Norway 2018

August - September 2018
Listening to silence Read more
  • 29footprints
  • 1countries
  • 15days
  • 146photos
  • 0videos
  • 2.4kkilometers
  • Day 1

    An evening in Oslo

    August 23, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Bakery food scent in the air although it’s late afternoon. The fresh air is pleasant and caresses my hands while I get out of the train station, tired. A light flu keeps me company since yesterday and I feel the heat. My hair get messier and messier as I approach the shopping street, and Norwegian ladies look at me with understanding: another lost tourist without a hat.Read more

  • Day 2

    On my way to the North

    August 24, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Early morning at the train station. There is little noise around although many people are transiting, mainly suited women and men with strong sturdy bodies, and pale skins. Most of men wear bears.
    In the train, coffee scent invades the coach; an older woman wearing a scarlet lipstick left its marks all over her empty paper mug. Two young viking-like boys, tattooed, long blond hair and healthy faces, slowly take out of their bag a yoghurt with fruits. I tear apart my hotel check out confirmation and people in the surroundings turn towards me: quiet please.Read more

  • Day 2

    First impressions of Trondheim

    August 24, 2018 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Slowly walking on the walk-side, strolling around like a little girl, thoughtless. It’s Friday and there’s only a few people outside here. Most of the shops close early and soon it will be weekend. The sun is catching me between a building and another, but I don’t want to hide, just play. I am looking for the riverside, yet I end up first at the main church where I see for the first time some tourists. They all listen in silence to a guide.
    An old man with a long low bicycle and a stereo at the back approaches the heard of visitors, and then me, calmly. As he goes through the graveyard, we follow him with eyes wide open: celestial music is played.
    Read more

  • Day 3

    An excursion to Lade (Trondheim)

    August 25, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The first outing to nature in Norway. I am not scared to be by myself as it’s an easy trail just outside town, and it’s the Locals “must do” on weekends, so I reckon there will be people out there.
    The trails are like a spiderweb and I don’t know where to start and where to end. Before the forest, a thick layer of wheat makes my heart beat as it reminds me of my upbringings. I follow my instinct, which drives me to a flat rock and I sing a lullaby to the ptarmigans until they reply with a shrill cry.
    I then decide to follow the peninsula corners instead of my instinct, and I get to a majestic old barn turned into a café. Boho chic place with pink armchairs and high ceilings, feeling like at a “non birthday” party of Alice in Wonderland.
    Read more

  • Day 3

    Back to the city (Trondheim)

    August 25, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    I take the bus back to town. The driver is listening to “uptown girl” and “please don’t go breaking my heart”. I drop off downtown to take the last glance at the place: some jazz music is coming from the docks; shiny sky above the bricked buildings.
    I rush off to my room (finally!), to shower and chill out in my fantastic, embarrassing snake pants. The sky offers another gift: the sun setting off behind my hotel window, bright as ever.
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Cruising the western fjords

    August 26, 2018 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    Early morning: I am already packed and eager to get to the first cruise of my life. First and last. I was reluctant to go for the environmental impact and I still have the guilt.
    Polarlys is waiting for me already at the Pier. I am 75 minutes earlier and -of course!- my room’s not ready. I head to the top and I find the warm morning light penetrating the explorer’s deck. Leather reclinable chairs filled with something that feels like down (my buttocks swim in softness), everybody relaxed and reading or listening to music.
    Three hours after the departure, blue-gray and golden-white clouds make their way towards us and release their waters. It’s an incredibly dramatic scenery: no hollywood special effect can replicate the fast pace and fury and colour changing and shapes the sky takes.
    After the rain, a unicorn paints a big rainbow from the yellow and green hillside leaving me breathless: never seen its base so close!
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Down towards Bergen

    August 26, 2018 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    It’s 8 pm and I slept two hours this afternoon. I have a colourful tone, finally.
    I get out of the room and they “offer” me, again, hand sanitiser. It’s mandatory here, I noticed I used it 6 times so far. It does not smell but it leaves a smarmy layer on your hands for a minute.
    The observation deck is even quieter as most of the guests are at dinner. Outside it’s raining again and this part of the trip is mildly attractive to me-we are on the coast and not on fjords.
    I have nonetheless the chance to take another dramatic shot at the grey light of this place: whirls of wind and water run all around us.
    I put those snappy thoughts aside, and start reading the new book I bought on Norwegian social norms, conscious it will be a long evening - it will take a while before I fall asleep again.
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Something magical about Norway

    August 26, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Believe it or not, the latitude, the local species and the rocks create magical happenings.

    1-Fata Morganas: The photo number 1 shows a Fata Morgana observed near Brasvelbreen Svalbard. The Fata Morgana is a superior mirage featuring the characteristics of vertical magnification and exaggeration. This attention-getting display lasted for several hours. It was viewed from about 4 m above sea level. The wind was calm and the air temperature was 6 C. Ice-strewn seas cooled the air in contact with it, forming a temperature inversion; a colder air layer beneath warmer air. When such atmospheric conditions are encountered, upward moving light rays from distant objects are refracted downwards by the different density air layers. To our eyes, the miraged object appears to be floating in the air. The direction of refraction is to curve rays towards denser, colder, air.

    2-Psylocibin mushrooms: typical symptoms include visual distortions of color, depth and form, progressing to visual hallucinations. They can be found all over Norway.

    3-Sunstones: the sunstone is a mineral (cordierite or Iceland spar) that polarises light and by which the azimuth of the sun can be determined in a partly overcast sky or when the sun is just below the horizon. The principle is used by many animals and polar flights applied the idea before more advanced techniques became available. The sunstone is considered to have aided navigation in the open sea in the Viking period.

    4- Aurora borealis: The Aurora is an incredible light show caused by collisions between electrically charged particles released from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere and collide with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. The lights are seen around the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres.
    Read more

  • Day 5

    The end of the cruise

    August 27, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The weather outside is not great (neither sunny, nor stormy like yesterday). The coast looks all the same and I regret embarking on the ship. Food hasn’t been great either, despite its cost (unavoidable since there is no “choice B”). The only tasty thing was the whipped butter, which inspired me to think of a twisted recipe- salt & rosemary & garlic whipped butter. I look up the cooking options online and it does not sound hard to make.

    I haven’t slept much: the boat was inclined on one side all the time and I failed falling off the bed once. Very unexpected for such a big boat.

    I am reading three books in parallel right now, but finished in 24 h the new book on Norwegian society: I must have been born on the wrong side of Europe. Silence, aloneness, social frameworks and the way I perceive an egalitarian society, here are respected values. I cannot imagine what it means for an extrovert to be born here though, pure torture!!! The reality is that this is an oppressive society, no better than the Italian one. Just with opposite values. Or maybe I am wrong? It has been ranked the happiest society on Earth.
    Read more

  • Day 5

    First day in Bergen

    August 27, 2018 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Highbrow men, dressed-up & made-up women of all ages; all staring at each other and walking fast. Hair saloons at every corner.

    I move towards the port to see the wooden old town Unesco site. Only tourist shops and people queuing up to take pictures (my beloved Venice, this reminds me of you 🙏🏽).

    The more authentic neighbourhood is full of locals sitting on bars outside, music is in the air. Cobbled streets and short buildings; street art and tattoo shops. Some playful decorations.

    I get back to the hotel late in the evening. They told me they could not guarantee laundry for Wednesday morning: I have to wash myself my clothes then. I realized I have never hand-washed socks in my entire life. What a wonderful occasion! I learned you have to put your whole hand in the dirty sock, and then rub, if you want to assure cleanness. Unforgettable evening!
    Read more