An explanation, an account if accounting for oneself is needed.

Been living in Norway for a year now, so I thought it was time to write something on what I've been up to, just to my record thoughts, essentially. So for the record, for general interest, for the sake of nothing better to do....here goes.

Asummer day in Ålesund.

I spent April 2010 till March this year living in a late 19th century apartment in the centre of Oslo with A (my girlfriend and largely the reason I happen to be living in Scandinavia) and our friend M, who's blissful domestic situation I cuckooed in later April 2010.

The area we lived in, Fredensborg, is one area in which Oslo Kommune tends to offload drug addicts and others with social problems (us?); so the area is pretty chaotic at night out on the street, with people trying to get into each other's houses, singing and rowing. There were two bars either side of the apartment. One was posh and well to do like, the other, Fredenscafe, was more fun. It was run by an Eritrean woman and frequented by a variety of interesting and socially diverse characters. From time to our neighbours and us would end up in there for the cheap beer and vibrant atmosphere. The area was generally lively and there was pretty much always something going on if you looked out of the front window at three oclock in the morning.

Oslo is a pretty green city which spreads around the massive Oslo Fjord and comprises 19th century blocks, and a few areas of remaining wooden houses which haven't burnt down at some point . Suspiciously, the most major fire (I've heard about while I've been here) occurred around the same time as the Fire of London putting forward a case for pudding terrorism; a raging Christmas pudding maybe. Maybe there are other cases across Europe? 

Summer's day in Oslo.

Anyhow, I turned up in April hung-out for a bit, visited some museums to see some heritage type things and harassed somebody into giving me a job digging on an Iron Age long house in Askim, Vestfold (thats south of Oslo basically but not actually in fjord). 

Historic buildings Museum in Oslo.

I met some really lovely people and spent much of the duration of the project making a lot of entirely spurious conjectures about the archaeology before I remembered that the equivalent of a small ice age has passed since I last worked on any prehistoric archaeology. Also spent much of the job having the piss taken out of me by a half American half Norwegian archaeologist who can talk the hind-legs off a donkey and drink me under the table, everytime!

Archaeologists.

The same rules apply in Norwegian archaeology as in the UK. Jobs, contacts etc. are acquired by, socialising, going to the pub; and if you need a pint in Oslo that doesn't require you first taking a mortgage out for it, ask an archaeologist. Actually there is one archaeologist who particularly springs to mind for this, but he'd be inundated if I named him.

I found Oslo really easy to settle in to, which was to a large degree helped by very friendly folk. I hooked up with an excellent singer and recorded a load of stuff and then got to play Cafe Mono together, which is a bit of a cult venue. With a bit of luck we might get it finished and released this Summer.

Explorers from Bristol

Over the rest of 2010 we spent a bit of time in Sunnmøre (more later) and visited Bergen, Tromsø and Trondheim.

A Sami lady waits for the bus in Tromsø

 We also had two trips to Sweden, where A's Mum has a flat.

A very portable Swedish invention.

Naughty Swedish literature

Autumn took me north of Oslo to the county of Hedmark for the first proper away project. It has to be said that Hedmark is amazing. Its basically Oxfordshire with Super-gargantuism. Enormous vistas of rolling hills and fields and barns the size of the Albert Hall.

Unsurprisingly its Norway's best farming land (or so the locals tell me). The work involved a lot trench digging and getting lost in the woods with another Englishman who claimed to know how to use GPS when we started. 

We stayed in the dormitories of a school for farmer's near a place called Tangen, with a bunch of rowdy trainee farmers. When I say near Tangen, I am basically lying, so we spent our nights out driving into Hamar (the county capital) and for me the place where I got used to the sight of people going shopping in tractors. Hamar has a number of delights to offer, but for us we more often than not ended up in Dirty Nellie's Irish bar which was strange given that there was a decent Irish Pub, The Harp, 100 metres away.  

Hedmark archaeologists.

There is something about away work, whereby everyone usually gets on really well, I suppose that is because the alternative is well worth avoiding and involves fighting and a trip to casualty to have sharp things removed from your head. Suffice to say the former happened in Hedmark. Everyone, remembers (at least in principle, if they can't actually remember the events involved) the end of dig dinner party, which erupted into an evening of riverdance impersonations, staggering around in someone else's high heels and dancing on tables while trying to raise the roof, for various individuals. 

Norwegian coalpit, I wasn't going to post a pic of the party was I ?

I finished the Autumn wandering around the mountain's in Østerdalen, north Hedmark looking for charcoal pits, iron working sites and other things, whilst staying in the most amazing 60's hotel complete with wood fittings and gold woolly curtains. It was a nice end to the season and I got to write my first Norwegian reports, which admittedly involved hacking and stealing from a lot of other people's reports and using a combination of google translate and language books to try and construct parts of sentences. 

Christmas/Winter is a time to relax in Norwegian archaeology because 'ain't nobody gonna give you no work'. This is primarily because there isn't any, apart from the Norwegian Maritime Museum, who believe that digging in -16 degrees is good for the soul and will make a man out of you and other Rudyard Kipling type stuff. So after Christmas in the UK I spent the rest of the Winter doing a language course with a bunch of people from all over the world.

A giant baby.

There are courses in Oslo at which Europeans who don't have to study Norwegian can study by choice, but I got myself onto a course for those from China, Africa, Thailand, Sri Lanka, The Philippines and other far flung places where English isn't the second language. I was amazed by a Chinese girl who had in two years learnt both the Alphabet and a high level of Norwegian, I met somebody from Lichtenstein (which was a first) and particularly enjoyed lunchtimes all practicing our beginner's bad Norwegian together, and frequently misinterpreting what each other meant.

Come February, I joined the crew digging for boats and maritime buildings on the fjord in -16 and whilst being clad like the Michelin Man on a daily basis, really enjoyed it. We had fantastic timber structures to play with and got to work with a few good friends from the previous Summer and Autumn again and make some new friends.

Mack øl, tasty but it gives you head ache.

I have to go back a little to explain what happened next. When I moved over A and M agreed we'd live together for 6 months and then review the situation. November came and we discussed the options and decided on something a little unusual. A grew up in west Norway in the alps in Sunnmøre and spent the first 3 years living in a village of four houses, a few cottages and a few barns. The village sits on the edge of Hjørundfjord (a massive expanse of water flanked by mountains either side). The only pub in the fjord is in a village only accessed by boat and the mountains quite frequently break into sheer cliffs. A's family have kept the house, so after a month in the UK in March we moved there.

Fjell jenta.

We've been here for a month now and are quite settled in. A is working for the local council in Ålesund doing universal design (she is an architect by way of explanation) and I'm working for the County Council digging holes (I'm an archaeologist by way of explanation). At the moment, I spend my weeks driving round the islands in the North Sea, digging test pits and trenches, doing bits of research and writing reports i our living room. whilst looking out at the enormous mountains on the other side of the fjord. So I'm not complaining! I'm also off to London in a few weeks to do a freelance job so doing that too. 

Fjell madman.

The village is beautifully quiet during the week and we spend it sitting out enjoying the fantastic weather we had over April, fishing from the quay or in our little yellow rowing boat. Our neighbour is a farmer and as such lives here all the time so we see him quite a lot. He speaks with a very local dialect (there being many of these across Norway) which I have slowly got used and we find it easiest to communicate after a few pints of homebrew. The village fills up on a Friday afternoon and there are generally weekly parties in a small cottage up on the hill over the village, which finish with everybody tottering back down the steep track to the main road, home and bed.

The Standal Barber

Standaldal.

Anyhow, that roughly sets what I've been up to to date. Hope its of some interest and at any rate it'll serve to remind me what I've been doing later on. More later most likely!