I chose the cheapest train to Paris, which also happened to be direct, unlike the others which had 1-3 stops. This was a TGV train, scheduled to take 3 hr 41 min. They announced (mid-tunnel) when we were entering France. As said to me before, the French countryside (so far) is pretty similar to rural Illinois, although a bit more wooded. In contrast, the Swiss side was full of rolling hills. Maybe part of it is that the buildings out here seem newer.
Yeah, if you removed the trees at the horizon, and replaced the wheat (I think it's wheat) with corn, I could be in Illinois. Well, and if you replaced my co-train-travelers with midwestern English speakers.
I made it out of Switzerland with only 4 (ish) CHF leftover. Not a bad deal. I ended up bringing all of my 'leftover' foreign currency with me (I have a little bottle of it I've kept on my dresser at home). This ended up working out well, allowing me to trade some Canadian currency to my friend (who's a postdoc in canada) for some more francs when I was running low.
I got in to Paris around 17hr, and then quite easily navigated the metro to where my friend lives. A french friend's advice on Paris was to start everything by saying "Je suis desole, je ne parle pas Francais" and then proceed with whatever questions/transactions necessary in English. I tried this, and the guy manning the info booth slightly snippily told me he couldn't understand me, and to just use English. Once I found the metro, the navigation was very straightforward, and the trains fast.
I met up with my friend and we went out for Senegalese food, which was super delicious. I was pretty exhausted when we were done eating (we headed out around 9pm), so called it an early night.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Lausanne, continued.
Two of the days of the conference were half-days (one midway through, and the other the last day). The midway day we had an 'excursion', which was mainly taking a short train (15-30 min) and then walking 4 hrs along the lake and through vineyards. I thought it might involve some wine tasting, but the grapes are still small, and all of the shops in the towns we passed through (say, 3pm mid-week) were closed.
Album from that trip:
View from train:
View in the train:
Near start of walk:
As we walked, people settled into groups based on speed or preference. There was a nice lookout not too far in that was quite lovely. Nice breeze, random guy playing guitar.
View looking back from the overlook:
Small white boat, blue water, blue mountains:
Looking akin to Norway:
As we continued walking, we could see the forecasted rain moving over the
mountains and then the lake, towards us.
It overtook us close to our destination, which felt great after a sweaty hike (lots of up and down hills).
For some reason, I was discussing the funicular in Bergen, and how it'd be nice if there were one around where we were. The boys didn't believe me that it was a real word/thing. Funnily enough, the road we were walking along took us by a wall with hand-painted lettering saying "FUNICULAIRE -->", and there was an actual specimen. It was unclear if it was running currently, since there *were* ticketing machines, but no funicular operators. Also, a trip up to the first stop and back would have been 20 CHF.
Rather than put the fun in funicular, the group I was in decided to buy a few bottles of Swiss wine (~ 5-8 CHF/bottle, not the cheapest nor the most
expensive) at the grocery store and then find some place to eat. The most
reasonable place we saw was a restaurant which sold pizzas in the 20 CHF
price range (and bottles of water for 4.5 CHF :P ). We swapped slices so that everyone tried at least 3 or 4 kinds of pizza, then moved on to a sort of town square area, where we drank our wine and watched the rain really settle in to pour. It was very nice.
Misc:
The only other 'touristing' I did was to attempt to seek out a cafe, which turned into a quest for iced coffee, and discover the/a Starbucks next to a McDonald's. We had our iced coffee, for a staggering 6.60 CHF.
Sebastien (or Sebastian) was the most common name at both conferences, with three people (not the exact same three) with that name at each conference (Norway, now Lausanne). Prior to this, I'd never known someone with that name.
Things I would have liked to have seen:
Next installment: Paris.
Album from that trip:
 |
| Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
View from train:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
View in the train:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
Near start of walk:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
As we walked, people settled into groups based on speed or preference. There was a nice lookout not too far in that was quite lovely. Nice breeze, random guy playing guitar.
View looking back from the overlook:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
Small white boat, blue water, blue mountains:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
Looking akin to Norway:
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
As we continued walking, we could see the forecasted rain moving over the
mountains and then the lake, towards us.
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
It overtook us close to our destination, which felt great after a sweaty hike (lots of up and down hills).
For some reason, I was discussing the funicular in Bergen, and how it'd be nice if there were one around where we were. The boys didn't believe me that it was a real word/thing. Funnily enough, the road we were walking along took us by a wall with hand-painted lettering saying "FUNICULAIRE -->", and there was an actual specimen. It was unclear if it was running currently, since there *were* ticketing machines, but no funicular operators. Also, a trip up to the first stop and back would have been 20 CHF.
Rather than put the fun in funicular, the group I was in decided to buy a few bottles of Swiss wine (~ 5-8 CHF/bottle, not the cheapest nor the most
expensive) at the grocery store and then find some place to eat. The most
reasonable place we saw was a restaurant which sold pizzas in the 20 CHF
price range (and bottles of water for 4.5 CHF :P ). We swapped slices so that everyone tried at least 3 or 4 kinds of pizza, then moved on to a sort of town square area, where we drank our wine and watched the rain really settle in to pour. It was very nice.
 |
| From Walk Lausanne to Vevey |
Misc:
The only other 'touristing' I did was to attempt to seek out a cafe, which turned into a quest for iced coffee, and discover the/a Starbucks next to a McDonald's. We had our iced coffee, for a staggering 6.60 CHF.
Sebastien (or Sebastian) was the most common name at both conferences, with three people (not the exact same three) with that name at each conference (Norway, now Lausanne). Prior to this, I'd never known someone with that name.
Things I would have liked to have seen:
- The Roman ruins along the beach
- The beach, up close (although descriptions of loose metal lying around underwater was discouraging; I really wanted to go wading, to counteract the 'scorching' (rel Norway) weather -- temperatures around 26 C and up).
- The Musee Brut
Next installment: Paris.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Norway --> Switzerland, some Lausanne touristing
A true sign of having gotten used to Norway (in my two weeks there) was the strange disorienting feeling I got looking out the window of the train to see darkness at 22hr. Thick, black, night. Incredible.
On the plane to Frankfurt, I sat next to a nice Belgian girl who spent most of the time reading. The Lufthansa flight came with a complimentary half sandwhich with some kind of qwark-like cheese (and dill) and in addition to the normal (rel US standards) beverage options, we also had complimentary wine. I had two small glasses of a generic red as well as some sparkling water. It was heavenly. There's something about 'forced' depravation that adds more delight to the thing you live without. I normally don't drink much, or often, but feeling forced to not drink while in Norway was different. I was asked, prefaced with a disclaimer that she'd never been to the States, if it was like what they see on soaps. I started with "Well, not everyone owns a gun" and said that each region was very different, walking through characterizations of the northeast, south, midwest, southwest, west, pacific northwest, and california. I talked about the (relatively) tightly-packed northeast, and Massachusetts leftist ways (+ universal healthcare), the strong mix of cultures in the southwest, wide open spaces of the west. How the midwest still caries some of the traces of having been settled by germans, with its meat-and-potatoes fare. It was fun to talk about.
====================
Here is the album from the first bit of Lausanne touristing:
The conference went from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm every day. The evenings were a blur of figuring out dinner plans, hanging out, and a small amount of
touristing. The mountains are amazingly beautiful, a postcard backdrop to the more industrial/spaceship-like campus. The public transit system is (of course) amazing, a network of trains and trams (bus-like things powered by powerlines hanging above their routes).
First night in, I was greeted by a caucophonous din in the guesthouse common area, as well as a dinner of pasta, pesto, and pizza. Here is (someone else's) pic of the guesthouse, and this is what the rooms are like, except the picture is deceptive. They are not as large as they look.
The next day, after the conference, we went touristing a bit. There was a
cathedral on top of a large hill in the city which we headed to for the view.
View from cathedral:
While touristing, we passed a protest, full of women
They were asking for 4000 CHF/mo minimum pay. It wasn't clear how this
related to complaints of unequal pay among men and women, unless perhaps the national minimum pay for men in Switzerland was something like that.
Oh, right. CHF. The domain names here are ".ch". This is harkening back to
the Roman/Latin name for the federation of Swiss states. Confederation
Helveticae, roughly.
Math tourists:
We discovered that the grocery stores closed by 19:00, which was strange
after the ones in Nordfjordeid (a much smaller town) closing at 23:00. The group splintered into the grocery-shoppers and the restaurant-seekers. I banded together with three of the guys from the conference to make dinner. I saw a 'Ratatouille' kit (a tray with onions, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini) on it, and suggested throwing together a stew. We also got some more zucchini, some broccoli, a bag of pasta, and two large coils of sausage (not the pre-cooked kind). This totaled to about 28 CHF (~1.2 USD per 1 CHF), so 7 CHF each, which was a steal. Labor was divied amoung us, with me doing the main stew cooking, two of the guys cutting, and the other helping me with the cooking (sauteeing garlic & meat, washing veggies, etc). There was even enough that two of the guys ate leftovers from it for dinner the next night.
My meal that night was a salad(lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado) as well as some cheese soft brie-like cheese and bread (5 CHF total, for my share), and also made my lunch for several of the days of the conference (6 CHF for 3 sandwiches, in the end).
When I brought up the prices of restaurants (11 CHF for a 'special' at the
kebab place ---kebab + soda), I was reminded that the waitstaff in
switzerland are paid a living wage (no tips necessary).
I ate at the campus cafeterias twice (first day and second-to-last day of the conference). The first time I had salat with lardons and oef (bacon and egg), which was delicious (also, 8.5 CHF) and included an apple. The other time, the mean was a delicious fish, atop which might have been curried turnip (it was curried, the vegetable was under debate) and accompanied by gnocchi with pesto, for 12 CHF.
Rolex learning center (+cafeteria), view from math dept:
Another afternoon/night (sun setting between 9 and 10pm) of 'touristing' was mainly wandering around hoping for some kind of cold drink. We had nostalgic iced coffee at starbucks (since non-american places wouldn't pollute their coffee with ice), which was a staggering 6.60 CHF.
Our hostel (which everyone stayed in) was a stone's throw from the main train station, Lausanne-Gare, and around the corner from a very blatant porn movie theater, as well as a fancy thing called 'L'atelier couture'. Some of the boys kept making jokes about catching a late showing or stopping in
before the conference. Adjacent to this was where our conference dinner was held, a pizzera called Le
Milan. Very very thin-crust pizza, plenty of cheese, and delicious. We
ended up (accidentally, since we didn't know the toppings foreach pizza name (Margherita, Napoli, etc)) ordering two anchovy pizzas, out of the 6 for the table.
Next installment -- our trip to Vevey.
On the plane to Frankfurt, I sat next to a nice Belgian girl who spent most of the time reading. The Lufthansa flight came with a complimentary half sandwhich with some kind of qwark-like cheese (and dill) and in addition to the normal (rel US standards) beverage options, we also had complimentary wine. I had two small glasses of a generic red as well as some sparkling water. It was heavenly. There's something about 'forced' depravation that adds more delight to the thing you live without. I normally don't drink much, or often, but feeling forced to not drink while in Norway was different. I was asked, prefaced with a disclaimer that she'd never been to the States, if it was like what they see on soaps. I started with "Well, not everyone owns a gun" and said that each region was very different, walking through characterizations of the northeast, south, midwest, southwest, west, pacific northwest, and california. I talked about the (relatively) tightly-packed northeast, and Massachusetts leftist ways (+ universal healthcare), the strong mix of cultures in the southwest, wide open spaces of the west. How the midwest still caries some of the traces of having been settled by germans, with its meat-and-potatoes fare. It was fun to talk about.
====================
Here is the album from the first bit of Lausanne touristing:
 |
| Lausanne Switzerland |
The conference went from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm every day. The evenings were a blur of figuring out dinner plans, hanging out, and a small amount of
touristing. The mountains are amazingly beautiful, a postcard backdrop to the more industrial/spaceship-like campus. The public transit system is (of course) amazing, a network of trains and trams (bus-like things powered by powerlines hanging above their routes).
First night in, I was greeted by a caucophonous din in the guesthouse common area, as well as a dinner of pasta, pesto, and pizza. Here is (someone else's) pic of the guesthouse, and this is what the rooms are like, except the picture is deceptive. They are not as large as they look.
The next day, after the conference, we went touristing a bit. There was a
cathedral on top of a large hill in the city which we headed to for the view.
 |
| From Lausanne Switzerland |
View from cathedral:
 |
| From Lausanne Switzerland |
While touristing, we passed a protest, full of women
 |
| From Lausanne Switzerland |
related to complaints of unequal pay among men and women, unless perhaps the national minimum pay for men in Switzerland was something like that.
Oh, right. CHF. The domain names here are ".ch". This is harkening back to
the Roman/Latin name for the federation of Swiss states. Confederation
Helveticae, roughly.
Math tourists:
 |
| From Lausanne Switzerland |
We discovered that the grocery stores closed by 19:00, which was strange
after the ones in Nordfjordeid (a much smaller town) closing at 23:00. The group splintered into the grocery-shoppers and the restaurant-seekers. I banded together with three of the guys from the conference to make dinner. I saw a 'Ratatouille' kit (a tray with onions, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini) on it, and suggested throwing together a stew. We also got some more zucchini, some broccoli, a bag of pasta, and two large coils of sausage (not the pre-cooked kind). This totaled to about 28 CHF (~1.2 USD per 1 CHF), so 7 CHF each, which was a steal. Labor was divied amoung us, with me doing the main stew cooking, two of the guys cutting, and the other helping me with the cooking (sauteeing garlic & meat, washing veggies, etc). There was even enough that two of the guys ate leftovers from it for dinner the next night.
My meal that night was a salad(lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado) as well as some cheese soft brie-like cheese and bread (5 CHF total, for my share), and also made my lunch for several of the days of the conference (6 CHF for 3 sandwiches, in the end).
When I brought up the prices of restaurants (11 CHF for a 'special' at the
kebab place ---kebab + soda), I was reminded that the waitstaff in
switzerland are paid a living wage (no tips necessary).
I ate at the campus cafeterias twice (first day and second-to-last day of the conference). The first time I had salat with lardons and oef (bacon and egg), which was delicious (also, 8.5 CHF) and included an apple. The other time, the mean was a delicious fish, atop which might have been curried turnip (it was curried, the vegetable was under debate) and accompanied by gnocchi with pesto, for 12 CHF.
Rolex learning center (+cafeteria), view from math dept:
 |
| From Lausanne Switzerland |
Another afternoon/night (sun setting between 9 and 10pm) of 'touristing' was mainly wandering around hoping for some kind of cold drink. We had nostalgic iced coffee at starbucks (since non-american places wouldn't pollute their coffee with ice), which was a staggering 6.60 CHF.
Our hostel (which everyone stayed in) was a stone's throw from the main train station, Lausanne-Gare, and around the corner from a very blatant porn movie theater, as well as a fancy thing called 'L'atelier couture'. Some of the boys kept making jokes about catching a late showing or stopping in
before the conference. Adjacent to this was where our conference dinner was held, a pizzera called Le
Milan. Very very thin-crust pizza, plenty of cheese, and delicious. We
ended up (accidentally, since we didn't know the toppings foreach pizza name (Margherita, Napoli, etc)) ordering two anchovy pizzas, out of the 6 for the table.
Next installment -- our trip to Vevey.
Friday, June 17, 2011
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
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Norway -- Briksdalbreen glacier
Glacier
On Tuesday, we had the option to go on a trip to a nearby Glacier,
Briksdalbreen. I had actually been thinking before the trip that I should try to see a glacier before they all melt, so it was quite fortuitous.
Entire album of glacier pics:
It was raining, and continued convincingly enough that people bought ponchos at the guest shoppe before starting the walk/hike. They were 20-40 USD. Definitely knew they had a captive audience. I was wearing a borrowed
raincoat (hoodless) and my floppy hiking hat, which did a decent job of
keeping off the rain. En route to the glacier, it stopped raining. The rain clouds made a beautiful setting for our hike, complemented by the rushing waterfalls and low-lying mists.
The signage as we approached made it clear that the glacier had shrunk significantly since 1920:
We stopped as close to the glacier as possible, which was still pretty far, due to some fences. I'm guessing they've had problems with people climbing on/under/in the ice, based off the pre-trip warnings we were given.
The kitchen crew had given us the materials to pack sandwiches for lunch,
which we made into a picnic. While eating, a very small piece of the glacier dislodged and rolled down a bit, surprisingly loudly.
The glacier is blue. Honestly blue. You can kind of see it in the pictures.
It's also wayyyyy bigger thgan it looks. I should've had a person in the picture for scale. You can kind of get an idea by comparing the picture of the glacier and the glacier melt (with people),
The glacier melt is this eerie cerulean blue that does not inspire one to
drink of it.
We were warned that drinking glacier water doesn't go well -- as in, the runs :P. Something about the sediment.
On Tuesday, we had the option to go on a trip to a nearby Glacier,
Briksdalbreen. I had actually been thinking before the trip that I should try to see a glacier before they all melt, so it was quite fortuitous.
Entire album of glacier pics:
 |
| Briksdalbreen Glacier |
It was raining, and continued convincingly enough that people bought ponchos at the guest shoppe before starting the walk/hike. They were 20-40 USD. Definitely knew they had a captive audience. I was wearing a borrowed
raincoat (hoodless) and my floppy hiking hat, which did a decent job of
keeping off the rain. En route to the glacier, it stopped raining. The rain clouds made a beautiful setting for our hike, complemented by the rushing waterfalls and low-lying mists.
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
The signage as we approached made it clear that the glacier had shrunk significantly since 1920:
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
We stopped as close to the glacier as possible, which was still pretty far, due to some fences. I'm guessing they've had problems with people climbing on/under/in the ice, based off the pre-trip warnings we were given.
The kitchen crew had given us the materials to pack sandwiches for lunch,
which we made into a picnic. While eating, a very small piece of the glacier dislodged and rolled down a bit, surprisingly loudly.
The glacier is blue. Honestly blue. You can kind of see it in the pictures.
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
It's also wayyyyy bigger thgan it looks. I should've had a person in the picture for scale. You can kind of get an idea by comparing the picture of the glacier and the glacier melt (with people),
The glacier melt is this eerie cerulean blue that does not inspire one to
drink of it.
 |
| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
We were warned that drinking glacier water doesn't go well -- as in, the runs :P. Something about the sediment.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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.:
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:
Another sod-roof house:
From our walk, we can see the mountain I hiked (3/4 or 2/3 of the way) up before:
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:
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:
Next installment -- Briskdalbreen glacier, and hitting the pub with the women of the conferennce.
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.
Monday, June 6, 2011
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:
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:
Awesome waterfalls as we walked up:
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:
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:
Also, there are a good number of houses roofed like so:
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Norway: Day 3-Rain rain rain rain rain.
[[EDIT]]: I now have pictures up of the room in the hostel I stayed in. They're in the album you can reach by clicking the following:
I stayed up pretty late (my brain fog cleared around 11pm or so, which was
helpful for writing a talk) and got up around 7:30am local time (CEST). The sunlight I got upon opening the blackout shade was very bright, and really helped my mood and general ability to wake up. Walked to the department and got in ~15 minutes before my talk. Plenty of time for more delicious coffee. Again, ate some grab & go yogurt for breakfast. Talk went well.
Lunch was at another student cafeteria. Fish stew, salad, fresh bread and an apple. Again, 90 NOK. Some other people managed 45, so maybe if I had gotten the thinner soup or more salad. Eh.
The afternoon was a blur of chatting. It started raining quite heavily and hasn't stopped at all since. Like their shades, Norwegans take their rain seriously. They dress sensibly for the weather, some people walking around in rain pants, even, all in gortex (or similar) rain jackets. I was told that there's a Norwegian saying that there's no bad weather, just lack of preparedness. They do have a good point. If I added a rain-proof bag, pants, coat and galoshes to my inventory, I would be just fine here. I've borrowed an umbrella, and still ended up with pants soaked from hip to ankle. Thank goodness my sneakers are waterproof.
Dinner was pizza at the student cafeteria annex/afterhours cafe. Flatbread, cheese wasn't mozerella. Also had the local beer, Hansa. The alcohol here is priced by the government, based on alcohol content (increasing as the %alc/volume increases). The cheapest beer is the local beer, which was definitely a light beer.
After sloshing through the rain some more, I discovered my new room-mate, who is a Seattle-area native and current Portland resident. Her first trip to Europe. She works at a brewery, and has had a hard time adjusting to the cost of beer here. I suggested she try Belgium some time. We talked for a while about Norway and travel.
Thoughts/comments on Norwegians and their government:
I learned recently that nutella is fixing to be banned in the EU because it's too sweet. This is keeping with Norwegian views. The cost of alcohol is so much, and scales the way it does, because it's considered a drug and they don't want their citizens to become alcoholics. Similar idea with cigarettes; not many Norwegians smoke. They *do* however use snuff, which is banned in the rest of the EU.
I'm told that any time a person's labor is added to a product, the cost goes considerably up, which is what causes bakery sandwiches to not be as cheap as they were in Amsterdam or Brussels.
Cars/gas: Despite being an oil-producing country, Norway heavily taxes gasoline. I think it's 3 or 4 euro/liter, but I wouldn't swear by it. In the long run, this makes sense, since they don't anticipate their supply to last longer than 50 years. The price should discourage use and make it last longer. They also make it very hard to get a driver's license. Also makes sense -- most of the driving will be done in the dark, the rain, and on bad roads. Cars are horrifically expensive. I was told that 2 professors' salaries combined is not enough to afford a new car here.
 |
| From BERGEN, NORWAY |
I stayed up pretty late (my brain fog cleared around 11pm or so, which was
helpful for writing a talk) and got up around 7:30am local time (CEST). The sunlight I got upon opening the blackout shade was very bright, and really helped my mood and general ability to wake up. Walked to the department and got in ~15 minutes before my talk. Plenty of time for more delicious coffee. Again, ate some grab & go yogurt for breakfast. Talk went well.
Lunch was at another student cafeteria. Fish stew, salad, fresh bread and an apple. Again, 90 NOK. Some other people managed 45, so maybe if I had gotten the thinner soup or more salad. Eh.
The afternoon was a blur of chatting. It started raining quite heavily and hasn't stopped at all since. Like their shades, Norwegans take their rain seriously. They dress sensibly for the weather, some people walking around in rain pants, even, all in gortex (or similar) rain jackets. I was told that there's a Norwegian saying that there's no bad weather, just lack of preparedness. They do have a good point. If I added a rain-proof bag, pants, coat and galoshes to my inventory, I would be just fine here. I've borrowed an umbrella, and still ended up with pants soaked from hip to ankle. Thank goodness my sneakers are waterproof.
Dinner was pizza at the student cafeteria annex/afterhours cafe. Flatbread, cheese wasn't mozerella. Also had the local beer, Hansa. The alcohol here is priced by the government, based on alcohol content (increasing as the %alc/volume increases). The cheapest beer is the local beer, which was definitely a light beer.
After sloshing through the rain some more, I discovered my new room-mate, who is a Seattle-area native and current Portland resident. Her first trip to Europe. She works at a brewery, and has had a hard time adjusting to the cost of beer here. I suggested she try Belgium some time. We talked for a while about Norway and travel.
Thoughts/comments on Norwegians and their government:
I learned recently that nutella is fixing to be banned in the EU because it's too sweet. This is keeping with Norwegian views. The cost of alcohol is so much, and scales the way it does, because it's considered a drug and they don't want their citizens to become alcoholics. Similar idea with cigarettes; not many Norwegians smoke. They *do* however use snuff, which is banned in the rest of the EU.
I'm told that any time a person's labor is added to a product, the cost goes considerably up, which is what causes bakery sandwiches to not be as cheap as they were in Amsterdam or Brussels.
Cars/gas: Despite being an oil-producing country, Norway heavily taxes gasoline. I think it's 3 or 4 euro/liter, but I wouldn't swear by it. In the long run, this makes sense, since they don't anticipate their supply to last longer than 50 years. The price should discourage use and make it last longer. They also make it very hard to get a driver's license. Also makes sense -- most of the driving will be done in the dark, the rain, and on bad roads. Cars are horrifically expensive. I was told that 2 professors' salaries combined is not enough to afford a new car here.
Norway: Day 2--Sightseeing.
Photos:
I woke up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, with some whimsical notion of subsisting on bread and cheese since (clearly) these must be affordable (not true, unless you get the subsidized bread, which costs about 1 USD). I ended up at the math department at the university here, after checking my email. I walked in past the train station, where I stopped for breakfast -- a grab & go fruit-flavored yogurt with muesli to mix in, which came with an awesome foldable spoon. Maybe I'll snap a picture later. The department here is very nice, as are the people, a few of whom showed me around at various parts of the day. We had lunch at the student cafeteria. An apple, salad, and half sandwich ran me 90 NOK, which is about 15 USD. Pricey, but I also am willing to suffer a little cost-wise to make sure I get some vegetables.
We palled around the department a bit, and I agreed to give a talk on (surprise!) Wednesday, since Thursday is a holiday and the day I leave Bergen. There's a really nice coffee machine here in their department, and I spent some time chatting with the grad students here and drinking coffee. Then the sun came out, blue skies. I was sort of ordered out of the office I'm co-squatting in, and one of the grad students showed me around. He's from Chile.
Things I learned: Norway has historically been a poor country. So, their museums are similarly poor, no grand treasures. Log books of shipping industry, that kind of thing. A great to-do to paint a vivid picture of a terribly dull life (paraphrasing my guide). We went down to Bryggen, the UNESCO world heritage site in Bergen, which is a pier/shipping era dating way back. It is falling apart, in an amazing fashion. Also, Norway has developed a reputation for granting asylum to refugees. As a result of Pinochet in Chile, Norway's 3rd largest racial group is Chilean.
We also went up the Fløyen Funicular (mountain elevator), which sadly did not have any kind of advertising campaign about putting the Fun in Funicular. This takes you to the top of the mountain named Fløyen The top of the mountain was very nice, and we walked around a little, and then down. The path let out at one of the most expensive place to live in Bergen. Close to the city center, at the bottom of Fløyen, and, most importantly it gets lots of sunlight. The houses, on the outside at least, look roughly like the houses everywhere else. Some have peeling paint on the siding. Interesting. Lots of runners. The town swelled with people out to enjoy the brief good weather.
We finished up by rejoining with several other people and having dinner at an italian place. I had Rudolfsuppe (Reindeer soup), which was delicious. Had a base of a tastier version of cream of mushroom-type soup.
The night of course finished with my prepping for the talk the next morning.
 |
| BERGEN, NORWAY (the album) |
I woke up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, with some whimsical notion of subsisting on bread and cheese since (clearly) these must be affordable (not true, unless you get the subsidized bread, which costs about 1 USD). I ended up at the math department at the university here, after checking my email. I walked in past the train station, where I stopped for breakfast -- a grab & go fruit-flavored yogurt with muesli to mix in, which came with an awesome foldable spoon. Maybe I'll snap a picture later. The department here is very nice, as are the people, a few of whom showed me around at various parts of the day. We had lunch at the student cafeteria. An apple, salad, and half sandwich ran me 90 NOK, which is about 15 USD. Pricey, but I also am willing to suffer a little cost-wise to make sure I get some vegetables.
We palled around the department a bit, and I agreed to give a talk on (surprise!) Wednesday, since Thursday is a holiday and the day I leave Bergen. There's a really nice coffee machine here in their department, and I spent some time chatting with the grad students here and drinking coffee. Then the sun came out, blue skies. I was sort of ordered out of the office I'm co-squatting in, and one of the grad students showed me around. He's from Chile.
Things I learned: Norway has historically been a poor country. So, their museums are similarly poor, no grand treasures. Log books of shipping industry, that kind of thing. A great to-do to paint a vivid picture of a terribly dull life (paraphrasing my guide). We went down to Bryggen, the UNESCO world heritage site in Bergen, which is a pier/shipping era dating way back. It is falling apart, in an amazing fashion. Also, Norway has developed a reputation for granting asylum to refugees. As a result of Pinochet in Chile, Norway's 3rd largest racial group is Chilean.
 |
| Bryggen falling down, From BERGEN, NORWAY |
We also went up the Fløyen Funicular (mountain elevator), which sadly did not have any kind of advertising campaign about putting the Fun in Funicular. This takes you to the top of the mountain named Fløyen The top of the mountain was very nice, and we walked around a little, and then down. The path let out at one of the most expensive place to live in Bergen. Close to the city center, at the bottom of Fløyen, and, most importantly it gets lots of sunlight. The houses, on the outside at least, look roughly like the houses everywhere else. Some have peeling paint on the siding. Interesting. Lots of runners. The town swelled with people out to enjoy the brief good weather.
 |
| view from Fløyen, From BERGEN, NORWAY |
 |
| Forrest on Fløyen, From BERGEN, NORWAY |
We finished up by rejoining with several other people and having dinner at an italian place. I had Rudolfsuppe (Reindeer soup), which was delicious. Had a base of a tastier version of cream of mushroom-type soup.
The night of course finished with my prepping for the talk the next morning.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Norway! To Bergen.
The first few pictures I took were just before 11 at night. I was worried it was too dark for them to take. Apparently, instead the lighting was perfect. I will have to keep this in mind.
En route to Europe:
I had the good fortune of noticing that another passenger had a poster with words like hyperbolic and manifold. Turns out, he's a grad student at Utrecht (first leg was Chi->Amsterdam). We talked for about 5 or so hours on the flight, which had hardly any people on it at all. I noticed when I visited Amsterdam that Dutch people are on par with Americans in terms of loudness, and both he and I had to be shushed because people were sleeping. It really helped pass the time.
When I got off the flight and looked for my connection (Amsterdam->Oslo, then Oslo->Bergen), there were no such flights for my airline. Thus commenced some searching. The Amsterdam airport, by the way --very nice. They have these transfer stations where you can get your boarding pass. I go to one, and they say the flight's cancelled. I then have to convince the ladies at border control (there's an 'international' region of the airport for people with connecting flights, which removes the need to do customs when they land. Pretty neat) that I should be allowed through because I have to go down to the departures desk (think: place you check in for your flight when you first arrive at the airport) even though I don't have a boarding pass.
I get in line, and this was a rather amazing sight. All of these people had had this flight canceled, and they were waiting in a sensible line, leaving breaks for the foot traffic at the airport to get around them. They were calm and polite. Everyone got re-booked. I also got a voucher for 15 euros worth of lunch at the airport, which I spent on smoked salmon and toast. One of the discussions on the plane was how much better European airlines are in terms of customer relations/service, which surprised my conversational companion.
I was re-routed through Copenhagen. The airport is super swank. I think they must have renovated it in the last 3 years. I also enjoyed people-watching at there as well as Amsterdam-Schipol. Very pretty people. Lots of tall, lithe, blue-eyed and platinum haired types. Fashionably dressed people with their fashionable toddlers.
Bergen!
Bergen is this mess of mountains, hills, and inlets/fjords/mini-fjords. Lots of ever-greens. Lots of drizzle. Everything's green. I'm looking forward to hiking around their mountains. They are comparable-seeming at least to the sandias (around albuquerque), but the setting is much more similar to Vancouver, although I don't think they really have any beaches.
The guesthouse I'm in is nice. Nicer than than the ones I'd been in before. Pricey rel continental europe, but the best cost here. Nice enough beds (but we're on the top floor, so the ceiling is a maze of eaves. I can't stand up straight directly adjacent to my bed.
Walked around. Ate a small tapa at Bryggen. <1 cup of fish stew cost me ~$10 USD (55 Nok). I also bought a 'pizza wrap' (flatbread pizza folded up) for the same price, much more substantial. I discovered that they do not necessarily charge for water. Also, their tap water is just fine.
I've found several grocery stores. Fruits and veggies are pretty close in price to back home, actually. $2-3 for a big head of broccoli, etc. Apples at $4/kg. There's a fish (and fruit and veggies) market daily.
 |
| From BERGEN, NORWAY |
 |
| From BERGEN, NORWAY |
 |
| From BERGEN, NORWAY |
En route to Europe:
I had the good fortune of noticing that another passenger had a poster with words like hyperbolic and manifold. Turns out, he's a grad student at Utrecht (first leg was Chi->Amsterdam). We talked for about 5 or so hours on the flight, which had hardly any people on it at all. I noticed when I visited Amsterdam that Dutch people are on par with Americans in terms of loudness, and both he and I had to be shushed because people were sleeping. It really helped pass the time.
When I got off the flight and looked for my connection (Amsterdam->Oslo, then Oslo->Bergen), there were no such flights for my airline. Thus commenced some searching. The Amsterdam airport, by the way --very nice. They have these transfer stations where you can get your boarding pass. I go to one, and they say the flight's cancelled. I then have to convince the ladies at border control (there's an 'international' region of the airport for people with connecting flights, which removes the need to do customs when they land. Pretty neat) that I should be allowed through because I have to go down to the departures desk (think: place you check in for your flight when you first arrive at the airport) even though I don't have a boarding pass.
I get in line, and this was a rather amazing sight. All of these people had had this flight canceled, and they were waiting in a sensible line, leaving breaks for the foot traffic at the airport to get around them. They were calm and polite. Everyone got re-booked. I also got a voucher for 15 euros worth of lunch at the airport, which I spent on smoked salmon and toast. One of the discussions on the plane was how much better European airlines are in terms of customer relations/service, which surprised my conversational companion.
I was re-routed through Copenhagen. The airport is super swank. I think they must have renovated it in the last 3 years. I also enjoyed people-watching at there as well as Amsterdam-Schipol. Very pretty people. Lots of tall, lithe, blue-eyed and platinum haired types. Fashionably dressed people with their fashionable toddlers.
Bergen!
Bergen is this mess of mountains, hills, and inlets/fjords/mini-fjords. Lots of ever-greens. Lots of drizzle. Everything's green. I'm looking forward to hiking around their mountains. They are comparable-seeming at least to the sandias (around albuquerque), but the setting is much more similar to Vancouver, although I don't think they really have any beaches.
The guesthouse I'm in is nice. Nicer than than the ones I'd been in before. Pricey rel continental europe, but the best cost here. Nice enough beds (but we're on the top floor, so the ceiling is a maze of eaves. I can't stand up straight directly adjacent to my bed.
Walked around. Ate a small tapa at Bryggen. <1 cup of fish stew cost me ~$10 USD (55 Nok). I also bought a 'pizza wrap' (flatbread pizza folded up) for the same price, much more substantial. I discovered that they do not necessarily charge for water. Also, their tap water is just fine.
I've found several grocery stores. Fruits and veggies are pretty close in price to back home, actually. $2-3 for a big head of broccoli, etc. Apples at $4/kg. There's a fish (and fruit and veggies) market daily.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)