Vignettes
Little red rental car…. Larry and I had commented on the number of cars and small vans that are covered with advertising. Little did we realize… we are now a member of that group. I had decided to rent a car for the weekend that our friend and colleague, Martin Schoell would be in Stavanger. Then my French friend, neighbor and driver, is away for 2 weeks which makes it difficult for me to get to the Thursday hikes – so I decided to rent a car for a month. That would allow us to explore more on the weekends and give me more mobility during the week. A nearby Suzuki dealer has good rates, so I arranged for the rental and when we went to pick it up there was the little red Citroen with all the ads. I was initially very nervous about driving in Stavanger; there are many round-abouts with drivers on the left having the right of way and not always using blinkers. More of a problem is that drivers coming from the right on some, but not all, side roads onto larger roadways have the right of way. Well, after a few days I’m over the nerves and feel comfortable driving anywhere except the town center. Quite amusing that I left Ithaca, renting a big, red Dodge truck and here in Stavanger am driving a very, very small red Citroen.

We’ve seen a number of wedding receptions. The groom and some attendees wore traditional Norwegian dress at one but all seem to have many children in attendance.. A few Fridays back I watched a group milling about outside the Stavanger courthouse which was right across the street from where I had my hair cut ($70!) The civil ceremony had taken place upstairs and afterwards everyone was standing outside talking, munching on candy and drinking water and soda. There were 30 or so adults and children (better dressed than the adults except for the bride and groom.) The bride wore an unflattering grey satin dress but her hair was beautifully done. Suddenly she came towards the beauty salon. She had been late for her appointment so had rushed to the wedding without paying and so she now paid and then went off….

Stavanger’s gated community. Larry and I walked around a number of hills on Saturday, 10/21. There was one hill I particularly wanted to climb as I see it every time we head south. As we approached I noticed a gate – and said “the first gated community I’ve seen in Stavanger”; as Larry commented on the heft of the gate, out of the gatehouse stepped a soldier holding a gun. It’s a NATO training spot and we were not welcome to walk about (though later heard from a NATO bridge spouse that we could have walked around the back and gotten to the top that way.) The soldier, a Nowegian, was very pleasant and friendly but was especially interested in finding out where we called home.

Open air swimming. Last week I went to the open air swimming pool. Air temperature 11 and pool temperature 28. Steam rising from the pool. Quite crowded, so I couldn’t get a lane to myself to swim backstroke, so swam breaststroke most of the time. Three other PWC’ers were there and we made quite a splash - though in our way of thinking not as much as the 65 year old women who swam, hot-tubbed and saunaed topless – I heard comments about all the Americans when I was the only one. In the sauna everyone - well at least all the women - chatted – and even sang – Beatles and Elvis Presley songs! The swimming was marvelous and my limbs feel loose and limber. I’ve been doing lots of walking but getting almost no upper body exercise so this was great.

The weather turned chilly last week. We had a few wonderful, crisp, sunny, fall days – during the week – and then the rain began and continued unabated all weekend so we weren’t able to hike with Martin.

Standing in front of Broken Links sculpture - WWII Memorial on West Coast of Stavanger

We’ve been in Norway almost 6 weeks and a colleague from Ithaca asked for the view from here.

Stavanger is beautifully situated between two fjords and adjacent to the North Sea. There’s a very small lake in the center of town, and 3 others (more than 20 km. total perimeter) between the city center and the North Sea to the west. Southwest of the city lie incredibly beautiful sandy beaches. As most of you know I love the water so all this makes me very happy. The weather has been lovely all summer and most of the fall. Generally Stavanger is rainier, foggier and wetter than Ithaca, so we’ve lucked out.

Larry is enjoying his research into the changes in land elevation and major shifts in the shoreline (all across the North Sea) that occurred as the ice melted, sea level rose, and the land uplifted isostatically at the close of the last ice age. There are lots of interesting implications, including where settlements were located and how oil was squeezed or spilled from reservoirs by uplift-related tilting. There are lots of people to talk with on subjects that are of interest to him. Good interactions have started to be developed with anthropologists, for example.

Stavanger has an active Petroleum Women’s Club here that I’ve joined and very much enjoyed. The women are from Norway, France, Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Ecuador [via US] and most either are spouses of oil employees or they themselves worked there. There are also some NATO wives – all British that I’ve met. Age range is 33-78, and more come from Britain/Scotland and France than anywhere else. At least 25% are Norwegian so I am meeting some locals. The women are incredibly positive, flexible, and fun. Once a week a group goes for a walk or ambitious hike (even in downpours) and twice a week meet for bridge. There’s also a group for mothers and pre-schoolers, badminton, tennis (indoor and too much of a distance for me without a car), and other groups. Twice a month couples play bridge and enjoy a gourmet meal with couples volunteering to bring main course, dessert, etc. The first weekend of November, everyone will work on/at a juried Crafts Fair. I’ve been playing bridge weekly, gone on some of the “walky-talky” Thursday outings, tutored bridge to a group who use a different system, and substituted for a woman who teaches English to adults through a Folk University. The women don’t talk too much politics, but the French all hate Bush and the most interesting comment came from a Norwegian woman who quite admires Bush’s steadfastness even though she doesn’t agree with his policies. And bureaucracy is bureaucracy – after almost 7 weeks we’ve yet to get the number that would allow us to get a debit card at the bank where Larry’s pay is deposited so he has to physically go and withdraw cash between 10:00 and 4:00 Mon-Fri. This number would also allow us to get a list of local (in the neighborhood where we live) doctors who will take new patients, but it would take us at least a month to get an appointment.

We’re renting a basement apartment that’s a 25 minute walk from Larry’s research institute and a 15 minute bus ride from the center of town. The apartment has a small bedroom (7ft. by 10 ft.) and kitchen big enough for just one chef/dishwasher at a time, a nice living area, good sized bathroom with a washer but no dryer, wireless internet and cable tv. Other than the too cozy bedroom it’s fine and the walk to work is lovely – Larry can see both fjords and the North Sea on his route, as well as deer, cows, WWII bunkers and kids walking to/fro school. All around are wonderful Fokesti (walking paths) for bikers, walkers and horseback riders; also wonderful and extensive paths between homes for just bikers and walkers that Larry thinks are for the children who all walk to and from school.

Almost everything is about twice as expensive as in the States (good bread is cheaper, as is wonderful fish; avocados and clementines are the same price, and alcohol is outrageously expensive.) For the first time last week I bought something frivolous so maybe I’m adjusting to the prices. We drink less – both alcohol and cappuccinos, walk lots more, take the bus a number of days a week, read the New York Times daily on-line, spend lots of time on the computer, read, read and read, and watch great TCM movies many nites.

6 more days of Sun!
Lena, our Ithaca friend who was born in Sweden and returns there for a month or so each year, warned us about the rainy weather we would experience in Stavanger. Fortunately, she’s been wrong so far. The Norwegians see some blessing in rain as their electricity is fueled by hydroelectric power and is more expensive during dry weather. Saturday, we took a tourist boat ride up the narrow Lysefjord and viewed waterfalls and Pulpit Rock, a 25 square meters, flat rock, 600+ meters above the fjord. The pulpet doesn’t look very impressive from below, but we’ll try for a better vantage point when we hike up it in a few weeks. On the other hand, the fjord is very impressive, particularly its very steep sides. Incredible, that the excavation was accomplished by the ice. But really not so incredible, considering the huge thickness of the ice. The boat was filled with Norwegians and tourists, including a group of American and Canadian army men on r&r from Afghanistan. On our return to town we sat outside at a restaurant on the harbor and shared some steamed mussels – 4 p.m. in the middle of October and warm enough for shirtsleeves. Sunday we took a 30 minute bus ride to the west of Stavanger and walked through farmland, residential areas and along a rocky coast facing the North Sea for more than 3 hours.

more pictures from our tour of Norway south of Stavanger....

As I'm unable to upload more than 2 pictures at a time, I'm becoming Dickensian in this post. Today's pics are still from our tour on Saturday, September 30.

This past week Larry gave the first of a series of lectures – this one at the Research Instit ute where he is working and the next few at the University of Stavanger. And Mary Helen taught an ESL class – substituting for a PWC’er (Petroleum Women’s Club) who has gone to Portugal for a 60th birthday party and vacation. This week is school break in Stavanger and many expats are away. The locals all seemed to be at the mall yesterday.

So what’s different here for Mary Helen – I play bridge, walk more and food shop more than at home. I read, watch terrible tv (though good old movies on TCM) s a week. I read the NYTimes and Ithaca Journal on-line almost daily, but miss the Wall Street Journal. I’m connected to my computer even more than at home. Today (10/10) I bought my first unnecessary item – a soft, fleece top. What’s different is not much tennis nor volunteer work, transportation primarily by bus and foot – I took an 8k taxi ride last week and it cost about $20 (I couldn’t tell exactly where I was going on any of the maps online.)
What I love here are the spectacular vistas and the ocean views on clear, sunny days. I’ve decided today that everyday the weather is clear I’m going to walk to the top of the hill behind us to look at the North Sea (maybe at a distance of 20 km.) Many of you may remember that I had negative experiences in Paris 10 years ago (unable to get money from ATM’s and needing financial rescue from Alison’s friend, April, things taken from my suitcase at the small inn where we stayed, not getting any help from the French when I was lost late one evening, and standing in the wrong line at the airport almost missing my plane home.) I’ve met a number of French here – and enjoy all of them tremendously – so I’m looking forward to my next trip to France.

Fjord swimming

On Sunday, October 2, we toured the museums of Stavanger and enjoyed the canning museum the most. First Sunday of the month they have demonstrations (and samples) of the canning of herring. Before oil was discovered in the North Sea, herring was the chief industry of
Stavanger and when the wind blew the wrong way, all you could smell was herring.

We walked home the fjord route – another beautiful day – and Larry went skinny-dipping at the nearby fjord beach. The water is still warmer than the bay at Dennis at the end of August.

Larry and I played tennis today at an indoor facility an hour’s walk from our apartment. There is an outdoor tennis facility but we can’t seem to locate it and the nets are probably down by now. Playing tennis after an almost two month absence was fun – and tiring. Not sure what the surface is – Larry thought cement but my knees didn’t hurt after an hour, so I’m not sure. And tennis here is just about the same price as in Ithaca – so relatively speaking a bargain.

Last night we played bridge with 6 others. This time there were 4 Norwegians (3 of whom spent time in the US when they were teens or early 20’s) and the 4th, an adoptee from Korea when she was 6 years old. Not sure whether French or English was the pre-dominant language spoken. Bridge was at a Norwegian’s – recently retired from Total (French oil company) elegantly furnished and beautifully attired apartment. She had worked in New York City for a Norwegian shipping company after high school. Larry’s improving rapidly – and enjoying it more. With bridge playing he doesn’t fall asleep – and we play until one in the morning.

Last weekend we toured south of Stavanger with Willy and Tuelburg – through the plains of Jaeren that seem to transition without notice to barren mountain rocks. In 1817 the Swede, E. Folch wrote that I “came upon the most unpleasant mountains I have yet traversed.” The mountains are the rock type, “Anortosite”, which weathers badly in today’s cold and damp climate. In a few places it reminded me of Ireland’s Burrens. Before heading back to Stavanger we passed Egersund and then a lovely small isolated fishing village. In early 1940, the German were transporting 800 British prisoners and sought sanctuary in Jossingfjord, when a British destroyer came in and captured them, killing some Germans. (The Germans had lied to Norway about who was on their vessel.) The Germans used this incident as a pretext for invading Norway - evidence that the Norwegians couldn’t control their neutrality.