Well, I'm soon finished here (at least with studying) and then the Scandinavia trip will be executed!
Årstider - Seasons
It's now already a lot of daylight here. I remember when I came here in the beginning of January, it was almost completely dark from 4 pm to 8 am. Yesterday I went to a party and it was still some twilight on the horizon at midnight and rather bright again at 3 am. When Anja and I go to North Cape next month I'll be even more impressed :) and probably sleepless.
The snow here started melting exactly on the first day of spring (March 21st) and was almost completely gone by easter. My last cross country skiing trip was on March 30, but it was already kind of crappy. I could find some snow at Holmenkollen about a week ago, and also many lakes were still frozen when the temperature was already around 20°C.
Fisk
During easter holiday I had a really nice vacation with Anja and her parents. We went sightseeing to Uppsala and Stockholm - where we discovered Eriksberg beer and Västerbotten cheese - and had a perfect time in Västervik. For me, most interesting about Västervik was that it is famous for its rich population of huge pikes (gädda på Svensk, gjedde på Norsk, Hecht auf Deutsch ;)) and also salmon, perch, herring and other delicious fish which obviously feel comfortable in the brackish water of the Swedish archipelago ("Schären"). So I packed my angling rod, bought damn expensive fishing equipment (lures and stuff) and was eager to catch huge fish!
Nothing the first day.
Nothing the second day.
And by the afternoon of the last day I had already lost 5 lures which are now all drown in the water, pierced through straw or water plants, except for one which is hanging in a birch (which was the point when I eventually gave up, kind of frustrated).
But Petri seemed to have mercy with me and lead us - on the last evening - to the place where one angler was standing next to each other. It was the harbor. And there were herring (strömming) swarms just a few meter below the water surface, snapping for everything that looks edible (through "fish-eyes").
Well, an hour and 20 swedish kronor (~2€) (for a lure with 6 hooks on a single fishing line) later we were also standing there. What should I say? Herrings are easy to catch, so 2 more hours and we left with 130 fish. We still have some left in the freezer.
Russ
When the Norwegians graduate from school they have this custom to put on red trousers and get really drunk all the time to perform rather weird tasks to get some badges to put on their hats (I've been told one of the more "difficult" tasks, but I'm not going to explain it here…). They call it Russfest (which is actually pronounced "Rüss") and it takes place from May 1st to 17th (the Norwegian National Day) which is actually during they have their final exams… I heard quite a lot fail just because they don't manage the balance between partying and studying. However, it's nice to see that they appreciate this custom, no matter what skin color, religion or gender.
Okay, there are new pictures added here and in the new Album.
Have fun!
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