May 2012
17 posts
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Bergen - Day 5
I know that it might seem odd that this was posted immediately after my “Bergen - Day 4” post, but I’m throwing it up preemptively, since tomorrow will be spent on airplanes and in airports.
The view from the top of Mt. Ulriken
It’s our last day in Bergen! All that lies ahead now is 15+ hours in the air on Sunday, and then we’re home. As much as we’ve enjoyed our return to...
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Bergen - Day 4
Inside Håkonshallen
Today, we split up and took it easy. Sara went back to the art galleries and checked out the shops and I went to immerse myself in history at museums and historical attractions.
First up was the Håkonshallen, a massive building whose foundations were laid during the reign of Haakon Haakonsson (ahh, redundancy…) in the mid-to-late 1200s. There are ruins all around the hall of...
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Nate's Photos - Bergen →
Yes, I’ve been taking photos in Bergen, though not as many as when we were in Tromsø. Partially because more of the attractions here aren’t as jaw-droppingly beautiful, nature-wise, and partially because it’s been a pain to find wifi here. Still no wifi or internet in our apartment…
But here are some pics that I’ve snapped since we arrived in Bergen, along with a few...
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Bergen - Day 3
Syttende Mai! Gratularer deg dagen! It’s the 17th of May, Norway’s Constitution Day. Congratulations on the day!
Today is the day for celebration, and it showed from very early. At 7am, a 21-gun salute was fired. It boomed throughout the city with each volley like call-and-response on a massive scale. As I looked down on the street from our fourth floor window, people were strolling down the...
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Bergen - Day 2
Museums are the name of the game today. Specifically, art museums. Bergen’s art museums are lined up in a row and feature a rather impressive collection of Norwegian artists from many different eras. My knowledge of painting and art in general is very, well, general. I can appreciate it for what it is, but as far as understanding it’s place within the context of the era or style or school or...
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Tromso - Day 4.5 / Bergen - Day 1
Our last full day in Tromsø. It feels like the end of the trip, but we’re only at the halfway point. This is the longest trip we’ve been on by only two days, but it feels like so much more. That’s probably because on both our trip to Spain and our first visit to Norway, at least one full day was dedicated to travel. This time around, we have just three hours’ worth of flights to get to the second...
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Quick Update-Bergen
We have arrived in Bergen safe and sound. Our apartment is very nice and extremely certrally located. We’re right in the middle of everything. But…the wifi/internet connection is down at the moment. I’m typing this update from the tourist information office down the street. Hopefully it will be fixed rather soon so I can update you on outlast day in Tromso and our first day in...
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Tromso - Day 3.5
View from my walk to the Museum
I finally, finally got a full night’s sleep. You have no idea how big a deal that is and neither did I until I woke up to my alarm this morning. I feel so damn rested…which is good, because I’ll soon be off to pick up our rental car from the airport. Then, off to the coast!
Yesterday, we split up for the first part of the day. I headed down to...
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Nate's Photos →
Sara has been taking pics with our DSLR and posting them on her Facebook. These are the pics that I have been taking with my phone. Some have ended up with the rest of our pictures, but most have not. Enjoy!
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Tromso - Day 2.5
You might be wondering why I’ve been marking these posts by the half day. A big part of that is due to the constant daylight. We’ve missed the Midnight Sun by just a week or two, so the sun itself isn’t above the horizon all day long. Instead, it starts to go down around 9 or 10 at night and twilight descends over the sky…and doesn’t leave until the sun comes back...
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Tromso Pictures →
Sara has set up a Facebook gallery to upload some of our pictures. Check back frequently for updates.
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What's With the Overalls?
Ever since we arrived in Tromsø, we’ve been seeing teenagers walking around dressed like this:
The overalls come in red, blue, red and white, black, and green and they are a part of the russfeiring, or russ celebration, a traditional celebration capping secondary school education. Think about the rowdy graduation night parties that we all had or were at least were aware of when we...
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Tromso - Day 1.5
So far we’ve been to cloud level and sea level, watched the sun burn brightly throughout the night and awoken to a few inches of fresh snowfall, been frustrated by language barriers and reveled in the anonymity that language can afford, gotten lost on purpose and meticulously planned even the shortest excursion. Tromsø is a beautiful city, but we’re here at a somewhat ugly time of year- spring....
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We have arrived in Tromsø!
Yeah, it’s kinda pretty here. Especially when the sun is out.
Neither of us got much sleep on our flights, so we crashed in the afternoon, walked around through the early evening, got a tasty burger at a dive bar, walked around some more, and now we’re back at our hotel room, winding down for the night so that we can be good and rested for the rest of the trip.
We’ll be...
October 2010
27 posts
Watch
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Stateside
Our trip has almost reached it’s conclusion. We are now firmly entrenched at JFK International for the next ten hours or so. Then, it’s onward to Salt Lake City and, finally, Portland. Sweet, sweet Portland…
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Iceland, Day 5
Today, we woke up to the phone in our room ringing. On the third ring, I finally answered. It was the horse stable we had booked a riding tour. We had booked a noon ride the night before. Somehow, the noon ride was already full, so she asked if we could switch to the 10AM ride. “Sure” I said. “Great, the driver will be out in front of your hotel to pick you up at 8:45.” I...
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Iceland, Day 4
So today was our first non-music day in Iceland. We decided to get out of Reykjavik and explore a little. Unfortunately, the best way to do this is via bus tours, which I dislike. But since these were Icelandic bus tours, they were okay. Icelanders have a natural, relaxed approach to things that makes just about anything bearable.
Our first bus tour of the day was one that took us around the...
WatchSo this was day four in Iceland. We took a tour that went to the moss-covered lava fields, the power plant, a large waterfall that I am too tired to look up the name, geysers and the Northern Lights. I figured an easier way to post photos (good thing I thought of it the day before we leave) Enjoy!
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Iceland, Day 3
We spent the beginning of today sleeping off the last four days. With traveling across the country, across the Atlantic and then staying out until 2AM seeing a multitude of bands, we were both very sleep-deprived. So, after we finally rolled out of bed around noon, we ventured out into the rain and explored the city a bit more.
Sara had a guide for most of the art galleries and museums in town,...
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Iceland, Day 2
We can’t say that we weren’t warned. Most of the guidebooks and many of the tales of visits to Iceland included the warning that Icelanders are a suspiciously friendly folk. After striking up a conversation over a shared interest or less, you may expect to be invited back to their house for dinner.
Well, that happened to us today.
As we were walking through the Reykjavik Art Museum,...
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Airwaves - Day 1
It would probably be more appropriate to label this “night one” since we actually saw the bare minimum of daylight on our first day in Iceland. Due to jet lag, a small child kicking the back of my seat all the way from Portland to NYC and my utter inability to get any sleep on the flight from NYC to Reykjavik, I was operating on about four hours of sleep over the day and a half leading...
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Arrival
So, we are now in Reykjavik. Our plane landed this morning at 6AM, after hitting the Duty-Free for some booze (alcohol in Iceland is expensive, so we brought flasks) and picking up our luggage, we hopped on a shuttle bus to the city proper. The airport is about 60km outside of the city proper, so by the time it was all said and done, we arrived at the Hotel Fron a little after 8AM.
Our room...
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October 2009
10 posts
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Spain - Day Seven
Today is our last full day, sans travel, in Spain. We drove north out of Barcelona to Cardona, a small town in the Catalan province. We’re staying in another Parador, which are government-run hotels located in historic places. This one is a treasured castle on a mountain overlooking the town of Cardona. The castle dates back to 886 and was in continuous use for nearly 1000 years. From the...
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Spain - Day Six
[caption id=”attachment_205” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Nate on the outdoor escalator going up to Parc Guell”][/caption] I can’t believe that our trip is almost over. We have two days left here before we have to pack up and hit the airways back home. This was our last day in Barcelona, a city that we have both come to enjoy. If it...
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Spain - Day Five
[caption id=”attachment_195” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Barcelona Sunrise”][/caption] For our second day in Barcelona, we decided to split up. Sara and I went in our direction and Bernie went in hers. We had been in close quarters for the past four days and it was starting to drive us all a bit nutty. The funny part of it was- we were...
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Spain - Day Four
After jetting across the Spanish countryside, we arrived in Barcelona. Our apartment is in the middle of the main area of downtown, right near the University and La Ramblas; a wide pedestrian walkway populated with street performers, cheesy tourist kiosks and more than a few bars. If there was a heartbeat to the city, it would be pounding in our ears. [caption id=”attachment_184”...
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Spain - Day Three (unabridged)
[caption id=”attachment_167” align=”alignleft” width=”134” caption=”Train ride from Toledo to Barcelona”][/caption] We have arrived in Barcelona via the AVE train (which travels at 185 mph) and I am now resting quietly in our apartment, where we will spend the next three days. After a hectic whirlwind of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we can finally...
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Spain - Day Three (abridged)
Not much in the way of Internet signal tonight, unfortunately. We were allowed only one login per room and did not know about it, so I used my phone. So, now none of our laptops can connect. Pity. In any case, we’ll throw up our post for our day in Toledo sometime tomorrow. Probably right before we post about our first day in Barcelona. Buenas Noches.
