Hiking in Flumserberg

Monday turned out to be just as gorgeous weather wise as Sunday. Therefore I was thrilled that I had arranged with Stefan´s father, Beno, to go hiking. 

I jumped on the train towards St. Gallen and enjoyed the view of lake Konstanz as it went by quickly. 

Our hiking destination was Flumserberg and on the way there, the train drove through some very beautiful steep valleys and narrow tunnels. Sadly I didn´t catch it with my camera for you to see but luckily all the images are stored in that main hard drive on top of my head. 

The train ride became even great because Beno is a living encyclopedia. He told me one interesting story after the other as we passed small villages and open fields.

In Unterterzen we left the train and hopped into the gondola taking us up, up and above. 

To a Norwegian this lake and the surrounding mountains immediately made me think of narrow Geirangerfjord. Beno told me the names of the neighbouring mountains and I swear it sounded just like the 7 sisters, another resemblance to my mother land, however Swissgerman is often impossible to understand so to my knowledge the name could have been anything else :)

Another remarkable thing is the lush and green fields. I don´t know what they put in Swiss fertilizer, but Norwegian fields go yellow and brown in winter. Makes the pictures beautiful for sure.  

To me it seems like the Swiss people love life in the mountains. They have a really colourful sign systems for different types of paths. There are roads for hiking (normal, mountain and alpine), biking (normal and moutain), rollerblading and, hold on, canoeing and snow booting!!! I´m officially impressed (and perhaps a little stressed too. How can I now defend spending my time sitting in my comfy sofa??)

Oh well, back to our trip. 

After hiking for something that I think must have been 1,5 hours, and being accompanied through parts of the trip by a wonderful Berner Sennen dog (another great Swiss "invention" and my favourite breed), we made it to Hotel Seebenalp where we had bratwurst and fries. 

The sun was so bright and the snow reflected the light so we both put on sun factor 20. Feels odd for a girl growing up close to the north pole to use sun lotion in February, but it was necessarily!! A pair of sun glasses would have been a good idea too, but the trip was so great it was totally worth all the squinting!

Kreuzlingen Carnival

Last Sunday started wonderful with a great breakfast. Banana pancakes with berries, honey and bacon and of course coffee, tea and juice with it. Yummy! :) 

We continued the day with a round of news paper reading and because of the sunny weather, the windows were let open for some of the spring smells and sounds to come in. One of the sounds that soon reached us was loud band music. We decided to make our way into the streets. 

The first sight of carnival was this cute bear family

Then the rides came up the main street, one crazier than the other. Like these men standing in a fish..

 these men cooking and serving fish dishes..

next up: pirates :)

then came the very impressive harlequin outfits 

followed by some strange though interesting boys dressed as.... ?

but the best of the whole parade was the live music. Particularly this band intrigued me.. can you see why? ;) 

Stefan and I had a few confetti fights during the parade

and they made us so hungry that we had to get hamburgers from one of the many food stands. 

The rest of the afternoon we spent on the veranda, reading and knitting in the warm sunshine. A perfect Sunday in other words :D

My blessed wrist band and the fortune telling Thai monk

Today my old, slightly ugly, orange wrist band broke. This might appear rather insignificant to you but there´s quite a funny story connected to this particular wrist band.

I got it the 7th of February 2010 while visiting Phetchabun, my childhood friend Pornthip´s, home region in Thailand and it has in fact been blessed by a monk.

The story goes: one relaxing, super hot (like many of the days in Phetchabun turned out to be) day in Thailand, Pornthip´s aunt asked if we wanted to visit a local monk. I of course joined with excitement not knowing that I was on my way to see a monk that would read my future in a bucket of water and soak me in that water afterwards.

Upon arrival, we all gathered in a small building where the monk was seated on the floor in front of his "shrine" that consisted of a mixture of the perhaps weirdest but most fascinating things I have even seen:  

There were also 4 or 5 orange buckets filled with water on the floor. The monk welcomed us in Thai and after a while lit 3 small candles. He then held them over the buckets to let the wax drip onto the water. The wax formed strange formations and it was from these very formations he would read out future. 

This was of course all performed in Thai so I didn´t understand anything that was told. Pornthip translated, but looking back on it, the only thing I now remember was him saying that I had been very worried about my job and that I no longer needed to because it would all be ok. (This was true because at the time I had lost my job at MS Finnmarken since the ship was being sent to Australia) The other interesting thing he told me was that within the next year, I would meet the man I one day would marry. 

At the time I was in a relationship and I found that bit of information rather puzzling.

After the reading, we all went outside where we sat down on the ground waiting for the monk. Our buckets were there too. The monk then proceeded, having a sip of the water from the bucket, then he spitted it over our heads before ending the session with pouring the rest of the water and wax over our heads. It was meant to be cleansing. 

The wrist bands we received were made of a mixture of cotton and something synthetic so we lit the ends on fire and glued them together around our wrists and that is where mine has stayed until today. I have liked it very much and it never occurred to me that I should remove it, even though it has gotten uglier and uglier over the years. 

Now it is gone and I wonder if I´m no longer blessed. I must admit that I also wonder who that someone is that I was supposed to meet, because the job part of the fortune telling did work out (I got a job when I returned to Norway and I´m in fact still working for the same company) but now more than 3 years later, I still find myself looking for "Mr Right." 

I also wonder if a Thai year might be much longer than a Norwegian year and I of course wonder if it all was bullshit. 

Never the less, visiting this monk is one of the most special moments in my life and it makes me realize that I only got to experience it because I know someone from the culture or country I was visiting. It is stored up there in my big hard drive under the category "weird but totally awesome" 

    

          

En sånn låt jeg aldri glemmer

Er det ikke herlig hvordan akkurat den rette låta kan ta deg tilbake flere år? Du har lyst til å legge deg på rygg og bare nyte låta, eller kanskje er den av den typen som får deg til å ville stå på et stort dansegulv og bare snurre rundt og rundt. Musikken gjør deg lykkelig, litt høy. Akkurat den følelsen du gikk rundt med den gangen for lenge siden. Du var kjempeforelska og ville bare danse med den fineste gutten i hele verden. Se han inn i øynene, flire, hoppe og danse helt til det siste taktslaget og gjerne litt etter det. Og så ville du klemme han så hardt så hardt og aldri slippe. Dette er en sånn låt:

One of the best "stupid questions" I´ve heard

Guest: Is the Captain´s name Stable?

Colleague: No, why?

Guest: Because the sign says Captain Stable......

Vesterålen - the most beautiful day of them all

Today we reached Harstad and I smelled home for a while, but I have one more week to go before I get to have holidays.
What a fantastic day it turned out to be. Happy guests, happy crew, happy sun, happy me. Pure bliss. Just have a look at the pictures:

No wonder this particular day is my favourite among the 12 Hurtigruten sails.. 

Do one thing that scares you every day!

I heard a saying a few years back that you should do one thing that scares you every day.

When I started working as the "libro" on MS Nordnorge, that one scary thing was announcing something over the loud speakers.
Now I even manage improvised announcements rather well. Meaning that the Norwegian and English part of it is fine and the German understandable... ;)

Last Sunday we were sailing Trondheim - Rørvik. Lasting 8hours and 45minutes that is the longest stretch of sea during the whole voyage. Normally I´m alone in the office between 15.00-18.00 and this afternoon I received a visit from one of the deckhands. We started talking about the sights we pass along the coast and focused on one of them called "Kjærringskrævet" because we were about to pass it. It made us laugh because this particular sight is one we never announce because of its "nature". The word Kjærringskrævet is a "rural" way of describing the area between a woman´s legs.
At the start of my libro-carriere, colleagues tried to fool me into announcing Kjærringskrevet and this Sunday was no exception. The girl in the reception joined in that day and called me to say that we would pass it in 2 minutes. I then decided to do something that scared me a little. I announced it!!!

Kjærringskrævet

For the first time since I started having to use the microphone at work, I got really nervous!! Therefore the "quality" of the announcement wasn´t the highest.  Some may claim that i ruined the whole thing by trying to be politically correct while describing the attraction. I used words such as "noble" and "pure" and "female body-part and never actually "Kjærringskrævet" but it certainly made me giggle and also very scared. Mission accomplished. 

A couple from Wales passed the desk later that afternoon and asked me what they had been looking for  because they had thought of boobs, arms or legs. I showed them this photo and they giggled too. Perhaps it means that I should do it again..?

The best thing however were the thumbs up I got from my colleagues. They all found it hilarious and I even received a gift from the receptionist because of my bravery ;) So people, DO ONE THING THAT SCARES YOU EVERY DAY!!