wanderingquilter

This afternoon we went to one of the fjords that Stavanger winds itself around, and took Snoopy and ourselves for a walk.  It was pretty crisp out – only 2C+ at the best, but there was very little wind.  We both wore our new touques – the ones we bought downtown this morning. Mine is a navy and white Nordic design with a Norwegian flag and ear flaps – it is great.  We walked over 3 miles, and although my nose and cheeks were cold, my ears were toasty.

We arrived at the Three Swords monument.  The three bronze swords stand in the rock, representing peace, and commemorate the Battle of Hafrsfhord in 872, when Norway was united into one kingdom.  they stand about 10 meters tall.  One is taller than the others , and represents Fairheaded Harald’s sword.

We decided to walk along the fjord first, and check the swords out later – taking advantage of the good weather.  There was a very fast stream running into the fjord – and next to an outlet a man and his two children were getting ready to launch a canoe – those Norwegians MUST be tough.

We passed this sculpture of a fisherman’s wife who rowed across the fjord every day, winter and summer, to sell fish, often barefoot and with shoes in hand (the nearest translation I could get from Google).  There are sculptures like this all over the city – you’ll be seeing many more in this blog, I imagine.

We met quite a few people on the path – and also a lot of dogs.  Snoopy was a bit concerned when three dogs ran up to him to say hello – but he will get used to it, I’m sure.  It’s interesting how he will approach people here to say HI, but had learned he wasn’t welcome in Oman.  He had a grand time running along the path and shore.

Here are a few of the things we saw along the way – an old boat house –

Snoopy waded in the water a couple of times – I was so surprised when he lay down in it – that water is FREEZING! good thing he was running and dried himself off.

This tiny house is on a bit of the 4% of Norway that is cultivated –

Al stone wall with small bits of rubble in the middle –                                                                    Along the rocky beach –                                                                                                                          And the sky!                                                                                                                                               The sunset was a long time coming (Hallelujah) and the sky was magnificent – as were the reflections in the water.

Snoopy walked in some water along the path and came out with his legs black mud up to his ankles – lucky David was the one to take him into the sea to wash him off —                We walked back to the swords,                                                                                                             then along the path the other way for a while.  The colours  and folds in the rocks are very interesting.                                                                                                                                                I couldn’t believe the reflections in the water.  This will be a great place to go again when the sun is shining (fingers crossed on this one).

Today was a long, frustrating day.

In the first week you are in Norway, there are several things you need to do.  I needed to send in my application to become a resident under the Family Immigration section.  Fine – yesterday I filled in the online form, and it was sent to David as a Reference.  He registered so he could do it online, but the form wouldn’t recognize his log-in.  And it was all in Norwegian. Problem 1.

David needed to go to the Police Station to get a stamp in his passport – he already has his work visa.  We got there and the office is closed on Fridays.  Problem 2.

We went down the street to the Tax Office, where we tried to find out what we could do…….. the gentleman we talked to was very nice, and suggested that I reapply with a different location to report to (I’d given the “Immigration” rather than “Foreign Workers”) and NOT put David down to be a reference.   Solution 1 (and it worked).

David had a form he needed to take in.  We finally found out that it should go to the Tax Office, as it is for him to get a tax number, which is the precursor of the National ID number – so now we had the correct place – but he needs to get the police stamp first…… and can’t do it until Monday now.  Problem 3.

As soon as I got home and David left for work, I realized that the pets were supposed to see a vet to get worms treatment within 7 days of arrival in the country.  Today is day 5 and a Friday.  Where are the vets in Stavanger?  Thanks to Google Maps, I found one not too far away, and called them.  They close at 4, and it had to be completed today.. so they gave me an appointment for 2 pm.  I loaded the cat cage and the dog and myself in all my winter clothing and the necessary papers into a taxi and away we went.   By a bit after 3 PM I was 630 NOK (about $110) poorer and it was completed.  Problem 4 solved.

I have an appointment on Feb 7 to apply for my residency – I have my photos and will need to collect the necessary documents, and hopefully it won’t take too long after that to get me in the system……. by then we should have all the steps figured out.

It’s been a long week, as I said before.  I’m glad that we have accomplished so much – and look forward to feeling a bit more organized and settled next week.  The weekend is upon us – David has a gym membership and we have a swimming pass as well…… and a car to explore this beautiful new home country of ours.

It’s going to be OK.

Did I mention that it was snowing when I took the dog for a walk early Monday morning?  This is the first snow I’ve seen since December 2009 – and for David – December 31, 2006.  I thought it would feel worse after getting so acclimatized to the warmth and sunshine of Arabia.  I guess I’m tougher than I thought.

Monday morning – David got the joy of taking Snoopy for an early morning walk – and then he went out in search of FOOD.  The only edible thing we had in the apartment was coffee grounds – and we discovered to late that we needed paper filters for the coffee maker, so in spite of the tea strainer, we chewed a few grounds.  Still, that may be the only thing that got us moving.  Luckily, David found a grocery store only 5 minutes or so from home, and he came back with cereal, milk, bread, jam and oranges…… a veritable feast.   And then he headed off again in search of a taxi to take him to work for his first day.  I was left to try to make order out of the chaos created by four suitcases and two pets in a 26′ by 22′ apartment……..and with not enough sleep.

Here is our apartment (pictures taken AFTER the clean-up) –                                                The bedroom – barely large enough for the bed and one night table – with soft, cozy duvets that Jenny loves.

The living room/kitchen – lots of basic black and white and glass in this place.

                                                                                                                                                                    Great stove – the top is glass with touch pad controls.  It gets hot very quickly if on high, but much slower at a low temperature.  I had a bit of a fit when I first went to use it as the instructions are ALL in Norwegian.  Figured it out though.

We have a long balcony the length of the apartment – and from it we can just see the snowy mountain peaks over the houses.                                                                                                                                                            There is a soccer (football here) field right behind our apartment – I thought this was rather unique with the school children getting ready for practise, and a tractor and bucket clearing the snow.

Children playing in the snow – they come fairly early to school, and are out in the unfenced school yard – it’s so nice to see that they are free to live here without being afraid.

The sun rise at 9:15 –

I love the houses and the juxtaposition of tall steep roofs and walls – I think I can see using some of this architecture in my quilts – maybe part of the series that is starting with the French streets.

I think we are going to love living in this country.

The one thing I have not liked about living in Oman is that it is a 9 1/2 hour flight to any of the major airport hubs in Europe.  This, on top of another long flight to Calgary, made the trip home one that I didn’t want to do too often.  Muscat to Frankfurt – Lufthansa makes a stop-over in Riyadh – does that mean I can say I was in Saudi Arabia without covering?

We arrived in Frankfurt after a very bumpy flight.  5 am and the next flight was 5 hours away.  I find Frankfurt a very confusing airport.  Because we were carrying on to Norway, an EU country, we went through passport control right there…. no big deal, just a long line.  When we were finally done, we went to find coffee – airplane coffee isn’t usually very good, so we were looking for a real cup.  Snoopy and Jenny were in the good hands of the Frankfurt airport animal care facilities, so we didn’t have to worry about them.

Onward we went – this time to Oslo.  It was only a 2 hour flight – I had a window seat again, but most of the time I saw only clouds. As we were descending, however, I could see the snow on the hills and streams. We were arriving, finally, in Norway.  Now we would see if we had all the animals’ papers in order.

It didn’t take long for the animals to arrive in the baggage claim section, and the Vet on duty was right there to collect us and take us to her station.  Snoopy was heartily sick of being in the kennel by this time – and he kept moving around, causing the crate to tip on the baggage trolley.  We finally got our two cages and 6 pieces of luggage to the customs area.

It turned out that the form we had filled out was NOT the correct one after all – we had the old one.  As we had all the vaccination records, and copies of everything, the bet filled in the proper form and in no timer at all, we were free.

However (drum roll please), we now had 7 hours before our flight to Stavanger.  What do you do in an airport with luggage and two animals for 7 hours?  We trundled everything outside and across the road, and David walked Snoopy where he could still watch Jenny and the rest of the luggage, while I went to see if we could transfer to an earlier flight – there were about 5 between then and 8:15.  Nope.  Snoopy, to my surprise, didn’t mind the snow at all, although his paws were getting cold, so we walked around a bit longer. But we couldn’t do it for 5 hours.

Maybe a taxi ride into Oslo.  We found a taxi that would take the animals, booked the luggage and dog crate into storage, and away we went.  Lovely scenery, with heavy snow on the trees….. then the taxi driver lets us in on the fact that Oslo is 50 km from the airport, and prices in Norway being what they are, it would cost us 1100 NOK each way – that’s a total of $380…. and we would be wandering around in the snow with a dog and a cat cage! Whoops!   We turned around and headed back to the airport.  And then we walked….. it was cold, but the trees were lovely.  The sidewalks were also very, very slippery as it had snowed quite heavily the night before, and there were 8 ft snow piles along the runway in places.  We found the station for the high speed trains (only 170 NOK to Oslo on the train), and sat inside so we could let Jenny out of her crate. She really enjoyed just being held and cuddled after so long in the cage.This is a weird phenomenon – first, you see the sun shining past this steel post …

and when the sun is behind the post, it appears to be shining through the post… only a bit lower than normal.  We never did figure out how the reflection was created.

We watched the Norwegian sun set about 3:30 p,m…

and headed back to the airport.  We got the dog kennel out of  storage and went for pizza and beer, with the two animals on the trolley.  Then we took Snoopy for one last walk, and checked everything in for the flight.

By the time we were finally on board for Stavanger, we had been up for about 40 hours, except for patchy naps on the first flight.  We were hardly off the ground when I was asleep, and I awoke to the lights of Stavanger beneath us.  After collecting our luggage, we found a taxi that would take the dog out of the kennel, so we took it apart and with Snoopy sitting practically on my knee, we managed to fit everything in.  We found the apartment, the door code worked, and by 10:30 we were in bed…… ready for a good night’s sleep.

Oh – and Snoopy had me up at 2:15 am – rotten dog!