Goodbye Nidaros!

Yesterday was my last day at Nidaros Cathedral. I am not sad. I had been looking forward to it. Not for the job itself, but for the lack of information my employers gave me. Because they are liars. They said a 100% job, all summer. For them all summer means 2 months and I've never ever, not one single day, have worked 8 hours. I just work 5 or 5,5 maximum. In addition, I used one whole fucking month for preparation for the job to end up working just two months. And all the weekends I was using to learn about Nidaros going to the training course I lost my work at the hotel, so I even lost money on this! And if this wasn't enough I was sat as dorguard most of the time! That's not what I had signed up for. So no, I am not sad to leave.

Here's soem pictures of the cathedral (it is beautiful). It is prohibited to take pictures on the inside, but I have found many of them on the internet that some sneaky tourists have managed to pull out. I don't mind publishing them at all. At least I served for the place, I earned my right to spread them, hehe.

This is Nidaros seen from Nidelva (the river).

The westfront, the most popular one. Here are all the sculptures of important Christian personalities. On the lowest row Jesus Christ and the twelve apostoles and some of the bishops of the cathedral. The middle row is formed by saints and the upper raw includes some of the most important kings of the old testament. There are about 67 sculptures including those that are located in the towers and that are a bit harder to see.

This is the main altar where Saint Olav's coffin was placed during the Middle Ages. Nowadays because of the protestant reformation, Olav (a Catholic martyr) was alledgedly burried under the place somewhere, but the exact place is up to day unknown.

This is a picture taken in the chancel towards the main altar. Above the altar we see the medieval wallscreen with the Vigeland's sculptures from the beginning of the 20th century. The chancel is the eldest part in the church and it dates from the year 1070.




This is the nave, the newest part because it had to be reconstructed completely after a devastating fire in 1531. Here we see the cross altar. The crucifix is made of pure silver and weighs 70 kgs.




This is the rosewindow placed in 1930 and designed by Gabriel Kjelland. It has 8m diameter, 12 m of height and it's made with more than 10,000 pieces of glass. The nine windows under it represent the judgement day.

This is the northfront surrounded by the cemetery.



And this is the other side, south.

Bye Nidaros! It was a positive experience though thinking about all the knowledge I got and how much history have I learned. But this is a period of my life I am closing for good.

Moving-in party!

These are pics from the party on saturday. We had a good time, got drunk and I - as always - had to work the next day. But the important thing was that I had fun!!!

Pasta with sausage with leek and cheese

Today I want to share a recipee that's easy, quick and delightful at the same time! It is a pasta dish with leek and gratinated cheese. These are the ingredients:

- 300 gr grillsausge

- 300 gr pasta (preferably spirals)

- 1 small leek ("puerro" in Spanish)

- A package of creme cheese (Philadelphia or any other with another more intense flavour)

- 30 gr of sliced cheese ("queso en loncha" in Spanish)

- Salt

- Pepper

Preparation:

Boil the pasta as indicated in the package. In the meantime, hack the leek in thin rings and cut the sausages in pieces (one-centimeter-wide rings). Put the boiled pasta in a glass tray that can handle the oven, add also the leek, the sausage, the creme cheese some salt and pepper. Then cover the whole area with the sliced cheese and put in the oven at 230 degrees Celsius. Wait 10 minutes and ready to serve!

Easy and really yummy!!!

The new apartment!

Finally here they are, the pics you've all been waiting for! Hehe, at least some of you have been insisting via e-mail that I should post them. So here they are. I have finally managed to bring some of the boxes down to the storage room, so now the place looks better! Needless to say, click on the images to enlarge.

This is the livingroom


The TV and the DVD collection

Jonny's PC

My PC next to the couch

This is the kitchen (the fridge is in the cabinet below the oven). We have vitroceramic.

This is the bedrom. We only have space for the doublebed and a wardrobe that is inside the wall.

That's the wardrobe

These are the wonderful views from the bedroom. We have a little terrace with space for a little table and a couple of chairs (we just don't have them for the moment).

This is the bathroom. The washing machine is ours, we bought it new and according to the salesman it is said to last up to ten years.

The WC and the shower (it is rather big).

So what do you think? Do you like it?

Brüno

Today, my boy came to Nidaros to one of my guided tours, that made my day! I liked to have him in my group! And then we've been to the movies to watch Brüno. I think it was particularly funny, with some very bright scenes that made the whole movie theatre laugh. Jonny didn't seem particularly excited though, but I guess he is just not a big fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's humour. I laughed and had a good time checking on - once again - the absolutely retrograd and homophobic American society.

This is not the greatest movie out there but after all the trouble Baron Cohen got himself into the least thing we can do is just have a great laugh! Das ist wunderbar!!

Trip to Munkholmen

Today Jonny and I went to Munkholmen, which is this little island just outside Trondheim that has a monastery on top of it. During the second world war the Germans had a military basement there and nowadays people just go there to relax, sunbath, grill and visit the monastery. Here's some highlights:

Views from the boat

On our way back we saw this funny cat sleeping on this hippie car

After we got back, we decided to try something new and eat sushi. I had eaten sushi before but it was a bit different from what I tried today. I didn't really like it and Jonny was not feeling so well, so he didn't enjoyed it that much either. But I learned two things about Japanese food: 1) They all are served with the same complements no matter what you eat and 2) it is fucking overrated. Seriously we payed like over 36€ for 6 pieces of sushi that we didn't even like. I eat whale. It tasted the same as the regular fish. Whale is supposed to taste tender and more like meat. This one didn't. Honestly I am more pro-Chinese food. They have normal food, delicious, served in big quantity and CHEAP.

Below a picture of what we got. Warning: Do not ever try to eat the green sauce or the soja leaves. They are disgusting. Not only disgusting but they can make you retch. And that comes from somebody that like all types of weird food. You've been warned! :-)

My 2 seconds of fame

This is a video that the national TV, NRK, filmed outside Nidaros Cathedral on friday. The occasion was the large amount of people (over one thousand) waiting to get in the cathedral to see the bishop have a talk with Jorulf Gjerstad aka "Snåsamannen". The Snåsaman is an old man that is very popular in Norway because he is said to have healing powers and has cured over a thousand people without ever accepting any money. And, of course, the elderly in town are the biggest "fan club" of the Snåsaman and they all were standing in line to see him for over 2 hours.

If you go to the 0:15 mark you'll see me in my red uniform outside the church!

Click on the image to watch the video