Author Archives: Kristen

About Kristen

2012 is the year that my fiance, Damien and I have taken leave of work to see this wonderful world we live in. Our adventures have taken us to Scandinavia in the winter to view the ethereal Northern Lights, the heat and humidity of Asia for three months, Europe via caravan and now South America. It has been an amazing ride so far and one that has continues to surprise and delight us. We have seen so many wonderful sights and met so many great people that I know this year will continue to inspire and inform how we live our lives for all the years to come.

Ten things I’ve noticed about Tromso

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Kristen

We’ve had a great time in Tromso but budgetary constraints have dictated that we kept our daytime activities to a minimum whilst here. Also, three nights in a row of bus expeditions that last about eight to nine hours from wo to go has also made us take it a bit easy the rest of the time.

However, I have really rated this place that stakes a claim for the most northerly town in the world for a whole range of things….the uni and the brewery are a couple that spring to mind. Tromso has a great feel about it and it’s a place where people live in some of the most extreme conditions in the world – a place that’s well above the Arctic Circle where there are months of complete darkness and then months of endless daylight. But Tromso is charming, exotic and somehow alluring for all of it’s extreme qualities. In short though I would love to return here when Norway is the focal destination of our holiday and not part of a year of travel. With a pocket full of cash (not a lean budget like ours) you could find endless options for entertainment all year round. A reindeer or dog sled ride out into the wild to view the Aurora, now that’s something to keep in mind for another time!

So I don’t claim to have got all the ins and outs of this town sorted but here are ten quick things I’ve noted about Tromso:

1. Everyone leaves all their curtains open at night (all night) with lights on for the world to see in. They usually have lamps sitting in each window and the outside lights on too.

2. People use cross country skis and one person sleds as modes of transport.

3. There is roughly 30 km of underground road networks that are complex enough to have roundabouts.

4. There are seat belts on buses.

5. Beds are made with two separate doonas folded in half for each person (this seems to be the European way in general).

6. There is a seriously disproportionate amount of stunningly beautiful women.

7. A beer in a pub costs at least $10 Australian.

8. They eat whale, seal and reindeer.

9. Everyone seems to knock off work at 3.30 pm.

10. They love Goyte’s, ‘Somebody that I used to know’….as does the rest of Europe it seems. We’ve heard it played in every country we’ve been in…a nice reminder of Australia 🙂

Categories: Norway, Scandinavia, travel, Tromso | 2 Comments

So what do we do when we are not chasing Lights?

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Kristen

Well it’s not all glamorous and action packed!

Today is a good example of the that! We have essentially ate breaky at our hotel, oh we love that buffet! And then hung out in our room in between doing trips to the hotel washing machine and making our room resemble something of a Chinese laundry. It’s amazing where you can can hang clothes to dry. We are quite creative.

I’ve had a chat on the phone to a mate back home via Skype which was so nice. We did some weights in the hotel gym which has heaps of great equipment too. Not to mention probably the best panoramic view of an Arctic town nestled at the base of breathtaking mountains…oh and by the sea. Nice!

Post lunch we are both interneting it up. I have been reading my backlog of emails and came across this one from my cousin which had me in stitches …. so I thought I’d share:

How tough are Australians?

The scene is set … a dark night, cold wind blowing, campfire flickering, stars twinkling in the jet black sky.

Three hang-glider pilots are sitting by the campfire, one from Australia, one from Seth Efrika and one from New Zulland – each one embroiled in the bravado for which they are famous.

The night of tales begins…

Kiven the Kiwi says, ‘I must be the meanest, toughest, heng glider there es. Why, jist the other day I linded in a field and scared a crocodeale, who came out of the swamp and ate sux min who were standen close by. I grebbed the crocodeale and wristled him to du ground and killed em with my beer hends’

Hansie from Seth Efrika (who typically can’t stand to be bettered) said, ‘Well you guys, I lended orfter a 200 mile flight in my heng glider on a tiny trail, and a Namibian snike slid out from under a rock and made a move on me. I grebbed de borsted with me bare hinds and beet it’s head off ind then sucked the poison from its body down in one gulp. End I’m still here today’

Colin, the Aussie remained silent, slowly poking the fire with his pen!s.

Anyway, that’s all for now from me. Ciao.

P.S The pics are actually taken from our room which is down the hall from the gym as it’s essentially the same view.

Categories: family, friends, Norway, travel, Tromso | Leave a comment

Nordlys

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Kristen

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The whole purpose of us starting our year of travel in Europe in winter has been because we hoped to catch the Aurora Borealis in Norway.

When I started researching the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights I stumbled across an article in the Daily Mail on line which sealed the deal in our minds. It stated that NASA was predicting that 2012 would be the brightest Northern Lights display for 50 years. How could we resist the temptation to try our luck at catching this ethereal splendour? I for one have been fascinated by images of the Lights since I was a kid and have always viewed it as one of those must do things in my life.

So we made the trek to Tromso – a sea side Arctic town that basks in the majesty of the surrounding snow covered mountains.

The afternoon we arrived the snow was falling heavily and we were both quite tired, so we opted to hit the hay and try our luck the following night. We joined the Arctic Guide Service for a bus ride to chase the Nordlys (as the locals refer to them – thanks Lillian!) and were regaled with tales of the lights the night before; our guide informing us they were the best he had seen in his life. I saw a few of his pictures and yep, they looked pretty damn fine. Apparently the solar activity was also very strong on the our night too so I was getting a wee bit excited.

We came to a clearing in a forest and waited for the show to start. We saw the beginnings of the lights (which I later referred to in disparaging terms as the Northern Smudges) but alas, the clouds came over and there endeth the show. We all piled back onto the bus and did a dash to the Finnish border to an area which is the driest in Norway. However the snow had set in there too and I found myself devouring four chocolate chip cookies in quick succession as compensation! May as well get something out of this bus ride to the arse end of nowhere I thought!

Needless to say gutted would be an understatement. The knowledge of the ‘best in life Light’ we opted out of on our first night loomed in the forefront of my thoughts. Bad decision, very bad decision. A morning of breakfast buffet abuse at the Scandic Hotel raised our spirits somewhat and we resolved that damn the expense, we would go out again that night. Although it is possible to view the Nordlys in Tromso, the light pollution of the city makes it less likely.

So chase number two took us to the island of Sommaroya which is about 60 kms from Tromso. We took stints of going out into the elements from the bus – the 72 km/hr wind and hail elements. But we were rewarded in the breaks in the cloud cover with views of the lights. They started off faintly – like the Smudges of the first trip but got progressively better. At about 11.30 at night Damien came bounding back onto the bus and yelled in a frantic tone that I should come now. I could hear by the sense of urgency in his voice that something really good was happening. I donned my thousand layers of clothing in lightening speed and launched myself through the bus doors and there it was! A massive line of green light stretching across the night sky above!

Damien and I ran like excited children up the hill. All the while my eyes were glued to what was going on in the sky above me which turned out to be unwise when I promptly face planted in the snow. Undeterred by my stack I leapt up, now giggling like a school girl and chased after Damien, nay, jostled to get past him on the track, to which Damien exclaimed, ‘Are you right??’ (good humouredly of course!). Where upon whence I found a less used side track and launched past to ascend to the top of the hill, post haste!

There’s probably no surprises that I really don’t have words to describe what it was like but suffice to say I had a serious case of perma-grin and more than one tear in my eye. It was like all the stars aligned at that moment in the evening. The brutal winds abated, the clouds evaporated and the lights came out to dance in the sky.

Our mission is complete!

Categories: Northern Lights, Norway, Scandinavia, travel, Tromso | 5 Comments

Two friends and their furry companions

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Kristen

Although Damien has already recorded his thoughts on our time in Nannestad with Lillian and Ove I feel it would be remise of me not to record my impressions of what has been a highlight of my trip to date.

We arrived at Gardermoen airport on a delayed flight which was fine as we still had plenty of time to make it to Lillian and Ove’s place in daylight. However, as other passengers removed their luggage from the carousel one by one it became apparent that my bags were nowhere to be seen. After trawling the baggage area for a while we eventually located my wayward backpack beside another carousel in the lost pile. The interesting thing I noted was how unfazed I felt about the whole thing. I didn’t feel stressed about it and I reflected later that nearly two months of not working has definitely chilled me out! My luggage did the same disappearing act here in Tromso too – it was doing the rounds on another carousel. As long as it keeps appearing in the long run, I’ll remain chilled!

Unfortunately for us these delays meant that the darkness was catching up with us so we would be arriving at their place in the night. The instructions seemed sufficient when daylight was factored in but as we disembarked from the bus in this town it became quickly evident that this was not going to be a straight forward exercise.

We had scribed on a piece of paper the emailed instructions from Lillian:

When you come to Gardermoen you go out and take the bus all to the right, bus 855.
You say to the driver you want to go to Preståsen skole.
Then in the back on you you have a carparking and a school.
Go beside the school on the sidewalk to you come in to a small willage.
Loock at the left for house nb.2 a light blue one, Gaupeveien 17 and you are here:-)

Armed with a torch (there was minimal street lighting) and the instructions we set off…but not knowing where. We eventually found a large expanse of snow which I summised could potentially be the said carpark…now where was the school…ah ha! We found what seemed to fit the bill, along with a group of young kids ice skating in the dark near the buildings. Finding the sidewalk was a tad more tricky and I soon began to feel like I was in the midst of some orienteering expedition gone wrong, or maybe we were contestants in the Norwegian leg of the Amazing Race! Again and again we peered over the instructions, then into the darkness with our trusty little torch, then back to the instructions… it didn’t seem to matter how may times we read over it, the way forth was not miraculously appearing out of the dark!

We even asked a few locals, who kept materialising out of the darkness. The first one seemed to walk away faster the more I screamed out behind him, “Hey mate! Excuse me! Excuse me!!!!’ Then we asked another woman and young girl if they spoke English to which they replied ‘No” and walked on. We didn’t even bother asking the next contenders who walked past. I think we both silently felt that it was better not to suffer the disappointment of another conversational dead end. At this point I was musing that if things went pear shaped and we couldn’t find their joint that I would be not very comfortable knocking on a random door to ask for help. I decided that the entrance way to school house looked sheltered enough and if I had enough layers on maybe we could camp the night there and we wouldn’t freeze to death. Oh the stupid things you think of!

But of course we got there in the end and our reward was to be welcomed into the home of the most wonderful people who I know we will remain friends with. Lillian has such a big heart and is a great cook like my Mum. Damien has spent time on the food delights already but I have to mention the deluxe pizza she made – complete with the most tasty sauce with the secret ingredient of star anise! Oh and that kaviar in a tube – what a great Norwegian gem that one is! The tube is like the ones condensed milk used to come in and which I used to stand at the fridge door with as a kid and unload straight into my mouth! I’m not suggesting I’d do the same with the kaviar tube but it was damn fine!

Ove is a gentle and funny man who looks as Viking as they come! I loved being taken to the clubhouse to check out all the Harleys and hear him start up that engine! I can only imagine what it must be like to go on some of their massive bikie rallies through Europe. He told us that one they went on had 25 000 bikes!

I fell in love with their little dog, Scott. He is a Lhasa Apso. I am more of a cat person usually and generally am not too partial to smaller fluffy type dogs, but Scott, well he’s the exception! He had so much character and I think if I was ever to get a puppy it would have to be one of those. Evie the little black and white cat was also affectionate and had the biggest fluffy tail (Pepe le Pew style) which always is a winner as far as I am concerned. However, I didn’t really make friends with their last furry companion, the stand offish Bin Laden!

I really can’t say enough how much I loved my stay with Lillian and Ove. Such good people, such a great time.

I am now really looking forward to our next Globalfreeloader experience in Oslo with Elin. Wish us luck with that though as we are meeting Elin while she waits in line to purchase tickets for a talk by an American photographer she wants to see….should be a piece of cake 😛

Categories: travel | Leave a comment

A man and a woman, a dog and two cats.

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Kristen

This afternoon we are leaving Helsinki to fly to Oslo, Norway. I am excited to be inching closer to those Northern Lights! However, this evening will be my first real taste of being out of my comfort zone…or maybe not, it remains to be seen!

The reason is that we will be living in the home of a Norwegian couple who live about an hour out of Oslo for the next three nights. They are in their 5o’s and have a dog and two cats…and that’s about all I know! How did this come about, I hear you ask? Well, I joined Globalfreeloaders when we were still living in Cronulla and although we didn’t get anyone interested in coming to stay with us we planned to use this site once we got o/s. Although we sent requests to people in Finland, it has been the Norwegians who have answered the call. We will also be staying with another woman and her daughter in their small unit in Oslo on our return from Tromso, where we hope to see the Aurora Borealis.

I am hopeful that this will prove to be a memorable part of our Scandanavian adventure (for all the right reasons of course!). I truely believe that it is getting to know the locals and how they live their lives that adds a depth of understanding to anytime spent in a foreign place. If you don’t talk to the locals you can only view their lives through your own lens. I have vivid memories of times like this when I stayed with a local Hill Tribe village in Northern Thailand or the nine hour boat ride to Battambang in Cambodia where Damien and talked literally for hours to a young guy who gave us insight into life under the Khmer Rouge. The interesting thing about the Hill Tribe village stay was that I spent a night hanging out with these people and we all laughed and genuinely had a wonderful night together despite that most of our conversation was through body language and smiles.

Here’s to the next leg of the adventure and the surprises it will bring!

Categories: Cambodia, cronulla, Norway, Scandinavia, Thailand, travel | 2 Comments