Back in Norway

It is strange how things work out. I had planned on being in the US for this time but decided to postpone that trip as I felt it would really drain my savings account. Just after breaking the news to my US cousins that I would not be seeing them, I was given an air ticket to Norway so here I am.

The lead up to this trip was extremely stressful. I had applied for the Schengen visa in the last week of January because I had some work travel in March and April but the Norwegian Embassy refused to grant the visa so early even though they had processed the application. My passport was returned to me at the end of February minus the visa. I did all the work trips and was left with just two weeks to get my passport back to the Embassy, have the visa stuck in it and get the passport back. Normally I would not have worried about it too much but in this two weeks were the Easter weekend and Freedom day which left only 7 working days in which this could all happen. I handed in my passport to the urban Consulate as soon as it opened on the Monday after returning from Mauritius and was assured that there would be no problem. The first week went by and I heard nothing on the Tuesday between Family Day and Freedom Day I phoned the consulate and there was no news but I was assured that it would be there on Thursday. On Thursday I phoned again .... still nothing but I was told that it would definitely arrive on Friday. With Friday being the last working day before I was due to leave, I was desperate to get my passport back. After a LONG morning of waiting, I received a phone call at 11:30 to say that it had arrived and I dashed to the consulate to collect it. What a relief!

I finally got my suitcase out and started packing. It was difficult to decide what to pack since it is spring in Norway and the temperatures are still lower than Durban in winter and we are going on a little excursion up to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle but in the end I packed winter autumn and summer clothes :-) and figured if I needed anything else I could just buy it.

My flight from Durban to Jo'burg was only on Sunday evening and the day just seemed to drag. Eventually it was time to go. I met up with Jo and Diets in Jo'burg for dinner. We had a good time together as always and the time passed really quickly. OR Tambo airport was quite and I went through the security check and immigration without queuing at all - that's got to be a first.

The flight to Amsterdam was not great. There was so much turbulence and every time I had just nodded off I was woken up by the bouncing around of the plane. It didn't help that I was sitting almost on the tail rudder so along with the up and down jolting there was a disturbing side to side wagging going on. Anway we got to Amsterdam in one piece. This time I only had a four hour wait, not nearly as bad as the ten hour wait of last year! I cleared immigration and the security check where not only was my hand luggage x-rayed but so was I and I had a body search. At least they are friendly and polite about it so I don't feel that is that much of an invasion (unlike the searches I have had in Tanzania).

To get on the next flight, we had to get a bus to the plane. I was first on the plane and asked the bus driver if it was the bus for the Trondheim flight, he said "Yes, I hope you packed some food because you are going by bus and it will be a long journey"! It did actually feel that way because the plane was the one parked the furthermost away from the terminal! Standing waiting to get on the plane was unbelievable cold. There was a strong wind blowing and it was freezing cold. I was shivering when I eventually got inside. We then proceeded to taxi to the other side of the airfield and I was beginning to wonder if we were just going to go along the ground.

 The view of Amsterdam during take off.

The yellow strip is a field of tulips.

I managed to get a good hour's nap on the flight and woke up in time to see the Norwegian coastline come into sight. It was shocking to see so much snow, this is supposed to be spring!

 My first view of the Norwegian coastline.

 Snow in the mountains

 More snow!

The Trondheim Fjord in the distance.

Although the flight had left Amsterdam on time we took an extra half an hour to get to Trondheim but got there safely. My suitcase was the first to come on the carousel and I noticed that there was some sort of damage to it but I was keen to see Charles so just took it and high tailed it out of there. On the way to the car I mentioned the damage to Charles and we had a closer look at my suitcase. The feet at the bottom had been ripped off and it looked like someone had tried to fold my suitcase in half! We went straight back in and reported the damage and I was given a NKR1000 voucher to replace the suitcase if it could not be repaired. On further inspection I found that the stitching on one end had been unpicked! I'm not sure how that would happen except through a deliberate action to get at the contents. I'm not sure what anyone thought they would find because I didn't have anything of much value in the case. I also have not discovered anything missing - maybe the person was interrupted.

It was so good to get home to Levanger and have a hot shower. Charles had prepared dinner before coming to fetch me so as soon as I was clean we sat down to a delicious dinner of carrot soup and French bread loaf.

Tomorrow we are going down south to an Island called Runde where there is a colony of cliff breeding birds so today we just spent our time getting a few things together for the trip and we sorted out my suitcase. The shop we went to said it was not repairable and they offered to replace it with something similar but I asked if I could pay in extra and get something better. They were very happy to do so and I now have a hard Samsonite suitcase.

It will be an early night tonight as we have an early start tomorrow. It is a long journey south. I will post to the blog again on Saturday once we are back in Levanger and will hopefully have lots of photos of the birds and the area to and around Runde Island.