Good Bye Norway!

This is my last post for my "Living the American Dream in Norway" blog. I ended my stay in Norway by travelling from Bodø to Ålesund by train, I stayed 1 night with Ottar, and 2 nights with Matthias. Ålesund is one of my favorite places! Also, Oppdal which I went through while on the train from Trondheim to Dombås is absolutely amazing too.. I remember it from the Pilgrims Tour with Borg, but this time, I thought it was even more spectacular. From Ålesund I flew to Oslo, and spent a night with Halvard. It was nice to see him again! Then from Oslo, I flew out to Bergen to stay with Jonas and Nina for 3 nights. While there, we went to visit Inspector, good times, good friends. And then from there, I flew back up to Bodø, gathered my things, and flew down to Oslo the next evening, and met with Elin at the airport for a few hours to see her before I left. We talked and played some cards. Then I spend the night in the airport, and flew to Amsterdam and then MSP. I spent almost a year in Norway, and I plan to come back in the near future! I have only one picture, there is alot of construction going on in Oslo.

3-23-11 Living in the most beautiful place

I woke up one morning, and I am not able to work due to the whole permit situation, so I need to find things to do to spend my time and keep my mind off things. Mari suggested that I go for a hike. So I did. I went up to Keiservarden which is a popular top to hike to. It is not very high, but it has amazing views, both of Bodø and of the island Landegode (which I am obsessed with) and the Lofoten Islands, which I hope I someday get the opportunity to visit. Good call Mari, here are some pictures of my hike.







Looking back over Bodø and the mountains to the south.






What more could you ask for, ocean, mountains, island, teepee, and a storm.






A little storm is on its way over the ocean... makes for a dramatic picture.





Landegode is behind me... great view!






Looking North up the coast.





Landegode!





Great ending to a great day.

3/9/11 Gælentunet Hytta

So last week I became a member of Den Norsk Turistforening (DNT) which allows me access to hundreds of cabins throughout Norway and Sweden. You must be a member to get a key to these cabins and now I have one. So last weekend, Odd Bjørn and 3 of his friends from school (Rune, Stian, and Patrick) and I all drove about 45 minutes south of Bodø, down into the mountains, and hiked to a small cabin. There were two cabins there actually, one of which was quite full, but Kårstua, where we stayed, we had all to ourselves. During the day on Saturday, we hiked up a mountain, and then when we got back we played games, drank whiskey, grilled steaks, and went for a quick swim in the freezing cold ocean. Overall, it was a very successful weekend! Here are some of the pics...








This is saltstraumen, the worlds largest maelstrom... not that impressive if you ask me, kinda disappointed, but it was on our way so we stopped for a see.






Nice cozy place, with a fireplace, kitchen, electricity, two bedrooms, it was nice.







Kårstua, our cabin for the night.






Mountains really make people look small.






It may not look steep or difficult, but it was just too icy to get up much higher than this... at least without the proper equipment.






Taking a short picture break.






Looking north back towards Bodø... its there somewhere, little too cloudy maybe to see.






Our Saturday afternoon hike was supposed to be to the top of here but we did not quite make it because of too much ice and snow towards the top.






Some crazy rock formations down by the water.





Stian, Rune, Patrick, Odd Bjørn and me right before our late night swim.






Thats me standing out in the freezing cold ocean.

2-11-11

So now that our days are getting longer up here in Bodø... I have had more time to go out and hike around. I also managed another night seeing the northern lights, so here are some pictures of Bodø and the surrounding area!





Proof that the sun does shine in Bodø too!






Sunset over the ocean





Northern lights






Northern lights

1-10-11 NORTHERN LIGHTS

So there were a few guests who wanted to see the northern lights while up in Bodø. I said I have not seen them from in the city before... so we got adventurous and at 10pm after I was done working, we all walked up to the top of a little mountain, away from the city and saw 2 hours of amazing northern lights, here are the fotos!

1-5-11 Juleferie

Christmas break was pretty fun. Things did not work out at Elins, but its a good thing I have some good friends. Jonas and his family took me in for Christmas.. it was great! We had the tradional meals of grøtt, pinnekjøtt, and ribbe. Jonas and I also spent a day in Sweden to hit up some after Christmas sale. I did not buy anything, except new pipe tabacco and some cigars. After being at Jonass for a few days, I flew up to Ålesund and spent new years with Matthias, Astrid (his girlfriend) and Ester (Astrids friend). I wish I would have gotten some pictures of all the fireworks lit off on New Years, butttttt I didnt. While with Matthias, we had some great meals including, Fondu and raclette, and also a ham baked inside of bread which was really good. Overall it was a great Christmas, and now I am back in Bodø and getting back in the groove of things, it actually feels really good to be back here.






Sun rise in Asker.






The view from the front yard at Matthiass house.





Looking southwest over the Atlantic towards the US.




The light house just outside of Ålesund.





Matthias thought his pigdekks (tires with spikes) would get him up the hill made of glare ice... we got stuck. So we had to spread sand over the ice to get some traction.





Mor`s Kro in Kvam, roughly half way between Ålesund and Oslo by bus.