The next five weeks of my life will look like this:
One week of scout camp in Stavanger
Two weeks of univerity courses in Seattle
Two weeks of complete relaxation and exploration in South Korea (here is Busan)
We come back in the middle of August, and after that it’s back to finish the apartment and back to work…
Today we are packing the whole apartment in boxes and bags. Surprised at how smoothly it goes. I guess it helpes that you keep things in boxes, easier to pack…
Tomorrow we will be moving everything to the new apartment and we will have our first night there! My family went to the apartment today and fantastic as they are, they have painted the small bedroom and assembeled our bed 🙂
Carl Berner, here we come!
PS: We have even packed for a week of scout camp and almost finished packing for Seattle and South Korea. I feel like a super hero.
This weekend I am here:
Nice, eh?
This is Havbratt, owned by the Norwegian Scout and Guide Association. We are having our monthly committee meeting here, sailing around Kristiansand.
I hope I will look as cool as Raymond (yellow hat) and Trygve. Raymond is actually in the committee, but will leave us in September when his turn is over. Raymond is a sea scout and will be our captain for the weekend. I am bringing my camera, so keep your fingers crossed for good weather!
Jeg gleder meg skikkelig til denne er ferdig. Og med denne mener jeg den nye tbanelinja de skal bygge mellom Sinsen og Linderud. Det er på tide å utvide den skinnegående kollektivtransporten i denne byen og jeg er veldig glad for at man legger til rette for mer effektiv transport som ikke må gå innom Jernbanetorget.
Jeg er også veldig glad for at jeg skal på ferie i juli, for da stenger banen mellom Sinsen og Tøyen, som er den biten jeg reiser med banen hver morgen. Samtidig skal Jerbankeverket rydde opp i brannvernet i Oslotunnelen og sette igang med å bygge på linja som går østover fra Oslo S. Som betyr at toget toglinjene som går østover også blir påvirket, den toglinja jeg bruker hver dag.
Så flaks at jeg tar ferie når Ruter og Jernbaneverket mener flest folk tar ferie. Og flaks at jeg flytter til Carl Berner som er siste stopp som ikke blir stengt fram til september, slik som resten av tbanestoppene på østsiden av linje 5.
Det eneste som mangler nå er noe som går på skinner midt i den store sirkelen på bildet. Hvorfor går det ikke trikk til Sagene? Det lurer jeg på.
These are my best pictures from our days in Firenze (Florence).
Vegetables at the marked just around the corner from Victoria’s flat.
Buying meat in the food hall.
Walking around town in the cold.
Massive doors in the old part of town.
Home cooked meals.
The big cathedral.
In Italy, more is more.
We saw most of the museums only from the outside.
I love the level of detail!
David nmbr 3 and I
Ponte Veccio in the background.
Coffee on a cold day.
A summer dress
Nuns in the street (they were tourists)
The bag I didn’t buy. It was lovely, but heavy.
Playing boardgames on the iPad together with a bottle of wine in the early afternoon.
Chocolate place where you needed to buy minimum 7 pieces. Oh, no…
An old fashioned gentleman store where Erik bought a pair of woolen trousers for winter.
Their pattern diversity was wonderful.
We found a marked and bought 12 port glasses. Not these cups though.
And found a really cool restaurant with a great wine selection.
We have even started our own cork collection 😉 (only champagne ones, though).
Don’t you just love these chairs?
I bought these shades at the marked, too. 4€ and made in Italy.
I finally found time to post my pictures from Malta. I only brought my camera one day, the other days I was too busy holding sessions and running around.
An orange tree
An ice cream van
The lobby of our hotel
Waiting to go out
The view from the hotel
This is where I took my lunch hour swim
Two fourths of RoverSambandet
Malta is a big rock, so everything was made from rock also all the fences
I found a place in the road where snails had completely taken over all the vegetation, it looked quite spectacular
Unripe fig on figtree
I would like a door like this
The Maltese love their balconies
This is Valletta, as much as I saw of it
Oh, and we walked past a house full of garden gnomes
A mini-door for the gnomes
The only picture of me on my own camera
The Maltese are very catholic and we saw saints and small chapels all over the place
I remember taking a picture of this fish in Shetland, and it was all over Malta as well
A church with coloured light bulbs
A Spanish scout found us and wanted a picture
Another saint
The walls of Mdina, the old town in Malta
We had our dinner and a walk inside Mdina. All the people we met were all dressed up.
And all the roads in Mdina were bent
We even found a Maltese wedding
Jón and I really wanted some of that champagne, but we were a bit underdressed
I think I want succulents on my balcony too
Right now I’m on the train back to Oslo. I have started using NSB in stead og the airport express train because my ordinary bus card covers the whole distance to the airport. But this train is just as fast, so I’m happy.
It was a very good weekend, the sessions went very well, we had good discussions and I think we have moved forward. And I am very exited to see what the European region will do with the rover age section the next three years.
But I have to admit that the sun and warmth also made it a very good weekend. I am more sunburned than Erik likes and I have lovely panda eyes (from my oversized sunglasses), but I like it.
Here you can see the West coast of Italy by Rome and the Alps today.
Day two of RoverNet! Yesterday I had. My two big sessions, one about the role and work of the rover commissioner and one about key moments and key skills aquired during a “rover’s life”. We are talking about programme, measuring quality, support from you NSO (national scout association) and the European region.
I even managed to take a swim in the ocean during lunch yesterday and today I went for a run before breakfast. Later today, as part of the program, we will go for a walk into Mdina and to some discussing in the fresh air. After that we will have dinner out there and tomorrow morning I go back home.
It is lovely here in Malta, the constant sunshine, the temperature (shorts and t-shirt all day through), the view of the ocean, the wonderful food at the hotel and all the magnificent participants and discussions.
I am going to Malta today for RoverNet and VentureNet. It is an event for rover and venture commissioners in the scout associations in WOSM Europe. I will stay at some hotel the rest of the week, holding sessions, moderating discussions and getting to know many new people. And in addition to this, the forecast says 23 degrees and sun, so I will be in full summer mode!
The last day of our trip, we went to a cooking class to learn some Italian food art.
The house where we stayed
Our teacher
Italian bacon crisps
Tiny, round squash.
Rice and egg fill.
Huge aubergine in the oven.
Erik doing the work.
The basis of ITalian cooking, olive oil, garlic…
…and tomatoes.
We filled them 🙂
Five year old parmesan, it was superb. And this is the proper size for a piece of cheese.
The best balsamic vinegar that I dipped my cheese in. I know, we had the best time.
Vegetarian “lasagna” with aubergine and tomato sause.
And parmesan on top.
We just had to go to Pisa. Erik put his foot down and said that we had to try to get into the tower (because I didn’t want to queue for ages for all the museums in Florence) because we had to see the inside of just one thing. And lucky for us both, there was no queue. No queue! Because we arrived just 1,5 hours before they closed, so everyone had left. And it had been raining that day. But we were very happy. Before we went to see the tower we had lunch, met my cool friend Silvia who owns a comic book shop in the old town of Pisa.
Handy hooks for bags on the wall.
Super high roof.
Getting into Italian comics.
Silvia, the coolest Italian.
Rain with sand from Sahara.
The Nokia GPS led us safely through Pisa to the tower.
See! It was actually leaning! I was surprised, I have to admit. I didn’t think it was that leaning.
It is the bell tower of the cathedral.
Erik giving it a helping hand.
Me being jolly.
No queue, no people.
Macro lenses are wonderful for detail shots high up on buildings.
This is the inside the tower. There is nothing in it, just air and a lot of things to keep it from toppling over.
A guide told us about the history of the tower. The true contractor is not known, because he stopped all work after finishing the three first floors and was never heard of again. But 50 years later someone else thought it would be cool to finish the tower, so they did. It used to lean more, but they have straightened it a bit. They could make it completely straight, but that wouldn’t be economical…
The only thing in the tower is the staircase. And it was totallyl weird to walk it, both up and down. You can see Erik standing straight and the tower leaning. We were constantly compensating for the leaning and walking on the left or right of the steps. Superstrange.
At the top of the tower, with the bells still in use (Italians are good at using things that are old when they still work, instead of building something new).
Pisa.
Cathedral from above.
We were not the first to walk these steps.
There were two fences around the top, one in ordinary height (waist height) and one two meter high. We guessed it was because on the “down side” it felt like it would not catch you if you actually tripped and fell.
There were 30 min left before everything closed, so we went in and looked at the cathedral too.
As they say in Italy (I guess): “more is more”.
This is a detail of the roof, maybe 40 meters above. Did I tell you that a macro lens is also wanderful for taking pictures of roofs in high churches? Well they are.
As I was in Tønsberg last weekend, I had to see Sara. It’s been ages and it was sunny and wonderful.
Sara looked gorgeous in mixed patterns and new jacket. I want one of those!
And this is Frank, he was also just visiting, but he lives in London.
We stopped by this bakery to get Sara some lunch (she had a hard time deciding).
I got a sweet bun and some juice.
I looked like a bum after the scout trip, but Frank lent me his sunnies so I look cooler here.
Sunny spontaneousness is the best!
In one day we did two wine tastings and were lucky to see two very beautiful cities as well. First we went to Montacino.
This is the old castle.
And this is where the magic happens.
We looked…
…we found the wide we had the day before…
…and we tasted.
We learned the beauty of riserva.
The next wine tasting was in Montepulciano. Lonely Planet had complained that it was very hilly, but I didn’t believe them, but when we came there, it was true! The whole town was one big clilmb.
This is the top, the town square.
It was raining and it was a long and steep klimb, so we were quite alone.
And the unfinished front of the church.
Here we visited a winery, so one producer.
They also stored wine the old fashioned way.
Riserva are the ones that are also stored for a year on the bottle before they are sold.
The modern (and hygenic) wine storing method.
Montepulciano is known for their Vino Nobile and we triend different types.
We ended up buying a very expencive bottle of wine in Montalcino, as an investment. I wonder what occation will be the right one.
We visited so many places during the trip, including Siena. We only spent the afternoon there, but we had time for both two churches, icecream and dinner.
There is this valley in the middle of Siena and we parked on the other side. So here we are walking over to the right side.
A lot of rock.
A lot of steep hills here too.
Italians adapt (and custom make furniture).
Italy is really a good place for maens fashion. So many colours and patterns and everything.
Another duomo.
Stripy pasta.
Icecream!
The sloping town square.
We found a window ledge to kick back on.
In Italy, more is more.
We spent two nights in Sant Angelo, a random wine area in Montalcino, just to walk in a wineyard and relax. I’ll post all the close ups of nature later.
We were walking along an old train track, when a train suddenly appeared. A steam driven one 🙂
It was a wonderful sunny day.
Standard, simple lunch.
My evening makeup and dress. I also wore my new metal tipped shoes.
I bought three pairs of new tights in Italy (didn’t do that much shopping, I have to admit) and I love them. One red, one purple and one orange. So a couple of days ago I went in colour block orange. The quest for the perfect tights continues.
San Gimignano is a small town an hour south of Florence that is mostly known for all its towers. The families of the town went a bit crazy and buildt towers to prove how rich they were, the higher the richer. They now have 25 towers still standing, nothing ever ends in Italy. Victoria came with us to se this strange town.
I couldn’t get enough of the landscape.
Freshly clipped olive grove.
I love flowers on a bare branch.
Every town in Italy is placed on a hill.
In the back you see the old town.
First coffee of the day.
I liked San Gimignano mostly because it looked like people actually lived there.
The biggest alperose (English name?) I have ever seen.
Door hammers were serious business.
Towers and stairs
Towering over me 😉
A very old door.
Town hill.
This was the venue of our second lunch. The first one was not good enough to photograph, but this place was wonderful. Not only did they have flowers on every wall, but also the best bruscetta in the world.
Italians do simple food, bread and olive oil. I could have lived my whole life eating just that.
Bruscetta! Which really is just toast with tomatoes, traditionally. They just do it so well.
As I did take a lot of pictures in Italy, and nothing else is happening in my life than work, apartment hunting and bad weather, I thought I’d give you a tour of Tuscany and neighbouring country. First out is Cremona and Parma where we spent our first two days.
We had checked the forecast and brought an umbrella, we used it more than once unfortunately.
Every town in Italy has one of these, a duomo, this is the one in Cremona.
Cremona is the home of the Stradivarius violins, and there are still many who make violins there.
They like marble in Italy
…and arches
This is the Lambrusco! It is a very common wine in the north on Italy and used as an everyday wine (as they actually have wine everyday). The nice thing about it is that it is a sparkling red wine (not rosé) and is perfect with simple Italian dishes.
Parma had some museums
And no warmth (as you can see). Just after this Erik went back to the car to get his had and gloves.
The duomo in Parma.
We wore a lot of clothes in the beginning of the trip. And I totally adore my Nike Free 3.0, they are pretty, they are comfy, they are light and they take no space in your suitcase.
Very-happy-borg
They do details wonderfully
And everybody had these, we have two of them at home too. Erik was very happy (he is the flower master of our house).
Coloures, balconies, lamp posts 🙂
The most stylish lady all colour coodinated in navy and brown. She had bought flowers or something for her friend, and the friend sent down a basket to get the present. (Don’t hate me for taking pictures of strangers)
One of the few pictures of us together, the only bad thing about travelling just the two of us.
We went and looked in a really cool design shop.
Oh, and went to the resturant Ida mentioned, to have lunch. As any respectable place they made their own pasta.
And they had kept old bits and pieces.
Like a newspaper clipping of the former owner with Marylin Monroe.
These apartments had colour coordinated flower pots.
Gnocci with gorgonzola and walnuts. Literally just that, those three ingredients. It was delicious and simple and very Italian.
Ravioli. And I loved how you could buy a glass, 0.25, 0.50 or a full bottle of wine at restaurants. So you could buy two or three or more glasses, depending on what you felt like that night.
Then we had icecream (we are Norwegians, temperature is not important when you want icecream) at Emilia. They had two chocolate fountains and superb icecream.
After another stroll through Parma we drove to Firenze. We hadn’t realized that there is a mountain range separating north and middle Italy, but there is. And the combination of showers and three (!!!) accidents made us one hour late on our two hour trip. But we had a magnificent steak for dinner when we finally arrived, so it ended well.
…happens to be in Cremona, Italy. We stopped there by chance the first day on our trip. It was at this precise mmoment we learned that Italians have a well regulated feeding shedule. Breakfast is just a cup of espresso and maybe a piece of cake, lunch is between 12.20 and 15.00, then dinner from 19.00 to 22.00. Which means that it is impossible (at least in small towns) to get anything to eat between 15.00 and 19.00. As long as you have a big plate of pasta of pizza (as we usually did), it is no problem to wait, but you have to remember to find a restaurant before 14.15…
All of this was unknown to us the first day, so we spent a lot of time in this wonderful coffee bar, using his wifi and eating all his cakes.
Back to the bar itself. The bar is really a coffee roaster, you know, they roast their own coffee and then make it on the spot. The design of the place was wonderful, clean and cozy. Have a look:
Just wanted to post a couple of close ups from the first part of our trip to Italy
It was a bit cold, as you can see
