Bodø

When I left Sydney I flew straight home to Stavanger. Even though it had been over 2 years since I was last at home, I didn't stay long … in fact I was only there for 5 days before I boarded a plane and flew on. This time my destination was far north in Norway: Bodø, the first proper city you meet after crossing the arctic circle.

Why am I here? To return to school. Until June 2012, I'll be studying to get all my maritime certificates, so that I can captain any ship on the 7 seas. Pretty scary to think that soon I can be in control of any ship from a super tanker to a cruise ship to a rescue boat … or a row boat, depending on how well I do in school.

The boat above is Gaasten, an old Swedish minesweeper, belonging to a good friend of the family, Captain Stig Nilsen. Gaasten was my home for the first three weeks I lived in Bodø. I lived in the aft section of the boat in what used to be the old crew quarters.

I was very happy to make a slow transition away from sailing, by moving straight onto Gaasten. It was however just a temporary situation and soon I had to face the harsh realities of not living with a keel under me.

After 3 weeks I found myself a nice little apartment in Rønvika and moved in. It's on the second floor of this house:

I received plenty of help from Kjersti, who had flown up from Trondheim to hang out. I rented the apartment without furniture, but Stephen (a class-mate) lent me a stove, a fridge and two mattresses, so I wasn't left lacking. Well, a table could have been nice, but we made do and ate on the floor, like we did in Fiji a few months back.

When the time came to chill out, we pulled one of the mattresses into the living room and since I'm also lacking a TV (thank God), we pulled out our tiny netbooks and watched the same movie, making sure we started them at the same time on both netbooks.

We certainly weren't lacking in the candy department.

I think I'm going to write a book named gipsy living, because getting furniture for the apartment hasn't been a problem. The guy I rent from gave me a table and a couple of chairs, so I even have a kitchen table or desk to do homework on (depending on how you look at it).

I mentioned that I borrowed a stove, fridge and mattresses from Stephen, well, Thomas (also in my class) lent me a huge leather couch, a big coffee table and a rug that pretty much covers my entire living room floor. On top of this all my kitchen stuff belongs to Kjersti, so basically the only things I own in the apartment are my clothes and … my clothes :-) Gipsy living. The funny thing is that I've been offered a TV by 4 different people. They can't believe it when I say no. I'm so happy not to have a TV. Most people think it is a life essential, but after living in China and especially after living on a sailboat, I can promise it is anything but essential.

I live right next to the great outdoors. The picture above is a nearby mountain that's easy to walk to the top of. It gives a great view of Bodø. There is also really good cross-country skiing terrain, starting basically on my doorstep. I sense I'll be spending a lot of time up in the mountains... when I'm not in school, that is.

Comments

[Rickard]

Har följt ditt blogg ett tag och nu blir det ännu roligare när jag vet att du är en gutt:)
fair winds lycka till med studierna