Haugesund, it was also raining (the forecast for the rest of the week consists of… yes, rain, so I won’t bother mentioning the weather in my next few posts). We braved it out downtown for an hour or so and looked around for a while. I checked in at the barber's and promptly left when I heard 500 NOK or almost 100 CDN for a haricut?! Luckily, my third cousin twice removed, better known as Hans Tveitaskog, arrived in time to save us from the land of $8 hotdogs and $50 pizzas. Finally a name I can remember (and pronounce)!
We jumped in the car and Hans said to us, ”My first question for you is whether you have rain gear.” We stopped at the store and he generously purchased some cheap (by Norwegian standards) rubber boots in preparation for a day of fishing tomorrow!
We went to his mother’s home for “grandma’s meatballs” and then took a brief tour of the farm and a detailed guide through it’s most recent addition, the family museum! There is plenty of history on the Tveitaskog farm, which has been in the family for over 350 years. Hans has restored part of the old farmhouse and is continually adding new artefacts: record players, castrating tools, family trees and photos, and countless other articles of interest. It is quite an impressive collection of historical memorabilia. The family connections made it all the more interesting.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow! After all, they say the best time to catch fish is in the rain!