Bringing Things in Order!

I was very German today: I brought order into things - well at least I was trying!

The day started normal, I fixed some daily stuff at work and was then working on the new website again. It is more and more fun, since I start seeing the improvements. In the beginning you dont really wanna start, because there is such a huge pile of work in front of you. The more you work the more you start seeing the progress and the more you start seeing the value of your work!

Anyways, during my lunch break I was fixing something for university. I had to get my courses from my year abroad acknowledged by my university in Germany and had to fill out some forms for it. I already got the paper, where all courses were listed, which were accepted by and transferred to my uni. However, I was not quite happy with it, because of 23 courses I had in Helsinki only 9 were acknowledged - that's about 39%.

So I looked up the course descriptions of both universities and was comparing them. Then I wrote a long e-mail with my explanation, why I want to have them acknowledged and basically now my university would have to come up with pretty good arguments, why they would not be accepted. If everything goes, how I would like it to go I will have only one course when returning to my home university.

The afternoon went slowly and I was working on some few things that T. had given me. But since I was quite tired I called it a day very punctual.

When I got home I quickly passed by the shop and bought some food. I was sitting around, was watching some podcasts online, reading some news and stumbling through the web. Then I had some dinner and now I just cleaned up my mess. Two days ago in some kind of panic I took a lot of things out of my shelve and threw them on the floor. I was looking for my calender and couldn't find it. When I finally had it, I was too happy to clean up my room again.

So, all the things were on the floor, my laundry was also hanging in my room for some time and so I decided to bring order to my room. Now everything is nice again, I am going to fold my clothes now, while enjoying a freezing cold beer. I just felt like it today!

~M~

Motivation-Gap!

I am lacking on motivation right now (again)! I dont know what it is, but I am not so motivated to go to work, at work and even after work. I reckon it is because I am not really involved into the daily business at work anymore, just doing gap filler work and also because my weekends are just too nice. 

The problem really is, that after work it is dark and cold, which means, that the only things you can do would be indoors; also, since you dont get enough light during the day you are generally very tired after work and in the evening, which kills the motivation even for leisure activities. On the weekends then you do so many things and feel how good it is to be with friends and to get some daylight. The weekend anyways is always too short, but in winter this feeling is extreme.

Anyways, my time here is soon over, which doesn't mean, that I do not like it here. Now that I get more and more acquaintances and friend the city becomes livable; It is really that you need like half a year to arrive at a place, it's just so bad, that, when doing an internship, you normally leave by then again. I had the same during my time on Tenerife, where I was working in a hotel. I met a German guy, who I hang out with a lot and also many other people with whom I had a good time. But exactly in the moment where they turned from acquaintances to something like friend I left again!

Anyways, I am now going to chill a bit. I had an early dinner, since I was so hungry. I am listening to The Cat Empire again and am sad, that I didn't manage to go to one of their concerts in Europe this year. I really have to see them live again, last time it was so great fun! 

~M~

Sunday Outing!

I just came back from our Sunday outing, which almost became traditional and obligatory! It is funny, basically every Sunday for the last weeks I was out doing something together with J. & L.!

I got up around 9.30 this morning after going to bed rather early yesterday. A. had invited to her place for dinner and so we went! We arrived there round 8 o'clock, when A. was still preparing together with two other French guys the dinner. She had made some kind of meat with bacon and cheese and as a side dish potatoes. It was really nice. L. had brought appetizers and J. had brought a cake for dessert; additionally A. made apple crumble, which was super delicious.

So we sat, had 3-course dinner and were drinking wine and talking and laughing. After dinner A. was showing us some photo books that she made and that reminded me, that I should also start again one of these books for my time here in Norway. I really like the way she has done it and I for sure will copy some of the layout ideas. Anyways, since on Friday we had been so long at L's place, we were all tired and after a couple of hours, at around 12 o'clock in the night, we left A's place.

 

This morning I got up earlier than yesterday, since we agreed to meet up today at the metro station to go to Bogstad Gård, an old farm and mansion a bit outside of Oslo, since there was a Christmas market. So after I had lazy breakfast and a nice coffee we met up at the Nationaltheatret and took the metro out of Oslo, we changed to a bus, which brought is directly to the mansion.

We walked around the stands inside and also the ones outside. However, we did not stay long outside, since it started snowing last night and didn't sop until now; additionally it is really windy and therefore we have some kind of blizzard coming down right now!

 

After walking around the stands we went into one of the old stables, where there was a children workshop. The children were putting together construction kits of wood. The parents or some elderly people were helping them. It was so funny to see all the pairs of young and old building wooden toolboxes and birdhouses. 

We watched for a while and then we went to another stable, where there were actually animals. We were looking at the sheep, the goats and the piglets for a while and then went over to one cafe to have some coffee, hot chocolate, waffles and cake. When we had finished, what we had ordered A. got out the rests of the cake from yesterday, that she had brought. So we were sitting in the cafe and eating our own cake!

After some time we decided to leave and go back home. We realized, that the bus had just left and since we didn't wanted to wait one more hour - as I said, this farm was a bit outside of Oslo and didn't had very good connections - we decided to walk to the metro station. 

It was such a nice walk, although it was windy and snowing; Somehow it was the perfect weather for going to a Christmas market and so we didn't mind. On the way back we walked through deep/high snow drifts and over black ice. We walked very careful and luckily nobody fell.

Now I am back home here, I walked from Stortinget and was full of snow when I arrived. I just made tea, will work on the pictures now and add them to the blog. I am staying home tonight, since I have to work tomorrow again. The weekend was again way too short!

~M~

Friday Dinner

I just got up an hour ago and had breakfast. Now I am sitting here and was looking at the pictures from yesterday evening and am listening to music.

It was a good evening with good food and nice people. After work, which was quite dull again, we went to L's place. She had invited for dinner and since I proposed a recipe L. wanted me to help her cook. So straight after work I went with her to the supermarket and bought the things we needed. At her place we started to cook and soon also the others arrived and brought the appetizer and the wine.

 

I had proposed to make pork fillet with Spätzle and a creamy sauce. I have just three weeks left here and still had so many Spätzle my parents sent me; I just never found the opportunity to make them. So basically to get rid of them - and also to have a nice dinner - I was proposing this dish.

While I was frying the meat and making the sauce the others prepared the starter, which was insalata caprese, also known as tomato mozzarella salad. While eating this, we cooked the Spätzle and when we were done with the starter the main course was ready!

We enjoyed it very much and ate up everything. I really enjoyed the food and was happy to eat "my mom's food" again. This dish is a quite common thing we eat at home and since my mom wrote down some of her recipes for me I was more than happy, that it tasted exactly like when she makes it.

As dessert we were eating Printen, soft gingerbread and Baumkuchen. Printen is a specialty from my hometown and the gingerbread as well as the Baumkuchen are things we traditionally eat around Christmas in Germany. L. had brought these things from Germany, where she had been last week. It was really tasty and went very good with the wine.

 

So we were sitting, eating, talking and drinking until late in the night. We stayed until 3 o'clock and then went home. Outside it was freezing; it was -13°C and stormy, which meant, that it felt even colder and we were freezing. I put the collar of my coat up and was hurrying to get home. 

 

Back home, my flatmates were sitting in the kitchen and since the cold air had woken me up I joined them and we were talking about this and that. It was nice and suddenly we realized that it was already after 5 o'clock and so we decided to go to bed. 

All in all it was a really nice evening and I enjoyed it. Today I am going to do nothing during the day. I have to go to the shop quickly and then in the evening I am invited to A's place. It's already getting dark and it is just 3 o'clock, that crazy! Anyways, now I am going to put pictures to the blog and fix myself to go out!

~M~

Normal life!

I am back to normal. I had a normal day at work and was doing again a lot on the new website of the company. There are many small things still undone and so we can not start it. My duty right now is to fix these small things to get the website finally up and running!

There is nothing special to tell about. I am counting the days that I have left here with mixed feelings, but somehow I can't wait for the future to begin. I always say, that I like changes. I don't like to be for too long in the same place, in the same job, in the same situation. Soon my life will change again and I am happy about it. Even more happy makes me, that I will be together with A.!

It makes me happy to know, that my life will change a lot in the next months; I will be moving back to Germany, will first live with my parents and - hopefully - work in my hometown; then I will continue my studies and soon I will graduate. These are so many changes in half a year and this is what makes life interesting. I really feel how much I need this right now and I know somehow it will all work out fine!

~M~

Norway in a Nutshell!

I am back in town, after a wonderful trip from Bergen through the Fjords of Norway and back to Oslo. It was a really nice long weekend together with A., which was extremely needed!

The long weekend started on Friday after work. I went home, packed the rest of my stuff, had some dinner and made my way to the airport here in Oslo. I took the flight to Bergen, where I waited at the airport for A. to arrive. She came from Stockholm and while waiting for her I just realized, how jet-set we are; I come from Oslo, she comes from Stockholm, we are meeting at the airport in Bergen for a long weekend. I think the only way how it could be even more jet-set, if the cities would be New York, London and Tokyo instead.

 

Anyways, we met up after, what felt like an eternity, and went together to Bergen City by bus. We checked into the hotel and just quickly went up to the room to leave our stuff. 

A. had been out the night before, had been hungover the whole day and was craving for any kind of food. So we walked to the center and decided to go to Peppe's Pizza, since everything else was already closed.

The next morning we slept as long as we could to still get some breakfast. We had lazy breakfast with many different things and were sitting long and just talking. We eventually went out and walked along Marken to the city and the harbor. 

 

We made our way to the lower terminus of the Fløibanen funicular and took it up to the top of Mount Fløyen, from where we had a wonderful view over the city.

Although it was quite cold, we were really lucky with the weather, since it is mostly raining in Bergen. Not without reason the chapter about Bergen in my RoughGuide starts like this:

As it has been raining ever since she arrived in the city, a tourist stops a young boy and asks him if it always rains here. "I don't know," he replies, "I'm only thirteen."

Although the joke is not very good, it seems to be some kind of a truth, since everybody who I talked to beforehand told me to bring rainproof clothing.

Anyways, we enjoyed the view and since A. got a bit of "altitude sickness" we started to walk down to the city center. On the way we walked through a beautiful forest, from whose clearings we had good views towards the city and the small archipelago before Bergen. 

We walked through steep streets with nice wooden houses back to the center. We stopped by the famous Bryggen Wharf and then walked back to the hotel, since it was getting already dark and even colder. After a short nap and some relaxed time, we went to town to have dinner.

 

The next day started early. We had to catch the train at 8.40 to go onto the Norway in a Nutshell Tour. This tour is one of the most famous tourist routes in Norway and shows basically every kind of landscape you can expect in this country; beautiful cities, narrow fjords and barren mountain tops. The  tour can be done in various ways and versions, but we decided to take one, which goes from Bergen to Oslo. 

We traveled from Bergen by train along the fjord to Voss, changed there to a bus, which brought us over scenic mountain roads to Gudvangen. In Gudvangen we embarked a 2-hour fjord cruise to the fjord village of Flåm.

 

Flåm is Norway's only fjord village with train connection, the world famous Flåmsbana. We stayed there and this had been the right decision. 

Not only was it getting dark, but also were we, both A. and I, so overwhelmed by the impressions, that we simply couldn't take more. The landscape is amazing and the views are just impressive and breathtaking.

The afternoon in Flåm we spend relaxing. After a short walk through the village, which is purely focused on the masses of tourists coming there every summer, we had a snack in the cafe of the hotel and went then to the room. 

We had a nap and were relaxing in the room. When we went out again we realized, that we were about the only people in Flåm. The hotels were empty and we were the only guests in the restaurant in the evening. It was kinda scary, but on the other hand extremely relaxing.

The next morning we slept long. Our train was leaving at 11.30 and since we were the only guests in the hotel we had decided to have breakfast at 10 in the morning. This was nice for the staff, since they also could sleep longer. In the breakfast room we were again the only guests and were enjoying again a large buffet. Although there was nobody else, the hotel had prepared a lot of different kinds of food for us. It was really nice!

We took the Flåmsbana all the way to Myrdal. It was passing through wild and beautiful mountain scenery with waterfalls and steep mountain sides. The only drawback was, that the waterfalls were all frozen and the sites were not quite living up to the expectations created by the impressive pictures we had seen before.

Kjosfossen normally and how we saw it!

Anyways, it was a nice ride and it continued to be nice after changing the train in Myrdal. The Bergen Railway took us over the mountain tops with Finse on 1.222m as the highest point to Oslo. The 5-hour journey we spend talking, sleeping and drinking disgusting coffee. However, it was a wonderful time and I really enjoyed this trip with A. 

As I said before, we both really needed the time together. Luckily I had not only the Monday, but also the Tuesday off and so we could spend some quality time together in Oslo. This morning I went to work and A. packed her stuff and left after a short visit at my office. She is now going back to Stockholm and from there - after a one night stop over - back to Finland.

I will be here for 3 more weeks and will make the best out of it. After such a nice trip and such a good time with A. it was hard to start working again. Although it felt good to be back and to see all the other people again. I really like the office and my colleagues. I can't wait fro Friday, though, when my colleague L. invited a few people for dinner at her place.

This weekend was really nice and I can just recommend this country to everybody. It was nice to go off season, since I know the masses of people going on this tour during summer. It was nice, but sometimes a bit too quiet. More shops should have been open and more activities should have been offered. I reckon the best time to go to the fjords is the spring. I didn't see everything and this is good. There is no must-see in any place of the world, just relax and see some sights and soak in the atmosphere, you can always come back at some point!

~M~