This picture was taken from the NTNU last week, at 2:45 pm. Today we only had 4 hours and 45 minutes of light. I checked the sunrise/set tables to see how long the shortest day of the year will be on December 21st, and there will only be 4 hours and 20 minutes of daylight then. Here is another picture that was taken as daylight faded, several days later. It's of the main library of NTNU, taken from a bridge in the Trondheim city center. Sadly it's a bit blurry, but I had to increase the exposure time because of the fading daylight and
I originally thought it would be much more difficult to deal with such little daylight, but it has not actually been too bad. I notice that my sleep schedule is very hard to fix into one set period of time, without daylight to help regulate it.
Several weekends ago I went on a hike into Bymarka again. I went with Victor and his girlfriend Idun, and several other of there friends. This time we went further into Bymarka, and here is Gråkallen standing between us and Trondheim. The day was beautiful with blue skies. Even if I complained of the rain as I first arrived, it for the most part stopped halfway through October. Days have been quite clear and even though daylight grows less and less each day, the daylight that we do have here in Trondheim has been clear and wonderful, dotted with several brief sprinkles and snow showers.
Below is another picture from nearly the same place, this view is more north of Gråkallen. This area of Bymarka was very beautiful, with rolling hills all over, outcroppings of rocks distributed among them. We hiked on cross-country skiing trails that were not yet covered in snow. We hiked on a Sunday, and many other people were out with us. Very few things are open on Sundays, which makes it an excellent day to get out and go hiking. Families with kids of all ages were about. One fun thing that I noticed on numerous occasions were strollers parked off the trail, at the base of small hills. They almost looked abandoned, and while some might say that the family was just on the other side of the hill eating lunch, I believe something quite different. I think that it may be a test that all Norwegian babies go through once they are a year old or so. They are left in the wild to fend for themselves, to toughen them and make them stronger and more resilient, and make their own way home. I suggested this to Victor and he laughed, but not without a knowing smile. This is the land of vikings, after all...
Here is a picture of Victor and Idun, coming down a hill. They had just been checking a map to make sure we were on the right path and were catching up.
Here is a picture of a lake that I believe is called Skjellbreia. Sadly we did not go down to the edge of the lake, because we needed to make sure to get back to the city before it was dark, and we were beginning to run short of time.
Today was the first day that it went above freezing in a week and a half or so. Most of the snow that was left after the snowfall last week had mostly turned to ice after the first two days. Now as I look out the window I see mostly green, and I hope that it will get below freezing again and snow soon. Below is a picture I took two days ago when I was walking around Trondheim. I took it from the top of a hill that children were sledding down on the last remnants of snow (ice). The picture does not do these children justice, unfortunately. The hill was really steep, and while the picture makes it look like there was a good deal of snow, it was not at all true. There was one main track of ice, with all the surrounding hillside combed bare. The uncovered ground was not at all soft, it was rock-hard frozen mud. A group of 6-7 year-old kids were gathered at the top with 10 sleds, all in a line along the top of the hill. With a wild battle-cry, they all at once began to descend the hill, ignoring the ice track. The ground may have been hard as rock, it was still frozen and slippery, and the children descended ice or no ice. Half of them crashed, mostly because they were trying to crash the others as they raced to the bottom. This must be a more advanced form of viking training, where the children are pitted against each other while practicing invasions.
The last week has been an excellent week of meals for my roommates and me. I think it is mostly due to classes being finished and everyone having more time because they are only studying. It began with Henning cooking an amazing meal of reindeer and moose meat with mashed potatoes and onions. So incredibly delicious! Here is the reindeer meat that was seared to make the outside cooked but leave the inside nicely rare.
Here are meatballs made from ground moose meat and some diced onions. Pan fried and wonderful.
A picture of Henning, our cook, frying meatballs and boiling potatoes.
Here is the spread. Reindeer meat, moose meatballs, mashed potatoes, fried onions, gravy made from the drippings, and a Portuguese wine courtesy of Sebastião. This was the first time I'd tried either reindeer or moose, and I can't say which I preferred because their flavors were very different. The reindeer had a very strong taste, a flavor I would describe as "gamey" or wild, but was very very good. If it had been cooked much more it would have become very tough, but I do not know if that is a characteristic of the animal or of the specific bit of meat we had. The moose meatballs had a much milder flavor that was more subtle, and you could enjoy for a long time as the taste lingered. For dessert, we had kanelbuller, basically Swedish cinnamon rolls.
The next major meal was cooked by Sebastião, and was a traditional Portuguese meal. Sadly I did not take pictures, and I will do my best to describe it. It began with snacking on incredibly tasty cuts of cured beef and pork that his mother had sent him from Portugal, accompanied by a Portuguese wine. The main meal was a stew called feijoada with Portuguese style rice. Feijoada is a stew with beans and many different meats: Cured beef, cured pork, pork sausage, blood sausage and tripe. It was so dense and so delicious that it just sat in my stomach, and I sat for an hour or so after the dinner. For dessert we had chocolate salami, which Sebastião made by mixing crushed cookies, powdered chocolate, butter and sugar together, molding it into the shape of a salami and cooled it in the fridge. By no means was this a healthy meal, but everything about it tasted amazing.
Tonight Henning cooked, making a risotto with mushrooms, garlic and onions. There was no white wine, but instead he used a red wine, which colored the whole thing purple. It was tasty and filling, and while Henning did not make a huge amount of food, it fed us all because we only had very small second helpings. For dessert, we had a special kind of German cake called Christstollen, which is had specifically during the Christmas season. It seems to be a fruitcake and has lots of raisins, cinnamon and cardamom, and is blanketed in powdered sugar. Incredibly dense, and very good with coffee.
My next attempt at cooking was decided for me yesterday when I was shopping and saw this package:
This is whale meat. I've never tried it, and Henning said he hadn't either. Sebastião said he had a very small taste, but said he wants to try it again. I don't know how to cook it, nor does anyone else in the apartment. I'm going to start searching the internet for some recipes, and see what I come up with. If anyone has any recipes they'd like to share, please let me know. I'll let everyone know the results of the experiment with my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment