I'm a bit sad that I have to say goodbye to Norway tonight. Since I will sneak away so quickly in the morning before sunrise, that I won't be able to do it then. I know, I'm becoming a softie.
So arriving in Norway started off on the wrong foot. First of all, the passenger next to me on the plane stole my window seat and i was too shy to say anything. He was also an idiot, but I won't elaborate much on that. When we arrived at the airport, we didn't have any maps for where to go and our GPS wasn't programmed for Norway. Heck, we didn't even have an address for where to go so we couldn't ask for directions! iPhone saved the day! And an insane data bill....saved the day! (My iPhone found our hotel, our meeting places, the restaurants we wanted....it got us back to the hotel when we got lost due to walking with our heads down in heavy rain). I assume my cheque from Apple is in the mail.
Anyway, yesterday was a long day. We were up at 4:30 am to catch our 7:30 flight from Aberdeen, then had all the hectic figuring out where to go stuff, then we had a meeting with our oil client here, followed by dinner and drinks with him. By the end of the night, I was toast. No running for Jerk.
Today, I have no idea why, but I got up extremely early again and ordered breakfast to my room. Wow...do these guys know how to treat a pseudo vegan to breakfast...I got a bowl of baked beans, a basket of whole wheat bread, muesli with dried fruit, glass of soy milk, glass of orange juice, coffee and a dinner size plate heaping with freshly sliced apples, oranges, pineapple, kiwi, watermelon and grapes. It took me 4 hours to get through it! No wonder these people are huge!! And I mean that in a healthy way, not in a Texas way!!
After all the food, there was no need for lunch and we went straight to our meeting for the afternoon...which by the way went AWESOME. For some reason, Dad wanted to walk there. He looked outside, it was pouring rain and windy....and under 10 degrees. It's about a 1 KM walk. I suggest taxi, Dad suggests walk. Dad is the boss - we walk. Dad has raincoat. Kathleen soaks. Then we want to go out for dinner. Still rainy, windy and cold. Kathleen wants taxi, remembering how drenched she was before and how long it took to dry off. Dad wants to walk. Effffffffffff. I think we walked a good 6-8 KM today in the rain...some parts in heels (not Dad, me.). You'd think I wouldn't want to run after that, eh?
Well, if the Norwegians can do it, I can do it! There's no way I'm going to Norway and not contributing to this blog!! Especially after I missed France! I swear, if it wasn't for the commitment I made with this blog, now that I know other people are expecting me to do this, I wouldn't have run. I would have bought a bag of chips and diet coke and sat in my room watching reruns of Hell's Kitchen. Now I know why I did this in the first place. When you travel, it's hard to stay motivated to exercise and easy to give in to the rich food and boozing. I needed a way to commit to my program and this is proving to be effective. Going on very little sleep into the brutal Norwegian weather - there was no way I was missing this opportunity. And I'm so glad now that I did it. (But I will kick myself in the morning when I wake up at 4 am, wishing I skipped the run and the blog and went to bed at 9 )
I ran up and down one side of the port until the path ended at the University of Stavanger, which I found by accident, turned around and ran down the other side and back. I think I did about 6 to 7 KM again. I'm just guessing because that's normally how far I go in 40 minutes and I have a pretty consistent pace. I started out a little rough, thinking to myself I would only go for about 20 minutes. My legs were sore from walking on stone in heels. But it's amazing how the body adapts to most situations. When I was warmed up and found my rhythm, I felt like I could just keep going until I hit Oslo. The only reason I turned back was to make sure I got to bed at a decent hour....which I effed up anyway.
Stavanger looks a lot like the East Coast in Canada. I've posted pictures below. I was surprised really. I was expecting the town to look a lot older, like the other European cities I've been to. Unfortunately, the town was occupied by Germany during WW2 and if I remember correctly, a lot of the buildings burned. This is also due to the fact that Stavanger was a lot smaller until oil was discovered in the North Sea in 1969. The city boomed after, so much of it is relatively new. The city is now a HUGE exporter of oil for the rest of Europe. It's also known for shipbuilding (go figure, they're vikings) and fishing. Bread is definitely not a strength here - the French still have the title on that. Just saying.
Oh, and apparently, I was Norwegian before I became Scottish. Leod is Norwegian for "ugly". I always thought that was gaelic. I come from Olaf the Black, King of Mann... OK, you're bored, I'll stop. Look it up if that stuff interests you.
OK, my tired legs and I are off to sleep. I love Norway and it's familiar weather, but tomorrow I have a very early flight to Italy. I'll hopefully get to run in Bologna and in Venice. I'll post lots of pictures!!
Goodnight, Kids!
No comments:
Post a Comment