Since I last posted an awful lot has happened but then you will have seen that on the news, i'll come to that in a minute.... Firstly Rich came over on Wednesday and we had a quiet and chilled night in trying to watch 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button' Not what I was expecting, no sign of racing cars anywhere! And I think to be honest we were watching it on rewind??... very strange indeed. I say trying, we kept on pausing the film to chat and I'm sure we almost put the world to rights.
Thursday involved a trip to Ulvik, welcome meetings, wander walk etc then the fun started... we took out a kayak and paddled across the Hardanger Fjord to a small island which was habited by goats (I'm not making this up honest) it was a glorious day and very surreal gliding across mirrored black water. I'm told the Fjord is 400+ metres deep hence its dark colour, our intention was to go for a swim. But as we neared the island the water became clearer and we could see the bottom.... Yuk, it was thick kelp entangled with all sorts of debris. We paddled around to the far side and found a beach, we also found a strip of, what looked like sand'. This seemed the ideal place for a dip with hardly any kelp to get in the way. It was at this point we heard some bells, and as we beached the kayak two billy goats came wandering up, bells rattling away as they got more and more curious.
They seemed to look happy so we left them to chew on the canoe as we waded out into the Fjord.. Bloody hell was it cold! before I had waded to waist deep my legs had gone numb! "sod this" says Rich and dives in, only to shoot out again like something out of thunderbirds. I had no choice now, you know when one person is wet you're gonna get splashed and that's even worse, so.. with breath held I too went under, I can see now why Rich shot out again.
Right, enough of this for a game of soldiers, back to shore, kit on and gone. It was quite pleasant drying out in the sun as we paddled back but I think we attracted the worlds supply of bugs, either that or the drying water was kicking in the paranoia.
Soon we were back at the Brakanes and went for lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out with George the manager, a few games of pool, dinner, and then a rather large game of chess. The central green in Ulvik has a huge chess board in the middle and Rich is as competative at chess as he is with most things. I think I won 2 - 1 though :)
The following morning we actually made it down for breakfast, a first really as Rich is nocturnal at the best of times and for some reason I was awake at half 6! The weather was looking grim but we had decided we would take the car up to the top of Osa Mountain regardless, if nothing else it was something to do! Isabella, the receptionist from the Ulvik Hotel was on a late shift so she joined us on the jaunt too.
I must say it was a very different sight this time, and only a week after my last visit...
Almost all of the snow had gone but the lake still looked beautiful... watch this space, when we get a sunny day (hahaha) I'm going swimming in there :)
Even my iceberg was looking sorry for itself... needless to say we couldn't talk Rich into standing on it.
Back down the mountain we stopped in Osa for a coffee before heading back for dinner.
Sat in the bar afterwards we watched the shocking news unfold about Oslo... I don't want to write much on here as you will all have seen the news, lets just say we all felt terrible and it was made worse seeing the reaction from the Norwegians there. For ever and a day we will remember the twin towers as 9/11 and the London terrorist attacks as 7/7... But for me especially July 22nd from now on will mean more than just my Birthday.
I don't know if to carry on writing is appropriate, but I guess I will have to at some point.
After a few beers in the hotel bar we descended on the Green Cafe, we were joined bu the Brakanes posse along with Tone from the Strand, Unfortunately we had to leave Karoline on duty in Ulvik... well someone has to look after the place and as George was at the party, I guess she drew the short straw.
Talking of George, I have no idea what he was on that night but he was doing some very strange impressions indeed, before disappearing into the night.
The playlist as ever got disrupted and I have no idea what we were listening to in the end.... after being fed a tequila sunrise by Niall, I didn't care anyway! I was not long left in this world and soon had to be shown the way home.
Even with the hangover I had a great night, hung out with some great new friends and let off some much needed steam...
Saturday was quite chilled with Rich buying me a painting of some coffee cups from the local 'open all hours' 'we sell everything' shop in Ulvik before heading back to Voss to watch the end of Benjamin...
Thanks to all those who showed up for my party / soiree we must do it again sometime but preferably on a day not marred with sad news...
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