Thursday, March 29, 2012

Exploring Sognsvann and Working on my Masters Thesis

Let me be frank, I am not a winter kinda guy. To illustrate the point it suffices to say that until the age of 10 when I moved to Vancouver island for a year, I referred to pants as "those dreadful long shorts". Sure the fist few weeks after the first snowfall are nice... I get out there with my camera and shot photos, occasionally putting on my long johns and braving the bitter cold for a nice hike in the woods... but honestly its just not my thing despite my Canadian heritage and the fact that I chose to marry a Norwegian woman. Thus the coming of spring has me in quite good spirits. It has been heralding for a while now, but intermittent cold spells, flurries and winds from the east have until just this week kept spring, thawing and the Sherrie blossoms at bay. As I have been spending quite a lot of time indoors working on my thesis I finally decided this week that this would no longer work for me and that I should print out all my papers and head to the woods to do my studying. Thus far my little experiment seems to be bearing fruit... I feel like it is quite productive and as long as the weather permits I hope to keep it up. The new spot of my academic pursuits is now Sognsvann, which is a gorgeous lake just to the north of Oslo. Of course there is also the added benefit of plentiful photo opportunities and exercise... so yea, awesome. Here are some photos from this week!










Monday, March 19, 2012

Spring time in Frederikstad

After my week long trip to Germany, Jeanette, her parents and I made our way to Frederikstad where we where to spend the day. I have been to Frederikstad with Jeanette and her family dozens of times, but its always nice to drop by for a visit (its also the place Jeanette and I got married). Anyway, although I was quite tired from the trip to Germany and though all I had was a little 40 euro point and shoot, we made our way along the little city and its moats snapping some photos and taking advantage of the wonderful lighting conditions nature presented. Hope you enjoy the photos!










Week in Geramny (Hamburg & Berlin)

As some of you may know, last week I made my way to Germany to visit my good friend Daniel over in Hamburg. It was my first time in the city and I have to say I was quite impressed. With its many large lakes and rivers Hamburg has quite a bit to offer bird lovers, even within a few blocks of the downtown area. Another nice thing about the city is that it is quite easy to cycle around the many paths and dedicated bicycle lanes... always a plus! After a few days in Hamburg Daniel and I made our way to (arguably) my favourite city in all of Europe, Berlin. Since I have spent quite a bit of time in Berlin over the past several years, we did not really spend any time sightseeing, but rather just enjoyed strolling around, chatting in the parks and kicking back cheap beers (particularly cheap for those of us based in Norway!). The one major down side of the trip is that my good Canon SLR died on me on the first day, so I had to resort to buying the cheapest point and shoot I could find in a local shop, alas. Anyway that is all for now!














Thursday, March 01, 2012

Mini-Cruise to Frederikshavn Denmark!

A couple days ago I found out from my friend Sofia about a last minute deal to take a free cruise to Frederikshavn Denmark from Oslo. Since I am in between courses and Jeanette was able to take the day off we jumped at the opportunity. The cruise itself was not super fancy, but we had our own cabin which was actually quite nice. The cruise was mostly made up retired Norwegian folks, so its not like the bars on the boat were not exactly rocking... but with the tax free alcohol flowing freely, it was ummm, well, quite lively to say the least. We did not have tons of time to visit Frederikshavn, but the town (the most northern in Denmark) was actually quite charming. The sunrises and sunsets from the boat where really nice and I had quite a good time snapping away. Anyway hope you enjoy the photos!