Wheelie cool...(ahem)

way way way way back i used to drive about 1 3/4 hours to work, then the same back again...which ended up in me damaging my knee ligaments (left knee, due to the constant clutch use), anyway...due to the recent training and stuff, my knee has been quite painful, so i decided to swap my manual Skoda Roomster for a new automatic transmission car (i get a lease car in Norway), and 'unfortunately' the lease company said...they dont make automatic Roomsters (imagine my delight)...so they duly turned up the next day with this...ladies and gents...i give you the Toyota Prius.

Now, for all you aware people, this is the car that all the hollywood 'greenies' own. this is because the toyota prius is the most environmentally sound production car in the world. it is actually a Hybrid car, which means that it runs on both a petrol engine, and an electric battery. the way this works (pay attention), is the at low speeds, in traffic and on local roads, it runs on an electric battery, and when you need more speed, it automatically switches to the conventional petrol engine (you dont notice the change). however, what distinguishes this from a normal 'electric car', is that the battery is charged from the petrol engine, so no need to pump electricity in from outside, it creates its own. very clever, very green.

Geeky stuff aside, its actually quite a cool car..yes its japanese, so the styling is not so clever (japanese never make sexy attractive cars), but lets face it...its a damn sight more sexy than the Roomster! its full of gadgets and stuff, like built in ipod connector, cruise control and loads of stuff...

Now...the problem with the car is its bloody unbelievably complicated to start...you dont just sit in, turn the key and away you go...oh no. it took me about 20 minutes to start it when i got it (in front of the rental guy i may add)..you have to do a weird combination of put the key in a slot, push the power on button, then push and hold the power button, then press the brake, then waggle this, and waggle that etc...its like trying to hit a 6 combo move on Mortal Combat! in the end...(and this shames me to say) i had to swallow my male pride, and actually read the instruction manual...i mean...who has to read the manual just to start a flippin car?? and its that much of a complicated car...'how to start the car' is on page 351 of the manual!! you have to go through 350 pages first before you can start it!!

needless to say, i thought id cracked it, but this morning, it took me another 10 mins to start it...hmmmm....nice car, although not too fast, but with the slowest speed limits in the world (apart from japan) and hefty hefty fines for speeding, thats not a bad thing

p.s. first thing you do when you get a new car? put the sheffield united and niigata albirex stickers on the rear screen (of course)

"All the leaves are brown..."

Unfortunately this picture doesnt actually do justice to reality. Just thought i had to take this, this morning. its the view from my new office, and shows just how fast the leaves are changing colour. its been a tad wet and grey of late, but somedays you just get this pure blue norwegian sky and bright sunshine. heaven. (in hindsight, the leaves look much browner in real life...theres no 'autumnal brown leaf' setting on my camera, although click on the pic to get a better view). its not quite as spectacular as the colour change that occurs in japan...but i guess its only september

p.s. Kat, when my facebook status reads 'Glen is staring out of the window'...this is why

x

Stavanger

After sticking to oslo for a few weeks i decided it was time to get out, see a bit of norway, and tick a few boxes. there are a couple of famous rocks that i wanted to see, both 'near' stavanger on the west coast (near Haugesund). Stavanger is the oil producing capital of norway and is shortly where a few oslo friends are moving to, but with winter fast appraching, i decided to go sooner rather than later. after a few people bailed out on the trip last minute, it was just myself and my friend anna. due to her attempting kjerag the weekend before with her boyfriend and almost getting hypothermia, we decided to ditch the 6 hour round hike in favour of the shorter, more accessible Prekestolen. photos and stuff below. saturday night was a leaving party at anna's followed by a night out at the local 'rock club', followed by a £7 fish and chip supper, which consisted of 2 measely bit of battered fish...( i will never get used to the prices here!)

sunday in norway everything shuts down, with no shops open, and as it was raining hard (typical for the west coast), we had a wander around the old town, followed by a settee, curry and a dvd in annas flat)

it was a huge shame the visibility on Prekestolen wasnt great, and i will definately be back to do it in the summer...along with the magnificent Kjerag.

Great weekend

(upon reading this back it sounds like a 'what i did in my summer holiday' essay. apologies for quite literally, my literary failings)

More Stavanger

In the middle of the old town, with the beautiful white houses is this strange street...how and why are a mystery...but it looked cool (32 years and 'cool' is the best adjective i have...shameful)

Stavanger Oil Museum

Stavanger is the oil producing centre of norway, the first off shore oil field was discovered at noon on Christmas day 1969, just off Stavanger. Being in the oil industry, it was a useful lesson for me, and despite the tag of 'museum' it was actually pretty good

(the cheesy pic is next to the largest oil drill head in the world)

Sign Language

For some reason there seemed to be multitudes of hairdressers in Stavanger...some with rather quirksome names...the other sign appealed to my juvenile side

Sunday

The old town in Stavanger

Saturday night

As this is anna's last weekend in norway before moving back to the uk, she had a little party, followed by a rock club on the harbour...a cool place apart from the cheesiest rock covers band ever...such fun! (note to self: you cannot sing the weird warbly bit from the Cranberries 'Zombie' song...you sound like an idiot)

Stavanger by night

this is from anna's balcony, looking out over Stavanger harbour

Hike back from Prekestolen

you can only imagine what this looks like in the sunshine

Prekestolen

Forgive the wikipedia quote:

"Preikestolen or Prekestolen, also known by the English translations of Preacher's Pulpit or Pulpit Rock, and by the old local name Hyvlatonnå, is a massive cliff 604 metres above Lysefjorden, opposite the Kjerag plateau, in Forsand, Norway. The top of the cliff is approximately 25 by 25 metres, square and almost flat, and is a famous tourist attraction in Norway.
In 2006 approximately 90,000 people took the 6-km hike to Preikestolen in the four summer months making it one of the most visited natural tourist attractions in Norway."

It's one of my major boxes that i wanted to tick in norway, and the main reason for going to stavanger this weekend.

i was actually getting quite apprehensive as we approached the rock...my fear of heights are pretty well documented...on the blog at least, and even thinking about it made my stomach lurch. anyway, i hadnt flown all the way to stavanger, got a ferry from stavanger, hiked 1.5 hours to chicken out now. it was quite comical to see me, i mean, there were kids just wandering around the small rock, and i was petrified. now, you have to have the famous photo of sitting there with your legs dangling off the side, so i sat down down, about 5 metres away, and shuffled my arse to the edge (through puddles i may add)...this was scary indeed, but i did it. no, i didnt look down! anna went back to the 'mainland' to take photos. she indicated that i should hold my arms up in the air, like some kind of defiance to gravity or something...this also proved to be humouress, as slowly, ever so slowly, i lifted my arms...one at a time...(i have no idea why! as if moving both arms at the same time will throw me off balance!). anyway, it was an amazing sight (the rock...not my incompetance). it litetrally just sticks out. you will also note from the photos, that there is a huge crack right downthe middle of the outcrop, this adds the the spectacle.

another interesting fact is that this year, a circus bloke went to the edge, and with no ropes orm anything, sat on a chair, and leant back over the edge so that only 2 of the chair legs were on the floor...nutter!

i read before we went in the lonely planet guide that 'no one has ever accidentally fallen off'...you have no idea what comfort this gave me!

fear aside...it is a breathaking sight. unfortunately the visibility wasnt so great, but i will definately go back next year when the skies are blue

(as ever, click on the photo to get the full effect)

Stavanger

the 1.5 hour hike up to Prekestolen was pretty tough and involved walking up a few waterfalls (although im im not whether we were supposed to...)

Akerselva Torchlight Festival - Autumn Solstice

On my flight to Haugesund on wednesday night, i picked up the inflight magazine, and by utter chance, came across an article on olso and its summer festivals. the last one mentioned was the akerselva torchlight festival, and as pure luck would have it, it was on the night of my return, and my only free night for a while. so i rounded up a few mates and took the 10 minute train ride from the centre of oslo to check it out.

the festival marks the autumn solstice, the day where the night is now as long as the day. oslo celebrates by turning all of the streetlights off, and lighting 2600 (i read it, i didnt count) torches along an 8km section of the river that runs into oslo from the north.

as i was late getting back from haugesund, we started from half way down in Nydalen and made our way down the windy, wooded path. along the way were bands of all sorts, from loud stuff at the top, to folk singers, to church choirs, all dotted along the route. it was really really pretty, and was a wonderful thing to behold (hmm...was doubting whether or not to use the word 'behold' sounds a bit pompous...but anyway, works better than 'see'...)

the only problem was that without a truly great camera (mine is not) you dont really get the beauty of it from these photos. anyway, use your imagination

it reminded me of the Otaru festival in Sopporo Japan (see blog entry from...oooh way back maybe jan 07?), which was much much bigger, and covered in snow, this was no where near as nice, but none the less, was a beautiful spectacle...to behold (sorry). we made it to the end at around midnight

(again, click on the photos for a bigger view)

ps. read from bottom up, it goes in reverse chronological order

Waterfalls

These waterfalls were near the end of the trail, which ends in grunerlokka, in the centre of Oslo...and oh yes...its been a while since the obligatory 'blog' photo...here's one for old times