17.mai Norway's national day

A comparison of the Australian 17.Mai and the good old one from back home.

Breakfast: Usually we start the day with a small walk over to our neigbours, where a proper massiv meal has been prepared. It's like christmas morning only better. This year we started our day with a small 2-hour bussride over to surfers paradise where a cafe-breakfast where prepared. It contained one hamburger for Mette and two pancakes for Lennart. The beach wiew and the sun, did give the food an extra flavour. -To be quite honest, the best thing abour this year 17.may breakfast was the company. We where met in Surfers by two norwegian friends, Marte and Lisa, together with two other norwegian students. Was good to speak norwegian with other people again and not just between ourself.

Midday - Lunsj: This years walk down to the city center was replased by surfing and sunbathing on the beach. Unfortunally wasn't the waves any good (really small and caothic) so the norwegian flag surf picture was cancelled. It would be a disgrace against our flag to surf such small waves (rather go for the big one and get wiped out). There was also a pretty strong onshore wind, so the beach was given up for the city after a few hours. Here are some pictures from our parade into the city and the surprising australian parade down town. I really like the way they honour our country..

Found out later that they are meter maids, girls who walk around and put money on the parkingmeter if your parkingmeter is about to run out..

Oh yeah. This year the traditional lunsj hot dogs was changed out with guinness.

Dinner: We were able, thanks to Marte, to get a hold on tickets to a norwegian 17th of may dinner in Brisbane. Really, really weird to be surrounded by a group of 50 norwegians again. The salmon appertiser was the closest the dinner came to traditional, but all in all it was a memorabul evening. Nice to be with old friends again.

Byron Bay, svenske kjottboller og surf

Sorry guys, this one is in norwegian. A perfect learning posibility for you "soon-to-speak-norwegian" students out there..

Blue mountains levde ikke helt opp til forventningene. Eller selve dalene var nydelige og det kjolige hostvaeret upaaklagelig, men naar en ikke faar tak i klatreutstyr saa.. Midt i vaar store "saa naart fjellet uten aa faa klatret det" depresjon, fikk vi en mail fra en couchsurfer (Brent) i Byron Bay. Den gikk saann ca som dette "Hurry up. Weather is nice, waves are big and we surfed with dolphins today". Neste dag var vi paa plass i Byron.. Hvor strendene ser slik ut og det er uendelig mange av dem..

En time etter ankomst i Byron befant vi oss i Brents kjokken, hvor en svensk jente (Ulrika) lagde kjottboller til middag. Uten aa sammenligne, saa foltes det som om aa komme hjem. Plutselig befant vi oss i et vanlig hus, sammen med alle dens beboere og venter paa at potetene skal koke ferdig. Brent var gjestfriheten selv og det ble til slutt flere kvelden sammen med bofelleskapet i Byron. Til helgen fikk vi utnyttet kjokkenet og introdusert australienerne til faarikal. Det falt i smak og en har siden gaatt under kallenavnet "the cabbage kids". Brent forlot oss etter noen dager for aa reise paa ferie til sverige og norge (litt ironisk det der), saa etter det har vi og Urika blitt en Byron Bay treklover..

Vi bor naa paa et ikke-offisielt hostel. Privat eid hus hvor en har stappet inn en 16 senger. Billigste stedet og bo i byron, med masse hyggelige folk. Hvor fem av de naa venter paa puben og sannsynligvis lurer paa hvor lang tid det kan ta aa skrive et innlegg. Naar boforholdene ble billige saa lokket Byron mer og vi har naa bodd her en ukes tid. Blir her frem til 17.mai, som vi skal feire med surfing paa the gold coast sammen med Marte fra min gamle fysioterapiklasse.

Saa langt har hovedfokuset i Byron vaert paa surfing og strandliv. Mette har tatt et intorduksjonskurs og fortsatt med aa prove seg i bolgene, mens Lennart leier brett saa ofte som han kan. Begge er enig i at surfing er en stor utfordring, men at naturopplevelsene tar opp igjen for det meste av strevet. Lennart surfet med delfiner idag, hvor den ene svomte rett under brettet hans (ca 1 meter under overflaten).

Den 20.mai flyr vi videre opp til Cairns. Herfra blir det dykking, seiling, 4-hjulskjoring og kanotur paa veien ned igjen til Brisbane. Blir to ekstremt tettpakkete uker med bare drommeopplevelser og eventyr. Har selv litt problemer med aa forstaa hvor mye bra som egentlig ligger foran oss, men skal prove aa holde dere oppdatert etter hvert som de gaar opp for oss. Bildet er fra en morgensurf Brent tok oss med ut paa, foler det ogsa gir et bilde av den hverdagen vi lever i.. Livet er herlig..

PS: Kameraet har begynt aa fungere igjen (om med noen nykker) etter at Lennart reparerte det med en papirbit.

Walking in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney late Monday night and woke up to a brilliant bright autum day on tuesday, this was even more appriciated after someone told us that it's been raining for the last two weeks. So feeling lucky and in some sort of a physical shape we headed out on foot towards downtown Sydney, something that we would continue to do for the next 4 concecutives days. There's a few nice buildings in Sydney, to your left you find one of them. Can definitly recommend a autum picnic, with pasta-salad, on the tip of sydney harbour with view of all the most famous sydney attractions. We haven't actually done much of the attractions, primeraly because everything famous is a bit expencive, but the walks have been great. Feels like we're the only ones walking though, since the rest of sydney is ether running / boxing or doing public park open gym exercises.

To compensate for the great feeling of lazyness (that we started to feel) we have been hitting some of the climbing spots in down town. Made a few boulder problems on an overhangig rock down by the beach and tried the indoor climing hall at the university. Great fun, but are looking forward to some real climbing in the blue mountains. We're planning to leave for the mountains on monday, it just depends on getting to borrow some more climbing gear.. Today we're heading out to the beaches, hoping to find some beachvolleyball playing new friends.

Australia is an expencive country. Especially for two backpackers who's been living the last two months in nicely prices countrys like India, Nepal and Thailand. We've found the cheapest backpacker place in sydney (we think), and it's been great. Alot of social people with an attitude for party, so it's been two long good nights out sofar. By the evening this number will probably hit three, as it is saturday night (the picture is from a barbeque last night. The brown bag is hiding a nice bottle of read wine that was shared between three, together with some nice tender steaks. Guy in the back are Daniel from the reception of our guesthouse. Cool guy!!).

So in the end we're still doing great. Are trying to find some more couchsurfing friends that we can visit on our way up north, and other cheap soultions to extend our stay. Now we're heading for the beach (in brilliant sun, but only around 20 degrees) and tonight we might go to an austrailian fotball match.

Hope all you guys are having a good time, wherever you might be.

PS: Moved the pictures from Nepal into the first slideshow. Slideshow number two is from thailand and the one on the top is from Australia.

A few weeks in a paradise (from a climbers point of view)

After meeting alot of non-norwegian speaking guys and girls, we have decided to make at least some of our reports in english. This doesn't mean that you guys shouldn't learn to speak norwegian, a language that will make it a bit easier to understand 0.0009 percent of the worlds population.

Okey, here goes: For the last two weeks we've been hanging out in Railey, on a small beach called Ton Sai. The whole Railey area is known for it's spectaculare limestone cliffs which attract climbers from all over the world. Out of the six people we spent the most time with in Railey, three of them had been here before. Think that says a fair bit about what an awsome place this is.

On our way from Koh Tao to Railey, a trip that included an overnight boat ride with a private zone of 25 cm, we we're lucky enough to get company from these two candian girls. Jenny in the front and Laura i the back. We did actually arrive in Ton Sai on a similar boat as in the picture, a fact that's not really that surprising, when you consider the thai boat fleet.

I'm really finding a hard time to describe our experiences in Railey, but I think that it in short can bee described as a good thai holiday. We spent alot of time haning of limestone cliffs, with all their small fingerholes and awsome tufas, and the rest of the time we spent in the shade or on the beach. Did alot of climbing together with George and Eva from Austria and Tys and Emma from Canada. Awsome people and great climbers. Helped alot on the will to make harder routes, when you got the challenge from these guys. Helped increasing the small cuts and sour fingers tendency as well..

About half way through our stay, we're not really good at dates and weeksdays by now, we decided to take an overnight trip out to the Phi Phi islands. As we arrived on Phi Phi our new tourguides Jenny and Laura, showed up with a room, a long tail boat and an itinary for the day. Did some amazing snorkling on the reefs around the islands, took a look at The Beach (cost money to arrive on the beach though, so our budget skipped this), did some sunset swimming with sharks, did some cliff jumping and did in general everything Phi Phi had to offer in the span of a couple of hours. Big thanks to our guides.. PS: In an unlucky turn of technical events did our camera decide to malefunction after our first snorkling trip for the day ( it is still malfunctioning, but we're crossing our fingers for Aussie technicians).

The last few days, after returning to Ton Sai, disappeared in a rush. We managed to get some more climbing done, including a multi-pitch (thanks for the walk through George), enjoy some more beach life, walk through a long dark cave and in general having a blast. There weren't to many people in Ton Sai for the moment, low-season, so we could actually afford to live in style. Lived in an apartment with two shower heads in the bathroom and gems around the sink (the gems where a major selling point for some).

In the end we'll go with the old "a picture says more than a thousand words" (and their international) and put some more pictures up on our Picasa. The third slideshow on your left is from Thailand. Enjoy, we know we did..

Railey

Ja no har vi altsaa forlatt dykkeparadiset og begynnt aa konsentrere oss om klatring istedenfor. Vi er paa Railey, like utenfor Krabi. Her ligger virkeli alt til rette for en bra klatreferie. Det er masse herlige folk, god atmosphere, bratte vegger og hvite strender. Fjellformasjonene her er utrolige.

Vi har saa langt hatt tre klatredager. Det har ikkje vaert de mest effektive klatredagene pga noksaa utrente kropper og veldi skarpt fjell, men naar du kan tilbringe pausene (og de varmeste timene midt paa dagen) i vannet eller paa stranden er ikkje livet saa gale likevel. og formen er stadi stigende saa det er no positivt.

Har hatt noen hviledager naa paa ko phi-phi. Vi reiste ut for aa besoke noen kanadiske venner saa har tilbrakt det siste dognet her. I gaar leide vi longtailbaat for hele dagen og fikk sett mye av oyene rundt og snorklet paa mange fantastiske steder. utroli klart vann og veldi fargerike fisker. Avsluttet turen med hai-snorkling i solnedgang. Fikk sett 4-5stykker saa det var en spennende opplevelse. I kveld reiser alle fire tilbake til Riley saa i morgen fortsetter klatringen.

beklager at det har vaert litt daarli med bilder i det siste, men de kommer seinere.

bursdag!

forst vil eg bare takke for mange kjempe koselige bursdagsmeldinger! kjekt at dokker husket paa meg:)

Dagen var fantastisk.. annerledes, men absolutt en av de bedre og mest innholdsrike bursdagene saa langt. kanskje ikkje saa rart naar den blir feiret paa dykkeroy nr1 i Thailand og vi virkeli har blitt bitt av dykkemanien!

eg vaaknet opp til ferdidekket frokost der Lennart til og med hadde ordnet saa eg fikk den obligatoriske bursdagsbrownien. nam.. perfekt start paa dagen!

Etterpaa leide vi oss en kajakk og reiste ut paa tur. knall blaa himmel, stekende sol og passe avkjolende vann gjorde dette til en meget bra formiddag. Er utroli langgrunt her saa var godt aa komme seg litt utpaa vannet der man faktisk kunne svomme uten aa skrape borti koraller for hvert svommetak. smaa gleder:)

Hoydepunktet kom definitivt paa ettermiddagen.. vi hadde vaare to siste dykk for aa bli "advanced divers". Det forste var et navigeringsdykk der vi laerte litt om aa finne veien under vann ved hjelp av kompass og naturli navigering. veldi interessant og selvfolgeli en bonus at ingen svomte seg vill..

Som det siste dykket var vi saa heldi at vi hadde faatt leid undervannscootere. Det var helt sinnsykt raatt!! og Sebastian (vaar franske instruktor) var like spent som oss.. Han hadde heller aldri provd det foor saa det var tre meget gira dykkere som hoppet i vannet:) Aa dykke med scooter var som aa fly.. du seiler vektlost bortover langs havbunnen, bruker ingen unodvendige krefter (altsaa noksaa lite luft) og ser et mye storre omraade av dykkestedet.. helt grei ting aa gjore paa 22aars dagen sin:P

Etter denne opplevelsen ble det en rask drink ved bassengbaren foor vi reiste innover til hovedstranden foor aa spise og fortsette feiringen der. Ble en perfekt avslutning paa en legendarisk dag!

ps: kommer flere bilder fra dagene paa Koh Tao seinere. Baaten vaar videre til Krabi gaar straks saa ble ikkje tid no.. Er naa paa vei for aa begynne en to ukers klatreferie paa vestkysten av thailand. saa livet er som dokker sikkert skjonner helt okey!

Haaper det staar bra til med alle sammen!

Bilder til forrige innlegg

Maa legge ved en liten sidekommentar, siden disse bildene ikke er like kule som de som forsvant.
Strikket som er festet til Lennart er dobbelt saa langt som det virker. De slapp ut resten ett lite sekund etter bildet ble tatt. Bare saann for aa understreke hvor raat det var.

PS: Ble ferdig med dykkerkurset idag og fortsetter forhaapentligvis paa advanced kurset imorgen. Skriver forhaapentligvis fordi Mette hadde en liten uenighet med hotellets steintrapp idag, hvor to taer gikk blodende og tapende ut av duellen.

Siste bildet er et lite eksempel av Lennarts manglende evne til aa unngaa fossefall i canoying. Vi ble alle vaat og det var en kul opplevelse..