Voicy does Norway

ponder said:
I have to ask how this is going?

Do you ever get the impression that they are 'friendly' in a polite way, just being friendly for friendly's sake?. I've always had this impression that the northern europeans being polite is kinda 'fake' while the mediterranean bunch are more of a happy go lucky crowd like us. I'm just thinking in terms of my local pub where you have contractors from all around the world and within a week everyone is getting on like they've known each other for yonks.
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Yeah they're courteous.

I went diving in the red sea last month and the boat was filled with a bunch of europeans and everyone got on like a house on fire. The scandanavian guy was the only oddball. He was my dive buddy so we spent a ton of time together, even then he was courteous at most, and didn't really make friends with the rest.

It's difficult. I'm not home much so I miss out on all the events taking place here. Just last week we had a huge music festival here with alphaville and a bunch of bands playing and literally everyone was out, so that kinda sucks.

I was seeing a girl here too for a while who broke it off because I was nearly never home, so yeah. Make of that what you want.

I think it has to do with how they perceive foreigners too. If you're a foreigner in SA you'll make friends in your first week and people will want to show you places...here I feel like foreigners are often little more than a nuisance.
 
The Scandinavians are very reserved, they generally won't strike up a conversation on their own but will be very polite and friendly if you talk to them directly.

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One of the things I like about Europe is that everyone minds their own business, in South Africa everyone is always looking at everyone else, in Europe they don't care.
 
Haha yeah, as an introvert, this place is like paradise.

People mind their business in public.

Oh! Another thing I should've taken a picture of... There are no queues here. Just about anywhere you go there's this ticket machine. So you enter the building or wherever and take a ticket. That way you can go and sit anywhere you like while you wait for your number to appear on the overhead screen. None of this having people breathe down your neck in the queue nonsense.
 
So this just happened outside. Overlooking our town bridge.

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This was taken right outside my front door, viewing the neighbour's house.

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adsl2 said:
That must be so amazing to see.
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It never gets old. Difficult to describe what it looks like because it moves the whole time and scatters too so it's not like clouds moving at all. I think the only thing I've seen that could remotely resemble the movement is when you're lying face down in a pool or the sea with the sun behind you and you see the light rays shimmer below you.

Some days it's bland and green and looks pretty much like a cloud, but on strong activity days it becomes sharper and starts emitting different shades of blue, green, purple, reds. Some people say it's possible to hear it, but I don't know so much about that.

Bighit said:
Last night, we were talking about visiting Norway just to see something like this!
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It'll definitely be worth your while, but you really have to time it right...and location plays a big role too. For example, you may have stronger northern lights the further north you go, but places like Lofoten will be perfect for seeing it AND give a better backdrop...not to mention even without the northern lights it'll be a fantastic place to visit, whereas other areas depend largely on the activity.
 
So right now I'm in Bergen. We're upgrading a station and there's no road to get up, so all our tools etc has to go up with the heli, which is awesome. Except it's only coming back when we're done with the job and we can't stay up here, so everyday this week we have to hike up this mountain (+-460m above sea level) and down again when we're done with work, whether it be at night or in rain or whatnot.

I get told by all my mates that I'm a lucky sucker (paraphrasing for PG rating) and I do agree, but it doesn't come for free. I went up yesterday morning at 9am and I'm still on the station now, haven't slept yet, to try and solve some technical issues. The long hours are the tax we pay for the views and surroundings.

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Bergen is pretty much the Cape Town of Norway. Traffic is crazy and there's a ton of money here, with everyone trying to outclass the next. The student life is also crazy big here, but the place does overwhelm me somewhat. I paid R400 the other night for a hamburger, fries and coke takeaway from some gourmet restaurant and I think my old highschool's tuck shop made better quality burgers than that. Oh well.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
Do you get paid extra for this kind of stuff?
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Yeah you get a "on site" work rate, which is standard across the country, but you also pay 50% tax on any overtime, which is the gov's way of trying to balance your work/home life...and get more money for themselves.

FuLL_MeT4L said:
Amazing that you're hiking to work at the moment!
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Haha yeah I was thinking how it's quite funny that I'm getting paid to lose weight. Unfortunately today it's misty and raining like crazy so the heli can't come and I have to hike down in the rain. No bueno. Still beats a sunny day in Mthatha though.
 
Lol thanks havoc. The local newspaper found out about it as well and how it got their town 1.5mil views, so they phoned me for an interview. Then I had to explain to the dude what reddit is. :/
 
It's 5am and I just finished work. Had to commission another station, but luckily this one was close to my town so I just drove there and back...and I was able to pack my big camera this time.

This is the view from up there tonight:

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We've had some awesome aurora activity last week and I recorded this timelapse over 2hrs from my bedroom window (ladies!).

[video=youtube_share;P6iWgD4EElY]https://youtu.be/P6iWgD4EElY[/video]

Not sure how to slow it down though, none of my video editing programs seem to be working on this laptop.
 
Voicy said:
We've had some awesome aurora activity last week and I recorded this timelapse over 2hrs from my bedroom window (ladies!).
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Amazing, would love to see it in real life. :)
 
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