Alagaesian

  

 

The Boss had 2 concerts in Bergen last week. Each night was sold out where a total of 46,000 tickets being snapped away in less than an hour after the ticketing office started selling them.

Definitely the best concert I’ve ever been to! I wasn’t a big fan then, but this concert changed that.

For en fantastisk kveld! My friends and I were standing in queue from 5pm and got in at 6pm and luckily got into the section usually reserved for VIPs (as a principle, Bruce does not allow VIP tickets and wants everyone to have an equal opp – artists should follow his example!). The concert started at 20:55 and ended at 23:45 with Bruce and the E Street Band playing non-stop.

Excellent entertainers!

Technorati Tags: bruce, springsteen, bergen, norway

Every summer I try to have a weekend in the southern norway city of Kristiansand visiting friends.

I visited Bodil, with whose family I stayed with during my first christmas in Norway. Best part of the trip was being spoiled the whole weekend with lots of food.

Didn’t have to make myself food for some days… in exchange for some kitchen duty. Gotta convince her to get a dishwasher!

It was a long weekend in Norway and so I decided to join my guest on a quick trip to Stavanger.

5 hrs going south from Bergen by bus costing Kr 470. I decided i will not take the long bus ride back but instead take a fast boat Kr 720 or a flight Kr 590. Obviously I chose the 40 minute flight by Norwegian Air.

Stavanger has it’s own charm not too different from the Norwegian coastal cities. It’s the 3rd largest city in Norway and the capital of the offshore industry.

The highlight of the trip was the trek up Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) – one of the most beautiful fjord sceneries in Norway (and in the world). The trek up took me 1 h 39 min. and down 1 hr 30 min. Normally, it’s a 2 hour trek each way so don’t be alarmed when it’s taking a bit longer. And it’s not how fast you get there that counts. You have to take pictures of nature at its best!  This website here helped a lot in my prep.

The trek was 3.8 km long and the ascent is spread out and reaching about 200 meters. Preikestolen’s vertical drop to the fjord is about 604 meters.

One important thing – start early to avoid the crowd.

Technorati Tags: Norway, Stavanger, Preikestolen

Watched Rambo 4 with the gang!   Cool!  Bloodiest movie I’ve ever seen.

Iceland won second place in the last Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.  Well deserved I’d say!  I’m sort of in love at the moment with her… 

Officials from Iceland jokingly thanked her for her consideration of placing second… as they cannot really afford to arrange the big competition in 2010!

Technorati Tags: iceland, eurovision, 2009, moscow, yohanna

Gratulerer med dagen!

National Day in Norway the 17th of May! The only day in the year that the streets are packed with people.  

Breakfast at Anita’s at 830am. Hit the town for the parades and for more parties the rest of the day!

Picture taken at Anita’s is a yearly tradition. More pictures in Flicker to the right side of the window.

Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision 2009 Song Contest in Moscow for Norway with his song Fairytale.  It is a landslide victory (387 pts) with Iceland at 2nd place garnering 218 points.  It also made history as the first time breaking the 300 points barrier.  In the selection in Norway he also won by a never before seen landslide with a margin of 600,000 points to the 2nd placer.

Finals in Moscow was 16th May last night but the voting ended in the first few minutes of 17th May which coincidentally was also the National Day in Norway!  This meant that there were a lot of partying this weekend!  No complaints there!

That also means that next year will be crazy here in Norway during the month of May.  Looks like this is gonna be the schedule … 

16 May 2010 (Sunday) – always a big football game in the big cities.  

17 May 2010 (Monday) – National Day.  Lots of parades and parties.

18 May 2010 (Tuesday) – 1st Semis of Eurovision 2010

20 May 2010 (Thursday) – 2nd Semis 

22 May 2010 (Saturday) – Finals

Question now is… which city will host?  

Technorati Tags: Norway, Eurovision, 2009, Alexander, Rybak, Fairytale, 2010

Sunshine out (despite worries from a dull forecast). Seldom do we get these long Labor Day weekends which by luck happens to be perfect for an outdoor barbeque. So… spareribs it is tonight!

New development: trying to keep fit by jogging around the area.

The first few months of the year won’t be complete without going for a skiing trip or two.

In my case, two times is never enough. I was up at Geilo a few more times (totally depleted my bank account!) enjoying the slopes.

I found that my knees have already recovered for another skiing season after the accident last year. And I think I have improved quite a bit, thanks to some bit of lessons from my friends. By the end of the season, I am now able to go down the red slopes without any falls! woohoo!

Also gave cross country skiing another chance. It wasn’t so bad at all; thought it was actually good training. But the Monday after I can barely walk. Yep, forgot to stretch… or more like didn’t bother to. The couch and beer was too much of a temptation after a 3 hour skiing trip.

I could hear Mel Gibson shouting from Braveheart.

No actually it’s just me after finishing one and a half year of studying Maritime Law.  Finished my exams in the last Friday of February and been partying since then.  Well not actually partying but more like enjoying my new found freedom.  Which explains my prolonged absence from my blogsite.  

No results yet but it will come by June.  I think I did ok but I will be happy with just a pass.  The exam was 5 hours long where we have to answer 5 questions.  I think i used up almost 20 pages.  My hands were shaking after the exam but that didn’t stop me from partying that night.  

I’ll be back soon to put up some posts about my skiing trips this winter!