After leaving Svalbard, I headed off to Ås to visit my friend Berit who was at the field school last year, and Inger, who was there this year (Berit and Inger are good friends!). It’s about 40 minutes south of Oslo and a small town with university. On the way, we stopped at the supermarket to get some food for a BBQ - the weather was fantastic; clear skies, and nice, bearable temperatures. Whilst at the supermarket Berit got a parking ticket for ~£60 – whoops!
The following day we planned on heading to the beach and just relaxing. Unfortunately, mother nature did not like this plan – I was awoken at 1pm to the sound of rainfall! Firstly let me just say that I didn’t get to sleep until 3am so this amount of sleep was well justified, especially considering my lack of sleep for the preceding days! Secondly, the sound of rain was actually quite comforting – after being in Svalbard where it never rained/snowed once and the weather was pretty constant (mostly cloudy), it was nice to get some variation and obviously the sound reminded me of home!
Our plans obviously changed and we decided to head off to explore the town. By this time, the weather had actually cleared up and the sun even began to shine a little bit. Ås was bloody tiny! I would go so far to say that it’s actually about the size of Flitwick. Considering that Ås has a university, this seemed very strange. After exploring the town, we went to wander around the university which was lovely. Apparently it used to be an old agriculture college (it’s pretty flat here) established in the 1850s – accordingly, the buildings were really nice and old and there was lots of green! I was also surprised to hear that there are only 3000 students at this university – so whats that, about 4x the population of Redborne?
The following day we headed off to the “beach” – the beach was actually a small gravel and grass area on Oslofjord in a place called Drøbak, a short ride away from Ås. The town was really nice and reminded me very much of gamle Stavanger (old Stavanger) which I visited a few weeks earlier. The weather was fantastic once more but the water was bloody freezing so no swimming for me!
On my final day in Ås and Norway, Berit and I headed off on a bike ride to a place called Hvidsten, further south than Drøbak. Unfortunately the weather was pretty overcast and rainy, but this didn’t dampen our spirits. Having not ridden a bike for probably 15 years, I was pretty impressed with myself, especially considering this place was about 14km from Ås. The countryside was very beautiful and reminded me a lot of the English countryside, perhaps mixed with what i imagine the French countryside to look like. We stopped on the way back at some local farm place where I had the best skillingbolle I have ever had! It was bloody amazing! After developing a headache, we head off for home, but not without getting a little bit lost....
That evening I left Norway – I had a great 5 weeks (maybe longer?) there and I cannot wait to return very very soon!
The following day we planned on heading to the beach and just relaxing. Unfortunately, mother nature did not like this plan – I was awoken at 1pm to the sound of rainfall! Firstly let me just say that I didn’t get to sleep until 3am so this amount of sleep was well justified, especially considering my lack of sleep for the preceding days! Secondly, the sound of rain was actually quite comforting – after being in Svalbard where it never rained/snowed once and the weather was pretty constant (mostly cloudy), it was nice to get some variation and obviously the sound reminded me of home!
Our plans obviously changed and we decided to head off to explore the town. By this time, the weather had actually cleared up and the sun even began to shine a little bit. Ås was bloody tiny! I would go so far to say that it’s actually about the size of Flitwick. Considering that Ås has a university, this seemed very strange. After exploring the town, we went to wander around the university which was lovely. Apparently it used to be an old agriculture college (it’s pretty flat here) established in the 1850s – accordingly, the buildings were really nice and old and there was lots of green! I was also surprised to hear that there are only 3000 students at this university – so whats that, about 4x the population of Redborne?
The following day we headed off to the “beach” – the beach was actually a small gravel and grass area on Oslofjord in a place called Drøbak, a short ride away from Ås. The town was really nice and reminded me very much of gamle Stavanger (old Stavanger) which I visited a few weeks earlier. The weather was fantastic once more but the water was bloody freezing so no swimming for me!
On my final day in Ås and Norway, Berit and I headed off on a bike ride to a place called Hvidsten, further south than Drøbak. Unfortunately the weather was pretty overcast and rainy, but this didn’t dampen our spirits. Having not ridden a bike for probably 15 years, I was pretty impressed with myself, especially considering this place was about 14km from Ås. The countryside was very beautiful and reminded me a lot of the English countryside, perhaps mixed with what i imagine the French countryside to look like. We stopped on the way back at some local farm place where I had the best skillingbolle I have ever had! It was bloody amazing! After developing a headache, we head off for home, but not without getting a little bit lost....
That evening I left Norway – I had a great 5 weeks (maybe longer?) there and I cannot wait to return very very soon!
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