arrival of me...

i awoke to beautiful norwegian landscape...........
lots of hills and lakes and very few houses................
the time was just passing 6am..........
and i would soon be in stavanger.............
estimated arrival time at the station was 07:30am................

having just aroused from much needed sleep, it takes me a couple of minutes to come to terms with the reality that i am no longer in england and that norway will be 'home' for a week............... i use the word 'home' very loosely to signify where 'ppl that make me laugh and smile and care for are', its also a generic term to mean 'crashing pad'.......................

hmmmmm......... i am not sure if anyone else gets this feeling but staring out of windows while on the train always envokes a nostalgic sensation within me.............. and i just begin to think about random things that range from past memories to stupid idealisms to utter irrelevance..............

then the train tannoy comes on..... i don't have the foggiest what the speaker speaks because its in norwegian (would have been clever to learn some norwegian beforehand :-p) but it didn't matter because i only needed to hear one word 'stavanger' to know that we would be pulling in soon................

outside the station i was told to look for a lake and to go to the 1A or 1B bus stop where i would see my friends.............. half asleep half awake, i walk out and see a lake, but geographical skills were never a great trait of mine, so i walk to all the bus stops trying to look for the right one until oskar and anders spot me from the other side of the road...................... i felt somewhat guilty that i made oskar meet me at the station, because it involved him getting up early, coming down to the station then taking me back to the flat before heading off again to work............... BUT all that said, i did appreciate it, tack sa mycket!!!............... (and if i got lost while trying to find the flat, i would have been extremely pissed and so would have caused hell for them :-p so it was probably for their sakes more than mine that they meet me :-P ........ believe me........ you do not want to have me pissed at you!!!)




when i was left alone in the flat at kjelldeberget, the first thing that i did was, 'snoop around', (joke joke that was the second action :-p), no, the first thing i did was take a shower........ how refreshing showers are, especially after a day of travelling............. and then i snooped around.......... for something to boil water in so that i could make 'the daily dose of twenty cups of TEA'.................... tea, how i would kill for some good tea leaves!!! seriously i would................... after some 'green tea' adrenaline is pumped into my veins i no longer wanted to sleep anymore, so went down to the city to just check it out and to find the tourist information center (which i am too familiar with now!!!!).................... (word of advice: if you want to catch a bus in norway you need to do some serious arm waving action!!! or else they will just drive straight past you!!!) ..............

and here are some piccies of:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9101&l=7c184&id=517037261
stavanger....... european capital of culture 2008......
(no jokes this place really is the european capital of culture for 2008 along with liverpool.................... would be fun to volunteer for some projects here!!!..........)



and for some information about stavanger you can read this little excerpt for now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger ............. (since i am too lazy to advertise this place and wikipedia does a better job of it than me at the moment........... )
a city built on oil............

if anyone does decide to come here, then i advise them to visit during the tourist season of may-august, usually i wouldn't say visit during tourist season BUT its more convenient in terms of catching daily ferry rides down the lysefjord, or catching a local bus to hike to 'prekistolen' or the kjerag mountains to stand on the notorious 'bolt rock' .................... and more so because the weather is much more dry so less risk to your life!!! AND if anyone has the patience and determination, then a good excursion around the area is to find and photograph all the 'broken column' artworks (its a series of 23 cast iron men that are placed in different locations, they are supposed to be the replica of the artist body and to find the explanation for the sculptures i would recommend going to the museum for a half day trip :-p....... i still need to find them all!!! a good reason to go back anyways!!! )



oh yeah!!!
on my way bak i got lost........ BUT in all fairness that was not my fault......... you see, it would have been helpful to have been told the right stop to get off for one thing :-p.................. what happened was in the email that i was sent, it said something about the 'NATO' stop so presumeably i thought this was the stop BUT no...................... the right stop that they forgot to mention was called 'godeset'....................... so i asked the bus driver to tell me when i got to NATO which he did, and when i got off i had this forbodding feeling that it was not right................. which was right..................... i then proceeded to ask the ppl at NATO where kjelldeberget was, but no one knew, so i asked whoever had the misfortune to cross my path and guess what, no one knew............. (i draw on the conclusion that 1. either this road is difficult to find or 2. the rumours are true, that norwegians just don't like to help for-ren-gers.........) ..................... BUT i don't give up (because i have no choice) and walk around as if i am out for a afternoon stroll, until i meet a postwoman!!!!!!! (thank god ppl still write proper letters to each other instead of emailing!!!) .............. i literally rushed up to her, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and ask her if she speaks english.............. she moves her head side to side as the universdal gesture to mean no................ distressed i then thought of another way to communicate my need to locate home and whipped out the piece of paper that i had scrolled the address down on............... she looked at it, and then signalled for me to get in the van (the universal fanning action of one hand to mean 'get in i'll give you a lift').................... Oh my god!!! that was lucky!!! and so on my first day there i got delivered home in a mail van!!! which was fun ....................... so i guess norwegians are helpful and can only say that the road you guys live on is fooking impossible to find :-p.............

(and good luck to 'ray ray' in enslaving the mindless ppl of this world..... i would be your slave any day!!!)



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