Alagaesian

I decided to make a side trip to New Zealand for 8 days out of my month-long Christmas holiday in Sydney. Having traveled halfway around the globe to reach Sydney, what’s another 3 hours on the plane right?

A year after meeting up in Manila, Alex and I met up again and made a roadtrip around South Island.

Typical of Alex, he was 2 days late and on the day of his flight, missed it and had to catch a later one. So I rode-shared with Stephen (from USA) and did a small trip to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs.

All in all we covered 2,002 km from 14 – 22 December.

Destinations / Stops:
Christchurch – Kaikoura – Hanmer Springs – (almost emptied the tank midway to Amberley) – Christchurch – Arthur’s Pass – Greymouth – Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks) – Lake Mahinapua – Franz Josef / Fox Glacier – Lake Wanaka – Queenstown – Lake Pukaki (overlooking Mt Cook) – Christchurch

Would’ve loved to stay longer but duty calls (all the way from Norway). I was even going around Queenstown asking shops / hostels if they needed someone for work!

Technorati Tags:
New Zealand, roadtrip, Christchurch, Kaikoura, Hanmer, Arthur’s, Pass, Greymouth, Punakaiki, Mahinapua, Franz, Josef, Fox, Glacier, Wanaka, Queenstown, Pukaki, Mt., Cook

19 August – Coldplay live in Bergen!  It was just some years back that they played in a small bar in Bergen as well as a newly formed band.  And now they came to a sold out concert of 23,000.

The concert was amazing.  From the first song up to the last we had an absolutely amazing time.  The stage and effects also deserve special mention.  The stage is the biggest we’ve ever seen here in Bergen.  And it was great that it was somewhat higher than usual then people at the back can get a bit of a better view.  The stage lights were amazing and so were the use of other effects to wit lasers, balloons (when they sang Yellow), and confetti (when they sang Lovers in Japan).  

No doubt the best was when they did Viva la Vida and Life in Technicolor in the end and with pyrotechnic effects which seemed to reverberate what the song was about!

The papers graded it a 5.5/6.   

Technorati Tags: coldplay, bergen, norway

Coming to the last days of my backpacking now. I had the option to go hiking again but opted instead to go to the more interesting Norwegian Oil Museum.

Stavanger is a small charming town characterized with white wooden houses common in southern Norwegian coasts. It is also the oil capital of Norway. The Norwegian Oil Museum is a great interest showing (through films and exhibits) where oil came from and how it made Norway one of the richest countries in the world. The state of the art museum also has small replicas of oil platforms dotting the North Sea and even the equipments used in exploration.

The rest of the day was just spent chilling out in a coffee shop in one of the narrow streets in the Sentrum.

And if you happen to walk through the almost identical streets without getting lost… then you should be proud of yourself! I am!

I stayed with my host Joachim for the second time where I was forced to choose between my favorite chicken wings or his preferred hot and spicy.  We settled for bbq instead…. and he also finished up my chips!  But a great host altogether, now I’m feeling quite at home being my second time here.  Oh – we watched the amazing Dark Knight on blue-ray!

Technorati Tags: Norway, Stavanger, Backpacking

  

6 hours waiting in Torp Airport at Sandefjord… what else to do but to blog about my main mode of transportation for my backpacking trip.

My initial plan for a 2 week holiday was to go to Lofoten and work as a fisherman… or just fish (and learn how to clean them!). But as I was doing my planning and research I found this amazing offer from Wideroe (local Norwegian airline) which flies to the small airports around Norway like a bus route.

Anyway, the offer is called Norge Rundt (Explore Norway) which is a summer offer of 14 days fly all you can around Norway. And for a very good price of NOK 3400 for 2 zones (out of 3). So then I chose southern and middle of Norway which allowed me to go as south as Torp & Stavanger and as north as Tromsø.

In 10 days now I have been to 6 locations and flying to 2 more in the next few days.

The obvious advantage is, you get to see more in a short time as opposed to taking the train or bus. You also get a great view of the mountains and glaciers.

The down side are the early flights as they fly quite early and do transits in between airports (just like how buses stop at bus-stops).

But it’s still a great offer and I would definitely look into this again next time I think of backpacking Norway.

Technorati Tags: Norway, Backpacking, Wideroe

  

 

 

Trondheim, the 3rd largest city in Norway increases it’s population during the school year by around 20,000. It’s a university city with NTNU being the top engineering university in the country. It feels as though everyone in the city are students as I haven’t encountered anyone who is not one.

Before I was able to say Trondheim and get an actual taste of it, I was whisked off by Filipino priest Fr. Alf (introduced to me by Sister Zeny in Bodø) who, with no questions asked, told me to get in the car and started driving for 2 hours to Ørland Air Force Base to say mass to the local Filipino community and had a grill party. It was a totally unexpected yet welcome excursion.

Vibrant day and night, Trondheim is great place just to roam around and absorb the medieval sentrum culminating to the Nidaros Cathedral, site of Norwegian royal coronations (pictured).

I crashed at Tore’s place in his newly moved-in student apartment. Very cozy place and staying here and roaming around the city made me miss being a student!

We went out for drinks and some fun Saturday night. Had so much of a great time that we woke up late Sunday and only had a few minutes to do the Nidaros Cathedral and museum before it closed down (I thought I would have to spend another day here).

Oh and did I tell you that Trondheim is close to Hell? Literally. It’s a small town between the airport and Trondheim.

Technorati Tags: Trondheim, Norway, Backpacking

I had to spend the night in Bodø before proceeding to fly to Trondheim at 5:30am.  I was lucky to have been introduced to Sister Zeny in the Mariaklosteret Convent (which is 5 minutes walk from the airport!) via a fellow pinoy whom I just met in random while waiting for my bus in Lofoten.  

Sister Zeny welcomed me to stay at the convent, even offering me a nice dinner of makarel paksiw and a hearty breakfast early in the morning before my flight!

Typical Filipino hospitality.  8)  Anywhere in the world, the presence of fellow pinoys makes you feel at home.

  

 

 

Yes! Actually the whole town of Å in Lofoten (Å i Lofoten in Norwegian) smells like fish. That’s because the picturesque small town’s main industry is hauling cod fish and preparing them to become stockfish which is hanged to dry for 3 months in the cold of winter. These dried stockfish are exported to Italy, Africa.

They also make cod liver oil which tastes like… something fishy. Totally disgusting (and I have to down a bottle of cola later) but very healthy being rich in vitamins A and D and Omega 3.

The town of Å now has about 70 – 90 permanent dwellers but spins out of control during the summer tourist months. Back in the mid 1800s though as much as 3000 fishermen live in this fishing town.

Click on the right to view more of the town.

Technorati Tags: Å, i, Lofoten, Norway, backpacking

  

Ever wondered how the vikings lived during the Viking Age of about 500 – 1000 AD? Lofoten has an amazing open air museum in the site where they excavated an ancient viking settlement back in the late 1980s.

The chieftain’s hall (pictured) is the largest one found in Europe at 83 metres long.

Coincidentally, my trip to Lofoten – known for its rugged peaks and stretching out into the North Sea, is just in time for the Viking Festival this week. The small town of Borg is the site of the Viking Museum and the festival showcased a typical market and training grounds for vikings. I even joined the archery competition – which I was terrible at… combat is not really my thing I guess…

Tonight I am staying in one of the rorbuer (row houses) in the small town of Stamsund. It was basically a fisherman’s house back in the old days; Lofoten being a fisherman’s paradise. Converted into a youth hostel, the place is a really simple dormitory down to the bare necessities buy has the most amazing charm of the sea and mountain surroundings.

Technorati Tags: Viking, Museum, Borg, Lofoten, Norway, Backpacking

  

 

 

Got to Bodø Sunday afternoon after almost missing my flight! Good thing it was delayed.

My host in Bodø, Torstein, was the best! He drove me around, toured me around his city. Great fun in Bodø – I’m glad I stayed for 3 nights! I also had the chance to meet his nice family and was even invited to have dinner with them!

Bodø is a jump off point of backpackers whose destination is Lofoten (will get there tomorrow). Often missed out with people normally only staying a few hours to a night. It helped a lot that I met my host in couchsurfing – best way to get in to the life of the place.

Highlights for the past 3 days… learned ukelele a bit (and even bought one to learn!), jamming session, frisbee golf (my first time so I ended up with +11 on a 36 handicap), hiking to Keiservarden – the highest peak nearest the center at 350 +/- meters, the Aviation Museum and the just chilling by the Saltstraumen (where I also got a nice tan).

Saltstraumen (pictured) is the largest maelstrom in the world. The whirlpool and crunching waters happen when the tide changes and 400 million cubic meters of water spill in or out of the fjord. The speed of the flow gets to be as fast as 20 knots and diameters of the whirlpool can get as big as 10 meters!

But what made my stay most memorable was definitely getting to know my host!  Couchsurfing.com at its best.

Technorati Tags: Bodø, Norway, Backpacking