Norway Win t’ Winter Olympics

Norway is playing down its Winter Olympics success, according to the New York Times, via MSN, so I’ll claim it as being down to my influence, which also scores 93 on the all new for 2018, and not used for a while parodymeter (any outsourcing funding for vulgar  victory celebrations from Norway [as cited for Winter Olympics sports in the article] will be reluctantly accepted).

I didn’t think I’d taught Norwegians much about snow from the day I spent on Bergen’s Mount Ulriken in 2013 but it is now obvious that I did!

Maybe this inspired athlete was one of Norway’s gold medallists in Pyongchang?:

Running the Tromso Midnight Sun Marathon in 2007 also must have taught them a thing or two about endurance!!

Norway also provided the cover star for XaW Files: Beyond Humanity of course!

Oslo, Norway after Leaving Tromso

I left the Tromso – Tromsdalen campsite, and flew to Oslo.

Oslo, Norway Photos

With four or five hours to spare between flights on another sunny warm day in the south of Norway I took the bus into Oslo. A friendly bus driver gave me a map after dropping us off in the north of the centre.

So I walked down through the central sights to the bus station and got the bus from there back to the airport to fly out. I think I saw most of the big attractions from the outside.

I didn’t have much camera battery life after taking the Tromsdalen videos, so it was a case of taking a photo and waiting for the batteries to charge enough to take another one. I managed these two:

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).

Stockholm City Centre Photos

Norway bade farewell
as it had welcomed
showing natural beauty
west coast to eastern city.

Oslo – Stockholm Night Bus

After a few hours in Oslo bus station there was a surprisingly scrambled boarding of the night bus to Stockholm. It was nearly full, so I ended up on the back seat. It therefore reminded me of my Istanbul – Munich bus journey on my first road trip in 1987/88; twenty-five years before.

I slept most of the night, not knowing when I left Norway and arrived in Sweden; my first border crossing outside the U.K. for fifteen years. I only remember that we stopped near a lake at first Swedish light.

We arrived in Stockholm at about 05.30. I thought I’d wait for the hostel to open in the station, but then got bored, and thought I’d make the most of the bright sunny morning.

Stockholm City Centre Photos

The city still slept, and there was little traffic. I saw most of the main Stockholm city centre sights from the outside before going over the hostel. Here’s some photos:

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).

Bergen to Oslo Train Journey and Voss Photos

After filling up on the hostel breakfast fit for Freya and abundant enough for Odin, whose organic theme just gave it the edge over Bergen‘s brilliant beautiful brekkie, and before my lunchtime train, I walked around the eastern edge of Voss lake; through pine trees and picnic areas to the river.

Nonchalent Norwegian farewell, Bittersweet Swedish Sojourn

I enjoyed the warm spring sunshine with a noisy abundance of life: birds chirped and insects buzzed. Then it was time to catch the train: to Oslo, for a night bus to Stockholm.

I’d always wanted to visit Stockholm, but on that morning I would rather have been returning to the Naeroyfjord; to try and commune with spectacular nature, rather than find myself in a large human community.

Voss Lake and Oslo Train Photos

Here’s some photos from my last morning in Voss and the train journey. Voss lake had nearly melted, after being mostly frozen when I arrived three days before.

While the lake looked ready for summer, the mountains still had their winter coats on; the train took me over and through the May winterland, before dropping down to lovely lakes and fertile forests north-west of Oslo:

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).