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

Good lord, Sognefjord!

 

Vik is a small town on the shores of the Sognefjord, the largest fjord in Norway. we stayed in a nice house on the outskirts overlooking rows of raspberries, snow speckled mountains, dramatic skies, and a decent view of this section of the fjord. The sound of the many mountain streams that empty into the fjord was constant background noise. 

Still struggling with sleep a bit. This is a view from our porch at midnight.

Most of our days here consisted of picking a direction and driving until the roads gave up, which usually turned out to coincide with a trailhead. We took one big hike up the Storelvi river to some waterfalls, with a stop for some delicious trail sandwiches and later to dip our feet in the icy river.

On our way in to Vik, we drove through Skjelingavatnet nature preserve, a mountain pass near a ski area that still has lots of snow, and lakes with chunks of ice floating around. We backtracked a few days later to walk around up there, and also did some short hikes closer to sea level, where we were greeted by these cute cows.

I practiced my mastery of the elements by creating this cloudscape.

We took a ferry to explore the north side of the fjord, and engage in some discin' at Vadheim. Most communities past a certain size have a sports and activities complex with a football pitch, some tennis courts, and a playground. Alot of these complexes have disc golf courses (discgolfbane) attached in the surrounding woods. We're both getting a little better, and only occasionally toss the discs into the river...

Soon enough it was time to move on. We headed north through fjord country, with a discin' stop at Kaupanger; they had a big 20 hole course, but we stuck with the Kalven course (Norwegian for "the calf"). Also stopped at Boyabreen glacier to test the cloudy glacier water.

And our next adventure begins at this little cabin in Stryn on the northern edge of Vestland county on the shores of lake Svingesetvatnet. There's grass on the roof, coffee in the pot, sheep bells tinkling in the hills, wagtails chirping in the rosebush, loons on the lake, and mist in the trees.

Let's see what's next! Lots of love, Jon.

First Norway foray

 

We started our Norway adventure in a small community called Leveld, staying on a sheep farm with an absolutely glorious view over the surrounding valley.

Plenty of hikes through lush forests and fields of wildflowers, lots of running water and mountain lakes, whole ecosystems of lichens.

While searching Google maps for hikes, ran across a number of frisbee golf courses. I was reminded of  a trip to see cousin Dan in Bozeman many years ago where we played on the slopes of the Rockies, and how it was a great way to get out in nature and also have some fun. We got some frisbees and tried a course, and pretty quickly realized why they have special discs for this activity. We were playing with toys! We geared up a little better for the future courses, and this is probably going to be a staple of our activities for the remainder of the trip.

On our third outing near a little town called Gol it was raining a little. One of us was pretty excited, the other found that their disc logo aptly expressed their feelings...

Watch the technique...

These stave churches are a real thing here. Interesting architecture, lots of dragons and cool carving. Covered with pitch so they're black, they can have a real menacing, heavy metal feel to them. Then you look inside and imagine cold, poor farmers standing around listening to a sermon in a tiny dark room, and you get a different feeling...

Lovely cold swim at Trytetjern badevann.

Our four days in Leveld were just what we needed after a lot of time in cities. We did laundry and cooked our own food and did things on our own schedule. The light is a challenge for sleeping, but it also means that there's decent weather and you can see well for like 20 hours of the day (it never really gets dark). I'm gradually getting more used to it.

On to Bergen, with a twisty drive through mountains and fjords, lots of lookouts and tunnels.

Including the world's longest car tunnel; took about 20 minutes, had rest stops along the way with "sunrise" lighting...

Had some goat and a beer at the viking-themed Aegir brewery in Flam.

Bergen was aight: cute little seaside town, statues getting attacked by birds, and we ran into a performance by the Norwegian Marine band in a square.

Did a fjord cruise, where we saw some nice scenery and tons of waterfalls.

Next was another crazy drive over a mountain pass, dodging sheep...

With a nice soft landing at our next spot on a raspberry farm in Vik.

More to come, lots of love, Jon.

Northern cities

Reflections

Nothing makes me feel more like a whiny child than the end of the school year: impatience, intense boredom and anticipation, plenty of conflicting emotions. In the past, this period has been a real let-down, full of feeling like I didn't do enough, or didn't make strong enough connections with people, or missed opportunities to do something interesting or fun. 

This school year, I feel like I'm old enough to not take things too seriously. There are some new, engaging challenges as I prepare to take on the department head position next year. My approach to the last few days of school where there's not much going on was much more relaxed and less structured, giving me time to just have some conversations with students, and a little bit of fun with them. Spent appropriate time and effort on various social engagements without trying too hard to pack things in. 

Back in October of 2022, I went on my first professional trip since COVID to Addis Ababa. Joining me on that trip were a couple of guys that ended up forming my primary friend group for the past couple of years, Josh and Andy (cousin Ross joined us this year as well). Andy's moving on this year to another school, and I'll miss our long hot walks in the park at least as much as our drinking sessions. Carry on, Andy, carry on!

For the amount of time we spent together, I just couldn't find a picture with all four of us in it, so I had to put my photo editing skills to use.

Helsinki

Back in 2018 in Glasgow, we stumbled upon a parade that I'll remember forever. Our second day in Helsinki brought me back to that time with their incredible Samba parade. It was made up of different troupes singing, playing music, and dancing. The first troupe lasted maybe 40 minutes, could have been the whole parade on their own, and played the same song, continuously, all together. Like a mile of people stretched out all keeping in time together through clever use of speakers and microphones and wranglers. Really invigorating way to start our trip!

We had mostly beautiful, if slightly chilly, weather, and spent lots of time taking boat cruises and walking around this cute little city. It's a real archipelago, and it was interesting to see all of the little island communities and coastal houses, many of which had their own little sauna houses by the water.

Had a lovely sauna day at Loyly, where we alternated between the hot sauna and the very cold Baltic sea. More invigoration! I could get used to the sauna lifestyle, but I need the cold part or I would be sweating all day. 

Copenhagen

This was our second time in Copenhagen in a year, but this time Rani had both feet available! We came back to meet up with Matt and Sarah and a couple of their friends from Tacoma, with whom I went to see METALLICA! They are currently on the Scandinavian leg of their tour, and we'd been seeing a frankly ridiculous amount of Metallica t-shirts on the streets of Helsinki and Copenhagen, so now it was time to join in.

It's been a long time since I've been to a big show, probably since college, and it was intense! Lots of huge screens, which was good since we were pretty far away. The huge round stage was weird; at times, the members of the band were really far away from each other, although Metallica worked this much better than the opening acts, spending most of their time clumped together at various locations. They were also there long enough to have multiple drum setups in different locations. It was awesome!

Ate some delicious BBQ at Warpigs brewpub and had a crazy night out with the crew, which ended up at a speakeasy.

And once again enjoyed the outdoor food halls, this time with friends!

There are a series of lakes in the middle of Copenhagen which used to form a sort of moat, but are now a great place for a morning jog and to watch the swans doing yoga.

Gothenburg

When we do long trips like this, we often keep track of little milestones along the way. The taxi to the airport in Doha was our last for maybe two months (we tried to pack kind of light and are trying to use public transportation exclusively). Our flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen was the last time we have to fly for about a month. The concert in Copenhagen was the last time we will see anyone we know for about a month. 

Maybe just to complete the Scandinavian tetrafecta, but also to break up the train trip to Norway, we stopped in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg has...

A canal tour with LOW bridges, one of which has a sculpture of a cheese slicer right above your head!

Some unexpectedly weird architecture (like, not a place you'd expect skyscrapers), including some buildings which are sinking! Pictured are twisty Karlatornet (tallest building in the Nordic countries), red and white "lipstick" building (guarded by a giant old ship), sagging Merkurhuset, and the weirdly topheavy Draken hotel.

Some great street art (with beautiful ladies presenting it).

An impressive botanical garden, with a magical Japanese dell, riotous wildflower meadows, and one really pushy duck.

On to Norway

We had a nice train ride from Gothenburg, got a sneak peak of Oslo, picked up our car, and headed out into the wilds of Norway. I'm writing this from the sunny kitchen and deck of a little house on a sheep farm in Leveld, Norway, looking out at the magnificent green hills, most of which have a little snow left on top of them, and maybe just a hint of the Vargebreen glacier in the background, digging life. More later, love you all, Jon