Here's the view from my bedroom - with the steep side of the Rotsethornet on the left - I didn't get to climb up it this time - but I will return...
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I think this may have been a small water mill. There's a millstone in front of it and it had a horizontal many-bladed fan underneath it...
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I went for a walk up the hill behind the town. There were some very picturesque mossy forest areas with streams and waterfalls. On the way back down I sketched the view over the town - again with the Rotsethornet behind...
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The neighbours house had terrific Viking style dragons on the ridge of the roof...
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We visited the Briksdal Glacier at the weekend - it's difficult to get an idea of the scale - even in the photos. If you take a picture of the whole thing with someone alongside it they just become a tiny dot. Whilst we were exploring the edge we heard a terrifying crack and far above we could see a few bits fall off - it took a long time for the to reach the bottom. Sadly the glacier is retreating at quite an alarming rate...
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This is a typical Norwegian barn. They always have at least one ramp for the farmer to drive his tractor up and drop off er, um, some farm type stuff - straw or cows or something...
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Finally the trip back. I had three planes t catch so I made it into a bit of a sketchcrawl. Here's Aalesund airport at 11AM and Bergen at 12...
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This is an old glider, also at Bergen, at 12.30PM...
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On the plane, somewhere over the North Sea at 2PM...
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And Aberdeen at 3.30PM (my first time in Scotland)...
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Other Nordic observations...
- Fish are very important in Norway.
- There doesn't seem to be any crime in Volda - people don't put fences and gates round their houses or businesses and bikes are left unlocked on the street. Or perhaps stealing a bike is pointless. You'd either have to risk getting caught as you cycle slowly up a very steep hill - or end up at the fjord at the bottom of the hill.
- You can't buy alcohol in a supermarket after 6 on a Saturday (bear this in mind if you're invited to a party on a Saturday night and don't want to arrive looking like a beerless cheapskate)
- Most of the TV is taken up by news and current affairs - and most of the news and current affairs is about fish.
- Norwegians are very fit and love the outdoors. Whilst descending a 700m mountain in cold, almost horizontal rain we were overtaken by several joggers, dogwalkers and even a couple with a pram.
- Beer is expensive - almost £5 a pint. The barman will ask you several times if you really wanted 4 glasses before pouring them.
- They recently launched a cruise ship called the 'Hurtegurten'
- Norwegian for fish is 'fisk'
It all seems a long way off now I'm back and working again. I hope I go back again soon.
3 comments:
Hello Stefan!
I'm from Volda, and was wondering if it is possible to buy any of your sketches from Volda.
You can contact me at t[a]onsite.no
Hi Stefan!
Ailu here :) That was a nice hike up to the "goahti" Sorry for not seeing you off on the last day. Had no phone to reach you on, but I guess you had enough with getting packed.
Anyways, really nice couple weeks with a excellent introduction too maya! Thank you.
ps:Noticed you have Bengal and Craig Mullins on the links, really nice artist´s I admire for their illustrations.
Greetings from Volda
Hey Ailu, nice to hear from you - glad you liked the Maya introduction. I'm looking forward to seeing your animations.
Craig Mullins has been a bookmark of mine for many years now - I'm always amazed how his seemingly random semi-transparent brush marks combine to make such real looking scenes. It's worth checking out the other links too.
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