LIFE in GENERAL

Europe » Norway
June 19th 2006

Published: June 29th 2006

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ben and sofe head north

early march

Weve been living in Tønsberg, our small little coastal town in Norway now for just over 4 months now and we still cant believe how fast its gone.

When I think back when i thought wed have to turn into eskimoes to survive, and now everythings green, yellow, white, the flowers, grass, blue skies, smell of barbecues, people tanned in shorts... yeah thats right, spring has come... and it came over night.
One day i went to work and it was warm . I gotta say its reeeeeeeeally beautiful here at this time of the year, the sun is setting at about 11.oo pm everynight and rising at about 3.45 am. The sunsets last for sooo long so you can relax and just sit and enjoy them for a good hour, with a beer in the hand and a nice breeze (wearing a t-shirt) you can almost forget the feel of snow under feet.

Well I guess you could say weve gone heads down ass up here at the moment, we are all workin really hard, Sofes still working at her Restaurant "Baku", working mostly hours like 5 or 6pm till 12-2 am.
Mackan and

early april

the change was sooooo quick, from - 5 to 20+

I are still working at RKC, the outdoor products distribution place, driving forkilifts, picking orders of anything from small houses, tool sheds, outdoor decks, wind walls, rabbit cages, table and bench sets, play equipment, camping stuff, you name it.
We work from 6am till 2pm one week then from 2pm till 10pm the other, we been hooking in with over time working 12 hour days and some sundays.
Its been really tough at times but were enjoyin life.

We alway make sure we can get out and enjoy this cool place though, weve been doing a lot of longboarding around the town and at the skateparks, meeting locals and havin a blast. Ive added some skate photos and Mackan has been working on a reeeeeeeeeally cool website www.freeridesociety.com which will be up and running in mid July.

Its cool because its afternoon light till at least 11.30pm, although its taken me a while to get used to it when im trying to sleep early at 10 and the suns still up!!!!
There have also been a few of Mackans friends move in just up the road so we hang out with them abit too, thats

tønsberg harbour

beautiful by day party central by night, sofe works in between the big yellow one and the red one

awesome havin some more swedish people around.

Weve made some cool friends from work to and i been practising my swedish with them so thats all fun and games.
Our Work took us out Go-karting and shouted pizza and beers ect the other week and it was soooooo fun, the track was outdoors and long , fastest i had been on and i came first and second, then the third heat i had a funny pile up crash.

Weve also had Sofes parents come and stay with us which has also been really cool, they are really great so we just hang out, eat good food, drink good wine, relax and have some laughs.

Another great thing about norway is it has so many public holidays!!!!!
for a while there was one a week. They had the easter holidays which are different from ours, then Norwegian National day and some others i forget.
Actually National Day was cool. I didnt know what to expect and i woke up early and walked to the top of the hill we live under, it seemed all of Tønsberg had dressed up in traditional getup and gathered on

from the tower on our hill

me enjoying the late night light show

this hill.
Every norwegian flag was up, the rain was pouring, noone cared, there was a marching band and some dignitaries, and of course a group of drunk students. I only had my video camera so i have no still shots but the morning ended with some DEAFENING canon blasts that ricocheted down over the town and everyone went on a march through town, it was really uplifting, they really love their country!
Theres a lot more so i'll add entries when i can.
Although i love snow the summer here is already beautiful and refreshing, nice people and cool atmosphere.
The only downside is i do miss FMAILY and FRIENDS and the OCEAN; SURFING; MEATPIES; CHOCOLATE OAKS; BACKYARD POOLS...anyways God Blesses me sooooo much i cant complain.
Ha det bra (have a good one)

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