A midsummer night's dream

It has been something of an intense couple of weeks :). It's not that I haven't had things to post about, quite the contrary. Instead, there barely seemed to be a quiet moment to string together a few thoughts out of the rush of things.

Running between one apartment and the other is tedious business. There is more than a little bit of neither here nor there going on. But that all ended yesterday when I finally packed up and moved everything over. So I suppose it's official :).

In between there was much ado over furniture and such other things. And a weekend trip to Sweden over midsummer! Yeah, trust me to plunge headlong into a road trip when I've got a zillion other things to do :). It was a really brilliant break from things though. The weather wasn't exactly on best behaviour. But neither did it completely ruin things. Far from it in fact.

Given midsummer is about the biggest holiday in Sweden, we followed suit and started the weekend at a cabin out on the fjords a bit north west of Gothenburg. The idea was more to relax and enjoy the scenery than anything else. Which worked out, with a bit more of lazing about than scenery hunting :).

The next morning we were off to Gothenburg, but with a couple of detours. First a quick stop at Skärhamn, at the watercolour museum. (Why have one there you ask? Well, why not?) And then a not so quick stop at Marstrand, spent mostly delving into the entertainingly maze-like Carlstens Fästning!

For something we almost skipped for lack of a parking spot, that was an afternoon very well spent :). The best part of the tour, if you ask me, was the haphazardness. More specifically, there's no fixed route you can take in your exploration through the castle. There are actual (formerly) secret passageways! And they take you on a mad spinning trip around through and under the stone walls, bringing you out again through random gateways.

Eventually I think we left mostly as we were satisfied we'd explored the lot. But it might also have had something to do with the fact that by then we were all really starving :). Finally when we did show up at our hotel in the middle of Gothenburg, the clouds that had been threatening to burst decided to do so.

Of course they waited till we were out exploring the city on foot. We countered by hiding for the rest of the evening in one of the cafés along the Avenue, a perfect place for people watching and good food :).

The next day we fared much better with the exploration of the city! Randomly picking fancy looking buildings in the distance and heading in the general direction doesn't often yield rewards, but for us, on this day, it worked like a charm!

One of the things I'd never done, possibly surprisingly, is visit an amusement park. Or ride a roller coaster. Given that Liseberg was barely a couple of miles from the hotel, we couldn't possibly miss it. As it turned out, I'd picked some particularly hardcore company :).

I did my bit, even went on three roller coasters! But after that I was content on taking photos of other people doing crazy things :P. There's a special thrill in managing to catch specific people on a snapshot from several hundred metres away as they plunge in free fall :D.

So that was last weekend. And then this weekend came the move. But it's only now, after having unpacked all the bags and stored them away, after a ton of other minor details have been sorted, that I finally feel like I'm home :). Well, sort of. It'll be nicer when they finally deliver my sofa, I bet!

Currently: moved in

Listening to: Edward Shearmur - 27th July

Of biking trails and modular furniture

In a lot of ways, it's been a pretty big week! With great weather for the most part. I took advantage of the weather the first few days and went on something of a biking expedition around the water bodies strewn around Asker. Even hit 350km since I bought this bike :).

For years I'd been familiar with the few closest lakes, and while they make for some beautiful walks, a bike unlocks significantly wider territories for exploration :). I went far enough to actually end up next to one of the inland fjords in the area, Tyrifjorden. The views, as expected, more than made up for the punishing biking terrain.

That's the trouble with living in Asker. No matter which way you come from, if you've been more than 5 kilometres away, it's an uphill climb back home. Gullhella isn't a whole lot better, but when you're willing those pedals to keep moving, every metre of elevation counts. Reason I bring this up is that that's where my new apartment is!

Finally got the keys this week and it was a novel experience as I explored the apartment I'd previously seen filled with signs of the previous owners' life, empty. Waiting, I felt :). That's a good thing right? But I couldn't shake the feeling that the floor looked relieved to be out in the open after years of hiding under couches or tables or whatever else.

I wasn't really planning on the no-furniture-sleep-on-a-mattress deal, so the last couple of days were spent hiding some of that floor back under some new stuff. At least the shapes of the shadows will be different :).

I really need to get something that matches my red door...

Feeling: proprietorial :P
Listening to: Eels - Fresh feeling

Leftovers

Things are beginning to fall into place somewhat. And while I seem to continue to lose track of the too many things that need doing at any given time, I'm beginning to develop a knack of remembering more or less in time ;).

When I think about it, the last couple of months have disappeared in a hurry. The only bits of snow in evidence now are the stray patches on distant peaks, and midsummer is fast approaching. I'm having to worry less about finding a place and more about what to put in it...

Stray thoughts, rather like the tiny splinter that had been putting slow leaks in my bike tyre, prick the otherwise mostly peaceful run of things. Rather as I'd suspected, letting go isn't just in the deciding to move on. Bits and pieces come floating back from time to time, like so much flotsam rising from a sunken boat.

I've started reading again though. But not the Wheel of Time. Somehow I couldn't seem to muster the patience for it just now. And in hopes of reading the original untranslated versions some time in the near future, started with Jo Nesbø. Fast paced mystery thrillers seem to be more suited to current circumstances, somehow :).

Currently: gearing up for another five days of alarms and deadlines
Listening to: Aerosmith - Sunshine

Suddenly, summer!

Having started with the whole making weekends count business, I figured, why stop? So last weekend ended up being a bit of a biking and hiking extravaganza :).

The couple of weeks I spent here last summer had opened my eyes a little to the stunning landscape that the areas surrounding Asker turn into, given the right weather. This was further proof of the same. Except for the mud. Of course. Seeing how when the weather isn't all beautifully sunny and what not, it rains. A lot.

Getting lost in the woods around here does have its benefits. When you do make your way out into the open, more often than not, there's some fantastic fjord view staring you in the face. It also helps to follow someone who always carries a map. (Smart phones do have their limitations. Unless you have maps pre-loaded, you might end up knowing exactly where you stand, using the GPS, but lacking cell reception and consequently terrain data, that's pretty much useless.)

Having biked on both Friday and Saturday, on Sunday we decided to go hiking instead :D. The target was the top of the hill closest to Asker, and one I'd first thought of climbing in the winter of '05. Yes, yes, procrastination level: epic. I know. But better late than never, right?! I have to say, the weather and the views made the trip well worth the effort :).

Since then, the weather's been iffy at best. But my mind has been on other things. Having signed the dotted line, I now officially own a house. One part of me is all like, "Wow, look at you, all grown up and what not!" while another part of me looks on quietly aghast, going, "WTF are you doing?! Do you even know what you're doing?!".

Oh well. What is it they say? Life is for living?

Currently: ???!!!@@!!!???
Listening to: Daft Punk - Instant crush (ft. Julian Casablancas)

The great escape!

I figure that's the way to go, make the weekends count. When possible that is. That way I feel a little less like I'm fading into a routine :). Last weekend worked quite spectacularly well in that respect! It was a four day break, and we spent most of it in Stavanger! (Actually, that's the weekend before last, now that I've snoozed on this post all through this last weekend :P.)

Although I'd travelled through Stavanger a few years ago on a trip to Preikestolen, I'd never actually acquainted myself properly with the place. I can honestly say that is no longer the case :).

The overnight train dropped us off in the tunnel that is Stavanger Sentralstasjon. Thankfully a helpful lady informed us that there was indeed light at the end of the tunnel and we should get off and walk! And that pretty much sums up what followed for the next four days, we walked, everywhere :).

The Norwegian National Day, which was why we had the long weekend, is quite the event! All over the country, in every city and town, there are parades celebrating the day. The coming of spring, or summer, depending on how long the previous winter stretched, seems to bolster the celebrations. So it was quite the festive mood we found ourselves engulfed in :).

The plan was to hike to Preikestolen on the Saturday, and the weather really turned out to be gorgeous! Unlike my last hike to Pulpit Rock, as it is also known, we weren't on quite as tight a schedule. Once at the top, we decided to just laze about on the rocks for a while. That gave a couple of us enough time to hunt for a better vantage point higher up, which in turn provided the most spectacular view of the entire outcrop jutting out over the fjord!

Just to round off the views, we decided to take a trip around the fjord on a boat. The sky was overcast and it was pouring down with cold rain, so in fact, quite the perfect time to stick to the cosy confines of the boat as it wound its way between the towering cliffs and precarious settlements which lined the unfathomably deep waters, here perfectly still, there a bit ruffled by the wind driving the raindrops.

And lo and behold, before long, we were staring up at this seemingly innocuous ledge projecting out of the wall of rock, hundreds of feet above! Preikestolen does look rather tiny from the water. But then again, so do the boats on the fjord from up there :). I'm glad I've had the chance to see it from both sides now.

Between the two and a half days that we did spent quartering the old town and the downtown area, we didn't leave much unexplored. From ethnic restaurants to museums, from chocolateries to parks, we saw a little bit of everything. And then there were the swords! Sverd i fjell, or 'swords in mountain' are actually a bit outside Stavanger, but do you think we allowed that to stop us?

Of course not! It took us a while, and the weather constantly threatened to bring our endeavour to a damp and shivering end, but we prevailed :). So it was a very content, if somewhat stiff, group that disembarked from the overnight train that dropped us off back in Asker on a very rainy Tuesday morning.

Boy, was that a hard day to get through without yawning my head off! It was heartening to see I wasn't the only bleary eyed one at work though. People here do really believe in making the utmost of any opportunities that the weather and work schedules allow :).

Currently: holding on to memories of sunny afternoons
Listening to: The National - Demons