A Nightmare Before Christmas (not really)

I recently attended a Christmas Party with my fellow microbiology nerds...And whatever prejudice you may have towards nerds...We do know how to party.

Eirin and William having a beer before the party


Anders, Solveig and Hilde

Anders, Torild, William and Eirin getting ready for dinner.-Dried and salted mutton ribs steamed in the institute's autoclave...nerds? us?
Runar who just finished his Phd (Congrats!)
Irene and Anders (cute couple)

William and I

Evy (who is going to grade my exam...) and Frede.

Eirin (who is not grading any exams)

The Constitution Day

May 17th is the Norwegian Constitution day,-or our "4th of July" if you want. Ofcourse we got rain as usual, but it turned out to be a pretty cool day after all. The streets were full of people wearing their national costumes and kids eating ice cream (which got smeared all over said national costumes...). The parade was longer than ever, but it had some funny elements, -besides its not May 17th without watching the parade.



These guys always gets an applause. They're the WWII veterans who fought the Germans during the German occupation of Norway.

My mother and I in our national costumes (for my American friends)

The Germans, a world war and Bergen.

Ive developed a new passion for mountain hiking. I guess its something Ive always enjoyed doing, but lately Ive done it more often. Its great exercise and with beautiful scenery it just gets better! Last month I was taking advantage of a beautiful Saturday morning by taking a trip to Sandviken Mountain. This mountain is facing the fjord that leads into the city of Bergen...a fjord the Germans used when they invaded Norway in 1940 at the beginning of WWII. Up in the mountainside I found a German military bunker from those sad years in the 40s. Complete with graffiti...

The Germans kept the bunker active incase of attacks from the allied forces, both from the sea and air. Since Norway has a long coast line towards the UK, Bergen (as the largest city on the west coast) was one of the first cities occupied in Norway, - and Europe as well if Im not mistaking. Anyways...enough with the history lesson. Here as some pictures of the base and the view from it.