Friday, August 13, 2010
Protests
Often there are people on the side of the road exercising their right to free speech. Like these TEA party activists on one Sunday:
... and 1 July in the USA
When they finally let me through the border, it was quite late, but our adventures were not over. We saw a car accident and I just had to snap a couple of photos as proof that we were finally in Detroit.
There were 4 kids and their mother in the car. It had hit the central reservation and flipped over. When we stopped, the car in front of us had already stopped and by the time I got my camera out, they had helped three of the kids out of the car. The mother seemed to be trapped. Paul called 911, but got the message that all lines are busy, please call back later. As there were quite a few cars stopped already, we felt we could no longer be of any use and left.
Photos of Canada on 1 July 2010
Since I was too busy to keep up with my blog before the wedding, the least I could do would be to upload some photos of my time on this side of the Atlantic.
The first ones are of Canada, as I landed in Toronto and spent the night with my grandad's classmate Asta.
This was the view from my window. It was nice that she had windows in every room. The block of flats was built in such a way that there were lots of corners.
This was my room for the night. The bed was really comfy!
This was her living room, dining room and kitchen.
This is Asta at the Estonia House. They were getting ready for somebody's birthday party, that's why the tables were set.
The bar of the Estonia House.
It was Canada Day, so everything was closed.
This was the Estonian Church, just a couple of minutes' walk from Asta's place. She had the keys to the church and showed me around.
The inside of the church.
Asta's apartment building.
Asta - I can't believe she is the same age as my grandad. She is so much more active! But I guess, life in Canada has been somewhat different from the life back in Estonia.
Another photo of Toronto from Asta's window. I never did go to see the city proper. Well, something to do next time.
The first ones are of Canada, as I landed in Toronto and spent the night with my grandad's classmate Asta.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Saturday, 26 June 2010
We drove the whole day to make it back in time to catch the ferry to Estonia.
On the ferry, we had a picnic in the corridor.
On the ferry, we had a picnic in the corridor.
Friday, 25 June 2010
When I opened my eyes, I could hardly see. Half of my face was so swallen and it took me a good few minutes to focus my eyes. I was really worried as following my eye operation, the optician had said that a trauma might reverse the effects of the operation. So, I was relieved when I could finally see something clearly again.
It had rained on-off the whole night and it was kind of raining in the morning too. We had breakfast and packed our wet stuff. When Joel asked everybody during the morning exercises whether anybody had had a dry night, only about four hands were raised. We were glad it was our last day and we did not have to carry all the wet stuff on our backs for much longer.
When we got across the river, there was a house that we passed straight away and a while later we came to a house that had a sign on - hot tea and coffee, and there was the international VISA sign on the door. Just as I was about to jokingly offer to buy everybody coffee for breakfast, the door openend and the keeper of the house came out. We said hi and walked on.
As we got down to the paved road part, it really started to pour down. But at that point we knew we were only about a quarter of an hour away from the cars, so it did not matter too much. The rivers we had passed on our way up looked much more fierce now as there was so much more water in them. It was a beautiful sight!
Veronika and mum came to meet us and brought us Lauri's car. It had been fixed and we could sit normally in our small groups. We took a slightly different way back as we wanted to see a fjord. For those who don't know what a fjord is - it is a deep, narrow inlet, created by glacial activity. This means, that although it looks like any other lake in the middle of Norwegian mountains, the water is actually salty as it is connected to the ocean. Although, it is not as salty, as there are numerous freshwater waterfalls that feed into the fjords and make it less salty.
We also drove through several long tunnels. Joel's car was the first one and always seemed to speed up when entering a tunnel. We found out that the reason for it was the game they were playing - nobody could breathe in tunnel air. This meant that they were all holding their breaths the whole time they were in the tunnel. And as some of them were more than 2km long, Joel just had to go really fast not to run out of air before he got to the end of the tunnel. We tried it too, until we got to a 6km tunnel and were stuck behind a big lorry. We had to adopt another method to get through then - I hit the button which circulates air in the car, so no outside air could come in. So technically, we were not breathing the tunnel air. As we say in Estonia: it was JOKK.
We spent another night in Grimerud on the floor of the sports hall.
It had rained on-off the whole night and it was kind of raining in the morning too. We had breakfast and packed our wet stuff. When Joel asked everybody during the morning exercises whether anybody had had a dry night, only about four hands were raised. We were glad it was our last day and we did not have to carry all the wet stuff on our backs for much longer.
When we got across the river, there was a house that we passed straight away and a while later we came to a house that had a sign on - hot tea and coffee, and there was the international VISA sign on the door. Just as I was about to jokingly offer to buy everybody coffee for breakfast, the door openend and the keeper of the house came out. We said hi and walked on.
As we got down to the paved road part, it really started to pour down. But at that point we knew we were only about a quarter of an hour away from the cars, so it did not matter too much. The rivers we had passed on our way up looked much more fierce now as there was so much more water in them. It was a beautiful sight!
Veronika and mum came to meet us and brought us Lauri's car. It had been fixed and we could sit normally in our small groups. We took a slightly different way back as we wanted to see a fjord. For those who don't know what a fjord is - it is a deep, narrow inlet, created by glacial activity. This means, that although it looks like any other lake in the middle of Norwegian mountains, the water is actually salty as it is connected to the ocean. Although, it is not as salty, as there are numerous freshwater waterfalls that feed into the fjords and make it less salty.
We also drove through several long tunnels. Joel's car was the first one and always seemed to speed up when entering a tunnel. We found out that the reason for it was the game they were playing - nobody could breathe in tunnel air. This meant that they were all holding their breaths the whole time they were in the tunnel. And as some of them were more than 2km long, Joel just had to go really fast not to run out of air before he got to the end of the tunnel. We tried it too, until we got to a 6km tunnel and were stuck behind a big lorry. We had to adopt another method to get through then - I hit the button which circulates air in the car, so no outside air could come in. So technically, we were not breathing the tunnel air. As we say in Estonia: it was JOKK.
We spent another night in Grimerud on the floor of the sports hall.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
We woke up early and did our morning exercises and had breakfast. After we had packed up camp, we had to cross the river. Lauri had tied the rope across it, but it still seemed too big a jump for me. It took me a while, but in the end I managed it. But just another 15 minutes’ later there was another river to cross, this time without the rope. Scary!!!!
Throughout the hike I kept making mental notes to buy myself some proper hiking boots as, although I was grateful to Veronika’s mother for having lent me hers, the boots were too big and made me really unsure of my steps when climbing rocks or coming downhill on a rough surface.
Just before lunch we started to descend properly. The mountainside consisted of big rocks and half of them were not in place very securely. Joel was going ahead of us as normal and we had to follow his lead carefully as not to set off any rockslides. We had a snack stop on the rocks on the hillside and then finished our descent down to the river. The ground was marshy again. We were now at around 700 metres’ height.
We had lunch by the river and as the day was hot, we decided to wash ourselves a bit. When we had been up in the mountains, the river water there was only around 1 or 2 degrees Celsius – really cold. And as we normally stopped late at night when it was colder outside, none of the girls had gone swimming yet. So, we got our shampoo out and waded into the clear and warm (a whole 10C) water to wash. As there was a rope across (Lauri’s team HAD to have their lunch on the rocks across the river), we had the chance to hold on to it and let the river wash us clean. It was such a great experience!!!
Then we packed our things and kept moving towards our evening camp site. A lot of that descent was marshy, but it was not too bad when we found a whole bunch of edible grass (hapuoblikad). It was sour and gave us vitamins that we had not had enough of during the hike so far.
At one point part of the group was yet again moving a bit faster and a break appeared between the two groups. I was the first of the second group and I rushed a bit to make up the distance. However, as I was trying to move faster, I stumbled and before I could put my hands down in front of my face, the heavy backpack on my back added its weight and I hit face first against a rock on the ground. I was startled and cried a bit. Joel came there straight away, got the medical stuff from my backpack, cleaned my face and put a plaster on the cut. Then he asked if I had lost consciousness and because I had not, they helped me get my backpack on my back again and we kept moving.
We came to a river/waterfall which had a bridge across it. But at that point it looked as if it was going to rain, so we stopped to set up camp. And sure enough, it started to pour down a couple of minutes later. Fortunately, by that time we were used to setting up our tents and it went quickly dispite the rain. Each team then found a place to make dinner at and Lauri's team, having used up all their gas previously, had to make a fire to make dinner. I had an early night and fell asleep to the sound of Lauri and Co singing really loudly.
Throughout the hike I kept making mental notes to buy myself some proper hiking boots as, although I was grateful to Veronika’s mother for having lent me hers, the boots were too big and made me really unsure of my steps when climbing rocks or coming downhill on a rough surface.
Just before lunch we started to descend properly. The mountainside consisted of big rocks and half of them were not in place very securely. Joel was going ahead of us as normal and we had to follow his lead carefully as not to set off any rockslides. We had a snack stop on the rocks on the hillside and then finished our descent down to the river. The ground was marshy again. We were now at around 700 metres’ height.
We had lunch by the river and as the day was hot, we decided to wash ourselves a bit. When we had been up in the mountains, the river water there was only around 1 or 2 degrees Celsius – really cold. And as we normally stopped late at night when it was colder outside, none of the girls had gone swimming yet. So, we got our shampoo out and waded into the clear and warm (a whole 10C) water to wash. As there was a rope across (Lauri’s team HAD to have their lunch on the rocks across the river), we had the chance to hold on to it and let the river wash us clean. It was such a great experience!!!
Then we packed our things and kept moving towards our evening camp site. A lot of that descent was marshy, but it was not too bad when we found a whole bunch of edible grass (hapuoblikad). It was sour and gave us vitamins that we had not had enough of during the hike so far.
At one point part of the group was yet again moving a bit faster and a break appeared between the two groups. I was the first of the second group and I rushed a bit to make up the distance. However, as I was trying to move faster, I stumbled and before I could put my hands down in front of my face, the heavy backpack on my back added its weight and I hit face first against a rock on the ground. I was startled and cried a bit. Joel came there straight away, got the medical stuff from my backpack, cleaned my face and put a plaster on the cut. Then he asked if I had lost consciousness and because I had not, they helped me get my backpack on my back again and we kept moving.
We came to a river/waterfall which had a bridge across it. But at that point it looked as if it was going to rain, so we stopped to set up camp. And sure enough, it started to pour down a couple of minutes later. Fortunately, by that time we were used to setting up our tents and it went quickly dispite the rain. Each team then found a place to make dinner at and Lauri's team, having used up all their gas previously, had to make a fire to make dinner. I had an early night and fell asleep to the sound of Lauri and Co singing really loudly.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
The view from my tent was spectacular. As I had my bear with me, I took a photo of it as well – to show Paul where I had woken up. Joel, true to his military training gave us only 10 minutes to get dressed and everybody who was late to the morning exercises had to do 10 push-ups (those for the guys and squats for the girls). At first that might have seemed a bit unfair, but by the next day we were not sure the push-ups weren’t the easier option. Fortunately, I was never late, so I didn’t get to try out either option. :P
After breakfast, we set off up the mountainside. We did not take the trail as it was too wet and Joel said we would find it later again. We saw the great waterfall of the previous day and it did not seem so great any more. We were high above it by now. Soon enough we got to our first patch of snow. We had a snowball fight (remember, it was the 23rd of June) and Joel and Lauri did push-ups on the snow. Then we all crossed it and picked up something that Joel called a trail, but I just thought it was the same mountainside as before, only on the other side of the snow.
We had lunch by the river quite high up the mountain and there was much more snow there. I put all my melted chocolates into the snow for a bit and they became edible again. We had team-time after our meal and then we kept on climbing. At one point Joel had a serious talk with everybody telling us of the importance of eating snacks as the amount of calories we were burning required us to be diligent in eating extra calories or else we would be really weak and become a burden for others.
Once we got to the top, we started going sideways. This meant crossing many glacial rivers that had a snow covering, but we had to be really careful as not to fall in. Joel kept making the trail for us just in case. As we waited, we had fun sending snowballs down the glaciers to see if they gathered more snow onto them and how far they got.
We had our dinner on top of some rocks in between glaciers and saw the two lakes that Joel had planned us to camp by. However, there was no point in trying to get closer to these, as they were both still covered with ice and we did not have warm enough equipment to sleep on snow. So we started our descent to find a grassy area to sleep on.
The day had become a really long one by the time we found a suitable area by a really rapid river at 11.30 pm. It was getting dusky again and we set up camp. The area we had stopped at was not really flat enough and the green grass on the other side of the rapid river looked much more inviting for setting up tents. Several of the guys found a place to jump across and put up their tents there. I just shuddered watching them cross the fast and furious water. Little did I know that I would have to cross it the following day.
After breakfast, we set off up the mountainside. We did not take the trail as it was too wet and Joel said we would find it later again. We saw the great waterfall of the previous day and it did not seem so great any more. We were high above it by now. Soon enough we got to our first patch of snow. We had a snowball fight (remember, it was the 23rd of June) and Joel and Lauri did push-ups on the snow. Then we all crossed it and picked up something that Joel called a trail, but I just thought it was the same mountainside as before, only on the other side of the snow.
We had lunch by the river quite high up the mountain and there was much more snow there. I put all my melted chocolates into the snow for a bit and they became edible again. We had team-time after our meal and then we kept on climbing. At one point Joel had a serious talk with everybody telling us of the importance of eating snacks as the amount of calories we were burning required us to be diligent in eating extra calories or else we would be really weak and become a burden for others.
Once we got to the top, we started going sideways. This meant crossing many glacial rivers that had a snow covering, but we had to be really careful as not to fall in. Joel kept making the trail for us just in case. As we waited, we had fun sending snowballs down the glaciers to see if they gathered more snow onto them and how far they got.
We had our dinner on top of some rocks in between glaciers and saw the two lakes that Joel had planned us to camp by. However, there was no point in trying to get closer to these, as they were both still covered with ice and we did not have warm enough equipment to sleep on snow. So we started our descent to find a grassy area to sleep on.
The day had become a really long one by the time we found a suitable area by a really rapid river at 11.30 pm. It was getting dusky again and we set up camp. The area we had stopped at was not really flat enough and the green grass on the other side of the rapid river looked much more inviting for setting up tents. Several of the guys found a place to jump across and put up their tents there. I just shuddered watching them cross the fast and furious water. Little did I know that I would have to cross it the following day.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
It was an early start – we had to have our cars packed by 5am for the journey westward. After a couple of hour’s drive, when we were slowing down for some traffic lights that were holding back the traffic of one side of the road due to roadworks, Lauri put his hazard lights on to indicate that something was wrong. As we came to a stop, we found out that his car had completely died and there was nothing we could do to revive it. We decided to tow it along to the next bigger village to see if it could be fixed.
A while later we came to a place called Vang. Ironically, the word means a prisoner in Estonian. We asked the local mechanic to look at the car, but he was too busy at that time. We also found out that the car mechanics’ hourly wage in Norway is about 1000 NOK or 2000 EEK ($180 USD) per hour! We asked if we could leave the car there for him to look at when he has time and not to exceed 5000 NOK for the repairs.
Even though our cars were really full, we divided the people from Lauri’s car between the four remaining vehicles. In addition, we packed their things into our cars as well. Let’s just say that the remainder of the drive was a really cosy one! :)
Once we got to the parking lot where we left our cars, we had lunch drinking water from the clear water of the river. This was the first time for me to drink water straight from the river. I have drunk water from various springs before, but I had never before seen a river so clear and clean.
We grabbed our backpacks and set off up the hill. According to Joel, the hike was supposed to take about 2 hours. Well, I have been on hikes before in England and Australia and the USA and the hikes never take as long as the guidebooks say. They usually allow extra time for the really slow people. However, this time, after we had already been going for an hour, I suspected that the timings given were for really fit Norwegians without 16 kg backpacks on their backs. We actually saw lots of people walk and run past us. For me, this sort of terrain would have been really difficult to run, so they had to be really fit.
Veronika came with us until the big waterfall leaving baby Emily to enjoy the views down below with my mother. As Vero did not have a backpack of her own, she helped carry other peoples’ ones up the mountainside. After several hours’ walk, we finally got to the top. We saw the waterfall – it was really impressive. We took photos and filled our water bottles from the same river. Joel pointed out the mountains across the valley, which were quite a bit higher, and said that we would be going up that way and would see the waterfall from across the valley too.
After sitting down to have a little talk and our own quiet time, we set off down the mountainside again. As Veronika had been away from Emily for quite a few hours already, she sprinted down the mountainside ahead of all of us to feed her. We said our good-byes and Joel went down trying to keep up with her. When coming up the mountainside had been difficult because of low stamina, then going down was just plain hard on the leg muscles. After a while my legs just started shaking and it was difficult to walk. But down we got to the place where we were going to attempt to cross the valley and according to Joel’s map there was supposed to be a bridge. While we waited for the rest of the group, we learned to rest our feet by placing them on a higher ground than we were sitting on to help drain excess blood from them.
We found the bridge – that was so cool! One of the girls barely dared to cross it; she left her backpack on the other side and I sprinted back across the bridge and brought her backpack. So, I got to cross it three times. :) Loved it!!!!
The rest of the afternoon was painfully slow struggle up the mountainside. I ended up being in the group of about 5 girls at the end of the line and as the others got ahead of us, we were falling further and further behind. Fortunately, we did not have to be on our own. Sven, Lauri and Imre stayed with us. At one point I had a brainwave – to use Lauri’s rope to help us get past the more difficult parts. Imre went ahead and tied the rope to a secure place, Lauri held on to the other end and we climbed up the difficult parts. It worked like clockwork. At the end, Joel came to see where we were and took two backpacks on himself and got us to where we were supposed to have lunch!!! It was quite late already. We used our gas cookers for the first time in our “families”. Soup had never tasted so good! I was really hungry at that point. Joel scouted ahead to find us a place to spend the night and even though it was getting quite dusky, we set off to the place that he had found.
It was only another 20 minutes’ walk away. The ground was quite wet, but we could also find dry patches. Joel said that as tent floors are made of waterproof material, we could sleep on the marshy bit and enjoy the comfort of a water bed. I followed his lead and tested out my new tent. It only cost 220 kroons (about 18 dollars), it was lightweight and if it kept reasonably dry, it was worth the cost.
We set up camp and took our cooking gear to the designated kitchen area. Everybody also brought some wood to make a bonfire. As it was the 22nd of June, it was a little too early for St John’s Night’s traditional bonfire, but we had sausages with us for everybody and did not want to carry them with us for another hot day and find them spoilt by the next evening. So, we made a bonfire and had sausages. I had also bought a packet of marshmallows on the boat and I shared it with everybody. It was a great success. It never really got dark, it started to get light again when I went to sleep at 1 am. I just love the long summer days we have up in the north!!! :)
Even though our cars were really full, we divided the people from Lauri’s car between the four remaining vehicles. In addition, we packed their things into our cars as well. Let’s just say that the remainder of the drive was a really cosy one! :)
Once we got to the parking lot where we left our cars, we had lunch drinking water from the clear water of the river. This was the first time for me to drink water straight from the river. I have drunk water from various springs before, but I had never before seen a river so clear and clean.
We grabbed our backpacks and set off up the hill. According to Joel, the hike was supposed to take about 2 hours. Well, I have been on hikes before in England and Australia and the USA and the hikes never take as long as the guidebooks say. They usually allow extra time for the really slow people. However, this time, after we had already been going for an hour, I suspected that the timings given were for really fit Norwegians without 16 kg backpacks on their backs. We actually saw lots of people walk and run past us. For me, this sort of terrain would have been really difficult to run, so they had to be really fit.
Veronika came with us until the big waterfall leaving baby Emily to enjoy the views down below with my mother. As Vero did not have a backpack of her own, she helped carry other peoples’ ones up the mountainside. After several hours’ walk, we finally got to the top. We saw the waterfall – it was really impressive. We took photos and filled our water bottles from the same river. Joel pointed out the mountains across the valley, which were quite a bit higher, and said that we would be going up that way and would see the waterfall from across the valley too.
After sitting down to have a little talk and our own quiet time, we set off down the mountainside again. As Veronika had been away from Emily for quite a few hours already, she sprinted down the mountainside ahead of all of us to feed her. We said our good-byes and Joel went down trying to keep up with her. When coming up the mountainside had been difficult because of low stamina, then going down was just plain hard on the leg muscles. After a while my legs just started shaking and it was difficult to walk. But down we got to the place where we were going to attempt to cross the valley and according to Joel’s map there was supposed to be a bridge. While we waited for the rest of the group, we learned to rest our feet by placing them on a higher ground than we were sitting on to help drain excess blood from them.
We found the bridge – that was so cool! One of the girls barely dared to cross it; she left her backpack on the other side and I sprinted back across the bridge and brought her backpack. So, I got to cross it three times. :) Loved it!!!!
It was only another 20 minutes’ walk away. The ground was quite wet, but we could also find dry patches. Joel said that as tent floors are made of waterproof material, we could sleep on the marshy bit and enjoy the comfort of a water bed. I followed his lead and tested out my new tent. It only cost 220 kroons (about 18 dollars), it was lightweight and if it kept reasonably dry, it was worth the cost.
We set up camp and took our cooking gear to the designated kitchen area. Everybody also brought some wood to make a bonfire. As it was the 22nd of June, it was a little too early for St John’s Night’s traditional bonfire, but we had sausages with us for everybody and did not want to carry them with us for another hot day and find them spoilt by the next evening. So, we made a bonfire and had sausages. I had also bought a packet of marshmallows on the boat and I shared it with everybody. It was a great success. It never really got dark, it started to get light again when I went to sleep at 1 am. I just love the long summer days we have up in the north!!! :)
Monday, 21 June 2010
We took the night ferry across to Sweden and in the morning Joel made sure we were all awake by “forcing” us to do morning exercises. It was good to move considering we were going to stay in the car for most of the rest of the day. We also had a really good breakfast.
The fact that this was going to be an adventure camp living up to its name was clear from the moment we docked. As I sat in the car and lowered the window, I heard a strange sound and then when I tried to raise the window again, it came up at a strange angle and then started going back into the door. I did not know how to react and the whole window dropped into the car. As we drove out of the ferry, I thought that there is no way I can drive a long distance with my window down. Knowing the speeds we were going to drive at, it was not sensible, so as soon as the first car of our motorcade stopped, I told others about my problem and some young MacGuyvers in our group fished the window out and wedged something in between it and the door to keep it in place.
The first day was spent driving through Sweden. We made several stops and changed people round in the cars. Joel handed out some questions to ask everybody in the car and then we stopped in 45 minutes’ time and changed people round again and went through the questions starting from the other end. It was really interesting and in no time we were crossing the border to Norway and after another couple of hours’ drive we arrived at the Grimerud YWAM base.
We could sleep on the floor of a sports hall and have hot showers. We also repacked our bags to take only the bare necessities to the mountains with us.
Dad and I had the chance to go and meet with Alv Magnus and Ola Ostveit and have some good time of tea, crackers and cheese and good catching up and talking about the worlds’ events.
The fact that this was going to be an adventure camp living up to its name was clear from the moment we docked. As I sat in the car and lowered the window, I heard a strange sound and then when I tried to raise the window again, it came up at a strange angle and then started going back into the door. I did not know how to react and the whole window dropped into the car. As we drove out of the ferry, I thought that there is no way I can drive a long distance with my window down. Knowing the speeds we were going to drive at, it was not sensible, so as soon as the first car of our motorcade stopped, I told others about my problem and some young MacGuyvers in our group fished the window out and wedged something in between it and the door to keep it in place.
The first day was spent driving through Sweden. We made several stops and changed people round in the cars. Joel handed out some questions to ask everybody in the car and then we stopped in 45 minutes’ time and changed people round again and went through the questions starting from the other end. It was really interesting and in no time we were crossing the border to Norway and after another couple of hours’ drive we arrived at the Grimerud YWAM base.
We could sleep on the floor of a sports hall and have hot showers. We also repacked our bags to take only the bare necessities to the mountains with us.
Dad and I had the chance to go and meet with Alv Magnus and Ola Ostveit and have some good time of tea, crackers and cheese and good catching up and talking about the worlds’ events.
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