More food experiences

We recently tried Rudolph reindeer. It was better than whale, but still not something we would order again. It tasted a little too gamey and the texture was a little rubbery. The potato was amazing though! Norwegians really know how to make potatoes. This one was stuffed with cheese and bacon and was baked to perfection. 

We've had some better meals. For instance, this shrimp fajita dish was excellent.

And this meatball dish was pretty good too. It came with pureed peas, boiled potatoes, and a nice berry sauce.

Dan has been trying the fish soup at just about every place we've been. It is a staple here and is usually pretty good. 

We're both looking forward to better culinary experiences in France and Italy. I cannot wait for some real pasta and pizza in Rome!

Missionaries of Charity

This past Sunday Dan and I found ourselves standing in the rain, surrounded by trash, passing out food to drug addicts. Let's recap.

Dan met a very nice man named Andrés one day while attending Mass. After Mass they talked for awhile and Andrés shared his story. He is originally from Chile and used to be a drug addict until about 10 years ago when he came to the church. Now, instead of doing drugs daily he attends daily Mass at the Catholic church where Dan and I have been going.

There is a park near our apartment where drug addicts congregate and Andrés explained that the nuns that go to our church bring them food every Sunday. These addicts are different than typical ones in the U.S. in that they are not aggressive at all. They are more zombie-like than anything. The police stand around in the park mostly to make the tourists feel safer, but they don't really do anything about the addicts since they are only harmful to themselves.

After speaking with the nuns, we found out that they are Missionaries of Charity, the same group that Mother Teresa founded. They wear the same blue and white sari that she did. One was from India and the other was from Poland.

We decided to help the sisters bring food to the park, since it was close to our home. After church on Sunday we loaded up a small cart and walked to the park with the two sisters. We set up on a concrete bench in the rain, prayed, and started handing out food. Dan served the lemonade, I served the cake, and the sisters filled plates with rice and veggies. Everyone was so thankful! The sisters knew most of them, since they have been coming to the park for over a year, even when it snows in the winter! A policeman showed up while we were there and started talking and laughing with some of the people. I told one of the nuns that in the U.S. if you are in possession of even a small amount of illegal drugs, you would be put in jail. She told me that only high profile dealers that make a lot of money are arrested in Norway. The police just make sure they don't bother anyone.

It was such a beautiful moment, even though we were surrounded by trash and drug paraphernalia. The contrast between the sisters and the drug addicts was striking and humbling.

Another cat story

A few weeks after we arrived here we saw a black cat with white paws by our apartment (different from the black cat we made friends with recently). We pet it and then went our separate ways. Later on our way to hike Ulriken, we saw a flyer posted with pictures of a lost black cat with white paws. We decided to take a picture of the flyer and if we ever saw that cat again, we would call the owners.

Well, last night Dan and I were walking home late from my office when we saw the cat again! We lured the cat inside and gave it a can of tuna (which it inhaled). We called the number on the flyer, but no one answered. It was after 1am (like I said, I was working late), but we figured if our cat was lost we would welcome a phone call in the middle of the night. No one answered, so we just left a message. Then we decided to translate the flyer in case there was important information. It turns out the flyer was for a FOUND cat, not a lost cat. The pictures on the flyer looked exactly like this cat.

It could very well be the same cat and it was just released after no one claimed it. We let the cat back outside after a full meal and then promptly disinfected the area. What can we say - we miss Abbey!

Europe Trip

Dan has been spending most of his time planning our trip across Europe, researching destinations, finding the best deals, and booking everything. I am so thankful for his persistence and dedication, because this trip is complicated with all the different legs we have planned. Admittedly, it has also been my go-to source for procrastination. Writer's block? How about making a list of all the things you want to see at the Louvre (in rank order and with locations of course)?

Since this will be a personal trip, unrelated to my research project here in Norway (and therefore paid for by us), we wanted to make sure everything was in budget while still being safe and seeing everything on our list. We are essentially making a big circle across Europe.


London
The plan is to start with a flight to London. We will be in London for 2 nights. Other than planning to attend a service at Westminster Abbey, we don't have any structured plans other than to just walk around.  Then we take the train to Paris. 


Paris
We have planned to stay in Paris for 4 nights. We will spend a day shopping at the Marche' St. Ouen, which is probably the biggest flea market in the world. I think I am most excited for this day out of the entire trip! We will also spend a day at the Louvre and a day at Versailles.

Rome
Then we will fly to Rome for 4 nights.  Our hotel is right outside the Vatican walls, so we will mostly focus our time in this area. We've also scheduled a day trip to Assisi to visit the Basilica of St. Francis.

Munich
Then we fly to Munich for a week for my conference. I'm sure we'll do some sightseeing while we're there, but the main focus will be to attend the conference and workshops and catch up with my advisor from Wisconsin, who will also be attending. 

Prague and Krakow
After the conference is over we are taking a train to Prague where we will have about 8 hours. Hopefully we can find a hotel or hostel that will be willing to let us dump our bag so we can walk around the city a bit. Then we take a night train from Prague to Krakow, Poland. We booked a small, private sleeper-car (for safety reasons and to prevent sleep deprivation). I'm hoping for something like the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter. We will be in Krakow for 2 nights and we've planned to visit Auschwitz and the Basilica of Divine Mercy. We will also be celebrating Dan's 30th birthday here! 

Then we fly back to Bergen for a week before heading back to the U.S.

We are SO excited and can't believe our summer is already half over! Feel free to send us any tips or suggestions if you have been to any of these places. Besides London for me, these cities will be new for both of us.

First world problems

This is a first-world-problems post. We are of course thrilled to be here and being here is much better than not being here. However, there are a few things that we are missing, like:

-Abbey. When we first skyped with my dad, she heard our voices and rammed her head into the computer. SO sweet and so sad! Whenever I think of her my eyes well up.  She seems to have settled into her new home and looks pretty content:

-A dishwasher. Certainly many people do not have dishwashers and my family did not have a dishwasher for many years growing up (probably why I absolutely hate hand-washing dishes). Dan has taken over this role while living here. Obviously.

-A dryer. I cannot believe that our apartment does not have a dryer. You would think this would be a standard thing in a place that gets so much rain. It isn't like people can dry their clothes outside on the clothes line. We have come up with a rack-heater system. We only wash enough clothes that can fit on our drying rack and then we leave them overnight by a heater. This makes for some stiff clothes, but otherwise works well.

-Blankets for lounging. This is mostly for me - I like to cozy up with a blanket on the couch, especially when it's raining. Of course we could just go out and buy one, but we're cheap and wouldn't be able to bring it back home with us, so it isn't really worth spending a small fortune on one here.

-American food or really anything besides Norwegian food. This has been a problem. We just can't seem to find anything that we love. We've tried a bunch of different things, but nothing that would become something we would make regularly. What I wouldn't give for a quality hamburger...

-Pandora. I always listen to Pandora while I'm doing data analysis, but it is not available outside the U.S. and Norwegian radio stations are just not the same. I'm blaming this if anyone accuses me of lack of productivity.

-Friends and family. We're getting a little lonely. I figured I would make some friends in my department, but it turns out that almost everyone takes off the month of July, so I've hardly seen anyone in the building let alone potential BFFs. We also thought we would be able to make some friends in the Norwegian class that is offered by our church, but it turns out that class is not offered during the summer. However, we did make friends with a beautiful black cat yesterday while we were snacking outside. I secretly hoped she would follow us home, but she seemed satisfied after we smothered her with affection. Make friends with the neighborhood cat: check.

The next 3 weeks will be spent in Bergen working hard and then we will begin our 3-week trip across Europe (one of those weeks will be a work conference in Germany). We can't wait!

I can't believe the summer is almost over!

Save the whales

Dan and I had dinner the other night at a place called Dicken's, which is in the city center and has a great view for people watching. I had the cream cheese stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes and it was amazing! The best meal I've had in Norway so far. Dan tried whale. According to this article, Norway is one of only two countries in the world where commercial whaling is legal. 

Dan says it wasn't bad, but I tried a bite and it was really gross. It tasted like steak with a fishy aftertaste. Never again. The moral of this story is to save the whales.

Office Tour

Despite all of the more interesting stuff I'm posting about, I did want to show that I am actually doing some work over here. Though, I admit that I could and should be investing some more hours in the office. Dan and I have made our travel plans for the middle-end of August, so from now until then I will be working hard. Now that the novelty of living in another county has worn off and we've seen pretty much all there is to see in Bergen, it's time. It has been a little hard so far because almost everyone here takes the month of July off, so the building is a little empty at the moment.   I work with some great people in Wisconsin who push me and motivate me, so being here without any accountability has been tough or at least tough on my productivity. This post is my personal declaration to get down to business. 

I love that the University of Bergen has an owl as their mascot.

This is my office while I'm here. There is one other desk besides mine that looks to be inhabited, but I have not seen the other person since I've been here. I pretty much always have this big office to myself.

 A little sitting area. You know, for all my guests. Also notice the three windows. Three!! This is a major upgrade from my basement office in Wisconsin.

My desk. I had been using my laptop for a few weeks, which was a little hard to work with coming from a 2-monitor display. One day a computer with a large monitor appeared, so I've been hooking it up to my laptop for a bigger screen. I have no idea whose it is, but I'm using it until someone claims it (the European keyboard has definitely been an adjustment).

The view out the window is of the Catholic church that Dan and I have been going to. 

Little kitchen down the hall.

Conference room 

Lounge area 

 The best part is that the building has this awesome deck! I haven't used it, since it is almost always wet from the rain, but I wish we had one of these back home.

Stavanger and the Fertility Trees

After Pulpit Rock and the whole wallet ordeal, we decided that our last day in Stavanger would be spent sleeping in and walking around. We had originally planned to hike to Kjergbolten the next day, but we were both so exhausted that we decided against it after much debate. Plus the hike to the boulder was supposed to be more difficult and a lot longer and we were both already pretty sore. Instead, we got some much needed rest and then walked around the town a bit before going out for dinner. 

Our hotel was near this park that we had to walk through to get to the city center. Along the way, we passed these trees with all kinds of pacifiers hanging from them. My theory was that it was some kind of fertility tree (consequently, we walked on the opposite side of the path). After asking the front desk at our hotel, it turns out it is some weird tradition that whenever the kids grow out of their pacifiers, the moms in the town hang them here. We still kept our distance, just in case it possessed some fertility powers.

That night we went to a local bar/restaurant and tried their grilled trout and mashed potatoes. The trout tasted and looked just like salmon and was delicious! The restaurant converted to a dance bar while we were there and boy do Nowegians know how to dance (and drink). I wish I would have taken some video, because it was quite entertaining. 

We then walked to the harbor and tried out the local nightlife. We found this cute little bar that had shelves of books everywhere. It was adorable! I tried a pear cider made in Oslo that tasted like candy. Dan tried a local beer made in Stavanger that was very bitter. The atmosphere was very cozy!

We decided to go to one other place before heading back to the hotel and we saw a rooftop bar that looked really cool. We were finally told the entrance was in the back and when we got to the back, there was a long line where a bouncer was letting people in a few at time. We decided to go for it, because this was obviously the place to be. Once it was our turn to enter, we discovered there was a pretty hefty cover charge of about $50 for both of us (ouch!). We must have felt peer pressure or maybe we just wanted to be cool, but we forked over the cash and headed upstairs. It turns our this was not a rooftop bar. It was a very crowded, very loud club. Dan could hear the music, even with his hearing aids off - that's how loud it was. I think we stayed maybe 30 minutes tops, before I finally thought I was getting permanent hearing damage. Live and learn, but don't give in to peer pressure folks.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the town, because it was really beautiful especially at night! It was a fun trip and it was good to see another place in Norway besides Bergen. The next morning we went to a local church, before heading back home on the bus/ferries.

Preikestolen Part 2

So I left off with this picture:

Though you can't tell from the picture, my wallet is actually sitting on the seat next to me. Apparently after showing the bus driver our tickets, I never put my wallet back in my bag as intended. I was getting  a little car sick from all the curvy roads, so whenever we pulled up to the ferry dock, I grabbed my bag and escaped the bus as quickly as possible. Dan and I boarded the ferry and found a spot to relax. I went into my bag to find our ferry tickets, when I discovered that my wallet was nowhere to be found. Cue panic. Dan and I race off the ferry before it leaves the dock and run over to the bus parked in the parking lot. That is when we remembered that we had in fact taken the very last bus to the dock and that no more buses or bus drivers would be arriving until the next morning. The bus was locked and the driver had already left.

After peering into the bus windows, we could see my wallet hanging out on the seat as I had left it. This is where things got interesting. You see, I was the keeper of the tickets and our cash for this hiking trip (because I was supposed to be the responsible one, right?), so with my wallet locked up in a bus we had absolutely no money or tickets to get back to our hotel. The only way to get back to our hotel was to cross the water and to cross the water you have to take the ferry and to take the ferry you need money. About 150 kroner, actually.

I was beginning to think we would be sleeping outside for the night - at least we wouldn't have to worry about getting robbed. We see a couple and a young man waiting to be picked up near the ferry dock. The older couple lived in the area and the young man (who looked exactly like Jason Segel) just arrived by ferry to attend his sister's wedding that weekend. We asked if someone could call the bus company for us. The couple generously made several phone calls for us, but since it was about 7:30 at this point the bus company was closed and no one was answering the phone. We then tried to call the police and apparently the police in Norway are different from the U.S. in that they are not available 24-hours. Good to know. We were stuck. We must have looked pretty desperate because the young man, we'll call him Jason, gave us 150 kr so that we could at least make it back to our hotel. He was so nice! I wish I would have asked for his information, so that we could pay him back whenever we were out of this ridiculous situation.

Dan was determined to get the wallet. I reluctantly suggested that he try climbing on top of the bus to access the emergency roof. I mean we could just see it sitting there. He climbed on top of the bus and managed to open the roof-top exit a few inches, enough to stick his hand in, but no further without breaking it. Cars had started lining up for the next ferry, so we had an audience of about 20 cars watching us. One of them must have called someone, because the next thing we knew a car came barreling through the parking lot and screeched to a halt next to the bus. The man ran out of his car, screaming up at Dan in Norwegian and raising his hands. This guy must have been the owner or driver or something, because he was pissed!! The older couple ran up to him and talked to him in Norwegian. I have no idea what was said, but the angry man opened the bus, gave me my wallet and fixed the emergency exit. While Dan was still trying to figure out how to get down off of the bus, I was apologizing profusely and offering him money for his trouble (which he refused). He even laughed at one point. Finally, after locking the bus back up he took off.

Jason had left by this point, so I couldn't give him his money back. As I was thanking the couple for their help, I mentioned Jason's money. The women said she lived close to the church where his sister was getting married. So I gave her Jason's 150 kr and she said would go to the church and find him to give him his money back. I don't know if it ever made it back to him, but I felt too guilty keeping it.

We then boarded the next ferry and tried to avoid all eye contact, out of embarrassment, as most of the passengers had witnessed the whole ordeal.

Needless to say, Dan and I will both be carrying cash from now on.

Preikestolen

After a ferry ride and a bus ride, we finally made it to the base of Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen as it's called in Norway. The hike took us about 2 hours to get to the top.

There is a hostel at the base of the trail where you can fill up on water and snacks.

The weather was just perfect for the hike!! There was a dark cloud that came and went as we were hiking, but thankfully it didn't rain.

The hike was pretty difficult, I would say. There were a few plateaus along the way, which was really nice, but overall it was rather difficult. Dan and I were really sore the next day. Some people brought their dogs and their little kids, which we thought was crazy! I can't imagine going on this hike with a baby strapped to your back.

Once we saw the fjord, we knew it was totally worth it. It was so perfect, it almost looked fake! I know pictures can't really capture the whole experience, but it was definitely an inspiring moment.

Then we actually saw Pulpit Rock!

Carefully peering over the edge!

The water was so beautiful!

It was so high up there! We carefully posed for some pictures.

Yes, that is me at the top! Crazy! 

I got as close as I could tolerate and hoped Dan could take the picture fast!

Then it was Dan's turn and he dangled his feet over the edge! 

I almost had a panic attack while taking the picture.

Then it was time to hike back down to catch our bus.

We were exhausted.

There is a second half to this day which starts with this picture on the bus. We had a very scary moment after getting off the bus, even scarier than standing on the edge of the cliff! 

Stay tuned for part two!

Stavanger

As I mentioned before, we decided to take a weekend trip to Stavanger to go hiking. It took about 5 hours by bus to get there from Bergen, but the trip was gorgeous! When I bought the bus tickets, I didn't realize that part of the trip was by ferry. Our bus boarded a ferry twice during the trip (circled in red below). These ferries were huge!

Buses and cars just kept coming! The ferries had two levels: the one on top held the busses and semi-trucks, while the bottom level held all the cars.

After boarding, everyone got out of their vehicles and went to the top deck, where there was a restaurant and lots of places to sit and lounge. Each ferry trip was about 40 min.

We were going pretty fast, considering how much cargo was on board.

It was so beautiful! I didn't get a picture, but we could see these huge jelly fish in the water as we were going. They looked like massive mushrooms!

We finally made it to Stavanger, where we checked into our hotel.

Next up is our hike to the top of Pulpit Rock. Spoiler alert: It was amazing!!