Norge!

Greetings from Trondheim, Norway! As I write this in my first full day here in the land of snow and coffee, I’m finding myself craving sleep. Sleep, something that both calls me and destroys me, as the nine hour backwards timezone shift has been playing absolute havoc with my internal circadian rhythm. Yesterday, the day I arrived here, I ended up falling fast asleep with my girlfriend at only 6PM, due to the jet-lag. Today my body seems to be threatening to do the same.

Like the last time I moved to Norway for my internship, the journey was both incredibly long, and mostly uneventful; an 8 hour flight followed by a 3 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur airport (the only airport in the world with more shops than seats) then a 13 hour flight up to Amsterdam, another 5 hour layover and finally a short 2 hour “cityhopper” flight up to frozen Trondheim.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with fellow AVRFreak member Nard part way through my journey in Amsterdam, who was once again kind enough to brave the early morning weather and have a coffee with myself and my girlfriend in the airport coffee shop. The weather flying into Amsterdam was quite incredible; watching a lightning storm from the inside of a plane is both interesting and a slightly worrying experience. Here’s our exhausted and unwashed (well, I can’t speak for Nard) trio at Starbucks:

It’s always a pleasure to see Nard – and I was thrilled that Anika could meet him also – and I really do hope to find some time during the year to fly back down and spend a few nights in Amsterdam and look around. Before leaving Melbourne I was fresh, bright eyed and smelled like the man your man could smell like. After the long journey I was tired and smelled like the goat your man could smell like, if said goat had a severe stomach problem. Thankfully all our luggage arrived safe and I was able to take a quick “bachelor shower” in deodorant before our contact from the Ex-Pat office met us. This time I remembered to buy some alcohol from the duty free shop before collecting our bags, since the alcohol tax in Norway is giganta-humunga-normous. That’s a technical term.

While I find my feet here I’m staying in the local Comfort Part Hotel, located in the city center. I’ll be living here with Anika for the next two weeks courtesy of Atmel while I get a place to live and the associated furnishings sorted out. Yesterday I had my first consultation with the Ex-Pat office, and had my first rental property viewing. The apartments in Norway wouldn’t even classify as “Shoebox Sized” back home, but such is the European lifestyle of living, and this place was no exception at just 35m2. Anika and I turned it down due to the inability to fit both myself and a double bed into the bedroom at the same time.

On the upside, I had my second viewing this morning, at a slightly bigger (40m2) apartment, which we have now accepted. I really fell in love with the place almost immediately; it’s a wooden building located right on the river edge, with (relatively) plenty of space and bizarrely enough, Salmon fishing rights from our apartment window. That’s right – I can literally fish for dinner from our bedroom window, if the need arises. The kitchen is small but includes a fridge and stove, but the bathroom is decent, the location absolutely excellent and the bedroom/living room well proportioned. I’ll take some pictures next week when I receive the key – the view alone from the windows is incredible, and we’ll be close to pretty much everything in Trondheim.

Tomorrow the plan is to take the bus to the local Ikea to purchase a bed and other items we’ll need to furnish the apartment. Right now I’m hoping the handyman will fix our hotel room’s cooking exhaust fan soon so we don’t end up having to just eat bread for dinner.

Time for another coffee to stay awake.

 

Comments: 3

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Dean and Anika, it was a real pleasure to meet you both. A pitty that the weather was so bad when you flew in: today it’s so much better, even sunshine !
Jetlag: yeah, that’s terrible. I have had my share of it. The only good thing is knowing that it will be over in a few days. You did look tired indeed; Anika coped better with the jetlag 🙂 She looked pretty fresh. I took a nap to compensate for the short night.
Glad to hear you found an appartment ! Fishing from the window, that sounds very good.

Looking forward to your visit !

Cheers
Nard

 

Hi Dean and Anika. Very pleased to hear that you have arrived safely and found your own place so quickly. 40m2 means that you will not be able to accumulate too much which in turn means you won’t have to cart it back home at some stage in the future. Let the adventure begin!

Ross

 

Awesome journey Dean, hope you have a great time there. I’m still using LUFA (about to start another build light project).

 

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Vital Stats

  • 35 Years Old
  • Australian
  • Lover of embedded systems
  • Firmware engineer
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