Leaving Tromsø, also: redcurrants

 I went berry-picking with my dad today

 Or currant-picking, if that word exists

On our own land and our own plants, we got about five or six pints.

And I'm leaving Tromsø today, I'm going to Oslo on the predeparture brief. I'll be back here one weekend, just before I leave properly, but still. I said goodbye to so many people yesterday, and having to say "well, I suppose I'll see you in June 2015" was hilarious in the saddest way possible. Last night, I stayed up far too late, reading webcomics and distracting myself as far as I could. And now I'm saying goodbye to my parents, and I'll see them again in less than three weeks, but this is the beginning of departure, and I'm sad.

So here's to Oslo being a brilliant experience, to keeping busy and not missing people as much, all the time.

Tea, of course

 Last Saturday, my parents and I went to a tea garden in the city centre

 And guess what, we had tea

I could probably write volumes about tea and my relationship with it. I started drinking tea when I was thirteen, although it had nothing to do with tea really, and was more hot drinks made with fruity things inside tea bags. I started drinking black tea (what English people call "tea") a few years later, I know I must have done, but I can't remember much of it before going to study in England. Nowadays, I visit people and ask for milk in my tea, and they look at me with a strange look until I explain "Oh, but you know, I've lived in England", and suddenly it's all right. It's still a quirk, but at least they know why I'm acting so strange.

Copenhagen's botanical garden

 We went there on an offhand tip, not expecting to have to stand in line

 To see a specific attraction in the tropical greenhouse

 Namely this flower that blooms every ten years or so.

 After looking at the slightly smelly plant, we went to goggle at cacti (very, very exciting)

 And be taken more photos of

Because we were in a botanical garden and everything was beautiful.

Here you can read a fairly up-to-date article about the flower, it is only in Danish, but you can always google translate it (if you're that interested). It's supposed to bloom only every ten years, but the last time it happened here was two years ago. 

Hans also took heaps more photos of us in the garden, and also in Tivoli later on. I pretty much let my camera be, being too busy going on carousels and tiny roller coasters and "driving" small cars with Cecille. I was extremely tired after this weekend, but mostly because we did a lot of fun things all day long, and sleep was fairly far down on our priority list.

At least this time we'll have lots of photographic evidence that we had fun. 

Ringvassøya, Skarsfjorden, Klokkarholmen

 On a family trip on Ringvassøya (Ringvass Island) outside of Tromsø

 we passed this, which I thought was man-made, is a vertebrae from a whale (it's big enough to sit on)

 my dad ate his salmon on a flat stone, because who needs plates when you have stones lying around

 We admired the view from Klokkarholmen

 and admired it in another direction

 We had lots of coffee and laughter (this is my cousin and my aunt)

and we went to a beach with deceivingly clear and inviting water and beautiful sand

Skarsfjorden is where my dad and his three siblings grew up, and Klokkarholmen where my granddad grew up. We all like to walk there in summer (there is no road, and there are no people living there permanently anymore), but we always seem to do so at different times, seeing that we are four families within our family, and several smaller groups inside these families again. This year, my dad and cousins hatched a plan for a long walk, an overnight stay, and inviting all the siblings and their children, grandchildren etc. We ended up being eleven people, barbecuing out there on Saturday night, talking, laughing, eating, laughing a bit more, and sleeping in tents for the night. The next day, we went past a beautiful beach on our way home, and had another barbecue there, tested the beautiful but oh-so-cold water, and went home. 

It was extremely tiring to walk that far with tents and sleeping bags and all the food, but very worth it. This is the place that we all connect with, that is deeply ingrained in our minds and our family history. I also just enjoy spending time with my family, getting to know them better, and laughing about all the silly things.

And then...

 Winter was properly here on Tuesday morning

And today, after the winter winds have settled a little, it's even looking quite pretty

I am excited by the snow this year, seeing that I was away most of the winter, and haven't been close to  snow since January. I am also already exhausted by the snow, realising that it means six months of hoping our neighbour will come and clear our driveway in the morning, of starting every car journey ten minutes earlier in case you have to clear off the ice and snow, of getting stuck, of darkness, and so on.

Snow is very nice at midday, when you have daylight, when you don't have to go outside, and you have your book and your tea and your sofa and your cat. Other than that it can be a bother. I remember that. Still, at this moment I can enjoy it. (It is midday. I am inside. I have a lot of the aforementioned things.)

Christine, Christine

Last Saturday, we decided to go for a drive in this very nice car

 We went near the airport

 But you would never guess how close we actually were

 By the beauty of this place

Especially in summer.

You know you're Norwegian when

(near Kvaløyvågen, Tuesday 23rd July)

you can't stay inside if the sun comes out. Even after Nicaragua, getting plenty of sun, I'm a very Norwegian Norwegian.

On Tuesday, seeing how warm it was outside after work, I cancelled my swimming and went to Kvaløyvågen with my dad instead and had a tiny barbecue. On Wednesday, we went to Skarsfjord on Ringvassøya, where my dad grew up. On Thursday, my gran came over for dinner and tea on the patio. Friday, we also had dinner outside and stayed out long afterwards. Today, I was supposed to clean and tidy my room for the first time since I left in January (and I didn't do it very thoroughly back then). 

But there was sunshine! So instead, I sat outside reading, I went to the beach, I had a swim (medal for swimming in Arctic Sea, please), Christine came over and we went out driving in her dad's convertible and took lots of photos and now it's late and sleepytimes and the sun is still up.

Photos will come, unless there happens to be lots of sunny weather the following days...

Movika

 View of Tromsø, looking south. The city is on the island to the right

 Kvaløya, looking west(ish)

Yesterday, Saturday, I went up one mountain with Christine. Today was Sunday though, and as all Norwegians know, if it's a Sunday, and the weather isn't too bad, you need to go on a Sunday Hike/Trip, preferably with your family.

So my parents and I drove to Movika, about half an hour from our house, walked forty-five minutes to the top of a hill, absorbed the marvellous view, and walked down again.

Pretty, eh?

Bosawas/Musawas

And then, more about this place I mentioned weeks ago.

One Sunday in May, after the longest bus ride in history, one night of sleeping in a parking lot, one night of sleeping three in one bed, and plenty of long meetings, we walked three hours into the woods and up the mountains in this beautiful natural reserve of Bosawás, to the village of Musawas, where the indigenous Mayangna live. We were supposed to have a meeting with the village, or with one board, or with another, and we spent two hours listening to them discussing in Mayangna about whether we were allowed to have a meeting, and with whom, and why we were even there.

They said they are now sceptical of people coming from outside to "help", because they have several experiences with those who come, appropriate their culture, and run back home to earn money off what they've learnt.

We ended up taking the meeting outside, because apparently our previous agreement wasn't official enough to have a village meeting in the village hall. We split into two groups: one sat around members from the Territorial government, the other around those from the local council (unless I am confusing all these councils again). I was with the territorial government.

Both groups could tell us that yes, they had problems. Mestizoes from the west and south were moving into the reserve, cutting down far too much wood, working for profit rather than survival, and not respecting that it was a reserve, that the indigenous people had the right to use the forest as they had traditionally, but noone else should come and ruin nature. The territorial government people were quick to point out though, that they had done something to prevent it. That the state was completely on their side, all they needed was a little time and these migrants would be kicked out. No problems here. - "But we heard there was an assassination of the past president for the territorial government?" - "NO. Accident. Accident, it was."

Certainly. The people in the other group said clearly that the former president had been killed. Two very different versions. They were also clear about the fact that they do actually have problems, people are still cutting down rain forest, and it's not going to go away just like that. I'm sadly going to believe the most pessimistic view of this last group, which some of the girls got to hear while the rest of us were sat discussing problems with people who claimed not to have any.

Taking the bus from Port Limón to San José

upstairs in a double-decker bus

I saw a sign, and thought "what? I'm in a national park? We're driving through a national park? That's cool. I like being surrounded by trees, they're nice things to be surrounded by" and then thought "we're driving through a national park". For miles and miles, with heavy transport ahead and behind us.

Costa Rica is seen as a very environmentally forward country. At least 25 % of its area is protected land. The greenest country in the world.

And I realised I had to update my knowledge about the term national park. Even so, this definition seems to suggest that you shouldn't make one of the main roads between the coast and the capital straight through a national park:

"In 1969 the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area the following defining characteristics:

One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative, and recreative interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty;

Highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment;

and Visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes."  Wikipedia (my friend)

But then again, there are so many different guidelines and terms and different levels of protection and what not, so I'm not sure. I'm still learning a lot about reserves and the like - such as how a preservation act can harm the lives of the people living there, more often than not indigenous groups who just want to chop their firewood and build their houses in the areas.

Wintertime

Good job, Tromsø. You managed four months without any snow at all.

Of course, on Saturday, we drove further into the country, away from the sea, and they get more snow there. Still.

It's gone now, but the damage is done, we're in wintertime.

Autumn

Look, look, we still have no snow. And we're in mid-October already.

Harstad, you're looking fine

 Precious is on a boat (I mean ship) and she's happy

 Precious and Siren from Harstad, eager for their pizza

 Chicken! And sweet chili sauce! What every pizza should be like (we had gone hungry for a while at this point)

 Harstad is a lot like Tromsø in many ways, here's their cormorant

(we've got one too (ours is a restaurant) (and we have the proper birds as well))

 Harstad is a lot like England in one way, they have an old English telephone box

And hey, they've got mountains and stuff too.

Precious, Munya and I went to Harstad because it is part of our district (Troms), even if it's three hours away with boat. Or six hours away with cruise ship, which we slept on on our way there. We then wandered straight from the ship on Saturday morning into the hotel, got our hotel rooms ridiculously early, and went to sleep again.

We had a good meeting with Harstad Red Cross Youth, followed by pizza (because this is the Red Cross and this is what we eat).

Because there are no boats back on a Saturday evening, we stayed until Sunday and watched at least three romantic comedies in a row in our hotel room.

Then we went home and slept some more.

Of course, in the middle of all this nice social stuff and food and sleep, there have been problems and issues and discussions on different levels, and while my body came back from Harstad very well-rested, my mind did not. I've had to take some mornings off work to balance myself again, and as you can see, only on Tuesday evening did I have the energy to edit photos and do some blogging. I see this as a very good sign.

Family, family

 Dad to the left, old farm building being brought by man in tractor, to the right

 Dina getting chocolate from her great grandmother, look at her shifty eyes

 Brother visiting from Svalbard

Sister and grandmother being serious cats.

This has been a massively family-themed weekend. My sister, her fiance and my niece came up from Setermoen, my brother came down from Svalbard (Longyearbyen), and our grandmother visited us even though she lives quite close.

I don't know if I said, but my brother is a chef's apprentice at Svalbard (which is far away and makes Tromsø look southern, warm and bright in the winter). He left at the end of July, which isn't that long ago, but he leaves again on Tuesday, and we shall probably not see him before Christmas.

Wednesday Morning (now we have rain)

 homemade bus shed

 homemade, tiny apples

home, home, home

Today is work, then home to see my sister and niece and my sister's man. Also my brother, who moved to Svalbard one month ago, and is now visiting us because he misses us so much. 

Sunshine (for once)

That's right. Instagrammary fun

Yesterday was sunny and warm, just like Sunday, just like we've not had at all this summer. I took lots of nice photos on my proper camera, and then a shitty one on my phone, which now looks old and slightly blurry, thanks to Instagram.

I was going to the cinema tonight, but I'm just going to go home and sleep for a bit, edit some photos, and do some general chillaxing that I haven't been doing for a while.

Now: Rain.

Being healthy and all that

 At Åsfjellet, looking towards Tromsø island

 It's September and officially autumn, and everything is very beautiful (when the sun is out)

Including Christine, here on her way down

Today started with me being very lazy, sitting outside in the sunshine, finishing Good Omens and replying to Ingrid's letter. I would still be lazy if it wasn't for Christine inviting me to climb a mountain with her. It was really good, mostly because it was more of a hill, the weather was nice, and we had chocolate. The past month I've been far too relaxed about exercise, since my gym is now a 30 minute drive away, and everything is too far to cycle, and all these excuses are very convenient. I will try to change gears now, especially since we've got lovely autumn weather, which calls for climbing all the mountains and walking all the paths.

Also, I've now got a phone with a slightly less rubbish camera than before, which means that I'm too lazy to bring my proper camera, and you will get slightly more rubbish photos than before.