A few hours on the train and we had left the city of Milan behind, through the Italian countryside and arrived in Monterosso – the biggest village in the Cinque Terre. We were greeted by a friend from work’s sister, Melina, who now lives in Monterosso and her in-laws own a vineyard in Cinque Terre, […]
I was extremely excited to be heading up to Far North Queensland to dive the Great Barrier Reef again. It was on bucket list as done, but if you don’t write a blog post about it, it didn’t really happen, right? Plus, it had been about eight years since I’d last been to the Reef and […]
For my partner’s birthday I decided I’d take him to Barcelona in the Summer. I love giving holidays as gifts, because I get to go too! Although I live in Oslo and it’s summer there as well, I was excited to feel the heat that only 30 degrees can give you. I hadn’t realised I’d […]
Nothing like a historic blizzard to delay your travel plans. But we finally arrived a day and a half later. Note: be prepared for 20 questions at every step of the way when flying in to the U.S. But at the end of the day, it’s still a city that makes you say “I heart […]
In a year of firsts, I hosted an Australia Day BBQ indoors, as it was -17 and snowing outside. But that didn’t stop me putting on a good Aussie spread: sausage rolls, mini party pies, potato salad, coleslaw, sausage sandwiches with grilled onions and for dessert… lamination cake and mini Pavs. Yum! Trying to make […]
I’ve been lucky to be a qualified SCUBA diver for half my life. Most of my dives have been along the East Coast of Australia. In 2007 I first visited Koh Tao and enjoyed a couple of dives while my partner finished his Advanced Course. But it wasn’t until 2010 did I hit the jackpot […]
I’ve celebrated Norway’s national day or “syttende mai” (17th May) in Sydney with a few hundred Norwegians before, but in 2013 I celebrated in the capital of Norway with many, many thousands of Norwegians. Originally I thought Norway’s national day was a type of Independence Day, but it’s actually their Constitution Day. On the […]
There’s a definite change in the air when Easter arrives in Norway. You get the feeling that the long dark winter is over, the sun begins to shine and everyone emerges from their homes to enjoy the outdoors. Time to try cross-country skiing! Although it was a fairly early Easter this year, the sun sure […]
It’s Spring in Norway and the snow has begun to melt. The temperatures are still below zero during the night and a morning stroll for a foreigner means having to confront the Norwegian ice. I moved to Oslo, Norway in August 2012. An opportunity to live overseas (which happened to be on the top of […]
As a birthday present I flew to Amsterdam for the weekend (lucky me!). Some friends live there and were kind enough to let us stay in their apartment while they were traveling about. So basically, a really cheap weekend for me. The first thing we did was jump on a bike and start cycling. I […]