Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Bergen, Norway

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Sep 062015
 

Back to my updates on summer travels – it is fun to look back at all that I did in such a short time!

So, our last stop in Norway was Bergen. We took another ferry from Belastrand to Bergen. It was a fairly chilly ride, so we stayed inside for most of this one. Plus, the joy of seeing the fjords was lessened after taking it all in the day before.

Bergen was by far the coldest place we visited despite going through snowy mountains. Since it is a harbor town, the sea winds blew in during the late afternoon to drop temperatures, so we were not as keen to be out in it for too long. Therefore, most of my souvenir shopping happened here. 😀

Bergen’s street shops are quite famous in photos – maybe you’ve seen them before and are just as picturesque in person.

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24-Jun-2015 15:32, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 50.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100
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J and I walked around the town exploring. It’s not a big city, but a good size town that took us about two hours to walk around. Then, we took the funicular up to the top of the hill, which many people like to walk (crazy!), for a view of the area. It is quite beautiful to see.

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24-Jun-2015 15:25, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, ISO 32
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We had a pretty good time and ate a really nice meal here, but we were definitely happy to skip out on the cold!

Here are all the pics from Belastrand to Bergen:

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Belastrand, Norway

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 232015
 

One of the main reasons to head to the west coast of Norway is to see the fjords. It was beautiful just to wake up to the view of the lake and we got to watch a bit more of the parasailing competition before we hopped on the three-car local train from Voss to make our way to Myrdal, which is higher up in the mountain.

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23-Jun-2015 13:53, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 11.0, 10.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100
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Then, we crossed the platform and got onto a small old-fashioned (tourist) gauge train to Flam. Along the way, we made a brief stop to see a pretty cool waterfall

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23-Jun-2015 12:27, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 2.65mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
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and then ended in Flam, which happens to be a stop for cruise ships touring the fjords. Thus, there really is nothing to do there. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we stopped into a little supermarket for a drink and snacks to enjoy in the park.

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23-Jun-2015 13:47, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 2.65mm, ISO 32
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From Flam, we took a ferry to Belastrand about 1.5 hours through the fjords. There were a number of picturesque moments along the way. We braved the wind the whole time to take as many photos from the back and then fought our way forward from time to time to get some different shots. Although it was beautiful overall and I definitely enjoyed it – I wasn’t overly impressed….I know, I’m spoiled!!! 😛
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23-Jun-2015 16:46, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, ISO 40
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23-Jun-2015 17:38, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 10.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 200
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23-Jun-2015 16:06, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
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The town of Belastrand isn’t that big and seems to be just a stopover for those touring the fjords.The main attraction in town seems to be Saint Olaf’s church.
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23-Jun-2015 19:46, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 10.0, 35.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100
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Since there weren’t  a lot of food and drink options in the town, we paid the hotel prices for a nice dinner with a view of the water, which was worth it!
So, that was a lovely visit of the fjords! Here are the pics:
More to come,
-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Voss, Norway

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 172015
 

After our fairly short visit in Oslo, we took the train from Oslo to Voss. Voss seems to be the European destination for sports, camping and general ‘outback’ family holiday. It is a beautiful town located on a lake and my hotel room looked out on the mountain caps and lake.

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22-Jun-2015 20:01, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 13.0mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 100
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Poor J, got a view of the train tracks….:( 😀

One of the best parts of the journey to Voss was passing the snow!! We were chatting along and suddenly saw out the window a land of WHITE! It was quite amazing and beautiful. Neither of us had seen snow in ages, so it was quite a treat. Plus, the weather was so gorgeous compared to the desert heat we had left behind.

It also happened to be some parasailing/hangliding championship the weekend we were there, so we got to see quite a few competitors fly up high into the clouds and come down with spins and tricks. Quite cool!

We were also a bit giddy from the freedom and escape of the desert. So, everything seemed really wonderful to us. Furthermore, it was still light out even at midnight – we had dinner at 10:30 forgetting the time! It is definitely worth the visit out to Voss if one is going to be in Scandinavia. If I were to return to Norway, I think this would be a must-return-to-place!

Here are the pics:

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Oslo, Norway

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 152015
 

Our next stop on our Scandinavia adventure was Oslo. So, we took the train on a rather wet morning through the countryside and found ourselves in the small capital of Norway.

While people in the touristy areas were friendly enough, no one was overly friendly. We still did a lot of walking and found ourselves seeing a few interesting places within the downtown area. However, when we hit the tram to find our way to Frogenparken and Vigelandsparken, we were amazed by the sculptures and monument created there. It was very moving to walk around seeing the faces and sculptures of people from all walks of life designed as loving in unity.

We also took in the greenery as we do not see much of that in the desert! 😀

Here are the pics:

Overall, aside from the park, it wasn’t a very memorable city as far as sights are concerned. What is memorable is the extremely high cost of just about everything…! 🙁

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Copenhägen, Denmark

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 132015
 

After the couple of days of “work” in London, I flew off to Copenhägen, Denmark to meet my friend, J, for our Scandinavia adventure. We had booked a 12-day ‘tour’ to see the region and I couldn’t wait!

We started with Copenhägen for two nights and fell in love with the sights, people (aka tall men!) and food. Everyone was very friendly to us – perfect strangers – and helped us with ideas for food or things to see. It’s just the right size city that is fairly walkable, but not too small that you’d get tired of it. We did a lot of walking and exploring of the entire city.

Some highlights included the caramelized pork burger smothered with potato salad on a bun and walking through the ‘cannibas’ quarters with its graffiti and liberalism. 😀

Here are the pics!

P.S. I will keep most of these posts fairly short, as I plan to do some travel writing on another site where I have published a few stories before. I’ll update these posts with the links once I get to them. 🙂

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: London, UK [Apple Training]

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Aug 112015
 

Oh it seems ages ago that I was leaving for the UK to do some work training as the start of my summer holidays…. It will be nice to reminisce as I update here on my last eight weeks! 😛

I may or may not have written before that I am trained as an Apple Education Trainer (AET) formally known as an Apple Professional Developer (APD). While this does not mean that I work for Apple – I wish – it does mean that I can train others on how to use Apple/Mac programs and devices on their behalf, but NOT as an official employee. If that sounds convoluted – it is. Basically, I have the authorization to train on Apple’s behalf, but not the certification to make it official. Also, I am currently authorized through the university where I work, but not as an individual – meaning if I leave the university and join one that does not have authorization with Apple, I no longer have said authorization to do any training even though all the knowledge is still in my head…. Yep, clear as mud!

So, on occasion, Apple sponsors training on programs, updates or pedagogy for their education branch. There are times when an AET or AETs will be sponsored and invited to attend these special training sessions. One came up to attend one at Apple’s London headquarters looking at Challenge-based Learning with the affordances of the Mac ecosystem.

Since they were willing to subsidize one night stay at a hotel and it was just the beginning of my holidays, I got permission to go away early and attend.

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18-Jun-2015 09:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.03 sec, ISO 80
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18-Jun-2015 10:18, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250
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It was a very interesting day and it was nice to visit London again. I got a different feel for it this second time around and though it’s still not NYC, I think I liked it better.

With that last bit of business out of the way, it was time to begin my European tour!

More to come,

-T 😀

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