Cross country skiing at a cabin in the Mountains

Yes that is how I spent last weekend, it was awesome! Firstly I should say I am no skier, I did one day of slalum when I was about 12 in America and about an hour last year cross country but in all honesty it was nothing compared to this, which was incredible.

Cross country skiing is HUGE in Norway, most people I have spoken to do very little slalum skiing and all seem to prefer cross country. Personally I knew nothing about cross country a short time ago but this weekend I learnt a lot. In true Norwegian style Marianne¨and I joined two close friends of ours at one of their parents cabin in the Mountains about 3 hours from Bergen. Its quite amazing how much snow can be found when you go to the right places, we have nothing really in the city for a little while but where we were at 900metres above sea level was a solid metre of the stuff surrounded by majestic mountains in  every direction. Truly a site to behold!

I should point out that while it was called a cabin, the palce we stayed was infact a lovely little house. It had all mod cons including dishwasher, cable tv and even a sauna (I'm aware it isnt a standard mod con but it had to be mentioend). I will do a seperate post on cabins in Norway at some point (called Hytte in Norwegian)  but for now I'll just say this was a particularly luxurious one. You could start skiing from the second you leave the front door but we opted to drive 2 minutes up the road and get on the proper trails.

In all honesty I was kinda nervous given my very limited experience but in the end we skied for a good few  hours covering around 6km and I loved it. The terrain we were on was largely flat with a few slight hills up and down but nothing too challenging. The best way I can describe cross country skiing is to say it is like hiking or a Sunday bike ride in the country, only a lot more effort than both. It was quite exhausting and at the end I was struggling a little due to my incredibly poor fitness. I really did feel though it was a lovely way to spend a day and to my surprise I completely get it. Its not the most glamourous or exciting of sports and doesnt have all the speed and swerves of slalum skiing but I for one really enjoyed it and would definitely recomend it.

Cross country skiing can of course be a lot more exciting if you wish by taking more extreme trails with bigger, longer and steaper slopes both up and down but it will be a while before I will be calling for any of that. I was watching a 50km cross country skiing race the next day on TV and it is no wonder Ive heard people say its the hardest sport around in terms of fitness and stamina. Having got a little bit of an idea of just how much effort it is to get to and maintain a high speed and tackle inclines I was stunned watching the super human pros' the next day. I was exhausted just thinking about it and it makes just maintaining a light jog for a marathon look like a piece of cake.

Very difficult to tell where the snowy mountains end and the clouds begin in this photo. I really regret not taking more pictures as it was stunning, I will try and steal some more off the others that where there.

You may think to yourself, "he's looking pretty cool and relaxed for a newbie". However I must admit I fell over several times getting in position for this picture and then seconds later my skii sticks (far right of the picture) fell over leaving me with a very snowy, wet and cold hat. But lets keep that to ourselves.

Officially two years with my Norwegian beauty

Last Thursday marked exactly two years since Marianne and I became official after I asked her in a London hotel just before meeting her sister and sisters boyfriend (now fiance) for the first time. This was slightly awkward given she assumed we already basically were but we have still agreed that the 14th of March gets the official nod.

I though I would take the opportunity to tell a little more of our story but would first as I often do call upon those who havent already to check out the following link as it is the post I wrote one year after we met and tells that story: http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/02/jeg-elsker-deg.html

Moving on from where that post left off I find it mental how easy everything was for us in many ways. Growing up I had often wondered who would be the one I end up with, so many factors to consider and age creeps up on us all very quickly. I had always planned on eventual marrige and kids and Im aware Im still very young but I couldnt help thinking where is this magical women going to come from? Well it turns out meeting her was a piece of cake! The equally surprising thing is how easy the getting serious, moving in together and all the stuff was. You always see on TV how its made such a big thing of and my mother had always told me you have to live with a person to truly know them. I had seen several relationships with friends and family fall apart shortly after making that leap.

The decision to move in together happened pretty much entirly by accedent and just became the obvious thing to do. We both had to leave our previous homes on short notice and were in need of somewhere to stay. We had spent so much time together in the previous couple of months it seemed like no big deal at all so after just about 4/5 months of actually knowing eachother we were sharing a roof/bedroom. I would like to say at this point to all those wondering who havnt already done so, for me living with your partner is pretty much exactly as you would expect. Yes we occasionally bug eachother with our gender cliches, I am messy and love to watch football and play on my Xbox, she wants everything to be clean and like my mum constantly hides things, but even with that stuff I love it!

I could spend a long long time explaining the many things that are great about living with Marianne but Im sure I would bore you all so I will digress. I never in a million years could have imagined the last two years panning out like they have, it has been completely insane the twists and turns my life has taken and this is in short all down to my relationship with Marianne and the decisions we have made. As a secret Star Trek and general science geek (dont tell anyone) I like the idea of the 5th Dimension (google it) in short the idea that all things that could happen do happen but in an alternative reality. Every desicion that is made takes us on a new path and maybe in one of those worlds I have one the lottory. In others maybe I even managed to get a perminant job in Norway. But whatever these infinate amount of realities may show I have no doubt there is not one out their where Marianne isnt in my life and I am truly happy. I refuse to believe in "fate" on principal but when you find something as crazy special as what we have even the most skeptical of us have to wonder.

A picture from around the time we moved in together

Æ, Ø & Å. The Extra Norwegian Letters

Looking through some old posts I realised I never really addressed the Norwegian alphabet much in the past and given that is quite interesting I though I should rectify that. This may be a little indepth for the casual reader but its interesting and very helpful for anyone even visiting Norway. For a little background the following three posts I wrote a while ago all discuss Norwegian alphabet and pronounciation which you may wish to check out first if you havent already
http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/02/tias-birthday.html,
http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/01/pals-birthday.html)
http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/07/jeg-prver-lre-meg-norsk.html

There are three additional letters in the Norwegian alphabet and they appear right at the end after Z and are all vowels. They are also the exact same in Danish and pronouced the same in Swedish too although written differently, anyone can feel free to fill me in on why this is. All the pronounciation suggestions I give will of course be in my own southern English dialect, but it should be pretty universally applicable.

Now there are many exceptions of course but I would say generally Norwegian is a much more phonetic language than English. There are lots of stupid rules and things to learn but compared to English  I  think if you were to learn the correct pronounciation of each letter and a few basic rules then you could read and pronounce things in Norwegian (even if you dont understand them) much more than someone could in English so learning these things is really really helpful. Often when I cant quite understand a word I ask for someone to spell it and that makes it much much easier to work out the correct pronounciation. This is especially helpful with names of people and places. I think pronouncing someones name as correctly as you can manage is the least you can do when you are a visitor to someones country.

The first is Æ/æ, which yes is just an "a" and "e" attached together. No idea why they couldnt be a little more imaginative but who am I to judge. The letter is pronounced like the short "a" in words like "cat, bat and hat". If its just an "a" sound why bother? I hear you cry, well the reason is an "a" in Norwegian is pronounced like the "ar" in "start and dart". An example of this letter in a Norwegian word is "Lære" pronounced kind of like the girls name Lara only with the first "a" pronounced like the short "a"  in cat. Lære means to learn. Just like we are all doing now, isnt this fun :)

Moving on, Ø/ø is the next letter and yes is just an "o" with a line through it. It is pronounced like the er in the boys names Ernie and Ernest. An exaple of the letter in a word is "prøver"(pronounced prerver), which means to try. Appropreate as this post is becoming a little trying, but stick with me. I may record and upload myself pronouncing the alphabet sometime soon but I will have to see just how ridiculus I sound.

Finally Å/å, yes just an "a" with a circle over the top, arnt these Norweigans original. Its important to note this is a little circle and not a dot like with an "i or j". The "å" sound is not really quite like anything in English and really requires to be heard to understand but the best examples I've heard so far are the "o" in lord or the "au" in taunt. A double "a" in Norwegian also makes the same sound by the way.

Putting it all together a great phrase to practice all three letters is "Jeg prøver å lære meg norsk" which  translates as "I'm trying to learn Norwegian" (direct translation is I try to learn me Norwegian, for those who are interested in those kind of things). To write it in English phonetically for pronounciation in Bergen dialect is difficult because the å on its own is impossible to represent so again read the previous paragraph for that  but the rest would be "egg prerver å lara meg norsk". Easy as that!

Now for those who have stuck with me this long here is a treat, a stupid music video about Æ, Ø and Å. Well worth a listen for a giggle and hopefully you can pick up the pronounciations from it too. Enjoy!!

My 50th Post. Its not all bad

After just over a year of this blog I have now reached my 50th posts and have also just passed 3500 views. I have at times been incredibly inconsistent with my posts going from writting several a week to a month or more gap but I must say that when I do build the motivation to sit down and write I do really enjoy it. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken an interest in my little journey and I hope you will continue to follow me in my poor attempt to truly assimilate into this country. At the rate its going I feel like this could take a long time!

I often feel my posts come over as rather negative, naturally I use blogging as a way of venting strong opinoins sometimes and it may appear that I am not enjoying myself or that I dont like it over here very much. Well I can assure you this is far from the truth, yes I get very stressed out about, language, job, living blah blah blah, But! I have the most amazing girlfriend and Im living in what I beleive to be one of the most beautiful and amazing cities in the world. Also I am becoming closer with the people I have met here and definatly consider many of them good close friends and loving family.
So to anyone wondering if I still think moving here was a good idea and weither I would reccomend it to others?

Absolutely, every time!

Me looking contemplatively accross Stor Lungegårdsvannet with a snowy Mount Ulriken in the background