Norway, the last bit and piece.

• Pub (Friday night)
  
  We assembled an impromptu 'women in math' gathering at the suggestion of one of the speakers at the conference/workshop.
  
  There were about 10-12 of us who went along. We went to the one bar in town, Strandstryken (beach something?). There was a choice of two beers, the ever-present local beer (Hansa), for 69 NOK (~$13.5 USD) or an irish red for 72 NOK. I opted to splurge for the slightly more expensive one for a little variety.
  
  Conversation included making a list of full professors in homotopy theory who are women, in the US and in Europe. The French from Nice came in to the bar, one 'hiding' in his leather jacket and exageratedly sneaking past us to the back of the bar.
  
  
  
• Hiking at night (Tuesday night)
  
  I ended up going on a hike with a professor who was going to leave the
  conference early. There was plenty of light at 21:00 when we started, and I finally got back to the 'bungalow' at midnight.
  
  Brightly lit nighttime hike:
  

  From Hike at night

  
  
  It was the mountain that I had missed the hike for, or the one adjacent. The thick coniferous forest blocked some of the light, which was already a bit less plentiful than normal due to clouds and fog. The path was very wet, muddy and slippery. We crossed a creek and a point where the path had become a little stream itself (which thankfully didn't persist). We spent the time talking about applications of my thesis results, which was challenging while also looking for sure footing.
  
  The lake (Osvatnet) atop the mountain was mainly obscured by fog:
  

  From Hike at night

  
  Most of the way back to the start of the trail, I mis-stepped and slid down the trail a bit, getting my pantleg coated in mud. That was the point I decided that I had to do some laundry, which was rather straightforward once someone explained the settings. The dryer was a 'condensation' dryer. This meant that you had to empty out this giant container of water before every usage. There was also ample space to hang up clothes to line dry and a blower/fan to help aid in this.
  
  
  
• Nordfjordeid to Bergen I have a small album of pictures of the bus/ferry ride back to Bergen, here.
  
  The bus left at way-too-early o'clock. Bright and sunny already, 6:15am.
  
  The mountains and fjord as we bussed along:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  We stopped several times because of various people getting motion sick. I sat in the front of the bus, and stared straight ahead, and was fine.
  
  Because pictures were hard to take on the bus, I took a small movie:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  Views from the second ferry:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  
• Bergen and on
  We got to town early, so I hung around in Bergen again, this time with some Belgian group-theory PhD students, and one of the speakers from the conference who was full of infectious optimism and good cheer. There were stops for espresso, a meandering walk through town, and a visit to the Bergen Kunstmuseum (art museum), which was kind of 'eh', at least the part of it that we saw.
  
  I really enjoyed the toilet signs at the Bergen airport:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

Travelogue Norway -- Hike 2

[Technical note -- the images are hyperlinks, so if you'd like to see bigger versions, just click on them. The whole (as it stands) Nordfjordeid album is here: Nordfjordeid! ]

This view of the fjord reminds me of Vancouver B.C.:

From Nordfjordeid

On Sunday (day after hike 1), there was a more organized hike, since it was sunny and the following days were fixing to rain. I managed to just miss the 'real'/serious hike and instead wandered around with some nice French grad students from Nice.

View from our ramble:

From Nordfjordeid

Another sod-roof house:

From Nordfjordeid

From our walk, we can see the mountain I hiked (3/4 or 2/3 of the way) up before:

From Nordfjordeid

We eventually found a (rarely used) path and started walking up it. Most land in Norway is public use, so you can just start walking 'at' a mountain and eventually find a path. They're all roughly equally treacherous, crossing streams and steeply inclined. Also, quite pretty. This side of the fjord was less crowded with houses; less sunlight. This may've lead to it being wetter, since there were some mosquitos.

A nice view from our ramble:

From Nordfjordeid

We turned back before getting that far.

That night, or maybe the night after, it was rainy/foggy and therefore actually a little dark around 23:30, so I was able to take this picture:

From Nordfjordeid

Next installment -- Briskdalbreen glacier, and hitting the pub with the women of the conferennce.

To Nordfjordeid, first few days + a hike

We took a very winding road from Bergen to Nordfjordeid (don't say any of the d's, except the last one slightly. Nur-fyur-eye(d)). That is, we followed the road we could, and it was winding, nauseating so. I think that's most of them, wending through mountains and around fjords. I'm told it's hard to get your drivers' license because you'll spend most of your time driving in the dark, in the rain, along winding/bad roads.

View from the bus:

From Nordfjordeid

The place our conference has been held is the Fjordane Folkhøgskule. It's a boarding school for girls, quite expensive, (~50,000 euros). It's something to do post-highschool, pre-college, and counts towards your highschool GPA. They learn...(wait for it)...horseback riding/racing and circus stuff. It was explained to me as the Norwegians being 'very fair' and giving the girls something to do like the boys (who get 1 yr military service or...something else? Unsure what their 'opt out' option is).

Conference started with some great research-related chats and it's been something of a blur since then. Too much to take in. It's been punctuated by a few hikes. The first one was the second day of the conference. I asked around and gathered a small group to climb up one of the paths in the mountains to the "right" of us (assuming you're looking straight out at the fjord). The grade was very steep, and I think our hike was a total of 2.5 or so hours. The sun was solidly 'up' the whole time.

From that hike:

From Nordfjordeid

Awesome waterfalls as we walked up:

From Nordfjordeid

Turns out, water is plentiful here, as evidenced by the many beautiful and forceful waterfalls around. That also leads to plentiful electricity. The whole country is hydroelectric.

I was egged on on this first hike, which I was feeling very out of shape on, and ill-dressed for. It was worth it when we hit the vantage point we turned around at:

From Nordfjordeid

Yeah, I know. I was waiting for Julie Andrews to run by singing, followed by a collection of Norwegian children.

Here's what the sun looked like when we got back down:

From Nordfjordeid

Also, there are a good number of houses roofed like so:

From Nordfjordeid

This is supposed to be the most expensive option, but the best thermal properties. I'm told that in some 'protected' areas of the country, people are required to have such roofs.


Misc trivia: Norway was ruled by the Danes, prior to the time when the vikings ruled Russia. There is, in fact, a shared border between Norway and Russia. I'm told that the Norwegians there blame their pollution on the nearby Russian city, which is quite smoggy.

Answering a question in the comments of the last post: In Bergen at least, there are *some* cyclists. I honestly saw more runners and walkers and dog-walkers than cyclists. Cobbles aren't so fun with bikes and I'm not sure if there are any paths.