Tag: Norway

Oslo

Place 93 – May 21 2022 & May 22 2022: Oslo 🇳🇴 – New Favourite City?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1

We woke up for our last day at the farm and we were made some waffles for breakfast!

We went to see one of the kids’ gymnastics performance nearby. This was great to see all of the kids having fun.

Unfortunately we had to leave before it was done and drive to Oslo! We had never been so we wanted to see what it was like so we drove there to stay for our final night in Norway. We stopped in Kongsberg for snack and coffee, of course!

We got rid of the car, which wasn’t super easy to find and it was actually in a parking structure but maps took us to a different location! Once we did that we got ourselves checked in to our hotel which was right on one of the main streets.
We had a shower and freshened up before walking for some dinner.

We walked fairly far to get a burger for dinner but it was great as we got to see a lot of the city.

Once dinner was done, we continued our long walk around Oslo and all of the different areas! We also went to the cool looking opera house that they have in Oslo.

For the evening we had a nice relaxing time with snacks in bed and watched some TV.

Day 2

We had free breakfast at the hotel but it was a nightmare! Far too busy for such a small spot.

We walked to the King’s castle and we walked around the park that is attached to the castle. It was such a peaceful place to walk around and the architecture, as is Europe, was beautiful.

We went to ‘Frognerparken’ which is the famous park with a lot of nude sculptures in it, which is one part of it but also it’s a nice park and the sculptures look cool!


We walked to find ourselves a coffee and then walked to Askerhus festing, which is an old castle/military fort.


We walked quite far from here to ‘Gamle Oslo’ which is the old part of town which also has a very new part just around it. We wanted to check this out and we loved it.


We went back to the hotel to get ourselves sorted and then headed to catch the train to the airport.

We flew back to the UK to spend a couple more days there.

Kim’s dad, Tom, picked us up from the airport and we had a McDonald’s for dinner on the way home, of course! It was time to sleep once we got back.

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Norefjord

Place 17 – May 18 2022 to May 20 2022: Norefjord – Back To The Farm!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1


We drove to Nordfjord to visit our friends at the farm that we visited on our travels around 6 years ago! The drive was through snow as well as a lot of tunnels and we got to see a bunch of new places we hadn’t seen!

On the way, we stopped at a bakery in Rødberg for a cinnamon bun and then we carried on to the farm.

We arrived and had some lunch and some coffee, as is tradition, and we caught up with the family who now have an extra child than they did last time which was lovely to see and amazing to meet them.

We were chatting about badgers being a problem and of course, one appeared! We had to chase it down and trap it.

We walked through the forest and cleared it up, clearing up rubbish and also branches that are in the way. The plan is for them to make it into a field that can be used.

We ended the night with some food and a chat. We got to sleep in the cabin we slept in last time which we loved!

Day 2

We had some breakfast and then went down to where the lambs and sheep live to stack a bunch of firewood/logs so they can dry and are stored for the winter. We love doing this so this was great!

We had a coffee break, as you should, it was really nice to sit and chat with them whenever we had a chance.

We needed to move some wood planks from a trailer onto the floor so the trailer could be used again. There were a lot of planks but we worked with Martin to get it sorted.

We loved the opportunity to feed the lambs, too! Some had to be bottle fed, so it was a super nice experience and something new!

For dinner, we had a big roast with a big lamb/sheep leg which was slow cooked. Kim obviously didn’t eat it but Curtis did and it was excellent! The vegetables were a delicious side too.

We needed to make a fence to put around the new sheep field, so we helped to get that done after dinner, which was nice and relaxing.

Day 3

We started with breakfast, as expected and then right when we were getting ready for getting some work done, there was unfortunately a crazy incident with a stabbing in the local town.

This meant that we needed to be vigilant just in case and also the owners of the farm went to see if they could get their kids from school and to see if they can help at all.


The craziness went on for a while and once the evening hit, we walked around and checked all the old fences for holes or trees sitting on them before moving the sheep to their new field!

We had a beer in the sheep field once they’d moved and it was a very nice feeling to see our work come to fruition.

We finished our time there with a curry night! Martin made some really good homemade curry and we even had a visit from one of their friends who sat and had some food with us as well.

We had about 1/2 a day left after this, which will be covered in the next post!

We loved visiting the family again and we can’t wait to head back, see even more farm improvements and help them out.

Bergen

Place 16 – May 14 2022 to May 17 2022: Bergen – 17th May Celebrations!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1

We had to get to the airport early in the morning but we didn’t mind as we were travelling to probably our favourite place, Bergen!

When we arrived, we met our great friends Espen & Marcus at the airport and they drove us to Espen’s apartment. We hung out with them at the apartment as well as meeting Espen’s girlfriend, Rikke, who is a wonderful person also!

Rikke made us some lunch, which was delicious, and we sat and had a conversation for a while.


We wanted to visit the city, as did our friends, so we all took the bus to the city and had a walk around.


Marcus’ dad owns a nightclub/bar in Bergen and he was working, whilst the FA Cup game was on, so we went to watch that with Espen (he’s a Liverpool fan) and we had some drinks and food.


We went back home and we watched Eurovision for the first time! We had a great time watching it actually, and it’s a big deal in Scandinavia. We had some homemade pizza whilst we watched that and then it was time to sleep.

Day 12:

We had some nice homemade breakfast lovingly made by Rikke & Espen.

We had a relaxed morning and watch the GB Vs Norway hockey game. We then got ourselves ready and headed into the city on the bus again.

We lazily walked around the city and tried to buy few things and look around some shops as well.

We went out in the afternoon/evening to watch Rikke in a cheerleading performance! It was super cool to see lots of different ages doing a similar thing but at different levels.

Day 13

We went out for brunch in city with our friends which was really nice! We had some good food and some amazing weather, so much so we were getting burnt from the sun.


We rented a car, so we went to pick that up. They told us there were no issues with it but it was quite scratched up, so we did a full walk around of that and then we set off! We drove to the city and parked up before going to get MANY cinnamon buns and coffee, as is the rule in Norway.

We went for a BBQ at Rikke’s parents’ place which was a really nice place, great food and they were really lovely people as well.


In the late evening, we went to meet another friend, Tony, for some drinks and a chat. The weather was so nice we were able to sit outside comfortably, too!

Day 14

This day was the national day for Norway and we were excited to celebrate!

We got all dressed up for breakfast, Curtis and Espen wore suits, Kim had a nice skirt on and Rikke had a Bunad on, the national outfit of Norway. The table looked all fancy and we had a really nice, big breakfast!

Espen & Rikke!


We took the (very busy) bus to the city to join the celebrations.


There was a parade and we were able to get a table outside to watch the parade and have some drinks! The weather was perfect again so we caught some sun, as well.


After the parade, we went out to Rilke’s aunt’s house for some food and chatting! Everyone was Norwegian so it was a good time to practice some as well. We tried some Rømmegrøt, which is basically ‘sour cream porridge’. When adding a lot of cinnamon sugar, it’s pretty good actually.

We went back to the apartment to get changed into comfortable clothes and relax after a long busy, but fun, day!


We ate homemade cheesecake and strawberries whilst we relaxed and we were all super tired.


Marcus and his girlfriend, Stine, arrived and we got to meet her for the first time. We all sat and chatted and had a really fun time. This was when Curtis finally got the confidence to chat in Norwegian and surprised everyone with how much he has improved, too!

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 440: Vancouver, BC – Making Strides With Norwegian

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was meant to have a meeting with someone in his company and an external support person, but the external person didn’t appear, so it didn’t happen!

Curtis therefore got some other work done.

At 10:30, Curtis had his Norwegian ‘lesson’ and learned a lot, actually, which he was really happy about! He felt he wasn’t speaking very good Norwegian, but learning a lot was a good feeling.

After that, Curtis spent most of the rest of the day getting tickets done as well as some security work that came up.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day with the weekly company wide meeting, it was great to meet everyone, hear what is happening in other departments and get to know the product a bit better.

For most of the day Kim was researching softwares that might be needed soon. So it was a lot of finding one thing, reading about it, heading to a comparison site and then writing up about it.

In the afternoon, one of the companies got back to Kim so they had a quick call to go over some questions, talk about what Kim is looking for and learn more about pricing. This was a great help and Kim was then able to write a more precise overview as a result. She will start to set up a few more meetings with other companies over the next couple of days.

Towards the end if the day Kim reached out to a friend to see if they would be interested in a collaboration between the two companies that they both work in, so that could be interesting!

Evening

We had chicken chilli with potato for dinner which was delicious and we watched some Bake Off with it.

We played a lot of Need for Speed and Curtis was keeping up on the (far too close) US election.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 405: Vancouver, BC – Back To Evening Walks

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got up and was sure to get a coffee as soon as possible, as he had to go to the office.

Curtis had his coffee and did some tickets, then he walked down to the office.

Once he got there, Curtis got the things he needed out of the storage and got to work setting up a laptop and the accounts for a new starter on Monday.

This took pretty much the entire first half of the day, and he got that all packaged up and booked a courier to take that tomorrow.

Curtis left the office and walked back home.

After he got home, Curtis had some lunch and then got back to work.

Curtis had some work to do in the afternoon and it went pretty quick.

Kim’s Day

Kim got ready for the day and then did a little housework and then started looking for jobs again.

Kim applied to a couple of jobs that she really liked the look of before lunch and then after lunch Kim applied to a lot more which is very promising!

Evening Walk

When Curtis finished work and Kim finished applying for jobs, we headed out to go for a bit of a walk!

We walked down to the seawall and walked for a while, but swung around to get to the store to get a carrot and some spring onions for dinner.

We were at the store for a while as it was very busy, but once we got home, Kim made some chicken egg fried rice.

We watched some TV for the evening and also we looked into a bit of immigration stuff for next year (exciting!).

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 301: Vancouver, BC – Virtual Pole Competition

Kim & Curtis Hale

Virtual Pole Competition

We got up and had some serial for breakfast and watched more standup comedy for a little bit.

We then got ready for the day and Kim sat down to watch a virtual pole competition, featuring some people she trains with!

This lasted for a few hours, so Curtis used that time to play some games.

After the event was done, we had some leftover chili from a few days ago.

During and after dinner, we watched all of the remaining episodes of Schitts Creek and then watched the documentary they made afterwards.

We looked at some houses in Norway for fun and then watched a bit more TV for the rest of the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 237: Vancouver, BC – Games With Friends

Kim & Curtis Hale

Late Start!

Today was Easter Friday, so it was a day off!

We took advantage of this by sleeping…For a while!

We didn’t wake up until 12:30 and eventually got out of bed at 13:00.

We had cheese toasties for breakfast and watched a bit of TV.

Games With Friends!

We played some games together and then a couple of hours later, Curtis played some games with Espen from Norway!

It was awesome to chat with him and to play some games, too.

During this, Kim watched the show Babies on Netflix.

Curry Time!

Once we were done with those activities, we ordered a curry!

We had our curry and watched the film The Hustle which was an alright film but it was an easy, funny film, to watch.

We finished that film and then watched some more episodes of some of our TV shows, before heading to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 231: Vancouver, BC – Family Games & Long Drive

Kim & Curtis Hale

Lazy Morning

We had a lazy morning, as per usual on weekends, having breakfast, watching a bit of TV and relaxing.

Family Games

Once we got ready in the afternoon, we called Kim’s family and played some drawing games!

We used Skribbl.io to go against each other, having to draw whatever item we were given and everyone had to guess.

We had good fun for around an hour doing this and then they went to sleep so we said goodbye.

We chilled out for an hour or two more after this and then went for a drive!

Long Drive

We just wanted to get out but didn’t want to contend with other people, so we went for a drive.

We ended up drive for a while and got to an affluent area with a lot of horse stables and the such.

We turned around and just started driving in the general direction of home and overall the drive took us 1.5 hours once we got back.

It wasn’t as nice as going out for a walk, but we didn’t have to worry about physical distancing!

Films, Mini Sticks & Games

Our evening consisted of watching TV, a film (hotel Transylvania 2, which we think we may have actually seen before!) And then playing some mini sticks!

After Kim won the mini sticks game, which was incredibly fun and competitive, we played a bit of Need For Speed before browsing some houses in Norway whilst drinking wine, because why not?

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale