Ich bin ein Berliner! (To quote JFK.) - L

After a brief flight we arrived in Berlin late Sunday afternoon. Our hostel in Berlin was right near the center of things just a few blocks east of where the Berlin wall once stood. We didn’t do a terribly large amount of things that evening, we wondered around the city for a bit and saw some sights before heading to an excellent (and relatively cheap) Vietnamese restaurant for supper. I’m stupid and couldn’t remember if tip was included in the total and therefore accidentally left our waitress a very, very generous tip. I’m sure she appreciated it, but we could have used that money to get ourselves some Doner Kebaps. Which are cheap Turkish delights, containing seasoned lamb shavings and vegetables in a flat bread, and absolutely delicious. Later that night we went to my first club! The place was called Weekend and though it was fun , I think if we could have afforded some alcohol (and some serious hair product to fit in better) it definitely would have changed the experience. Oh! And I forgot to mention, Berlin has a very, very, very active prostitution business. I’m not sure if it’s actually legal, but as aggressively as these girls made their propositions (and let me tell you, dressed the part) they sure weren’t hiding what they were about. We ran into our first two on our way to the club and on our way back to the hostel later there seemed to be two on every block, working as a team. Let me tell you, it was ridiculously difficult to convince them that we weren't interested. It's sad really.


Anyway the next day we hoped over to the Brandenburg Gate for a free (well, the guides work for tips only) walking tour around Berlin. Our guide Katie was from Australia and she did an excellent job of providing us with the history of Berlin and the significance of several places around the city center.

Right away she pointed out to us Hotel Adlon where the recently departed Michael Jackson dangled Prince Michael II over the balcony (RIP MJ, you may have given two of your sons the same name, but Thriller is a killer song.) Next we saw the Reichstag, visited the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, the location where Hitler’s bunker is now demolished and buried, remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (the most famous access point between East and West Berlin), the sight of the socialist book burning and it’s present day memorial, the opera house, Museum Island, and the Berlin Dom, among other things. It was a pretty great tour and our hope our guide made some good money!



Later we attempted to get into the Stadtsoper to see Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, but as no seats seemed to be available we opted instead to race over to the Deutsches Oper just barely in time to get into Puccini’s Turandot. Just as the stated to dim the lights and raise the current we caught a glimpse of someone we thought we recognized as a fellow Ole Choir member, but we decided it couldn’t be and the show began! Overall it was an okay production, unfortunately it was sung in Italian and super titled in German so much of the story line was lost on us, but the singers were quite excellent (though as seems to be the trend in opera, not very good actors). I also don’t much like European staging and the constant need to contemporize a productions, but it was fun and I think worth the time. By the time the opera was over we had indeed confirmed that John Andert (another first tenor in choir) was indeed sitting across the audience from us. He was staying with St. Olaf professor, Dan Dressen’s former voice professor and his wife who were chorus members in the opera and they treated the three of us and another singer/audience member to wine after the show. I think it’s easy to feel isolated from the “natives.” It was really nice to run into somebody we knew, and to sit down and talk with people for a change.


Our last day in Berlin we met John for lunch and headed back over to der Museuminseln to go into the Pergamum Museum. Inside it they had large scale antiquities such as the enormous partially reconstructed from remants of the ruins Pergamon Altar, Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, an amazing marketplace gate, and hundreds of Greek and Roman sculptures and artifacts.

The last thing Eric and I did in Berlin was to visit the Reichstag and to climb into it’s giant glass dome. We barely got in before closing but we were able to see the Berlin skyline and night and gaze down into the parliamentary chamber of the German government. It was a pretty neat way to finish our time in Germany. Whew. This was a lot to cram into one post, sorry!

Kjeks eller beger? - E

Sorry for the lack of updates the past 2 weeks! We’re having a hard time finding time to sit down and write a blog post- so much to do, and so little internet access! Right now we're in Verona with a wonderful family, and we've seen so much! But I still have to fill you in about our last weekend WWOOFing in Norway, when we sold ice cream at a town market in the mountains! We've been writing blogs on the trains, but haven't gotten a chance to post them!


Two Fridays ago, June 19th, Øystein, Logan, and I drove through the fjords to Røldal, a mountain village that used to have an important annual market, and it has recently been reincarnated as a handcraft market. It’s the site of a stave church that, even after the reformation and its turning in to a protestant church, was a popular pilgrimage site because of its crucifix that supposedly drips healing sweat on midsummer’s night. Hence the important market weekend happening around midsummer’s night. We didn’t get to see the sweaty crucifix though.



So I got to put my basic Norwegian skills to use, serving ice cream to the locals. Most of the time we got along fine, but if they said anything other than a flavor or number, we just looked confusingly at Øystein for help. It was definitely a unique experience, selling organic ice cream in the mountains of Norway, and so much fun. That weekend stayed at Øystein’s family cabin a half an hour from the town, in the middle of the snow-patched mountains, hiked a bit, played cards, and learned a lot about the history of migrating sheep herders in Norway!



We drove back Sunday, and the next morning we milked the cows for the last time. I wanted to record our last moments with our lovely cow-friends, so here's some video of we took of us milking in action! (and some video of us hiking, made as tacky as possible with MovieMaker...)



While planning our travel to Denmark, we realized that we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to Kristiansand in one day, where had to take a ferry on Wednesday to Denmark. So that night we sent our first requests on Couchsurfing.org to people in Stavanger. Couchsurfing.org is a internet site where people who need a place to stay can find hosts who want people to stay with them for free. It’s all about cultural exchange and experiencing the people, not just the sights, of the places you go. So I sent our requests for a couch Tuesday night on Monday night, and the next morning got a reply from Isak, a 20-year-old who was already hosting a couple of Germans but could take us too. So we got to Stavanger by bus, walked around the city for a little while, and me Isak downtown. He took us back to his parent’s basement (which was actually a lot nicer than it sounds) where we met his girlfriend, and after a while the Germans showed up. Then we all went to the park and had a picnic, cooking our hamburgers on little disposable grills. Great inventions.

Norway was beautiful, and we were so lucky to be able to stay with the Kolles and the other wwoofers. I'll miss them! Here's the whole family (including the kittens), the day we left to Stavanger.

More to come: Denmark, Berlin, Naples, and Rome!

HIKING: Part 1 - L

Last Monday (we're a little behind on the blogging, sorry!) we went hiking in the mountains behind the farm. The weather wasn't the best, but it was good enough for it to still be fun. We took off on one of the marked trails toward Nippen, the pointier rocker peak to the left of this picture. Though we didn't run into any other hikers on our excursion, we did find these guys in the middle of the trail (still a logging road at this point) and promptly decided to walk (distantly) around them.

Eric recognized these as Highland Cattle and though they look a bit wild they're a domesticated breed (from Scotland!) and really not that scary, especially the little one which looks like it belongs in a herd of Ewok-cows. Anyway, though the trail was a little difficult to discern from the vegetation, it was handily marked with red spraypainted T's on trees and rocks. Also, whoever marked this trail definitely didn't go out of their way to ease the trail's incline. It may have pretty much gone straight up the mountainside, but for all of the giant steps involved it was definitely worth it to see views like this! A great big glacier is there just over the tops of the mountains to the right and the town below isn't Herosund but the next one over, Uskedal.

We had just reached the top of Nippen in this picture. It was considerably chillier up here since the clouds didn't seem to want to let the sun through, but we stopped for a brief lunch and to sign the log book. We weren't the first names of the day, but we never did run into whoever else it was out there. The picture to the left shows Eric on the top of the pointy peak you can see in the first picture of this blog. Behind and below it is the farm we're working on. From Nippen we went on to the higher peak, Manen, which was high enough that there were several large patches of snow left and very little vegetation and the temperatures definitely reflected that. It's a good thing I had my dependable Ole Choir fleece to keep the winds out. Haha.
To the right here is the view inland (east) from the peak of Manen. And then below that is the view west and the peak marker! There are still a lot more pictures to go through from the rest of our journey so this post will be continued in part two which I will hopefully manage to post sooner rather than later. In the meantime hopefully Eric will put up a post about our ice cream selling weekend in Roldal. ^.^

Chasing Sheep - L

A few more days have passed here on the banks of the Hardangerfjord, but the pace of things has been nice and relaxing. The weather has been very agreeable, perhaps a wee bit chilly, but generally quite sunny. It's been really nice to work outside on Jacintha's Hen Palace, but I think we'll give it a few more days before we share pictures of the work we've done with it. ^.^ Friday we got our first experience with ice cream making and the flavor of the day was raspberry sorbet (there has also been a lot of homemade raspberry jam around lately...yum!). The process and ingredients really aren't very complicated, but it's a lot of fun to work with an industry grade ice cream freezing machine! Especially when it comes to taste testing. My favorite part was licking the leftover sorbet off of a mixing blade the size of my chest. Delicious. And no additives!

Here's a picture of the barn we milk in and the more recently constructed ice cream factory. Inside that little window are the chicken. Plans were made for the chickens to exit through the window and walk down the plank ramps there to the grass, but I guess these chicken's were too "chicken" and it didn't work out. Also around the farm are these turkeys!

There were two turkey chicks, hidden at the feet of the mum in this picture, but something got them... It might be the cats. 15 whole ducklings have dissapeared within the few days we've been here as well. Eric and I never got to see them waddling along after their mother which I find very dissapointing.



And oh yes! The sheep chasing! It was really thrilling for the whole 10 minutes it lasted, but unfortunately most of the sheep that had invaded the cow pasture from the neighboring field made it back over the fence themselves somehow. They only left one of their number behind and as she seemed to have several loudly bleating lambs across the fence it didn't take too much chasing to get her back to them for a little sheep reunion. Kind of a bummer really.

Tomorrow is our day off and we're a going hiking! Stay tuned!

Wand'ring Cows - E

I can't believe how amazing this place is. Ordinary gardening tasks become much more epic with the expansive backdrop of a fjord. In a way this part of Norway really reminds me of Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge, (especially when it's overcast and drizzling...) so it all almost feels familiar, which is very nice. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect setting, or better ice cream. With the cream from the cows that are milked they make ice cream, and sell it at festivals and markets under their own certified organic ice cream label Isrosa. So far we've had it for dessert every dinner- fine living indeed.

Today we started work at 10am, and worked on the hen house Jacintha is building, in preparation for the building of her own house she wants to have on some land a little north of here. Every day have we lunch at noon and start work again at 2, so I took a nap during the break before we worked on the house some more. We turned to pulling giant weeds at the end of the shift, which seem to have taken over a lot of the land. We're going to burn their remains in a big bonfire on Saturday night.


During the afternoon break (4-5:30), Logan and I explored the pastures and said hello to the cows. Even the pasture is beautiful, with tree-covered rocky areas, (good for keeping away from the hungry cows), and buttercup-covered hillsides overlooking the fjord . This cow on the right is taking care of three calves, and they are really cute. But not quite as cute as the cat with three kittens living on the back porch. I don't know how a farm can be any more perfect when it has family of kittens at the back porch emanating cuteness constantly.

Jacintha helped Logan and I do the milking again this evening, and though we're still much slower than her, we're getting better I think. But exciting farm adventures happened when a couple of cows got out, needing to be coaxed back in to the gate with sticks. It was decided that they would do it again eventually, so we installed the electric fence that hadn't been put up yet. No more cow excursions.

I wish we were staying here longer than two weeks- it will go by much too fast. I'll miss this view from our window, 10:30pm and the sun still setting...

Waking Up In Norway - L

It doesn't really get dark in Norway in the summer. At 11 pm when we went to bed yesterday it was still at least as light as though it were 7 pm in Minnesota, and though something resembling night time happens around 1 am, by 4 or 5 the sun is back up and the roosters are cock-a-doodling. Despite this, we started learning the ropes at 8 am this morning, preparing for the milking, and calling in the cows. (Though in actuality, it takes more work than that.) We were guided through this work by Jacinta, who I gather has been working on the farm with the Kolle's for a while.

This is the view out our bedroom window!

Besides Una and Oystein and their two boys (who are 4 and just about 2), there are six other people helping on their farm at the moment. Jacintha who is the Netherlands, Tinian from California and her brother Galan, and now of course there is Pauline from France, and Eric and I. The Kolle's have only been hosting people through WWOOF, or World Wide Opportunies of Organic Farming, for a few months. How it works is this: in exchange for an average of six hours of work a day, volunters (called woofers) are provided room and board and it supplies small scale famers with a lot of extra help with the endless lists of tasks to complete. Coincidentally, the first woofers the Kolle's hosted were two juniors from St. Olaf. ^.^

Anyway, we got to start off our first day milking the cows and though we'll definitely have to work to catch up to the speed Jacintha fills a bucket, I think we're getting the hang of it.

The first step for milking is cleaning the udders and unfortunately the cow I milked, Iselin, is very messy. Except that it was the back of her udder rather than her butt, it was kind of like wiping a baby's ass. Except that this baby is an adult cow who very obviously consumes a lot of grass.

Gross.

But definitely necessary. I wouldn't want that to accidentally get into my icecream! After milking we learned how to separate out the milk from the cream using a separating machine and then the next job of the day was to lay down wood chipings in the walkways between the new garden plots Una and Jacintha have been working on, it was a little less thrilling than milking a cow, but we definitely saw progress much more quickly than our milk pails did.

After lunch we finished up in the vegetable garden and helped speed along the installation of the first ever freezer room on an organic ice cream farm in Norway! ^.^

This post is getting a little to long so I'm stopping. Stay tuned for baby animals, ice cream making, vegetable planting, and more!

It begins! - E & L

Norge! We arrived in beautiful Norway this afternoon, and we're about to hop on a ferry. Pauline, a university student from France is also staying with our host family to help watch our hosts' two young children while they work around the farm. We met up with her at the airport in London as we shared the same flight and are traveling together by bus and ferry to Sunde where the Kolle's will be meeting us.

More to come soon!