I have to admit; I love Travel Books. It is not something I sit and read at home and thereafter make up my mind that I have to go there and do what the book sais – quite the contrary. I usually have the travel booked well before the travel book gets purchased, sometimes I won’t buy it until I have checked in on the flight. Still love them, and I do find myself using the travel book extensively after I have returned home – either to find facts about the place I just visited for my scrapbook, or as lately – for my travel blog.
I do like Lonely Planet’s Travel Books, but the one in these pictures is a Danish one that I have not tried before. Who knows, I might have found a new favorite? I haven’t opened it until just now to take the picture below.
This morning my facebook was overflowing with beautiful photographs of the first sunset in Longyearbyen. I wasn’t there so I don’t have any pictures of that exact sunset to share, but I do have some other photos that are very much so related to the sun, however some years old.
It was the first sunset in four months. Summer is over in Longyearbyen, and with it – the Midnight Sun. The evenings and nights will now get darker and darker, the days will get shorter and shorter, until there is no sun rising at all.
Graph from http://www.visitsvalbard.com. I was unable to find the English version, but it still should be understandable for non-Norwegian readers.
I realize this sounds sad, but it’s really not. You see, in august the families with kids return from their vacations just before school starts up again. Kids running in the streets make all the difference, the town returns to normal and most people living in Longyearbyen cherish this return to normal. The fall is also a sociable part of the year; it is when the tourists leave they can sit back and get an overview of who is here this winter. They start their sports and clubs again, they visit with each other or meet at the pub. Although hiking season will come to an end with the shorter days and sporadic snowfalls, it is still possible to get in some really beautiful hikes in the autumn. It is a truly lovely time of year up there, although maybe not so attractive for tourists.
My good Aussi friend, Louise Rigozzi, thought up – and got the sundial made. You can read all about it here, on her own website, dedicated to the sundial. It is a fascinating read, and makes you realize that you can’t just make a sundial and plunk it down anywhere; there are a lot of things to consider, like the dial having to be 24 hour dial and not just 12 hours, also the length and angle of the gnomon. Louise explains this on her site in a way so everyone can understand. It’s a good read!
If you want to know more about Svalbard, please visit this page. I really do hope everyone get to visit this fairytale island at some point in their lives. I miss it so much!
I just have to put this picture up here. This is the Karate Kid right outside our house in Longyearbyen, only one year old. This photo was taken 08 September 2002.
Old Mamasan is a real foodie, and ex-pat’ing it in Denmark plays in well with my foodieness. We are going out today, we have something to celebrate. Not that we only go out to dinner to celebrate – in which case I would have no problem finding something to celebrate often *giggles* – but today we actually received good news and a great cause for a celebration.
My family often celebrates with food. Either something special and homemade, or we could go out to a restaurant to celebrate. We are all passionate about food, any food really, and we can all make our way around a kitchen. The Karate Kid tends to specialize in Wok’s and Spanish Cuisine. Sir Nerdalot often chooses Italian, and Old Mamasan (me) tends to be all over the place, and nowadays there is no limitation in what produce and spices one can get hold of. I love to experiment with exotic spices and flavors.
One thing that I love about Denmark is their Inn’s. They are everywhere, often in really old and beautiful buildings, and the food is great and affordable. I saw Blovstrød Kro from the car right after we arrived in Denmark, and said to Sir Nerdalot that we just had to come back and check that place out. And we did. And it became a favorite. It’s a Steakhouse and Restaurant that has been in business since 1771.
I am now 43 years old and I will be 64 in 2036. The following wish/hope/fantasy is written in response to Maddy at home’s Blogging Event “When I’m Sixty Four”
“Good evening, this is your Captain speaking. We are now approaching Mars Interplanetary Space Shuttle Station. We expect to be on the ground in about 30 minutes. Weather report says 40 degrees Celsius, sunny and a nice breeze. We may experience light turbulence in our approach.”
Sir Nerdalot looked over at me, and I cringed. There were despair and anger in his eyes. I petted his hand and said “it’s almost over, we’ll soon be landed” Sir Nerdalot did not look impressed. However still handsome. Oh so handsome! His dark hair now had a salt and pepper-quality to it, well the rim of hair he had left. His eyes still sparkly and bright. His smile was still to die for, all clad in beard and mustache. I used to joke about his baldness – I would put my hand on his bald nobbin and claim to be “first one on the moon”, and he would chuckle. He was not chuckling now. He was not gracing me with his fabulous smile. His eyes did not sparkle. He was miserable. He had never fully gotten over his fear of flying. “Of all the stupid things you have made me do, this is by far the stupidest”, I could hear it in his voice that he was not joking.
I tried to reason with him, I used arguments like “you not only survived our vacation on the Moon three years ago, you had a blast” and “we have been everywhere on Earth, where else could we go?”, but to no avail. Sir Nerdalot was very much so uncomfortable on a space shuttle, and he dreaded the landing. All these years it had astounded me that such a logical, analytical and rational mind could be so immensely irrational when it came to flying. It had gotten better over the years, but he was still not loving the thought of flying.
He might see the vacation as stupid now as we had started descending to Mars, but he had absolutely loved it when I gifted him this trip on his 62nd birthday. Yes, I had landed a younger guy. I was a cougar. And damn proud of it too! His, and my, age never mattered, it was the love and the fact that we were extremely compatible that mattered. We both loved travelling and exploring new places. Although we might visit a nice beach and test the water, we would never lay in the sun for any length of time. At restaurants we always tried out the local cuisine, and we made a point of ordering different meals – only so we could stick our forks in each other’s foods and taste a little. For desserts, he would always go for something chocolatey, and I would go for cheesy or fruity. Compatible.
Successfully landed and grounded, Sir Nerdalot let out a sigh of relief. It was over now. The sparkle instantly returned to his eyes, and we were both ready to set out on our Mars-adventure. We had booked the best hotel, and Sir Nerdalot fighting his fear of flying would be well rewarded; I had remembered to pack the Princess Leia gold bikini. He chuckled when I asked him “So where do you want to go for your 72nd birthday? Pluto?”
In Spain they have an interesting way of solving parking issues. If there is no parking space available by the curb in front of the store, post office, restaurant or pub, it is socially acceptable to park illegally, even double park. Just park your car in the street, making sure that you block the way for at least two legally parked cars, slap your emergency blinkers on, and go tend to your business – even when there is a long line and you have to wait for 30 minutes – or you are going for a beer with your mates. Now, this isn’t exactly legal, but you can get away with it more often than not.
One day I came out of the grocery store to find a police man writing up a parking ticket. Mind you, the old Fiat was parked illegally, but I still got rather upset at him writing up a ticket. Of course, me being me, I let the police man know how I felt about the ticket – and I repeatedly pointed out the emergency blinkers were on, in an attempt to justify the illegal parking. The fact that my Spanish was rather poor, did not stop me. The sentiment was clear as day. The policeman was not so impressed by me and my expression of feelings, so he quickly wrote up another ticket. I told him I felt it was rather unnecessary, but that just prompted him to write up a third ticket, and slapped it quite rudely on the old Fiat.
At this time I had enough, so I turned and walked away. My car was parked around the corner. Legally.
By Olive Ole  Posted in Blogging101, Ex-pat, Funny, Spain, Travel	 Tagged double park, Ex-pat, parking ticket, Spain
Finally summer arrived in Denmark, and those long, light evenings are perfect for our family dog to chase tennis balls in the lake.
(This post is in response to the Six Word Stories Challenge by Benedict Nicholson. Word promt: Loss)
I just love this picture of the old Japanese man sitting in front of us at a ballgame in Tokyo, that I just have to submit it for the Daily Post’s photo challenge Dinnertime. Everyone around us were enjoying dinners and snacks, but this Gentleman is whom caught both my eye and my lense.
The original post where I first showcased this picture, Reisebrev fra Tokyo, Play Ball, dag 5, is written in Norwegian. If you can not read any of the Scandinavian languages, I think you’ll struggle to understand my writings, but there are some awesome pictures in there.
I will now take you for a short walk in my Danish Ex-pat garden. Specifically the “pumpkin patch”. Now, if you are a seasoned gardener, you will be absolutely horrified, so you might be well advised to look away.
When we rented this house, it was because of its location and the size of the garden. The house is OK, but not more. Actually I really dislike the house, but that is beside the point. I love the garden, and seeing we are animal lovers, this garden suits us perfectly. An added bonus, Old Mamasan gets to try her hand in growing vegetables. I have no idea what I’m doing, and my “pumpkin patch” is hard proof of my ignorance.
Thing is, we have so much room to grow things that the Karate Kid and myself went absolutely nuts in planting and seeding carrots, herbs, tomatoes and to fill out space – small, decorative pumpkins.
I do have a tendency to put off reading instructions until after the deed is done. Not this time 🙂 I read what the package said. It said that the seeds would grow into plants of 80-100 cm long, and that they could either climb or be stretched out on the ground. Oh goodie! I bought a cone of sorts for them to climb in, and planted the seeds all around the cone. Good going!
Now this theory would work out just fine, if only someone would have instructed the seeds to stop growing at the length prescribed on the packaging, I carefully stretched out one plant and measured it, and it is pushing 3 meters. It would also be most helpful if someone had the curtesy to include in the instructions; that the leaves will grow very big. Had I known this, then my plan would have been completely different!
My pumpkin patch is growing beyond the designated space, and in something that looks like a hostile takeover, some of my herbs and tomatoes has wilted due to lack of space and light. I guess I can safely say that my way of learning to garden – is by doing it wrong!