Curling

One of my coworkers went through the trouble of organizing a curling team so now I'm on a curling team! We had enough people to fill two teams and a few of us were willing to pay out-of-pocket to join the curling club so we could have regular practices. We had our first match last night and managed to trail by only four points at the end of a two hour game despite the fact that my team had never practiced together before.

With this many Scandinavians hanging out together if curling doesn't work out I think we have a future as a metal band.

Brooming is surprisingly difficult. I only fell down once!

The stones are a little obstinate but the game is still fun even if you don't have any experience.

Update: Unfortunately, even though the other Nordic team borrowed our Swedish guitar player it also lost its first game; They lost in style though.

I have another practice today after work and our next game is in a week!

Downhill mountain biking in Åre, Sweden

Holy crap, on September 20th we went with the Swedes to Åre, Sweden. Anders and I rented expensive downhill bikes and risked our luck on the largest ski resort in Sweden. Meanwhile, Becca and Anna purchased our quotas of cheap(er) Swedish booze and then rode the gondola up so they could hike to the top of the mountain and see the view (there were no waffles).

We started by riding the small lift up the mountain so we could get to know our rental bikes before the terrain became difficult. The weather was perfect.

The top of the mountain was extremely rocky. Thankfully, they had carved ridiculously fun paths into the mountain for our usufruct.

This is a photo looking back towards the top of the mountain. Becca and Anna rode the cable car up to the top of the mountain so they could climb up to the top of the hill to the right.

Sometimes it was hard to pay attention to the trail because the view was so nice. Thankfully, the bicycles we were riding knew what to do and didn't actually require our input.

The trails at the bottom of the mountain were pretty technical. One of Anna's coworkers was new to mountain biking and we had a photo op at this point to celebrate the fact that he had not died.

The cabin was adorable and by Scandinavian standards it was quite cheap. The only caveat is that we had to clean up after ourselves before we left.

On Sunday we filled the car with groceries while Becca got a massage and then ate Max Burger for lunch before heading home. Great success!

Snøhetta

On August 30th I left Trondheim with some coworkers on a trip that was arranged by Nordic to Snøhetta. Becca decided not to go because the trip was late enough in the season that we expected inclement weather.

When we arrived at the cabin we couldn't actually see the peak we would be climbing.

The highest (and easiest to get to) peak is on the right. I joined the group that was going to the western peak (to the left) because it meant that we got to climb over that big glacier in the photo.

It felt like we were climbing through a foreign planet because it was so rocky and all of the rocks had green moss on them.

It's impossible to traverse a glacier without thinking "I can't believe that I am getting away with this" the entire time.

Interesting weather started to arrive once we had cleared the glacier and ate lunch.

The peak that we had decided to summit was directly behind me when I took this photo. I could see that the clouds in this photo were heading directly toward us.

We could see that the clouds were coming but that didn't make their arrival any less dramatic.

The peak was simultaneously gorgeous and unnerving. If you can't see the ground in this photo it's because it doesn't exist. And it was starting to snow. And we had no idea what the visibility was going to be on the way down.

It snowed on us for the first 30 minutes or so of the descent.

And then instead of snow we had really interesting clouds all around us.

My friend's knee was bothering him so a few of us hung back with him while the rest of the group carried on. In this photo you can see them exploring a crack in the glacier.

The cabin I slept in (4 people total) was detached from the rest of the lodge. I took this picture when we got there. Some people decided to sleep in tents and you can see them in the distance.

The snow started sticking about an hour after we got home from the mountain and accumulated a couple of inches overnight.

The main lodge has been expanded a couple of times and was quite cozy.

There are muskoxen in Dovrefjell and this is what they eat.

We walked all of the way out here to look for muskoxen and it paid off. Unfortunately, you can't see them without binoculars.

Fosen

On August 25th Miles and Joel invited me to ride the ferry across the Trondheim fjord so we could go for a 70 km bike ride. The route took us along the coast of the fjord and then back through farmlands filled with sheep and cows.
 

There were a surprising number of cabins along the coast. Several required parking on the road and then hiking down to the beach.

 

The coastal rode was gorgeous and mostly trafficked by motorcycles, motor homes, and vintage cars.

 

We had lunch in a town called Leksvik before returning via the farmlands.

The trip was a lot of fun even though we climbed more than the GEARS guys in Eugene climb when riding Fox Hollow -> Ham Road -> 30th Ave.

Pstereo 2013

Trondheim hosts an awesome music festival every August called Pstereo. The lawn between the cathedral and the river is transformed into a concert venue with four different stages and two full days of music.

This year The xx headlined on Friday night and a band from Trondheim called Motorpsycho was the headliner for Saturday night. We attended both days because there were several bands that we wanted to check out.

Toilette areas and food courts are used as spacing between the stages.

There was plenty of space to spread out on. This is the main stage.

The Savages are basically an all-girl resurrection of Joy Division. I have a crush on every one of them.

Graveyard is a rock and roll band from Gothenburg, Sweden that I really like. If you didn't know any better you would assume they were from Portland.

The xx put on a surprisingly good show.

Motorpsycho was the only show that was crowded enough to prevent us from standing as close to the stage as we wanted.

Summer vacation part 2

On the morning of July 26th I put the old woman on a plane in Amsterdam and then walked over to the arrivals hall to meet Jason and Christy. They were jet lagged so I won't reproduce any of the comments that Jason made about my hair.

FORESHADOWING: We went to six cities even though we had only planned to go to five. Also, one of the six photos in this collage is the original.

By the time that Jason and Christy arrived in Amsterdam the hot weather had broken. Instead, we had a mixture of sunshine and random rain showers; It was pretty great. We had an awesome time exploring the city and experiencing everything from the Rijksmuseum to the Red Light District.

We walked by this sweet windmill/brewery on our first day but we didn't go inside. I have the windmill remorse.

Jason and Christy treated us to a canal tour! They paddled while we drank beer under an umbrella to protect us from the sun.

We were only in Amsterdam for two days so it was kind of a blur. Before we knew it we were hopping on a train to Paris. Becca had found us first-class tickets so we were literally wined-and-dined on the 3ish hour trip. When we got to Paris a very convincing scammer tried to sell us metro passes at the train station but the girls didn't fall for it.

We tried to take this photo on the first night but the rain sent us running for cover.

The view from Tour Montparnasse is a great way to get an overview of Paris.

Becca and Christy visited museums while Jason and I did the laundry, drank Brew Dog beer, and then supported the communists by smoking cigars in the park that this window overlooks. This is the one photo that Becca could take in the Musée d'Orsay without getting yelled at by a security guard.

We divided our time between exploring the city, hanging out in the gorgeous parks, and finding opportunities to appreciate being in France (read: cheese, wine, pastries). Jason was able to trace the route of the Tour de France riders on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Becca visited Monet's Water Lilies in the Musée de l'Orangerie, Christy enjoyed several stinky cheeses, and I ate religieuses for breakfast every day: great success!

Cheese + wine + pastries + park = happy, blurry people

On August 1st we boarded a train to Marseille so Christy could show us around the city where she studied for a few months in college. Becca and I had never been there before and we liked the relaxed, coastal atmosphere and the preponderance of sea food. We did not, however, appreciate the ridiculous amount of dog poop that is left on the sidewalks by the relaxed, coastal French people.

The main port in Marseille is a wonderful mix of contemporary and ancient architecture.

The hotel that Jason and Christy chose was the nicest one we stayed in during the trip: modern art, nice pool, really expensive drinks at the bar, great air conditioning, locally-made soap in the bathroom, really expensive drinks at the bar, and a tapestry of a disapproving Indian family in the bedroom.

And then we tried to go to Florence, Italy. Except the French train to Italy was experiencing the kind of problem that ends in a 10 hour delay. They gave us crackers and French food in cat food cans that tasted like cat food as a consolation prize. Thankfully, we had purchased unlimited SIM cards for our phones so at least we had internet access while we waited. After an uncomfortable day on the train we made it to Italy. Barely (4 miles from the border).

We arrived in Ventimiglia at 8pm and the ticket agent at the train station was stereotypically adversarial. When he wasn't stopping to answer his cell phone he informed Becca we weren't going anywhere until the next day. Meanwhile, Christy and I were literally running around the town trying to find decent hotel rooms for the night.

It all worked out fine. We had a classic Italian dinner (food was mediocre and the waitress tried to charge us for stuff we didn't order), ate some delicious gelato, took some photos, and then crashed in our air-conditioned hotel rooms.

Our first impression was that the gelato was cheap. However, after Jason commented that the town felt 'stabby' we fixated on the number people sleeping on the beach/in the bushes.

The next morning we caught a train at 6:30am to Florence. The train ride to Florence was beautiful but our delayed departure meant that we had fewer than 24 hours to spend in the city. The hotel was nice (although they made Becca and I wait while they prepared the room that we had already paid for since the night before). Also, it was like 100 degrees F outside. Thankfully, you can purchase an ice-cold bottle of white wine in Italy for $4 and they will open it for you and give you plastic cups.

The architecture in Florence is very regional: the color of the buildings reminded us of the buildings we saw in Marseille.

The river that runs through Florence attracts a lot of visitors; this may be because of the pretty reflections, all of the shopping, or the fact that they charge people an entrance fee to the public parks.

Shopping on the left, pretty on the right.

The train ride from Florence to Rome was very quiet (probably due to the $4 white wine from the day before). Unfortunately, Rome was also about 100 degrees F so we formulated a plan: do stuff in the morning, sleep during the hottest part of the day, and then do stuff in the evening.

Castel Sant'Angelo is one of my favorite places in Rome. However, the river is embarrassingly filthy and the roof where I was standing was approximately 150 degrees F.

Holy crap the Trevi Fountain is gorgeous at night. Also, I literally can't say 'Fontana di Trevi' without gesturing with my hand.

The Colosseum has to be experienced to appreciate. Only a remnant of its former glory remains but it's impossible to visit without being overwhelmed.

Tanned skin is damaged skin. Floppy hats are the reason we still get carded when we buy beer.

The view from Saint Peter's Basilica is incredible if you don't mind the 320 steps to the top (including the additional fee for the elevator).

The Colosseum on a summer night is the best part of visiting Rome. A $3 bottle of rosé makes the night even more poignant.

Notice the lack of pictures with people in them? That's because it was so freaking hot outside that we all looked like we were melting cones of gelato.

We had a great trip with Jason and Christy and we are very glad that we got to spend some time with them. Next time, however, Jason is going to have to ride a bicycle around Jonsvatnet with me.