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Juni 25, 2006

One Year in Norway

So, one year in Norway. Has it lived up to my expectations or was I naïve? Is there really a reason why I’m living here, or am I just an aimless drifter who has ended up in an obscure outpost of old Europe?

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Posted by barry at 3:27 EM

Juni 18, 2006

Holmenkollen

More than one million people visit Holmenkollen Ski Museum every year, which is very brave of them because it's very high in the sky. I didn't look down as I ascended, but now that I am up here I can see how frightening it is.

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Posted by barry at 6:58 EM

Juni 11, 2006

Devil Country

What a dubious place I live in! Did you know that John Milton associated Norway with Satan in Paradise Lost? When Satan is lying upon the Burning Lake, Milton compares him to a whale deceiving men into thinking it is an island:
"...that Sea-beast
Leviathan which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th'Ocean stream:
Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam"
(Book I lines 200-203)

Milton here is only hinting at the shadiness, the very fishiness, of Norway. He gets much more explicit later on.

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Posted by barry at 12:12 FM

Juni 4, 2006

Nesodden and after

I'm not exactly sure what happened to me. I was either ill, physically exhausted or mentally stressed out. Possibly all three. In any event, I experienced a kind of burn out, with a total loss of energy and a feeling of inability to cope with anything. Coincidentally, I was scheduled to take over a friend's cottage in Nesodden for five or six days, so it felt really good for my health to get on the boat, get out to the quiet countryside and collapse into bed. The cottage is pictured here with the woodshed in the foreground.

Nesodden is in Akershus, a county next to Oslo. From the cottage and the garden I could see Oslo in the distance at the opposite side of the fjord. Although the city was visible, I was thankfully disconnected from everything there.

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Posted by barry at 7:55 EM