Kvernevik: Blocking the sea...

Tuesday, 20 february 2007
Hikers log: first entry:

transport: bus nr. 3- Madlakrossen > kvernavik ring.
weather: freezing cold: equivalent temperature: about -17°C
destination: Kvernevik beach hiking trail

This weak a foreigner is staying with me. A very strange guy from Belgium, who accidently happens to be my cousin. However we visited some nice places before, i wasn't planning on taking him there. Limited time, so visit as much as you can, sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

So, to Kvernevik, nearby and totally different scenery...

The first image brings a bright orange in the otherwise grey and brown scenics. It's obvious this guy isn't out to catch a whale... I am not talking about the size of the boat, but it's obvious he forgot his harpoon at home. fishing grounds in the direction he's heading aren't recommendable either; Lungfish can survive on land, but on these rocky shores the only thing you can find might be a whale washed ashore...
Than again, he might be out on a whalehunt ;-).

Not exactly the E39 highway, but not as much traffic. Actually none at all, not even a bug, it's obvious bugs are intelligent enough to stay indoors at these temperatures. So who's stating humans have higher intelligence? Say again, can't hear you...
Anyway, the hiking trail at Kvernevik. Nice? No: just plain beautifull...

When we walked for about 20 minutes we finally saw what the fisherman was out for. Clear blue water and a bike. Again, a cultural difference never encountered. In Belgium most people just get a bike at the local bikeshop. But they never mentioned me bikes grow near the Norwegian Kvernevik shores. I did hear about about oyster farms, but bikes, no, that's a completely new encounter...

Continuning this log, hiker enters the following:
Rockx, rocks and rocks. As mentioned in an earlier post: hoppedihop from rock to rock.
The black item top-left is not a troll, however much you would have liked it to be. Trolls are generally considered shy, so they disappear before even canons fastest AF-system can get a lock.
Just click the image and enjoy this point of interst: a piece of chain, accompagnied by some nameplates. Pity, jeg snakker ikke Norsk, so we haven't yet figured out what it's all about...

And here again, the hiking trail. This would have been a nice slope for wheelchairs. I knew i forgot something back home...

Oh, the statue is getting closer, or rather he other way around, hikers moving closer to the statue...

Walking back to Ugleveien, we passed by two lakes, and one of them treated us with this scenic picture. Any mathematician able to figure out the distance to the mountains? They're always moving away as we get closer but i'd really like ot go there:
anyway: care to figure it out: focal length: 82 mm on fullframe SLR...
This is a nice image, think i'll be heading back out one day ot get a proper panorama...


Next post in this log following soon. Gonna take care of my visitor now.

End of log entry.

Quo vadimus hodie?

To Sandness...

Sandness is also a somewhat larger town, next to Stavanger.

Close to it is a mountainous region, and that's where we went today.
If you've been reading previous posts, you got the definition of a mountain ;-)

Anyway, again not quite the Everest, but we reached 3 summits today. This really was an off-road trip. Straight through the woods, across streams, slippery rocks, and plenty of snow. Luckily i wasn't wearing my clownshoes today...

See: We just passed the point where trees stop growing ;-)

Looking down, i would say about half the Norwegian population is living there. The blue line behind is the sea...

Looking to the left, the scenic view is improving. To the dutch speaking readers: stortofjellet isn't what you think, i wouldn't know what jellt is anyway. It's just the name of the mountain :-)

And here's Luke, from Winsconsin, USA. Without feet, he had the hardest time of all, getting around the trip...

We managed to pull him out eventually...

_______________

Shades of gray:

Lazy today, cold today, work today, hungry now...

Not feeling humorous today, so just ending this boring post.

Enjoy...

Sound is music... ?

Untill now all you got were scenic pictures.

Time for some serious content.

This week we had our first lesson in Music sociology. The approach is to make us, students, more aware of the (a) way to approach and appreciate music. The course content is definetly geared towards adults, but if you get the basics, it can be transferred to train children to listen to music and sounds in a variety of ways...

Thusfar we looked at sound (characteristics of ...), setting (who, when, why, where created or performed, what about) and significance (what is the intention, evocation, how does it make me feel) and how can i relate the feeling to these 3 main aspects.

All this by examining musical examples from different origins.

The theory can be found in this (expensive) book. Definitly worth reading and studying if you want to be able to comprehend music in a more profound way but you don't feel the need to take a master in ethnomusicology :-)


Reading is easy, listening is fun, now of to writing the assignment: applying these 3 aspects to a chosen song.

Tomorrow we're of hiking through the area. 15-20 kilometers. If there's no addition appearing next week, we probably got lost in the Northern wilderness. In that case i'd like to call upon my fellow residents to sort out the fridge and throw everything starting to smell funny...

See Ya !

Boat beats bus...

Definetly...

Boat to Kvitsoy (should put a "/" over the o), is 33 NOKkies. A bus for two zones is about the same. But boy oh boy, what a view from the boat...

The bowdoor closes after departure ;-)

Anyway, Bus 28 from Stavanger to final busstop, hop on the boat and get off at the first port. Piece of cake...

First view after leaving the boat. Yes, jalousy is allowed.

Was wondering wheter this is a small nephiew of ginseng. The tiny red fellow was just walking the beach. Life is cold if ya don't wear any clothes.

Lawnmowing isn't part of the culture. Sheep do it all...

Deserted island? Not at all. Houses everywhere.
Enough buildings now, let's look at nature.
nature's calling again...

I always wanted to try Mount Everest, but this was as close to the sun we could get that day:

This gives you all an idea as to whether it's possible to keep your shoes clean:

Nope, it's hoppedihop from rock to rock, mosspile to mosspile...

And nice as they are, these Norwegians, even a lighthouse is provided...

To close the day, a snapshot from the boat. First time we saw the sun in two weeks.
Guess where i was? The sundeck ofcourse :-)

First island i visited, but probably not the last. Cheap trips, great scenery, no tourists.

Rather prefer shopping? There's a free bus to KVADRAT shoppingcenter in Sandness. Just wait near the Stavanger Busterminal. I lost all pictures from that trip dough. (ya really think so?)

Talk to you later. Gonna start planning the next trip...

This is not a sea..

This is the outdoor swimming pool next to our dormitory...

Just next to our dormitory lies a lake. It's just lying there, it doens't move at all. It's thus easy to walk around it.

Do ya:

Like ducks?
Like lakes?
Like snow?
Like trees?
Like fishing?
Like scenery?
Like walking?

Like it all combined?

Then feel free to make the trip around. It's a very nice trip to end the day.

Already planning for a fire and hotdogs...

It's all about the fjords...

Definitly...

UIS treated us to a cruise through the local fjords. Depth varrying between 1400 and 13 meters.

A first look at the sundeck, but never mind, this isn't the best thing i saw that day...

Here is where it starts...
As i am not intending to give y'all a lesson in geography, nor history, you can just enjoy the images. I will supply you with some basic terminolgy though:

mountain: a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill
Sea: a great body of salt water that covers much of the earth; broadly : the waters of the earth as distinguished from the land and air OR a body of salt water of second rank more or less landlocked
Fjord: a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes

:-)

can u see the sea?

Not a whale, just a rocky island, in the middle of the fjords, in the middle of tha day...

Yeah, we could just fit in between. See the trail of my canoe, can help you figure out the size of the mountains ;-).

A car is expensive, here they got a boat too...
Guess travelling is mostly done on sea, driving through the mountains takes a long time.

Anyway, first contact with local scenery. More to follow later on...

At the dawn of days...

So, as you could read earlier, the first two weeks will not get much attention.

Enjoying the scenery, otherwise known as "getting to know eachother", visiting UIS (university of Stavanger), finding out which plate heats up the fastest in our kitchen,...

Clowns have to perform i n the evening, so the first days i arranged for the other "freshly arrived" internationals in our bungalow-park to have dinner together. Wanna make baked potatoes in the oven for 13 people? 97 minutes @ 185°C...

Visited Stavanger, the town closest to our dormitary. It's not a find Wally, but find the rainbow...

Most of us got a kitchen and bedding package, i'm an easy going guy, but several princesses (npi), wanted a more luxurious pillow, so we went to IKEA on saturday. Free bustrip, cheap hotdogs, and red letters instead of yellow and blue...

These are most of the people in Comparative educational studies, all in all there are now 24.
Coming back in the evening, The ISU (international student union) had organised a party for all freshmen. Yeah, we've got a party- annex cinemaroom in Ugleveien (our dormitory bungalowpark). Free if you get the key.
Norwegians adore drinking, being drunk, and just sitting. Later on we hit the dancefloor and brought in a new cd. Repetition seems to be their creed, wanna dance to the same song 5 times a night? Norway is the place to go !!

Nevertheless, great party, great people. it finished @ 7 in the morning, after a pillowfight. Don't know who was the lucky bastard cashing in all the empty bottles though... Even cans and plastic bottles have 'pfand' on them...

The day after, a few of us took a short hike to the 3 swords. I thought vikings were of normal height, but i might wanna do some more research to the matter...
If they were this size they could easily have been swimming to Vinland @ the american continent. I'm a believer now :-).

More info to these giant cutters:
http://www.stavangertravel.com/trip/threeswords.cfm

Later on "Bergen Espeland", one of our music teachers, invited the 24 of us to his castle. It's called a social evening. All of us brought in "typical" food from our home countries.

First food, food first. Secondly food, thirdly food...

Afterwards we all started singing some golden oldies. That is, some singing, others yelling, doesn't matter. If you're able to produce sound, you could join in...

See Bergen showing the musical scores? Other teachers were invited too...

I very much liked the big chair in the room above, so that's where i was afterwards.

By now i can hear nature calling. More on that in the next posts...