Trip to Drøbak

In order to escape the stresses of being so close to final exams and also just because it was so nice after so much rain, I took my bike and went to Drøbak, 9.2 km west of where I live.  Drøbak is on the Oslo fjord, and is the one of the many homes of Santa Claus.  I think he also has one in Finland, and the North Pole...and probably alos Geeenland.  Children can write letters to him here, and you can see them on display next to the aquarium.  Anyway, my main goal was to enjoy the weather and walk the coastline a bit, and go to a cafe and read a bit.

On the bike ride there I noticed some new things.  One was the flowers blooming, and I noticed a few species to look up later.  This one is a Ranunculus, part of the group that has buttercups.

These flowers are Anemone species, very common, and notice the anthill behind them.  The ants are very active now--at the end of the summer last year I saw some huge colonies made of pine needles, and now they're building more: 

                                       

I also noticed some signs that give information about the area, such as historical farms, grave sites and old roads.  They were all in Norwegian only, but I was able to glean from them that settlements in the area are very very old, probably dating back 1000 years or more.  Sometime I will have to take my time and really read them, but this time I wanted to go on.  

I also noticed some of the crops are coming up, I'm guessing this is wheat since it's so commonly grown here:

                                      

I really don't like this scale of agriculture.  It reminds me of the corn and soybeans back in Minnesota.  I was learning in my Landscape Ecology class about mixed agriculture from years back, where farmers grew more crop species in one place and many birds and other species could still use it as habitat.  There's some ground nesting birds that were adapted to this old style and now that almost all farmers use big machines those birds are in sharp decline.  There's ways to balance our needs and theirs, I believe.  

I saw a sign for a farm where they make cheese, and my cousin Unni told me they have won prizes in the US for their cheese.  I have been to their store in Ski, but didn't realize the farm was so close!  It's called Den Blinde Ku, or The Blind Cow.

                                   

When I got to Drøbak I went straight for the grassy area near the beach by the fjord, to have some lunch and read.  Here were my books (and my feet):

                                  

I looked up some of the flowers I saw, and I had a book about conservation and capitalism, realted to my thesis and one of the papers I have left.  While I distractedly attempted to read, a woman and her dog walked by me and she stopped and chatted with some other women and their dog, but I could tell the first woman was American by her extremely thick accent.  We have a very hard "r" in American English, which this woman had in abundance.  In Norwegian the "r"s are either rolled (Oslo area, northern parts too?) or hacked like a French "r" ( West coast).  

After lunch I went on to explore and take pictures.  First I climbed the rocky areas to get the best view, and I think I found it.

                                

Here's a "benk" I found in the rock, with a nice view of the fjord.

                               

I prefer to sit on the rock, especially where they were rounded and shaped like a lounge chair.

                               

Very comfy.  It got a bit cold though so I went on.

I have been studying about housing in Norwegian, and recently learned these are called "rekkehus" translated as "townhouse".  They look nice on the coast.

                                 

Had to take a picture of the mermaids, or havfruer--"ocean ladies" literally.  I love literal translations.  I guess "mermaid" is kind of funny sounding too.

                                 

I love to pose with them but was alone so that would have been weird. 

I like this view of Drøbak, near the mermaids:

                                 

I saw many boats, and these two struck me as a juxtaposition of old and new:

                                

Predictably I like the one on the left.

I went to a cafe after and ordered a cafe latte, "dobbelt", and read for a while, sometimes listening to the Greek owner of the cafe talk to customers in Norwegian.  

After that I walked around for a bit more, enjoying the flowers and everything else.

                            

                            

When I got back, my Greek flatmate was making dinner for some people, so I added some bread and cheese to the Greek soup he made.  We were two Greeks, three Americans and two Germans for dinner.  It was a wonderful day all day!  Now back to the grindstone, nose.  

Easter break in Telemark

I stayed at a really nice farm in Telemark and did volunteer work with the WWOOF (Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms) program, where you get free lodging and food for work. Telemark is a beautiful place in Norway, with much cultural heritage. The farm (view of the mountain form the farm above) I stayed at had buildings that were very old, and there had been a farm there at least from the 1700s, and the farm across the valley was from before the black plague in the 1600s. I felt like I was learning about an connecting with the way of life some of my ancestors may have experienced. The farm had no electricity, and our world revolved around this wood stove:

For cooking, cleaning, and warmth. It got down to 10 below degrees Celcius, or 14 degrees F, at night. During the day it got above freezing and some days it was pretty warm, but mostly it was cold. We burned a lot of wood. I sometimes split larger pieces of firewood to fit them into the top right corner door, which is pretty small.

They had other old contraptions, like this hay rake:

And old buildings like this stabbur, or storehouse, where the grain is kept in a building elevated by stones to protect from the snow and moisture, I think.

I love the grass roofs with the little trees growing out of them.

Here is a view from the top of the hill to the really old farm on the other side:

And the view from the bottom of the hill to the farm I stayed at above:

I walked down and then up this every day, mostly because it was beautiful, but also it's great exercise. Not that I didn't get a work out enough 3 times a day from feeding these gals:

Among the other animals. These are Viking sheep, whose long hairs were used in making the sails of viking ships so they could sail even in the rain, a friend told me.

I also fed the horse, whose name is "Hesten" and means literally "the horse". Also a Norwegian breed. I remember riding one like him in Minnesota for a class trip.

I also fed the goats, who were really sweet:

One of them, hoping for some of the good stuff (barley!) and ignoring the perfectly good hay below.

And finally, I let out the chickens at noon and fed them in the evenings. I found between 1 and 4 eggs per day, and a few days that was our lunch.

Seemed appropriate, as it is the Easter break right now. We put up an "Easter tree", which is willow branches that flower yellow, and the family I stayed with decorated it very nicely.

It's colder now than it was, but I still see crocuses and other flowers around, even in Telemark they were coming up in the gardens.

I'm really glad I had this experience. My host had even lived in Aurland for a while, so she knew where I was talking about for my mom's side of the Norwegian heritage. The past felt very present during this week, and I felt humbled by the raw nature and hard work put into the farm and wondered how people could ever live their whole lives like this. Even without electricity we were spoiled by the treats from the nearby town. It was a hard life but maybe there were things about it that I don't know that made it satisfying.

Tomorrow I will celebrate a bit with an Easter tree of my own, and a small chocolate-covered egg-shaped marzipan treat. And maybe watch some Norwegian television about the meaning of Easter, which they had some of on TV today. And I have to work on many papers...but it should be a fun day!