Friday 18th

Did a hike, and to put it with the words of my animales buddy I'll just let the pictures do the talking :)


It ain't the best compilation, but it's just to give an idea.

In the evening we went to a local festival, had loads of fun, and drank way to much!

Thursday 17/8

Today started with rain, so I rolled over again in my bed this morning. Afterwards I went in town (actually they dropped me of there) to go look for a battery-charger and an USB-cable (which I forgot at home), both for my camera. To bad, in Alta there isn't anything to be found of the brand Nikon, but the people are so friendly, they kept looking for a solution, so I ended up with an Canon USB that fits just perfectly.

Around noon I went for a coffee with Camilla (who had a half hour break in her morning-shift ) and she suggestioned me to use her car in the afternoon, as long as I could pick her up at 3pm from work. So in the afternoon I went to visit the Alta museum (5 km out of town) to go see the rock-carvings (world heritage by UNESCO) there.

Around 3pm I went to pick up Camilla and we prepared ourselves for a fishingtrip. We drove up to the see to find a nice spot. The first spot didn't turn out to be a good one to fish so it ended up in a mini-hike with a lot of laughter :) -bugs in a box-

So we didn't see fish there, but we saw reindeer! I even went up to one. They were running around freely (no fence or anything to be spotted for miles), but the biggest one had a bell tied around his neck, so I think they belong to some Sami around there.


To make a long story very short: We went to an other fishingspot, actually 2 different (one at the sea, fishing from the cliffs and one at a lake fishing from a boat), had a little beer (at least I did, Camilla was driving), dried meat and Norwegian caviar, and loads of fun. I never knew fishing could be so much fun! Incredible but true, I even caught my first fish.




-spot 1 and 2 next to eachother-

Wednesday 16/8/'06

This morning I woke up a little to enthusiastic: sun was shining, weather was sweet here :)
while the sun was warming me up (T-shirt without sleeves at 7 am!), I sat at ease writing in my diary, enjoying the peaceful quiet environment. There is a chance I'm repeating myself, but everything is breathtaking.

Camilla and I went for a morning jog (as soon she was awake that was ;o) about 10.30 am) along the beautiful scenery of the Alta river and through the forest behind their backyard. Afterwards we were just chilling on the lawn, enjoying the warm weather.

Around 3pm Camilla had to go to work, so I went for a little walkabout alongside the Alta-river. Incredible view: the water glittering in the sun, the mountains solid on the background and once in a while a salmon jumping out of the water, showing of with their somersaults.

Two busses with tourists arrived in the evening, they were on an fieldtrip to see the famous sled-dogs. Roger does races with them and has won already twice (and several top 10 rankings) the 'Finnmarkslopet', which is a 1000km sled-dog race, the longest in the world. (pictures: copyrighted do not use for comercial purp. )



Woops, I'm going to stop here otherwise I'll end up with jet another (to) long post.
(animales partner, I miss you here)

Intermezzo

I've got to summarize some more, because the previous post was just to long. It makes everything less accessible to read everything. But it's difficult, even in the post of Tuesday I left out a few things that were really worth mentioning for me, but than it would be exaggerated. Writing an entire book on my blog wasn't my intention :)
So my friends, if you want to know everything about my journey, ask my paper travel diary when you see me!

Greetings from Jero out of the to beautiful world of Alta (Norway)

pic: by the Alta-river

Tuesday 15th of august 2006

And he has taken off!
OK, after a few days of internet problems, I'll try to make a little resumee .

My parents dropped me off in the airport of Brussels, and after saying goodbye with a cup of cappuchino, it was of to the airplane for me. Having a little hangover (thanks to my father's birthday party), I was a little,... euhm lets say at ease. My parents always learned me to be in time, so I was early enough at the gate where my flight would take off. And in Oslo as well, I had time enough. 4 hours to take my next flight.
picture @right: my dad and I @ the airport

Picture: Peacebird in Oslo airport -soulexport spreading the message of peace-

GOOD THING that it was planned like this! In Oslo there was the possibility to check in by yourself, and I wanted to check that out. OK, but the machine ate my ticket,... bwa, no stress, still enough time to take care of everything. And it worked, after loads of bad advice I finally received a new ticket and everything would be ok.

On the flight to Alta I met 2 nice people: Marion and Rachid (on the picture here with our plane on the background @ Alta airport) with whom I had a nice conversation. Thanks guys, it was fun!

Once arrived in Alta, Camilla picked me up. Wow, she really looked good in her summerdress. Seeing her again (4 years after we met in Oslo) was really intense. We were chatting and laughing all the way to her place. There I met her mom (Arnhild) and her mom's friend (Roger) and more dogs than I ever imagined to see together!

Roger went to train the dogs, and I could join him for the ride. I even could help them to get ready(put on their harness) and of we went; 12 dogs pulling a quad. My eyes were popping out of my head from astonishment,... This must be the most beautiful country I ever saw, the scenery was just.... WOW!

We've spent the rest of the evening on the porch just talking for hours,... This vacation had a kick-ass start!I fell in love with this place, and it were only the first hours in Alta.

I didn't knew if I was awake, or asleep, but one thing was for sure,... This surely was a dream!

PS: I have a problem to put pictures on the blog from here, so it has to be without for the moment. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.