"Let's go as far north as possible!" Okay, we did that. And where is the apparently only place far north where planes from Oslo and trains from Uppsala intersect? It's Narvik!
But it seems that ore is more important than people. Anja and her friends, who came from Uppsala by train, had to switch to a bus some (hundred?) kilometers before Kiruna (Sweden), because it was too cold for the train to go on… at least that's what they told them.
Well, the tremendously long (I tried to count the wagons - when I got to 69 it stopped and I still couldn't see the end…) ore trains from Kiruna to Narvik had obviously no problem with that. And they went just a few meters past the (in Norwegian terms) "cheapest" hostel of Narvik. All day. All night. And they aren't very quiet :)
Uh, yes, the Polar Zoo was one and a half hours away from Narvik - by car (therefore unreachable for us). But that's not worth mentioning on the tourist website. And the sauna at the hostel is out of order but still praised on it's website.
Well, I'm whining far too much. It was a fantastic weekend! We stayed partly at Henning's very nice couchsurfer's flat and enjoyed ourselves there while watching HD movies (huuuuuuge TeeeeVeee!) and having salmon for dinner. Skiing at Narvik's even on Sunday deserted downhill slopes with fresh snow while watching the fight between orange sunset and blue clear sky led to the hard decision of what to concentrate on.
And the last night's clear sky performed finally the North's famous "magical show"…
Enjoy the pictures :)
Monday, 21 February 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Frozen inside
Hell, my window got an ice-layer during the night on its inside! I should stop turning the heating off at night… especially when it's -15°C outside.
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Friday, 21 January 2011
Norwaaaaay!
Okay, I finally managed to scrap some time together to write this post :) Not that I'm so much into studying, but, let's say I never got bored (not even now!) and of course I wanted to wait for some interesting things to happen that I can write!
There are (too) many pictures from our New Year's Eve trip to Berlin. Well, in fact it's pictures from Berlin, not from New Year's Eve.
Maybe I should shortly describe (although most of you probably know) the overall plan:
Anja, Hermi and I are on Erasmus exchange studies in Scandinavia now. That offered the opportunity to get (t)here by car and add a few days of vacation previously. And that's exactly what we did!
Since we got a car here now Anja and I plan to do a big Scandinavia trip after the end of semester.
Right now I'm sitting in my student's flat, it's dark and cold outside :) Since it's Friday, I'm supposed to get drunk today… Here in Ås on campus, the place to have some beer is called "Samfunnet", and it's open every Wednesday and Friday. The Norwegian ritual of partying is as follows: Have a "Vorspiel" (yes, that's how they call it), that is, have some drinks before you go to the club because it's bloody expensive there. Expensive here means that 50 Norwegian Kroners (NOK) for 0.5l beer is the cheapest you can get. Try "50 NOK in EUR" in a search engine of your choice…
Many people are already really canned when they head for the club. Then, you spend a lot of money and do extreme par-taying within about 2 hours, because no one could afford being there longer.
When you go home and you think that wasn't enough, you can add a "Nachspiel"…
Enough of that. Most of the other exchange students haven't been here the last three weeks, since the "real" semester starts next Monday. Therefore I haven't met many people yet. Anyways, I accidentally got to know a student from my university who's even studying the same subject. I was walking around in the city center of Ås when I heard a voice behind me murmur "… he is from Austria!" So I turned around and answered: "Yes! How do you know?" "You're wearing Waldviertler!" she answered.
And that was the story of how I was recognized by my shoes.
Ok, I don't want to drown you in text. I'll try to add some short stories continuously. For now, check the snowy pictures!
There are (too) many pictures from our New Year's Eve trip to Berlin. Well, in fact it's pictures from Berlin, not from New Year's Eve.
Maybe I should shortly describe (although most of you probably know) the overall plan:
Anja, Hermi and I are on Erasmus exchange studies in Scandinavia now. That offered the opportunity to get (t)here by car and add a few days of vacation previously. And that's exactly what we did!
Since we got a car here now Anja and I plan to do a big Scandinavia trip after the end of semester.
Right now I'm sitting in my student's flat, it's dark and cold outside :) Since it's Friday, I'm supposed to get drunk today… Here in Ås on campus, the place to have some beer is called "Samfunnet", and it's open every Wednesday and Friday. The Norwegian ritual of partying is as follows: Have a "Vorspiel" (yes, that's how they call it), that is, have some drinks before you go to the club because it's bloody expensive there. Expensive here means that 50 Norwegian Kroners (NOK) for 0.5l beer is the cheapest you can get. Try "50 NOK in EUR" in a search engine of your choice…
Many people are already really canned when they head for the club. Then, you spend a lot of money and do extreme par-taying within about 2 hours, because no one could afford being there longer.
When you go home and you think that wasn't enough, you can add a "Nachspiel"…
Enough of that. Most of the other exchange students haven't been here the last three weeks, since the "real" semester starts next Monday. Therefore I haven't met many people yet. Anyways, I accidentally got to know a student from my university who's even studying the same subject. I was walking around in the city center of Ås when I heard a voice behind me murmur "… he is from Austria!" So I turned around and answered: "Yes! How do you know?" "You're wearing Waldviertler!" she answered.
And that was the story of how I was recognized by my shoes.
Ok, I don't want to drown you in text. I'll try to add some short stories continuously. For now, check the snowy pictures!
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Scotland Pictures
Again, it took a while: photos
We missed the Pope by only half an hour. But if we had waited for him to come down Princess Street in his Popemobile, we would have got into a big traffic jam, caused by all the other Pope-tourists heading home.
Well, who cares. Just an old with huge influence man who is against … and for … and children … you know.
We missed the Pope by only half an hour. But if we had waited for him to come down Princess Street in his Popemobile, we would have got into a big traffic jam, caused by all the other Pope-tourists heading home.
Well, who cares. Just an old with huge influence man who is against … and for … and children … you know.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Imagine ...
... the pope visits Scotland and nobody shows up!
In fact, there will be "some" people who'd like to see the pope, who's doing his fist visit to Scotland since 28 years. Including 90 protesters in Edinburgh :)
This leads to a lot of closed roads tomorrow.
And 4 Austrians worrying how to get to the airport in time...
In fact, there will be "some" people who'd like to see the pope, who's doing his fist visit to Scotland since 28 years. Including 90 protesters in Edinburgh :)
This leads to a lot of closed roads tomorrow.
And 4 Austrians worrying how to get to the airport in time...
Monday, 13 September 2010
"Award Winning" Scotland
When shops, pubs or stores in Scotland want to point out that something's really "special", they call it "Award Winning". There is Award Winning Whisky, Award Winning Haggis, Award Winning Pub, Beer, Kilt, ... almost everything.
I would nominate "Award Winning Weather" because it's not just a legend what you hear about the UK rain.
Since my last post we drove all the way up from Edinburgh via Sterling, Perth, Pitlochry, Inverness to Thurso and down again from Ullapool, Fort William, Tobermory, Oben to where we are now: Glasgow.
At the Isle of Mull (where Tobermory is the largest city) Anja and I did a trip to "The Arches of Carsaig" which is listed third in the Lonely Planets list of Scotlands Natural Wonders. They are giant natural arches, formed by the sea, mostly consisting of columnar basalt - very impressive! Unfortunately we had only a few minutes to explore them because we had to catch the ferry back to the main island and the time specification for the Arches trip reached from 3 hours to whole day trip...
I'd love to upload only a few pictures, but since we're at a YHA again (see comments of the previous post) that's not possible. I'll catch up on that matter on the weekend!
I would nominate "Award Winning Weather" because it's not just a legend what you hear about the UK rain.
Since my last post we drove all the way up from Edinburgh via Sterling, Perth, Pitlochry, Inverness to Thurso and down again from Ullapool, Fort William, Tobermory, Oben to where we are now: Glasgow.
At the Isle of Mull (where Tobermory is the largest city) Anja and I did a trip to "The Arches of Carsaig" which is listed third in the Lonely Planets list of Scotlands Natural Wonders. They are giant natural arches, formed by the sea, mostly consisting of columnar basalt - very impressive! Unfortunately we had only a few minutes to explore them because we had to catch the ferry back to the main island and the time specification for the Arches trip reached from 3 hours to whole day trip...
I'd love to upload only a few pictures, but since we're at a YHA again (see comments of the previous post) that's not possible. I'll catch up on that matter on the weekend!
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Next Stop: Scotland!
Aw, I always remember Simpsons' Willie saying: "Damn Scots, they ruined Scotland!" :)
Alex, Philipp, Anja and I arrived 4 days ago in Edinburgh. We spent the fist two days there, exploring Edinburgh Castle, trying 12 year aged single malt Whisky and finding out that Scots are very friendly people. We haven't tried "Haggis" yet, but actually I can't await it!
Yesterday we grabbed our hired Citroen C4 and drove via Perth to here, Pitlochry. Driving on the left side of the road and sitting on the right in the car is damn strange... like hopping on only one leg... drunk.
I'll try to upload some photos soon. Today, we were trekking along Loch somehow, where the salmons swim in spring. Accidently, we found a lot of "Eierschwammerl", so we're going to have them with eggs (and beer and whisky, of course) tonight!
Alex, Philipp, Anja and I arrived 4 days ago in Edinburgh. We spent the fist two days there, exploring Edinburgh Castle, trying 12 year aged single malt Whisky and finding out that Scots are very friendly people. We haven't tried "Haggis" yet, but actually I can't await it!
Yesterday we grabbed our hired Citroen C4 and drove via Perth to here, Pitlochry. Driving on the left side of the road and sitting on the right in the car is damn strange... like hopping on only one leg... drunk.
I'll try to upload some photos soon. Today, we were trekking along Loch somehow, where the salmons swim in spring. Accidently, we found a lot of "Eierschwammerl", so we're going to have them with eggs (and beer and whisky, of course) tonight!
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