Summer 2011: Friends! Travels - Music - Hiking

This summer started in may with the EGI residential in Cortijo Romero in the southern spain. Visits to Granada and Malaga where new experiences for me. I liked this part of spain, and will for sure go back.

Doing training abroad and live together is a great change and a chance to learn and become closer to each other. 

Cortijo Romero is a calm place. A sanctuary for peace and growth.

On our free time, we bring the cameras and dress like tourists. Alhambra (Granada) is a perfect place for snapshots.

However, the big trip this summer was 14 days in UK. Beginning with London, then the Glastonbury Festival. From Bristol we rented a car which took us around to Bath, Stonehenge, Avebury (cropcircles and Silbury Hill) via Moreton-in-Marsh up to Hexham and the Hadrian Wall. Driving through England was a great experience. I just love that country. So photogenic, soft and green. Tenting and occationally Bed & Breakfast. A short stop in Durham before coming to the shore of Northumberlands Bamurgh and Holy Island (Lindisfarne). Heading north to the small scottish town Dunbar before ending up in the beautiful and familiar Edinburgh wirh friends from the EGI.

 A reunion with the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury was a happy one :-)

Finally, U2 made it to Glastonbury!!

The magical place: Avebury. Surrounded by large stone circles!

The fantastic castle of Bamburgh surrounded by beautiful beaches.

The Gothic Edinburgh Castle!

Back in Norway work waited and some of my friends went up to Sandane. I joined them for a long weekend. The weather was warm and perfect for hiking in the mountains. I had a goal this time: Ryssdalshornet. A very steep walk to the top. It was a perfect weekend.

Feeling free in Sandane!

Ryssdalshornet from groundlevel (1204 m.o.h.)

Ryssdalshornet: View from the top!

In the end of July I visited my family in Telemark. It was warm and my parents place is perfect for relaxing. I met a very old friend of mine from childhood and my other friend came visiting with his children.

 "Magasuget" in Bø, Telemark is a scary ride!

The trip to Odda in the beginning of August was very significant for me in many ways. The nature around this old industrial small town in the fjord is magnificent.

The search for cloudberries in the forrest surrounding Odda!

In the middle of august Sandane was tempting and I went for another long weekend and another perfect time in Sandane with sand volley ball, hiking and party.

 Resting at Jardalsstøylen (Sandane)

 Towards the top of Svartekari (Sandane). We should have brought skiis for the trip down!

On the top of Svartekari (1225 m.o.h.)

A summer is not perfect without our fishing trips to Øygarden. I appriciate those relaxing trips a lot. Catching crabs and lots of fish. And of course concerts at Koengen in Bergen. This years big big name was Rihanna.

Waiting for Rihanna to come on! It was a lovely evening at Koengen!

I´m no fan of Rihanna, but she did put on a good show!

Since my dayghter left for Dublin in the middle of July, I missed her a lot. We spent a week in Gran Canaria late August before we reurned to Dublin. We said goodbye and I headed for Bergen.

 The tourist machine at Anfi del mar in Arguineguin provides a good climate, but are generally boring!

Back in Dublin! 

 Dublin Streets!

This summer ended for me at my friends birthday party 31 of august in Salhus. A very special and strange summer in many ways, I would say!

A relaxing and beautiful evening with friends in Salhus makes a perfect end for my summer 2011.

Shantaram

Just finished this massive book.  A long story. A wonderful novel. Full of pain and suffering. Full of love and philosophy. Its a thin line between love and hate. Its a thin line between crime and justice and its a thin line between life and death. The opposite forces are melting together and spins like photons in a trammel. Crashing and creating new energy and drives Lin (the main character) into new hazardous situations and happenings. Torture in prison, fights and participating in war (Afghanistan). He seems to jump like a hungry tiger into this. He should of course be dead long time ago, but like a cat with 9 lives he hangs on, recover and gets ready for new adventures. He belongs to the Bombay mafia, which makes a perfect field for his dangerous adventures. The drive is love, love in friendship, love of family and of course love to a woman. Because Lin loves a lot and people love him. He loves Bombay and find a way to live a life by doing wrong for the right reasons. Well, we will not go into a long discussion about ethics here, but ethics is important through out the book. Lin is a criminal and participate in criminal activities on smaller or greater scale. Except the time he he spends in Prabaker's  village where he gets his name: Shantaram (which means something like 'man of peace'), and the time he spends in jail.

It's an exciting novel, fiction written in a autobiographical style. What's real and whats fiction is of course difficult to know, but the author himself have been a criminal, have been in jail, and have escaped from prison in real life. As reader, I find the main character in the book difficult to love, but impossible not to like.