The King in the North!

 

An early morning flight to Dublin, and we were on the road: TO THE NORTH!

The trip was a blur, but we made it to Portstewart, and one of the nicest AirBnbs in which we've ever stayed.

PS has a pretty spectacular beach, and they tried to warn me.

but I didn't listen

Oops, I did it again!

My first beach horse-and-cart!

We visited Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge: a dicey hike and walk across a 1-person rope bridge, with lots of sea-birds to view.

I found this big old rock jutting out into the sea, and called lightning to break it up into these cool geometric shapes

And was proclaimed "The King of the Causeway"!

But seriously, the Giant's Causeway was really cool, enhanced by the legend of the giant Finn McCool, who rode a camel (?), messed with a Scottish giant, and was saved by the wits of his wife, Sadhbh.

Ireland doesn't have nearly as many courses as Norway did, but there was a pretty nice one nearby on the Ulster University campus.

I liked it so much that I called forth a Monkey Puzzle tree to help them diversify their arboretum. 

OMG pub food! Got my fill of ham (for the moment), and we are definitely getting tired of potatoes.

Quick visit to Derry and the Derry Girls mural.

Roads are fun here, too!

Grianan of Aileach, a cool round fort.

This place is full of Game of Thrones sites, including the Dark Hedges, shown here with the scene from the show.

A storm in 2016 took out a couple of trees in the Dark Hedges,  and the producers used them to produce a set of 10 carved doors, then sprinkled them throughout Northern Ireland. We saw a couple in pubs, and they were impressive. 

Loughareema, the disappearing lake, had disappeared when we went by.

Johann the goat, commemorating the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001.

Cushendun caves, another GOT filming site, where the Lady Melisandre gave birth to the shadow.

Fun mural with poem outside Mary McBride's, where I had my favorite burger of the whole trip.

The Ballygally Polar bear (don't ask, cause I don't know).

And in to Belfast! Shipyards, the Titanic experience, political murals. Our bus stop had a cool name, and we almost got run down by a fleet of Amazon vans.

Glass of thrones! A collaboration between the producers of the show and Belfast tourism. Stained glass showing scenes from the show, crowdsourced from fans, arranged mostly by house. Pretty good, and a good reason for a walk up and down the river.

Fun warning signs! 

Our time in the North was short but full. We moved on to an appropriately named suburb of Dublin to await the arrival of Rani's cousins,  and the penultimate stage of our epic adventure. 

Peace, Jon

Lom, Oslo, and good day, Norway!

 

From the west coast, we made our way back through the center of Norway, through the Trollheimen mountain range. We stopped to meet some of the eponymous trolls (nicer than they look), and to ride a cable car up a mountain in Romsdal. 

We made it to our last house in Norway in Lom on the shores of Lake Vagavatnet, part of the river Otta.

On our quest to see some megafauna, we spent some time in the nearby Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park on the trail of the elusive musk ox. It was a decent hike through scrubby forest which turned into tundra, with lots of interesting lichen and views of mountains. While we saw a good amount of ox shit, we didn't run into any creatures.

But fear not, dear reader. I used the time wisely to develop my astral magic and bring forth my first spark!

At this point we were getting kind of Norway-ed out, but we had one more stop. We left Lom for our last Nordic city, Oslo.

We spent a rainy afternoon sauna-ing in an old aquavit barrel at SALT. Did you know that aquavit is matured on ships at sea? Something about the rolling waves and the changes in temp and humidity helps it develop, apparently.

For me, the most interesting spot in Oslo is Vigeland Sculpture Park, which contains over 200 sculptures of naked people engaged in all kinds of shenanigans. They're not all this weird, but pictured are a few of the standouts: man fighting babies, angry baby, and a couple of different poses of man wrestling woman. That monolith in the center has 121 human figures entwined on it, and is not phallic at all! 

All of these sculptures, and the layout of the park itself, are by the same artist! This ray of sunshine, who definitely had no issues to work through, did it all! Pretty neat!

Norway's been good to us: fresh air, cool water, amazing scenery. Now we've moved on from the land of the elves (tall, beautiful, maybe a little aloof) to Ireland (friendly, talkative hobbits, perhaps?). Let the adventures continue!

Peace, Jon

This Bud's a view

The view from this house is super pretty, when it's not raining (and even then). There are deer in this yard pretty regularly. In fact, this area is the only area we've been so far where we're seeing the numbers of deer I'd expect as a former Michigander.

I've been thinking about the geometry of the sun up this far north. I remember having trouble with this on a hike with college roommates in Olympic National park many years ago. I think I've finally worked out the visualization of the path of the sun in the sky with the help of this spliced photo. The left side is sunset (11:30 PM) and the right is sunrise (around 3:30 AM); these spots are pretty close together which illustrates our north-ness right now. Right in the middle is pretty much directly north. Just a little dip below the horizon for a few hours. 

Found a new mentor for my elemental magic.

One cold, rainy day we took a tour of an old marble mine. They let the caverns fill up with water, and take you through some tunnels on electric boats, complete with ethereal music and lighting. They even have a small concert hall down there! The water is super clear, nothing living in it at all, and they give you a cup of it to drink. Was maybe the first time we've been the only two English speakers on a tour, which was an interesting experience.

All points north require a trip over the Atlantic Road (#2 on the Times of India's list of most scenic roads in the world), a series of bridges and causeways that connect a bunch of islands and skerries along the coast. Fun drive!

And, of course, we've been discin' in some really beautiful spots. Got an app to help us find more courses, picked up some sweet Norway socks to keep the ticks off. Played this cool course near Vestnes with a dramatic Valhalla hole. Video of milady's sweet skills below.

All of this discin' culminated in a trip on our last full day in Bud to a course on the grounds of a school in Skjevik. Our first full 18-hole course, finished without interruptions from hunger, the need for a bathroom, fed-upedness with bugs, or unwillingness to slog through ankle deep mud. We even retrieved what could have been a lost disc from a roof through cooperative use of the car, hiking poles, and superior gymnastic skills. 

When we got here it was hot and sunny, and we're leaving today in a little bit of rain with a chill. On to our last house in Norway!

Peace, Jon.

Stryn theories

Our time in this little cabin in Stryn was slow and peaceful and refreshing. The house was surrounded by a large field of brush which turned into bilberry bushes and lichens closer to the lake. 

 

We spent time exploring the property, but also spent some rainy days destroying NYT crossword puzzles together. Super cozy!

Unlike many Airbnbs, this one was full of the host's stuff. There were many shelves of books, an extensive (and accordion-heavy) music collection, and stacks of photo albums. I spent some time snooping and enjoyed making up stories about this guy's life. It was interesting to see pictures of the construction of the cabin we were in, and snippets from a life that wouldn't be too out of place in rural Michigan where I grew up. I imagine an intentional bachelor with strong family and community ties, accordion player and hunter, hobby farmer...

There was not a ton of visible wildlife around, but the lake had a small group of loons who visited a couple times.

We made one big expedition to Runde island in search of puffins. We're getting out into the western edge of Norway now, where the land devolves into islands. Roads here are intense, and thinking about setting up a transportation system here hurts my brain a little. Tunnels are a constant, bridges are many, and there are long stretches of road (including some long bridges) that can't really accommodate two lanes, so you really have to be on your toes. 

Getting to the puffins was a serious hike, starting with this doozy of an uphill trek.

We stopped here to pay the troll.

And finally made it to the top. There were different areas, colonies of gannets, great skuas, and puffins.

We were also lucky to see a few white tailed eagles, even saw two of them fighting in the air!

Lots of different spots to scare ourselves and try to get good views of the absolutely ridiculous puffins flapping their way in and out of their cliffside burrows.

I continued my work mastering the elements, calling a blustery gale to help the puffins return home.

Yesterday we transferred to our northern-most house on this trip in Bud at sixty three and a half degrees of latitude. Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Jon