Trollvasbu

We were planning a ski trip yesterday, but unfortunately found out that our alarm clock had stopped working! A real shame, as it was a very nice day. I took this picture from our balcony, the sun is finally back for real! We saw it on Friday too, but just when we were having lunch and it only came above the mountains for about 15 minutes.

Today, equipped with a new alarm clock (vekkerklokke) ;), we got up early and drove north on the mainland. We skied to a cabin called Trollvasbu. We had never been to any of the mountain cabins before, and we stopped for lunch so we could see what they are like - very nice! Inside a fire was burning, and a dad was having a meal with two young children while 4 girls were playing cards.  This cabin had 4 bedrooms, would be nice to go on an overnight trip and stay in a cabin like this! Below on the left is where the wood is kept, and where the toilets are... and on the right the main cabin.

All the ski's next to the entrance... the ones on the left are mine! Meanwhile Paul was becoming impatient (and cold) while I was taking photos...

The dad with the two young kids was dog sledding! He left when we were just about to leave as well, so I managed to take some photos.  Both the kids are inside the sledge, it looked really cute!

The days are not very long yet, so we turned around there and went back to the car. This area is really nice, real Arctic tundra with very gentle slopes - great for my skiing abilities :)

Sunrise

How am I supposed to stay in my office when it looks like this outside??

Soldagen

The 21st of January is "Soldagen" in Tromsø - the day when the sun can be seen for the first time (since November). Actually the sun has been above the horizon since the 15th of January, but since there are some mountains in the way, it takes a bit longer to actually see it from town. Traditionally people drink hot chocolate and eat a "Solbolle". A solbolle is actually nothing more than a Berliner (a kind of doughnut, Berlinerbol in Dutch), but they have just renamed it for the occasion. In fact, during the rest of the year they are called berlinerboller here too, crazy Norwegians!

Anyway... I tried to catch a glimpse of the sun, but it was hiding behind the clouds. Never mind, it was still very beautiful. I watched it from my office, and tried to take photos, but found out that the windows are very dirty :) So I braved the cold wind and walked to the end of the pier near NPI. Nice view...

In the photo below you can see the Norwegian Polar Institute (where I have my office) on the left. The strange white thing next to it is Polaria (a museum), this building is supposed to look like ice shelves but from this perspective you can't see that. The glass building to the right belongs to Polaria and houses the M/S Polstjerna, an old sealing vessel.

  

The sunset was spectacular! 

I am glad the sun is returning, you can really see the difference in daylight from day to day. I don't have major problems when it's dark, though it does seem to make you more tired (and I definitely find it harder to get out of bed in the morning when it's still completely dark!), but I do prefer longer/lighter days :)

"Full-time traveller, part-time worker, professional dreamer"

This is a quote from the film "Encounters at the End of the World", a documentary by Werner Herzog (who also made "Grizzly Man"). In this documentary, Werner Herzog travels to McMurdo, a US research station in Antarctica. He's interested in the landscape, but also very much in the stories of the people (scientists, engineers etc) staying there. He meets some crazy characters and the film is full of brilliant quotes. A linguist working in a greenhouse (long story!), when asked how he ended up in Antarctica explains: "When we have nothing to hold on to, we all fall to the bottom of the Earth". The quote in the title came from a forklift driver, referring to the scientists working in Antarctica. It makes a very entertaining (and funny!) documentary. He also shows really fascinating footage filmed by divers underneath the sea ice, and shows various research projects. I absolutely loved this film, and would recommend it to anyone - not just to scientists! I'm not sure how easy it is to find a screening, at the very least here is a trailer.

We saw this film as part of the Tromsø International Film Festival, a very welcome distraction at a time when it's mostly dark! We're seeing 6 films in 5 days, tonight is the last one. Some highlights of other films we saw: Man on Wire, a documentary showing the incredible story of the French tight rope walker Philippe Petit who walked between the Twin Towers in New York, in 1974 - at a height of 450 m!! Of course this was not allowed and it all had to be planned in secret. Incredible! We also saw a few short films, the best of which a very funny one about a guy going up the cable car above Tromsø, planning to commit suicide but then the cable car stops half way up and he is stuck with 2 sisters and the conductor. 

Anyway... enough about films ;) We haven't been up to much else though. Last weekend the weather was horrible, it rained for 2 days and all the snow melted. So we made fudge instead :) It was our first try, it was lots of fun and it turned out REALLY good.... 

  

This weekend the weather has been a lot better, and we went for a ski trip today. The sun is also back!! I haven't had the sun on my face yet, but the days are getting longer quickly now. I didn't take many photos today, but here are two... it was beautiful!

 

I almost forget to share some good news here... I have been given an office at the Norwegian Polar Institute! I am using the office of someone who is abroad for several months - so I even have an office all to myself, with a great view! I'm really happy about this, and it's been great working there instead of at the dining table at home. In return, I have to give a talk, but I think that is only fair.

That's all for now, we have to go see our last film now!

Welcome to Norway!

We arrived back in Tromsø last Tuesday, and this time I am here to stay! So I had to change the title of this blog, no more Norwich for me...

We arrived late at night, in a snowstorm. The plane had to circle around the airport for an hour before they had cleared the runway enough for us to land. We were actually very lucky to land, flights before and after ours were diverted to Bodø - this means a bus journey of more than 8 hours to get to Tromsø!! A LOT of snow fell that day, and on arriving home we were greeted by this sight...

  

Even the taxi driver was amazed, he asked us what make of car was underneath that mountain and said he had never seen it this bad! The next day I decided to combine my good resolution of getting more exercise with the need of digging out the car... it took me 2 hours!! 2 hours of very hard work, I literally had to dig out the car and all the snow has to be transported to the back garden which is quite a walk. Then I also had to suffer our favourite neighbour, one of these persons who peeks behind their curtain all day. This one also knows everything better... Picture this: I made one wrong step on the path in the back garden and was up to my hips in the snow, trying to get out. He immediately opens his bathroom window to tell me that I shouldn't step next to the path. THANKS!!! Ohh well ;) I did get my exercise, more than I had asked for in fact, I am still hurting. And today it has been snowing a lot, so the car is getting covered again - guess I don't need a gym here! Here's a picture to show that there was indeed a caddy underneath all that snow...

The days are dark and cold here, but the sun is coming back next week :) and the film festival is also starting on Tuesday, so there are many nice things to look forward to. Besides, I've got lots of work to do this month! The weather forecast for this weekend is showing temperatures of +5 °C and RAIN... Hmm. Perhaps a good weekend to have our first go at making fudge :)

Wales

We spent last week in Wales, and were lucky enough to have sunny (but cold) weather every day. We arrived on Monday evening, and at night we went for a walk. It was a clear night and all the stars were out, we could even see the Milky Way! 

We decided to try taking a star trail image. We left the camera open for about 20 minutes, and below you can see how much the stars "move" (or rather how much the Earth rotates) in that much time. Each line is one single star! The problem with taking such long exposures is that you quickly get light pollution overexposing your image, even when there hardly are any lights. The wriggly line in the photo (near the bottom) is me walking around while using the flashlight on my phone :-) you can even see where I switched it off and instead you can see the faint green glow of the screen!

The next day was very sunny, and we decided to walk from Llandanwg to Harlech along the beach. We found something very interesting on the beach, see the photos below! These were big structures made out of sand (the second image is a close-up and shows the structure very well) with lots and lots of tunnels... in each of them lives a worm! I was very fascinated by this, and have tried to find out more. After a long search I found out they are called honeycomb worms and I found this BBC article about them - apparently they have only recently come back to the coast of North Wales, after being absent for 60 years!

We continued our walk towards Harlech, below you can see Harlech castle and the dunes. It was beautiful just after sunset, with the mountains only just visible in the mist. 

The next day we decided to visit Cregennan Lakes, near Barmouth. The drive there was beautiful, with some areas completely white because of frost. There were quite a lot of people at the lakes. We walked around the partly frozen lake for a bit and then decided to go up Bryn Brith, the mountain (well, only 383 m) you can see in both photos below. 

The views from there were really good though! In the photos below you can see Barmouth (with the railway bridge) on the left, and on the right the whole panorama from the top of the mountain.

We walked along the ridge for a while before coming back down to the lakes...

By that time it was past sunset, and the last evening colours were beautifully reflected in the lake. It had also calmed down so the lake was like a mirror.

The next day was New Year's Day and we went to visit Portmeirion. This is quite a special place! It's built in Italian style, between 1925 and 1975, designed by Clough Williams-Ellis. He also used parts of buildings that were being demolished elsewhere, so some buildings are a lot older, like the building in the foreground of the second photo below. You have to pay an entrance fee to enter the village (£7), but we had free tickets :). The village is very beautiful, with many colourful buildings:

It's located on the estuary of the river Dwyryd. The tidal differences are very large there (this is in the same location as the island we walked to at low tide last time we were in Wales!). There is a nice path that follows the coast. We also found a few "wishing trees", tree trunks with coins hammered into them for good luck. Strange sight!

There were lots of robins around, some of them were not shy at all! I played around with my new lens and got some nice photos. I also entertained some other visitors by trying to do a 360 degree turn while squatted - I think the robin was hopping around me in a circle on purpose!

Paul was having fun in a small lighthouse... the other two photos are taken at low tide out on the estuary at sunset - beautiful!

Portmeirion looked beautiful in the evening light too, especially with all the Christmas lights turned on. All the buildings in the town are either shops/cafes or holiday accommodation - must be quite a nice place to stay! I thought it would have a very artificial feel, but it didn't really - maybe because it was New Year's Day, with not many visitors and all the shops closed.

On Friday, our last day in Wales, we went for a long walk, from Mochras ("Shell Island") to Barmouth, along the beach. The day started cloudy, but it soon cleared up. It was a beautiful walk, especially since there were many parts of the beach with a thin layer of water on it, reflecting the sky!

We drove back to London that evening. We haven't been up to much here, just relaxing and enjoying our last days in England. Only two more days left before we fly back to Tromsø. Strange to think I am actually "really" leaving England this time... but excited about starting a new life there!