Silly Billies Return to Roam

The 17th of May is Norwegian National Day. In New Zealand a national day might mean a public holiday and not too much more. In Norway the whole population comes out to town to celebrate, dressed in their national costume, the bunad . Its an amazing day and a big part of it is the barnatoget - school childrens' parade. I decided in my role as an assistant teacher at a school in Trondheim the chance to walk in the parade was to good to miss! Luckily forewarned that even without a bunad the dress code was formal, I donned a nice skirt and cycled into the bustling town on a wonderfully hot summery day. The crowds on the streets made it hard to even make it into the school, but eventually I forced my way through. The children all looked beautiful in their wee dresses and shirts. We began marching in procession with flag bearers and a brass band at the front. The streets were packed, everyone was out to see the parade. It was a cool experience and was an insight into the importance Nor...

We just returned from a fantastic long weekend in the hills and I am still buzzing! We headed into the Jotunheimen Mountains (about 6 hours South of Trondheim) with Ally and his Australian friend Tim. Just to pack things in on Thursday evening we all ran in the Sprint Cup before taking off with a very fully laden car towards the Jotunheimen. We camped high up on the Dovre plateau on a somewhat average camp spot close to the main road. There were patches of snow all over the rolling alpine plateau, but serious signs of spring were all around with buds popping up, lakes thawing and patches of green grass and mosses emerging everywhere. The Dovre Plateau After a chilly picnic breakfast in a nippy breeze on a very fine spring morning we jumped back in the car and continued the journey on through Dumbås to Lom. Our plan for Friday was to go up a peak called Loftet which was not so far from the big peak we planned to ski on Saturday - Galdhøpiggen - the highest mountain in Scandanavia at 246...