There are several lakes in Bymarka (the recreational area to the west side of Trondheim) that are stocked with trout. A 24-hour fishing license can be purchased for $6 with your phone or by visiting a convenience store. Anders has fishing gear to spare (thanks, Anna!) and the weather was gorgeous so we couldn't resist spending an afternoon fishing for trout and grilling sausages. We didn't catch anything that we could eat (Anders caught a pike and spent 2 minutes verbally assaulting it before releasing it) but the weather was great and we had a lot of fun.

This is the most-accessible lake in Bymarka and it is stocked with trout (legend (Anders) says some of them are 12lbs+)

We rode our bikes there just so we could hang out in our favorite cycling apparel

This girl has difficulty kicking a soccer ball but she can cast a lure way better than me

Norwegians love these little disposable charcoal grills. It's a common misconception amongst Norwegians that they are biodegradable and can be left ALL OVER THE COUNTRYSIDE WITHOUT REGARD TO OTHER PEOPLE

Norwegians celebrate Constitution Day on the 17th of May and they take it very seriously. It's basically a scene from one of those sci-fi movies where the good guys end up in a parallel universe that looks almost exactly like the one they came from except ... the boys all wear business suits and the girls look like they just stepped out of an illustrated Scandinavian fairy tale. Also there are a lot of little Norwegian flags everywhere.

In Trondheim the day's festivities include a couple of little carnivals around town, many people trying to sell you a hotdog and a soda for $10, and three parades: school children, clubs/organizations, and the Russ kids.

We hate the Russ kids so we skipped that one.

The weather was 74 degrees and sunny.

Becca had a lot of fun marching in the morning parade with her school. The afternoon parade was quite entertaining and included colorful costumes, very athletic little Norwegians (i.e. gymnastics clubs doing flips for over an hour straight), and some fun props (i.e. sailboats on wheels). After the parades we went over and grilled some meat with Anders and performed some maintanance on one of his mountain bikes to get it ready to ride over the long weekend.

Becca's school during the children's parade. If you look closely you can see Becca!

Some men were better dressed than others

Even Harrison Ford participated in the parade

Little Norwegians are show-offs

Fancy shoes and tiny flags

It was like the carnival rides had replaced the height requirement with a dress code

Fnutt supervised the grill from the kitchen window and only tried to escape once

The whipped cream on Becca's cake was no match for the sunny weather

Mountain Biking in Bymarka

I went mountain biking with Anders for the second time today! Trondheim has two recreational areas (kind of like state parks): one on the east side of town and one on the west. We have been biking in Bymarka (which is the larger of the two and is located in the west).

The mountain biking in Bymarka is far more difficult than the trails I used to ride in Oregon. However, Anders has generously lent me a great mountain bike as well as shown me how to do things like cross frozen creeks and bounce down rocky staircases.

The dying snow turns interesting colors.

Crossing creeks like this is easy when giant blocks of ice aren't involved.

Ice-covered water is still foreign to me. However, I've heard rumors of an albino beaver living in this particular lake (just like home!).

 

This looks like dry land but it's a trick; if you try to walk on it your feet will get wet up to your ankles.

 

The bike that Anders lets me borrow has 170mm of suspension and is not afraid of anything. It basically has an autopilot so when things get scary I just close my eyes until the handlebars stop shaking.

My friend Jason gave me this sweet Thor Hushovd jersey. It has the Norwegian flag on it and that is a good thing because it has a calming effect on the Norwegians that I run into on the trails.

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you and can't wait to see you both this summer!

Road Trip to Sweden

Our friends Anne Lise and Håvard invited us to take a road trip to Sweden with them in order to do some grocery shopping. It was a great day: we found lots of cheap foods that are difficult to find in Norway (two different stores), picked up lots of cheap(er) beer, ate bacon-flavored cheese out of a tube, saw a baby moose(!), visited 2,000 year old petroglyphs (shoes and boats, mostly), and got to take a sweet car ride!

It turns out that taking a picture of Norwegians is easy if you know one simple trick: just hang out in front of a bench that is situated near some nature and wait!

The area just over the Swedish border looks like a map from Skyrim

It was a beautiful day in Norway. Little things everywhere are starting to turn green. This little hillside contains multiple rocks that are filled with petroglyphs.

Some of the petroglyphs in Hegra.

Grocery shopping in Sweden is one of the best parts of living in Norway.

Rosenborg Football

Daniel got free tickets from his company to go see the local pro football team this past week. It was a beautiful, warm, spring day and a great day to watch a football match. Rosenborg even won!

Lerkendal Stadion on a beautiful day

We couldn't drink any beer at the stadium (it is illegal to sell it outside of a restaurant)
so we had to settle for these "bacon" snacks.

Rosenborg 2 - Tromsø 1

A great way to spend an evening!

Spring In Trondheim

Spring has officially arrived in Trondheim. The days are getting longer and the temperature is rising. The sun now rises at about 4:20 am and sets at about 10:15 pm. Of course it is still light outside for quite a while after that. The temperature has been between 10 C and 15 C (between 50 and 60 F) the past week with one day getting all the way up to 20 C (68 F)!

Walking home at 9:30 pm and it is still light outside!

Though the weather has been nice lately, spring definitely got off to a crazy start. There were several days that we woke up to snow only to have it melt off within a few hours.

Wake up to snow in the morning...

and it is mostly gone by noon!

 It snowed again about two weeks ago. Since then we have had primarily blue skies! The trees are budding, flowers are blooming and we are starting to see some wildlife.

Leaf buds on the trees!

Pretty little whit flowers. There are also a lot of dandelions.