Sunday 5 November 2006

Scandinavia part 6: Kristiansund, Norway


My last few days in Norway, 4 really interesting days, i spent on this island city, Kristiansund.
This is where i had my small boat training, yes, i've been driving small boats for 3 days and that was cool! especially the FRC (fast rescue craft), this babe is hot! and really fast if it needs to. And by the way i came first on class.

Kristiansund is a little city located on three small islands on the north west part of central Norway, it's a nice quiet place, and i think quite famous for fishing, Kristiansund's most famous though is still Klipfisk (which is salted, dried cod) and don't ask me what it tastes like, i didn't try it. It's a really nice place to walk around, and the view of the icy mountains behind its green places looks just beautiful (although probably at this same moment Kristiansund is all white with ice as well) . There's quite a big shopping mall there, although not as rich as the one's in Oslo or even Asker. There are also a number of small restaurants that you may try, a must in Kristiansund is a walk to the banks of the island and along the coast, and one of the best spots for that is Klubba, west of Kirkelandet, there's a very nice path leading to the fjord, you'll really enjoy the walk there, and you end up looking from a high place at other islands, at the fjord and at the icy mountains in the horizon, just pure pleasure to the eye!
I arrived in Kristiansund on the 28th of October, in the afternoon, the weather was incredibly beautiful, it wasn't really warm but the sun was shining all around, and not a single cloud in the sky (which is quite wierd for Norway), that day we put our luggage in or rooms an went out walking, we kept walking till we reached the fiskebasen on Gomalandet where you end up looking at the open sea hitting its waves on the rocks under your feet, the sight of the water running back to the sea through the cracks in the rocks is really cool, we stayed there for a couple of minutes that really boosted life into us again, then it started getting colder and colder and we started walking back in direction of the hotel, stopped for dinner at a pasta place then returned to the hotel.
Next day was the first day of the course, the course itslef was cool, we just got familiarization with the boats and got the chance to drive each of them, we finished quite late so all we did that night was having dinner together and back for a good night sleep.
Next day with the work rotations on the boats was loads of fun, we finished early enough to go shopping with Aurelia in the mall that was right next to the hotel although we bought nothing that day, that day we had free dinner in the hotel because we agreed to give away our rooms for the new people coming as hotel had no free rooms for them and move into one double room (for which we got two free dinners).
Last day the weather turned mad, it started snowing and the wind was quite strong which was quite annoying, our training was replaced by simpler examples in the port, but we did go out for man overboard rescue and for going fast in an FRC, we were just riding the waves! so we called it FRC surfing and that was REALLY COOL! We had our exams, i did my four knots correctly, and scored highest in the exam. We went afterwards to get the sweater Aurelia chose for her father, and then had dinner and went out to find a place to play pool, we had loads of fun, i played 3 times and won the 3!
Next day was our flight home, but it was almost at 3, so we had the whole morning for oursleves, i went out for Klubba, it was windy and snowing all the time, the whole place turned white but i had a nice walk and loads of fun (i don't see the snow that often anyway, so i enjoy the moment), then we went with Aurelia and Pierre (our french colleague) to an internet cafe nearby, till it's time to leave for the airport and i had some really good hot chocolate.
One very good thing in Kristiansund is the free trend! You go into that bar called Kontoret Bar (right next to Rica hotel) and the pool is for free! You go into the internet cafe next to the mall called Onkel and the internet is for free! I loved Kristiansund for that.
As usual we had to run for our plane (which isn't much of a surprise for me, i've been doing that a lot for the last 6 weekends) but we managed to get on the plane to Oslo, my next flight to Amsterdam was cancelled as well, but that's another story...

No comments:

Post a Comment