Helene

After I was hit by a sore throat and fever the last couple of days we tried to take it a bit easy and just go to the nearby places. So first we visited a huge stone that supposedly contained petroglyph’s. I looked long and hard, and even though my imagination could have filled in the missing parts, I saw no petroglyph’s. But at least I got to see a big stone

Just a few minutes a way, we took a look at tvindefossen, and afterwards we went to Nesheimtunet.

Kari can be shimmered there in the middle of the rock

Tvindefossen

Nesheimtunet

I woke up to a beautiful, sunny weather and we had breakfast outside and spent the morning relaxing and enjoying the view. Then we drove to Jonstølen and hiked for an hour to get to Fjellsetvatnet (852 meters above sea level). The hike itself was hot because of the weather and when we arrived there we walked to the end of the water where there was a small beach.We wanted to take a bath and we entered the water boldly – only to quickly retreat. It was freeezing! It didn’t take many seconds before it was painful. So we squatted water on our bodies to chill it down, and it helped. Then we just laid down to get tanned. We were completely alone up there, we didn’t even meet any people during our hike up there. I really loved the place and would have loved to stay there for a longer time period. Actually, I would have loved to brought a tent and just stay there for one night with some good company. Perfect place!

In the evening I met Kari’s mother, brother and his family for the first time. They came to the cabin for a small gathering and we had a nice time chatting.

My friend, Kari, has a cabin located a little bit outside voss on a beautiful mountain side that I decided to visit and to get there I took the Bergen Railway. I was sitting in the last train carriage which was a really old carriage from the 60′s or something – not refurbished. It was a very hot day, so with no air condition it quickly became uncomfortable. Just before we arrived at Geilo station, the carriage suddenly started to sway a lot to the left and right. It was enough of a sway that I started to get a bit worried and understood that something was wrong. Then it began – dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk, and the train started breaking immediately. It took a long time to stop the train, but eventually it came to a halt. It turned out that the carriage in front of us (also a 60′s something) had derailed because of sunwinding( I’m unsure if that’s the correct english term). This actually made headlines in the online newspapers in norway (squib news during summer time). I talked to one of the onboard personell that went outside and investigated the damage, and he told me that a lot of the the crossties had been completely shattered several hundred meters away. I sighed and mentally prepared for hours of delay, but I can give much praise to the personell. They delt with the situation nicely, and in the end we were just 1 hour and 15 minutes delayed which was less than I expected.

Kari’s cabin was a small cabin with a soul, and I knew that I would settle in very nicely. It had a beautiful view of the valley and the opposite mountains and we sat outside, enjoying a cup of tea, a chat and the view.

Have you heard of stevia? It’s a natural, herbal substitute to sugar and artificial sweeteners, it’s 30 – 45 times sweeter than ordinary sugar, and the best part is that it’s calorie-free.

Stevia has shown that it can counteract obesity , high blood-pressure, lower blood sugar and low pancreas functionality.  Diabetics can use stevia as a natural sweetener, and it even contains several vitamins. Stevia can be purchased as a powder and is very light. Millions of japanese have used stevia for thirty years, and there is no reported or known harmful effects.

Unfortunately there is a health/political controversy to stevia despite all the research. EEC have decided to make the herb forbidden to use as food. They claim that it hasn’t been proven scientifically that stevia isn’t harmful, a claim that is even more interesting since the negative effects of sugar and aspartam has been known for years and is legal. One could wonder who is really benefitting from ensuring that stevia keeps being forbidden.

I use it mostly to sweeten my tea, and it takes a suprising small amount of stevia to  make the tea sweet. I recommend everybody to try it.

Update:

Stevia has recieved GRAS approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On a more practical level that entails that companies can use stevia in food and beverages. Hopefully Coca Cola, Pepsi and other producers will jump at the chance.

Norwegian resources:

Purchase stevia as powder or the plant itself here: http://www.naturlegemiddel.com/
Information about stevia

I was introduced to the mooncup by Merete. A mooncup is a silicone menstruation cup that one places into the vagina and it works like a tampoon except the fluid goes into the cup.

After I bought the mooncup, menstruation have never been the same. Now, I don’t really notice when I have the period. I’m not worried about leakages, I don’t have to think about changing tampons etc. all the time, I don’t notice that it’s there, I can take a swim with it, I can sleep with it. It’s easy to clean, and it saves the environment from unnecessary waste.

If your female and haven’t heard of it before – buy it! You will love it. I guarantee it.

One guy have taken a look at the different extreme sports out there. I did find some I would like to do like zorbing and kite jumping. I have actually tried to control a kite once and it required a lot of muscles when turning the kite from left to right.

11 of the World’s Most Extreme Sports