Bergen
Wednesday July 19, 2017
Stockholm to Bergen was extremely early in the morning, but since we're so far north, the sun had already risen when I left Rafael's apartment at 4am. By the time I got to Bergen, it was close to 9am, and I managed to contact my accommodation who said my room was ready to check in to. Excellent!
It was pretty wet that day. I had lunch at the seafood market - it had such an appetising smell that I couldn't resist. I also made it up the funicular to Fløien, with a magnificent view across the city. The rain was in and out during the day, but that didn't deter me too much - it pretty much just felt like home in Wellington. I walked around the various tracks and went up to the Skomakerdiket Lake, then took the funicular back down. I was cold and tired, so decided to take a nap back in my room.
I had an action packed day the next day. I took the train from Bergen to Voss, an hour train ride through some of the most scenic parts of Norway's fjords and lakes. The weather was still slightly inclement, but the low clouds hanging under the hills made it so majestic. The rain had also made the waterfalls that little more spectacular, but more importantly, the rivers were much more fun for white water rafting!
After suiting up and getting our safety briefing, we went to a nearby spot to practice our moves, as well as a forced swim through the rapids to make sure we knew what to do if we capsized. I'll tell you now, the water was incredibly cold; it would have definitely been unbearable if we didn't have wetsuits. Our bus driver (a guy from Turangi in New Zealand!) took us further downstream to begin our actual rafting. What a rough river it was, but so much fun. There were tons of exciting and thrilling moments, much more than the time I went rafting down the Wairoa River. Some of the drops were incredibly high too, but we all survived without capsizing. We had one man overboard from our boat, and we also plucked a swimmer from another boat in a dramatic rescue. I had so much fun on this one.
After a nice warm lunch, I was dropped off at the Voss Wind Tunnel, an indoor skydiving building. It's quite different to outdoor skydiving, as you can imagine, since you're not strapped to anyone. You control your own movements (to an extent) and I found it quite difficult to figure out what was going on, and ended up flying like a potato most of the time. The sensation was quite thrilling though, and I still had fun, but deep down inside I was disappointed that I couldn't maintain my flight unassisted.
The sun is out today, and it's actually really nice seeing Bergen in two completely different lights. I also realised that Bergen was the inspiration for Arendelle in Disney's Frozen! I wandered down to the aquarium and chilled out in the park for a bit, but there's not much else to see in Bergen. I really do want to come back one day though, Bergen is the closest airport to the famous Trolltunga, and there's tons of other awesome activities to do around here, and also around Norway - I didn't even get to go to Oslo! I also don't even know if I'll come back during summer or winter, as the country is completely different. Despite it being horribly expensive, I still had a good time.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:14pm on Wednesday July 19, 2017 :: 0 comments :: 
It's Christmas
Sunday December 27, 2015
The last month of work has been pretty manic, with builds of all our games going out on various platforms and systems all at once. In our last week, we had our annual game jam, which was pretty manic, but the end result was a quality set of very impressive games from all teams.
Social wise, there's been a lot happening too. There was Campbell and Linda's wedding, we got some kittens delivered to the office thanks to Uber, we went out to Cape Palliser for a miniroad trip, there was the 80's Party IV and Jordan's 30th, and we had a week-long set of Christmas events to round out the end of the year.
Last Saturday, six of us began our roadtrip up to Auckland via Owhango, where we stayed the night. On Sunday, we headed to Tauranga for some white water rafting down the Wairoa River, only open 26 days a year due to it being controlled by a hydroelectric dam. However, due to some problems with the booking system, we had to be rebooked for 1.30pm instead of 11.30am, so we went up to Mount Maunganui for a squizz at the beach. I've never actually been there before, but the sand and water were fantastic and inviting. Eventually we returned to our white water rafting meeting point and geared up for an exhilarating ride down two Grade V waterfalls. It was an amazing experience and one to be remembered for a long time!
I didn't really make any plans with people before I arrived in Auckland, but as was expected, my calendar started filling up very quickly. On Monday, I was pretty tired from the roadtrip, so spent most of the time at home. On Tuesday, I met Mat and Will in town for lunch at Ortolanas and we got some take away Milse too. I went to the cat cafe on Queens St with Reagan and Erica, then met Mana out in East Tamaki for Korean BBQ. On Wednesday, I met up with all the Wellington crew for dinner at Kushi, dessert at Giapo and drinks at the Belgian Beer Cafe, before going for a quick drive down Franklin Road - and by quick, I mean a very slow paced crawl from all the traffic. On Thursday, I was at my sister's house catching with my nephews and then off to Tatsumi with my parents for an amazing eight course degustation.
Friday was Christmas, and that was double dinner at my sister's and then a family friend's house nearby. On Boxing Day, I was at Long Bay Beach with my schoolmates, and a good old traditional Kiwi barbeque at Mat's, and today I've been hanging with the guys from KCC. There's been mafia, Love Letter and Dota, and it's been pretty full on!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:11am on Sunday December 27, 2015 :: 0 comments ::