Fire, Festivities and Fika

Hej Hej

After Turkey we were both craving the sun but alas we would have to wait because off to Bergen in Norway we went for a weekend. Apparently it rains 300 days a year there, and rain it did but not all day thank goodness because we had plenty to see.

Our hostel was a bit out of town but worth it for this sunset

Bergen is surrounded by 7 mountains. We did a hike between 2 of them, Mount Floyen to Mount Ulriken.

At the start it was sunny and we were sent on our way by a friendly local

then it got cloudy


then it started to hail

then it started to rain but still we smiled

of course next comes snow and fog

We were walking along the ridge with snow coming at us sideways and the loudest rumbling of thunder. We were following these big stone markers that were about 50metres apart. At one stage it was so foggy we couldn't see the next one and had to go back to the previous marker. Luckily we then saw footprints in the snow and could follow these. We had seen no one else for about 2 hours then out of the fog comes an old Canadian couple. They couldn't believe Ro was in boardies ha ha. They were braving the weather also and gave us their tickets to go down the Ulriken cable car because they decided to go all the way to Floyen which was nice of them.
Finally the fog lifted and the sun returned

Bergen is a very beautiful town which is Unesco Heritage listed so has lots of history.

We caught up with on of Dave's Aussie mates, Robbie. He has been living in Bergen for 3 years and gave us a great tour with so many stories. This church was a couple of streets back from the harbour and in one of the battles 100's of years ago, a cannon ball from a ship got lodged in it's wall.

Back in the early days, you had to pay money to the government for each glass window on the front of your house. So it was a prestigous thing to have lots. This house cheated and the window at the front, in the middle is fake.

We also saw the local medieval gang out practising their battle strategies

Each district used to have a boy's 'army'. The tradition, which is special to Bergen and not found in any other parts of Norway, dates back to the 19th century when kids would imitate the adult civic guards. They still have these clubs today and this time of year they march the streets to drums.

I couldn't leave without having a traditional Norwegian breakfast of hard bread and 4 different types of sill, which is pickled herring. Disgustingl!!!

We got home and in the midst of sunny days and our hope for warmer weather it randomly snowed for 2 days. This is our backyard after gardening and snow.

It got us ready for Funas fun again though. On the way there we had to stop for reindeer crossing the road. They were cute but apparently are dumb. These had collars on them and are pretty much the same as cattle.

We had a beer tasting weekend complete with excel spreadsheet and rankings from 1 to 100. Freddie mulling over two of the beers

The winner was a beer from the Czech Republic.

We had our last board/ski for the year. They have an after ski party so everyone takes some beers up the slopes and digs out seats


Then you get dragged behind a big snowcat to a concert. I was singing Bon Jovi to a swedish cover band and dancing to swedish punk. The guys went to get drinks and when they got back I was up on stage dancing and singing "last call for alcohol" with the band and many others woo.

It is difficult dancing in 80's ski boots. It was also very funny watching the extremely drunk Swedish youth try and walk in the snow!

We decided to drive home via Norway. This time we slowed down for a squirrel crossing the road and we saw four moose, two of them were a mum and big bub, but they ran away before I could get a pic. We did see some cute towns and beautiful scenery though. At the rest stop you could even check your eyesight!

Now for some summer adventures.......

Our Turkish adventure began on a warm, slightly breezy night when we followed two random men into a car park.... to get our hire car yay. Thanks to google we kind of had some idea of where we were heading, also when I asked the guy if we went right or left he laughed and said if you go left you will go into the sea. We jumped in our trusty, hail damaged car, turned up the random Turkish music and headed off (right) into the countryside. The roads were great and very well signposted. Although I am still not sure what the giant tap and umbrella road signs mean hmmm. It was an exciting way to start the trip and you really got that feeling of being in a really different culture which you don't get in most western European countries. At one stage we passed two big dogs lying on the road, now most dogs would avoid the car, these dogs pretty much launched at us barking and running at the car. Crazy pooches. We made it to Kas by about 1.30am yay.

We woke up to this view from our hotel terrace and sun, with real rays that are actually hot.

We had a leisurely walk around the small fishing village of Kas enjoying the sun, exploring ruins with lots of old sarcophagus and tombs scattered everywhere and having our first swim in the freezing, icy water.

This is where I discovered how much Rohan loves cats! They were everywhere!

Next day we decided to go for a drive and explore

We went to a town to look at some sunken ruins. It was too windy to go kayaking so we went for a walk. The lonely planet guide said you follow a dirt track for 45minutes to another town with a ruined castle. We found a dirt track and off we went; it was a bit overgrown but it was just coming out of winter, there was a lot spiky bushes but you got used to them, had to crawl under some trees; climb over rocks until we thought maybe we were actually on a goat track and found the actual track after over an hour and we were only half way. We went back, got the car and drove because the "dirt track" was now a dirt road.

Standing on the right track looking at the terrain we just walked through

Back on track and we found the windy old castle ruins and finally some food, woo. We even found a sunken ruin.

Next day we took in the beautiful coast line and went to the Patara ruins and its sandy beach. 2000 years ago Patara was the largest and most important sea port of the Lycian civilization. According to mythology Apollo was born here and it is also recorded as the birthplace of St. Nicholas.

We thought we were back in Australia for a second.

Home made gozleme and freshly squeezed orange juice for lunch Mmmm

The holiday was over, I got my thick scuba diving manual. It was tough reclining on cushions on the hotel balcony, sipping wine, watching the sun go down and studying scuba!!

Scuba day came and I was scared the water would be so icy that I would hate it. Seeing the instructor in a dry suit didn't help my fears. The two young German girls and I donned two wetsuits each and the course began. It wasn't too bad, a balmy 17 degrees!!

Ro left and I had to stay in sunny Turkey for a couple more days to finish my course . We did 2 dives every day and study so got back in around 5pm. in the evening I would watch the sunset, walk around town and find some good food to eat. I found a little shop down a back street with two people painting plates and vases. The plates were so pretty I went in. They did not speak English much at all and looked a bit surprised. They went over the road and got someone to come and translate. I bought a cute little hand painted plate for $14. Later I went back to buy a bigger one also. They gave me a seat and yelled out to someone across the road to bring some Turkish tea and we had a limited mime filled conversation. I got that they just moved here and he had gone to art school, I think she was his mother. He did his own designs on most of the plates and vases. She painted other more traditional designs by tracing them on then painting.

I also never thought i would be in Turkey understanding Swedish spoken by an Austrian man!. He had just opened a coffee shop and I bought his first coffee. He wiped the note I gave him on his face, maybe a good luck thing.

It was a very relaxing couple of days. The diving was fun even though there wasn't that much to see but most importantly I passed all the quiz's and exercises to become a professional open water scuba diver (ok maybe not professional!!)

The next day I went to Fethiye. It was so, so hot. I went for a walk to the harbour which had lovely snow capped mountains in the background then walked around a farmers market. I couldn't go past the strawberries. I got around a punnet and the lovely man gave them to me for free. I was so hot I decided to catch a bus to the nearby beach. The bus terminal was about 2km away so I walked then it wasn't where I thought it was and started walking down a road but couldn't find it then just as I was about to give up because I was so hot and sweaty, the bus pulled up right next to me. On the way home I discovered that I was completely wrong and it left from right in town so I didn't have to walk at all!

No idea what is happening here

The beach was awesome and the water so refreshing.

For my last nights dinner I went with a traditional thing called a kebap. It was little slithers of kebab meat wrapped in Lebanese bread with melted cheese, rice and sour cream. It was YUM.

Well nothing wraps up a great Turkish holiday than a scrub down from a semi naked, fat Turkish man. Yes I visited a turkish bath after dinner. It was 400 years old. You put your swimmers on then wrap a cloth around you and are taken into the dark, steamed filled bath. It is all marble with a big marble bench in the middle and some smaller rooms off to the side. First I went into the hot room to relax. Then I was told to lie on the marble slab. The man exfoliates your body then you sit on a bench and he dumps water over your head. Next you lie down again and he get a big bag, dips in soapy water, blows it up like a big soapy bubble and hits you on the back with it. Then you get an olive soap massage, crack of the back and more water dumped on you. It was a great way to end my holiday.

I had a very early morning 1 hour airport transfer. The driver stopped at the start and I had no idea where he was going then he came back and had bought us both water and freshly baked croissant type buns. How lovely

much love xoxoxox

Yes, winter was cold with lots of snow and long dark nights although we only lived through a very mild Swedish winter, a real one would be full on.

Living through a winter here was great fun and all the little jobs it entailed were a novelty, like plugging in the car, scraping the ice off the windshield, shoveling snow, not forgetting to put on your hand knitted head warmer on when you go outside (yes I have started to knit and i have to admit, i am not very good at it!!)

The other novelty was walking playing on a frozen lake and ice skating which was probably a novelty for anyone watching also!!

Sandviken is a small town, so what do we do here people ask. Well we go for coffee at our local cafe. The other day I actually got through the whole ordering process and the waiter asking me if I was cold with the door open all speaking Swedish. We have gone to watch the local ice hockey team who are in the finals. They had an all in brawl right at the end so it lived up to it's reputation of a rough sport. We also watched the local bandy team. It is more like real hockey but on ice. With a bigger field than ice hockey. The cute thing was a real band plays with drums and trumpets and speeds up whenever they look like scoring a goal.

We watch deer in our backyard, track moose (see pic below right!) and eat. Yes Sweden loves food as much as I do. They love it so much they have days dedicated to it. In Winter it is Semla's. They are pretty much like cream buns but with cardamon and almond stuff in the middle, and of course cream. Instead of shrove tuesday, it is known here as Fettisdag - fat tuesday and you eat Semla's, Yum Yum. They are delicious. It is also traditional to have pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays for lunch. oh yeah. The pancakes are more like thickish crepes served with loganberry jam and cream!

A kooky thing here is the bottle-o or lack there of. There is only one government controlled alcohol shop called Systembolaget. We have 1 in our town and it is conveniently open until 6pm most nights, 7pm on Friday night and 3pm on a Saturday, closed Sunday. You can buy beer from the supermarket but only light beer. You have to plan when to go alcohol shopping!!

Another odd thing is that Swedish people all get paid monthly on the same day. No matter what job you do or who you work for. You know when it's pay day because everywhere is busy the next weekend!

Sometimes I forget where I am. The other day I went for an evening walk and was looking in a shop window thinking about going inside. There was some people standing out the front. One of the said something to me. I thought he said " Hey you can go in and have a look around before we shut " I replied "oh are you shutting soon? " When I got many confused looks, I realised he didn't say that, he said something to me in Swedish obviously and so my English reply was quite a shock for them!

We've also been fortunate enough to be able to use a couple of the local attractions, Park Badet (the local pool mentioned in our first blog) and Kungsberget, which is a small ski resort about 25km away. Through Ro's work we have been able to access free lift passes for the mountain, who would've thought that going snowboarding for a day could be a cheap day out! ahhh, the benefits of being a firey! Speaking of which, Ro's turn to write....

Hi! Well, working through a Swedish winter as a firey is certainly a world apart from an Australian winter! To start with, the 2km bike ride to and from work was always exciting. Whether it was heading to day shift at 8am or night shift at 6pm it was always pitch black, the road was covered in either snow or ice, and it was well below zero degrees (I think -22 was the coldest we had it). There's no better way to wake up in the morning then to be cruising to work and then suddenly you're lying on the road after hitting some black ice! Surprisingly enough I only had two stacks. I might not be very good on ice, but I'll put it out there that I've mastered snow bike riding.

With icy roads, more people heating their homes, and dark, harsh weather, winter is a busy time here at work. One of the best memories I have of working in the winter was an afternoon we spent at the large lake here in Sandviken. We were training for drowning incidents and people falling through the ice and being unable to get out. I think the below photos sum it up pretty well, very very different to being a firey in Sydney!

The short, icy winter days didn't last long however and now as I write this it's a sunny spring day with a 6am sunrise and and birds chirping. Hey, the temperature may even make it into double figures today! Things are looking up! Till next time, Hej då och har det bra

Tromso or as some say “the Paris of the North” is 350km inside the arctic circle, the furthest North that we are ever likely to get.

Back in the day the port was graced with stocking the ships of great explorers like Amundsen and Nansen setting sail in search for the North Pole. Now it attracts people in search for the Northern Lights. The aurora borealis gods were smiling on us and we were lucky to see them all three nights we were in town. Woo!

The first night we headed to the beach to wait. It was a clear, warm (2 degrees), still night and we were armed with chocolate milk and doritos. We sat behind a boat shed and waited........

10 minutes until success, yaaaayyyyyy. At first it just looks like a thin cloud with a greenish tinge, then it gets brighter and the cloud stretched across the sky, like an alien rainbow. The first night the lights weren't as bright but still exciting.

The town itself is cute but dangerous. Snow and icicles were falling off the roofs so you had to keep an eye out for that. Melting snow meant the footpaths were pretty much all ice, which made walking bloody hard work trying not to slip over. The locals have figured out a way to get around this problem

Sadly they haven't figured out carports though

Tromso is on an island surrounded by snowy mountains, making it very picturesque, especially on a beautiful, sunny day.

This wasn't just a holiday though, it was a research trip. Ro visited the Tromso fire station to get information for his research assignment. The fire station has an electric car and a project underway that will see the towns garbage burnt, producing energy for the fire station. On his visit he also got shown the rock climbing wall and the solarium!!! To be fair, it is dark over winter and firemen just look better tanned ha ha

On the second night we went dog sledding. After suiting up we got to pat our trusted hounds and jumped in the sled. The guide let us stand on the back with him. On my turn we hit a bump and I did a very graceful army roll right off (I'm sure Ro's version of events may differ). I was shocked he let me back on. Luckily I didn't roll in any poop but at one stage lying in the sled I am not 100% convinced that it was water from the snow flying up at me, hmmm

After the sled ride the lights went bonkers. They were swirling around the sky in green, white and flints of red. They really do dance across the sky. At one stage directly above us one of the lines was twisting and swirling so fast that one of the ladies that worked there said she had never seen one move that quick before. It is truly mesmerizing.

After the lights died down we got to go play with the 4 week old puppies. WARNING: You may want to run out and buy a husky after viewing the following photos

Over reindeer stew in a tent we got to chat to a nice British couple which was fun

After a beer in the northernmost brewery

and avoiding a thirsty polar bear

We decided we had not seen enough of the colour green on our trip so headed down to the beach for the last night. Unfortunately it was pretty windy and cold. It took longer this time but again it was a spectacular show so well worth freezing my fingers off to take the pics.

With the lights dimming we started on our walk home. Half way to our warm hostel the lights went crazy again, right above us swirling around like crazy. One of the best ones which was amazing. Some people even stopped their car to get out and watch.

It was an incredible trip. Watching the lights together, on a snowy beach in the arctic circle, will definitely be something that we will never forget!

Well the land of yodeling, snow covered alps, watches, knives and fondue certainly did not fail to impress. The lovely Paul and Jane picked us up at the airport and it was a fun trip up the mountain with a snowboard bag, ski bag, boot bag, 4 other bags and 5 people. All in a VW Polo! Thanks to Paul we had an amazing apartment overlooking the Alps in Verbier.

What a view!!!

As you can imagine the resort was made up of cute wooden chalets, mountains and snow. Lucky for us, lots of snow, even luckier for us, blue skies and sunshine the whole trip. Everywhere you looked was a spectacular view.

Pauly and Jane were brilliant guides and took us for a tour skiing the slopes, and boy were some of them slopey. The many moguls helped slow you down though!!! So much terrain and so little time. Such an incredible place.

After non stop skiing the lunch breaks in the sun were the perfect way to rejuvenate. Elin liked this especially.

After our first day we headed out for a couple of drinks and met a few of Paulys workmates which was a top night

of course though it was hard to go past a nice cold after-ski drink at home....

We missed our mate Dave but he did make an appearance for lunch one day which was nice of him

One night we hit the town for fondue and it was the yummiest melty cheese ever. For some reason unknown to us we asked for cheese fondue but the waitress tried to explain something about a mix up or something and instead we got a huge pot of cheese and tomato fondue and thank goodness because it was brilliant. We also got potatoes with it and started dipping them in when the nice waitress explained that you put the potatoes on your plate then pour the fondue over it. silly us. She also gave us a little cheese one which was lovely of her. We had bread to dip and a large plate of beautiful meats like salami and prosciutto. We also had some cheese to dip in just in case it wasn't cheesy enough. It was probably a blessing in disguise that the buses had finished running and we had to walk up the hill to our place!!!!

mmm potatoes

Elin a bit unsure

On our last run for the trip, I told Ro that I would wear the go pro and take some footage of him carving up the slopes. This is the result....

For the last afternoon the All Star's got together and it was go time. Now sledging is not a sport for the faint hearted and requires all sorts of skill. We all had our own styles, none of them pretty but sometimes, just sometimes we made it around a corner without eating snow. These suckers are fast and not very steerable despite the fact they have a steering wheel. This is very misleading!!! You don't get told how to use it, oh no, that would be cheating or no body actually knows. You sit down, face the slope, and your off, hurtling out of control around skiers, snowboarders and cliffs. FUNNEST ACTIVITY EVER!!! We were cracking up at all the stacks and craziness of it all.

We may not have been able to actually stay on our sledges, Paul may not be able to father children, Ro may have snapped his runner off and we may not have been able to feel our feet..........but I think it's safe to say, we conquered sledging that day!!

Here's a few more pics from what was a brilliant few days....

Until the next All Star's Trip, farewell!! xoxo