Norway Pictures

As promised, some random pictures from my recent journey to Norway. After spending a night in Oslo to get acclimated to the time change, I took a six hour train trip across the country to Bergen, on the west coast. I rented a car there (potentially scary, but ultimately just like driving here except lower speed limits and more roundabouts) and spent a couple of days exploring the fjord country of western Norway. The shot above and the one below are just random look what's off the side of the road shots. The scenery was just continuous and jaw-dropping, and no camera, especially my old-school 35mm, could do it justice.

One of the touristy things that I did was ride the Flamsbana, a 12 mile railway that climbs from sea-level at the fjord to connect with the Oslo-Bergen train line at 2,850 feet. The pictures to the right and below were from this trip.

These next two pictures are of one of Norway's tallest waterfalls, the Voringsfossen. The main falls has a drop of about 600 feet, and the distance from the hotel (the red building in the left picture) to the base of the canyon is over 1000 feet. The picture below right is the best I could get (without risking death) of the entire cascade. For a sense of scale, look ultra-closely to the picture on the right, about half-way up the right-hand edge, to see people on the lookout point.

The next leg of my journey was to take a plane and spend a couple of days exploring the north country. These next pictures are from that leg of the journey. The country there was equally beautiful but much more harsh and desolate.

Reindeer in the north country were legion. Here they wait patiently at a bus stop in the northern village of Hammerfest.

If you go to Europe and then head north, this is land's end. It is called the Nordkapp, some 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The brochure was beautiful; unfortunately the day I was there it was foggy (at least at sea level). So let me explain this picture to the right. It was taken on the edge of a cliff, some 1000 feet or so above the Arctic Ocean. The darker blue-grey streak about half-way up the photo is the Arctic stretching off towards the horizon. That's the best break in the fog I got. With the fog and a strong cold wind, the sense of nothingness and open space just beyond the edge of the cliff was a bit otherworldly. Many times you get subtle reminders of the beauty and power of God's creation. Other times, like here, the message is much more blunt and raw. I would love to go back.

Thanks Katie...

...for being an insider and scoring tickets to the Emmylou is Great Benefit tonight at the Schermerhorm Symphony Center. Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Patty Griffin, Dave Matthews, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Allison Moorer, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, and more...and the new Symphony Center, what a beautiful building.
A fantastic evening.

Vacation's Over

Avid readers of the blog (by now they must number in the thousands, perhaps millions) are sure to have noticed that I've been away for awhile. Checking religiously day after day and finding no new posts, happiness and anticipation must have slowly eroded to denial, confusion, then, inevitably, to despair. Tears were shed. Hope was lost. Sackcloth and ashes and Old Testament-style mourning surely ensued.
But cheer up Sunshine, and drop those murder-suicide pacts, because I have returned. It was vacation time in my little world, and hopefully soon I'll have the pictures to prove it. For now though, a few random observations about the trip (to Scandinavia and Italy):

1. Norway has some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. I would compare it to the Pacific northwest, except more rugged and majestic. Endless fjords, canyons, waterfalls, mountains, and glaciers. Mile after mile of jaw-dropping scenery. I'll post pictures when I get them developed (still old school with the film), but the pictures won't do it justice.
2. In the battle of the Scandinavian capitals, Stockholm is the winner. It had the most to do, and had a beautiful old town, or Gamla Stan, as the Swedes might say. Helsinki comes in second, though technically not in Scandinavia, and Oslo third. Copenhagen, which is in Scandinavia, didn't get visited, so its disqualified. Sorry, Danes.
3. A week ago Wednesday I ran into somebody I worked with. Not so strange, except I was in Norway, at the Nordkapp, the most northern tip of Europe, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. So maybe a little strange.
4. Seeing Snakes on a Plane at the late show at 100 Oaks is not nearly as fun as seeing it with a theaterful of Swedes.
5. Best book I read while away: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, about a 9-year old boy who loses his father in 9/11. Written from the perspective of the boy, it was both hilarious and very very sad. Strangely, all four books I read had loss as it central theme, whether EL&IC, No Country for Old Men (by Cormac McCarthy, a neo-western, loss of innocence and a simpler life), Amnesia Moon (Jonathan Lethem, science-fiction, loss of memory and identity), or The Ruins (Scott Smith, creepy-disturbing, just being lost). All four books were bought at different times, so maybe it something acting subconsciously? Who knows.
6. I had at least four people come up to me and ask directions in a language other than English. Although I wasn't able to answer, it made me feel good. It meant that at least I wasn't looking obviously touristy or American. However, the one day I wore my American flag bandanna and my "DUBYA RULES!!" pantsuit, that was a different story.
7. I wish that while in Italy there were at least eight meals a day. I also wish that you would be deathly hungry before each of them. And I also wish that there was always room for gelato. And I wish I was eating gelato right now. Chocolate truffle gelato was my favorite. Pure frozen joy.