Posts Tagged Norway
A good start
For once I was home the whole month of January (apart from a quick visit to London). It’s been nice, but the weather was so-so for my taste – very, very cold. Once again I confirmed that I’m not made for Nordic winters.
Being home it’s been quite interesting to follow the changes in the river running past the house. One evening it was just amazing to listen to the crackling ice. I wish I could record it for you all. I haven’t heard anything like it.
February is off to a very good start. Work is busy and interesting. Held a lecture at an event organized by the Embassy of Canada in Oslo on Wednesday and two days later I was at Cambridge University, holding a lecture at Judge Business School. The event in Cambridge was very rewarding. The passion, the interest, the curiosity, the participation, in general the vibe in and surrounding the different colleges is very inspiring and if I win the lottery something I would love to get better acquainted with. £50K is not something I just have laying around… :)
After a nice dinner with friends on Saturday night I enjoyed Oslo from its best winter side, cross-country skiing in Nordmarka with my dad and brother. On days like these I forget all about what I wrote earlier. It’s one of the best places to be. Sparkling white snow, bright sun a clear blue sky.
No pictures this time around, but I’ll make up for it in my next blogpost. In five days I travel again – going back to the more “natural” life of being here and there.
Nordmarka
Posted by NN in Personal, Photography on 090907
There are many things I love about my hometown Oslo. Nordmarka, the protected forests surrounding the West, North and East of the city, popularly called “Marka” is one of them. It’s a true haven for outdoor activities all year around.
This past weekend the sun was shining and I spent the better part of the day with my family, walking, enjoying the silence the smell of pine and the beautiful landscape. Of course, brought my little compact camera.
Snowing in at Arctic
Some of the top snowboarders in the world travel to Norway each year to compete in The Arctic Challenge. This year we traveled up to Linderudkollen above Oslo for a few days of great sport, fun and snow – lots and lots of snow.
Below you’ll see Terje Håkonsen, one of the true legends of the sport and founder of The Arctic Challenge in the air over the monster quarter pipe. In 2007 Terje flew 9.8 meters over the coping, setting a new world record. Sadly the weather conditions did not permit heights up to 20 meters (65 feet) above ground but the pro’s put on a spectacular show. Truly amazing athletes.
The tenth anniversary was literally covered in snow. For almost a week heavy snowfall have pounded Oslo creating a true winter wonderland – Beautiful to watch, but tough for the crew and shapers making the conditions as good as possible for the riders.
King winter has been kind
Less than a 20 minutes drive north of Oslo center you find Nordmarka, a haven for anyone with an inkling of the outdoors in his or her soul. Lakes and rivers surrounded by forested hills is the perfect backdrop for skiing of all kinds in the winter and fishing trips, hikes or a bicycle trip during the rest of the year.
Citizens of greater Oslo are very found of Nordmarka and spend a lot of time with open-air activities. Not surprisingly, Sundays are packed and on beautiful sunny days there almost queues on favorite paths. Today was not sunny, it was in fact quite the opposite, but with the heavy snowfall the past two days a lot had found their cross-country skis and set forth to many serviced cabins. It was very nice to ski with my father, brother, sister and her boyfriend earlier today. Now, a few hours later it feels well deserved to relax in the sofa – being very aware of my joints and muscles…
The heavy snowfall has clad Oslo in a beautiful white blanket. Looking at the all the people struggling with their cars, I’m happy I sold the red one last month. I’m also very fascinated by the changes in the river running next to the house. The picture below is taken before I went to bed last night, around midnight. I used my compact (G10) and set it to a 15 second exposure. It’s amazing how much light the camera finds in the white snow. I have a plan of setting up a camera in the window, taking one picture at noon everyday. Maybe for a week, month or year, we’ll see how patient I’ll be.
Lensbaby Yea, Smalahove Nay
Posted by NN in Personal, Photography on 090126
This post is really about the Smalahove, but I didn’t want to leave a post with only that image burning into your retina. So I decided to share the first picture I took with my new toy, the Lensbaby, taken from my living room. Tilt shifting is so much fun.
Deep in the Hardangerfjord on the Norwegian west coast you’ll find Voss. Not the home of the fancy artesian water VOSS, that’s from another part of Norway, but of the scores of the extreme. Many will think of sports, but I’m thinking of something much more dodgy. Namely a traditional dish called Smalahove, nothing less than a boiled sheep’s head served with rutabaga and potatoes.
A very good friend hails from Voss and every year he invites friends over for a proper Smalahove feast. With bottles of Aquavit at the ready we sat down around the table and mentally prepared ourselves for the heads to be served. Some like it, really look forward to it, I’m not one of them. I ate quite a bit once, quite a bit meaning a lot. But that was then, when my head was spinning with Aquavit. I’ve learned. Now I’m enjoying the time with friends, keeping my head straight and the boiled one untouched. (I just had to convert to dark black and white, it looks “better” then)
Xmas and frames
Two weeks Christmas vacation was just what I needed. Spending time at home with family and friends. Time to exhale, read and relax.
There is definitely no place like home. =)
For a long time I’ve been looking forward to this time. To finally have some extra time to go through the many digital photos I have left untouched on computer hard drives. But my home computer is getting old, too old, making it next to impossible to work with photography. So instead I picked up the box holding my film negatives. Taking the time to sort, categorize and store the thousands of frames properly was long overdue. Hopefully I can share a few in the not too distant future. In the mean time I take one step at the time completing my photo project. The ever-growing photo project….
Happy New Year!! 2009 is going to be great.
Summer vacation I – Setting sail
Posted by NN in Photography, Vacation on 080731
Summer two years ago. A wonderful week on “Villedagur”, a 27 feet sailing boat three close friends of mine bought a while ago. Could it be repeated this summer? The weather looked gloom. Grey skies and cold wind the week prior. There were also some technical issues with the engine that could have stopped us before we even left port. Engine you say, aren’t you sailing? Well, we’re not that good at it.
The day we planned to set sail came and the weather was – absolutely fantastic! With the mercury strolling past 30 degrees Celsius (that’s close to 90F), not a cloud in the sky and a gentle breeze we were ready for the open seas. Engine problems were solved, more than enough food and drinks stowed and SPF in abundance gave us a good outlook for the week.
Our timing was perfect. The sun kept shining through the week, the warmest, best week through the whole summer. The water was unbelievable warm. I remember fondly the really warm summers we had at the family summerhouse 10-20 years ago when the mercury tipped the 20C mark. This week the thermometer set a new record of 24 Celsius!! (75F). Let me remind you all. We were sailing out of the Oslo fjord, latitude 60 degrees north! That’s the same as Anchorage, Alaska. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the water.
The first day we sailed down to Ildverket. An old favorite of mine, close to our summerhouse on Brøtsø, stayed there for two nights before continuing down to Stavern. I must admit I do enjoy staying on smaller islands with fewer neighbors than the larger ports with hundreds of boats. Stavern was OK though, but it was nice to continue south the day after. We found a small island just south of Langesund, which was very nice. I kept beating myself for not bringing any hot dogs and/or hamburgers we could put on a makeshift barbecue – the place was perfect for a meat feast. We had great food though, so I won’t complain too much. The last leg was down to Kragerø, a beautiful town by the sea.
I’m glad we decided to set sail again. We were of course very luck with the weather. Oslo had a tremendous thunderstorm while we were further south. With two great sailing trips under our belt I’m really looking forward to the next. Summers are best spent at sea.
>> photos to come <<
This is the Age of Conan
Almost five years ago the journey started. Funcom, the company I’m with acquired the license to Conan the Barbarian. Since then we created and gathered the pieces, recreated the ancient world of Hyboria built a fantastic online game.
I usually don’t write about my personal life or my work directly for that matter, but I’ll make an exception today. I’m excited, scared and immensely proud of the game my colleagues and I have created. Over the past five years hundreds of people across three continents have spilled their blood, sweat and tears to make this world come to life. Millions of lines of code, thousands of animations, hundreds of hours of soundscape, and the list goes on an on. Over 30 magazine covers (to date) and praise and accolade from near and far. All very exciting but it’s the fantastic gaming community feedback that warm our hearts.
Age of Conan is ready for the world and the world has been waiting. Now the wait is over – let’s have some fun, together! I’m not going to write here on the world-wide-web for all to know the name of the characters I play or which server I’m on. But if you ask me, I’ll let you know, It’d be great to journey into Hyboria together.
You can watch videos and read more about the game at ageofconan.com
Listening to: Led Zeppelin / Black Dog
A walk along the river
Posted by NN in Home, Photography on 080428
A few weeks ago the new pride and joy of Oslo opened its doors. The new home of opera and ballet premiered with pomp, circumstance and a firework display not known to man north of Skagerak.
It is truly a magnificent building. Set in one of the dreariest places in town, it’s a white hope of what to come. I’ve seen the building plans and I can’t wait to see and feel the difference it will make to my dear hometown. It will be great… in ten years time.
What difference a little sunlight do. After a fairly grey winter we got the taste of spring last week. People were smiling, eating ice cream – I had one every day last week, I took my bike to work and all was well. The past weekend I followed the river running outside my house down to the city center. A 30-minute walk, and what a walk it is. Anyone visiting should join me for a stroll.
Den Norske Opera & Ballett
A walk along the river from my home to the center of Oslo
Listening to: Explosions in the Sky / First Breath After Coma
Coming down the mountain
It was very nice to spend time with friends at Øknevann. It’s been a while, a few years in fact, since last I was up at there. A three, four hours drive up through Hallingdalen from Oslo. Close to Torpo, between Gol and Ål for those who know their way.
We arrived in the early afternoon on Thursday. It was snowing hard, the sky as white as the ground below us. Flurries everywhere, and quite cold. Started the vacation with digging room for the car through the two-, three-meter high bank of snow next to the narrow road. After a quick lunch we started on the roofs of the three cabins, digging and sawing of the heavy piles of snow. Surfing on top of the large blocks of snow, sliding of the roof was great fun, and a bit dangerous. One time I landed right before the massive slab of snow knocked me down, before collapsing over my legs. I lay there laughing my stuck ass off…
The day after was just as white, with stronger winds. After a long breakfast we put on our skies and went separate ways. Some farther than others, one lifting his kite and sailed into the landscape. Back at the cabin, I swapped my skis with snowshoes. I went for a walk in the deep snow with my camera. Much to my dismay the wind picked up making it very hard to photograph. Spent the time to dig trenches through the snow between the cabins instead. After shuffling the rooftops and digging deep walkways I was wondering what kind of vacation this would be.
Then, waking up the next morning to a clear blue ski, blistering sun and -11 Celsius I finally got the vacation I wanted. It was absolutely fabulous to walk into the mountains, surrounded by white landscape with majestic snowcapped mountains in the distance, the warm sun in the face. In short, the days following gave us a very nice Easter vacation.
Now, back in Oslo I have a day left before I head back to work. It gives me time to enjoy some good weather in my city too, and if all goes well, spend some time with my photography.
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Listening to: Sigur Rós / Vaka