Vår i botanisk hage

Nå er det vår i botanisk hage i Oslo og alt blomstrer. Det er bare å komme seg ut! Jeg var med på omvisning i går kveld og hadde med meg makrolinsa.

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Tindved

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Magnolia

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Det er alltid så vanskelig å ta fine bilder av bregner, siden de nesten bare vokser på skyggefulle steder.

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En Trillium eller treblad som den heter. Men det er mange arter treblad.

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En annen type magnolia

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Mogop

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Slåpetorn

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Kubjelle

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Vårsøte

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Rhododendron

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Ballblom

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Jordbærmure (som er en mure, ikke et jordbær)

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En eller annen fin, blomstrende starr

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Blomstrende lønn

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Snømagnolia

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Lønneblomster

Dreaming of warm holidays

We are currently dreaming of a hot and sunny holiday sometime late this winter. We have an almost impossible list of criteria for it, but have many suggestions.

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Criteria:

  • properly hot, so a Norwegian you can wear short sleeves.
  • a place you can swim in the ocean.
  • not too far or too complicated to travel.
  • not too expensive.
  • a place that is actually interesting and we want to explore.
  • someplace you have the possibility for both a bit of town and a bit of quiet.

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Places we have thought of:

  • Miami, Florida, US.
  • someplace, Brazil.
  • Amman, Jordan.
  • someplace, Ethiopia.
  • someplace, Thailand.
  • Cuba or other Caribbean island.
  • someplace, Mexico.

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But we haven’t decided yet. Do you have any suggestions?

All pictures from a day in Okpo, Korea. We climbed a mountain and went to the beach.

Exotic animals – water edition

I haven’t been to many aquariums before and wasn’t sure what to expect of the actual animals in the aquarium in Korea. But I was very happy that they (too) were mostly interested in local animals, so we got to see a lot of fish and other animals that I have only heard about in university.
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Well, I have seen penguins before, but not this species.

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And I really liked these while whales. They were the stars of the aquarium.

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As I am a proper biology nerd, I also love these animals. It’s funny how everyone thinks they’re plants, just because they don’t move.

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Many animals had bright colours and big forheads 😉

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It worked surprisingly well to use the macro lens through the glass.

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These are piranja, pretty!

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Not this one though. I think.

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These pictures are from the big water tank. Lots of sharks and skates.

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Can you call that wash board in English as well? Fun to see the underside of it at least.

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Oooh, this is the mantis shrimp! Maybe the only thing that Erik and Ruben were as exited as me to see in real life, as it is super fast and super strong and very pretty.

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This strange creature is actually (probably) one of the really old animals on the planet. There are fossils of the same species. A quote from Wikipedia:

Horseshoe crabs resemble crustaceans, but belong to a separate subphylum, Chelicerata, and are closely related to arachnids, e.g.,spiders and scorpions. The earliest horseshoe crab fossils are found in strata from the late Ordovician period, roughly450 million years ago.

So this was probably the most interesting thing I saw…

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Had to take a picture of this fish with huge eyes in what looks like a face. Will it kiss you?

 

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I’m not sure if I will go to every aquarium I see, but I think I will try to go to some that are in entirely different habitats than the one I grew up in (or at the shore of).

DMZ

We visited the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea. There are a lot of bus tours and even though you know that everything they tell you is propaganda, it is still an interesting insight into the ongoing conflict between the two countries. If we had planned better we would have gone to the border where the soldiers from the South and North are staring at each other, but we didn’t. But here are the pictures I was allowed to take.

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Dreaming of summer and rock festivals

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We drove to this free rock festival just outside Busan in Ruben’s car.

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Erik and Ruben did not plan this.

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They didn’t have light shows, but water shows and there was this big mud pit.

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There was even this firetruck to keep people cool.

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Aren’t we pretty?

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Cool Korean festival girls.

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We used our umbrella for shade.

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As we didn’t have a tent…

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I had just bought a new bikini and was very happily matching the two guys.

 

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Mmmm, iced coppi.

Downtown Seattle

There was Internet and a quiet night here in Okbo, so here are some more pictures. These also from Seattle. This is the Saturday we spent being tourists.

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Hello! New bag and some colour.

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Before breakfast.

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Too many choices.

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Mmmmm, coffee.

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Hash brown, two eggs, bacon and toast. What else do you need?

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Banana pancakes!

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Then we did the underground tour of the city. The whole city is one story up and there is a whole network of sidewalks and things on the ground.

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The city was founded in 1850-something when the first settlers arrived.

 

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Up there is the street.

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Old things that have been left behind.

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What once was a very high building.

We then went to Pike Place Market, where you can find anything, but especially fish. We had breaded cod

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and fish tacos for lunch.

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Then we walked around and found this guy doing Korean painting.

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And they sold loads of flowers.

 

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So Erik bought flowers for me and we went home. This is actually outside the first ever Starbucks. The first one was here in Seattle.

Touristy Thursday

Our first day of doing anything touristy in Seattle was Thursday 18th. I had worked from home that day, so I went downtown to meet Erik. I was a little early, so I had time to pop by Kate Spade to buy my new bag and to try on some dresses.

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This is the dress I was wearing that day. Notice the blue and white skirt behind me, unfortunately it was too small.

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And they didn’t have these in the right size.

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Then we went to the Space Needle. It is from the early 1960s and has a great view. You can also see it from everywhere in Seattle.

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We had dinner at the rotating restaurant on the top. A bit over prized, but very good food. And we didn’t have to stand in line to get the elevator up!

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Sailing competition!

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Giant spiders on a roof.

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Us and Seattle in the background.

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Me in my wonderful 4€ second hand sunglasses.

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Helges hus!

Vi hadde en veldig hyggelig kveld på innflytningsfest i Helges nye hus, eller småbruk som det jo er.

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Vi prater rundt rabarbraen.

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Bille på rabarbrablomst.

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Uthuset som skal bli brygghus.

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Vedfyrt bakerovn som jeg gleder meg til å bruke.

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Låve ved vannet.

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Langveisfrabesøk og rabarbra.

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Sjøen som skal få båt.

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Skigarden har ikke vart evig.

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Verdens kjekkeste mann.

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Veldig bra grillmat. Helge har alt på stell.

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Til og med Ægirglass til Rallaren min.

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Huset som blir fullstendig omgjort inni.

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