Apparently snow is edible! These pigeons were pulling out all sorts of edible delights from within the snow pack. And here I was thinking it was nothing but water!
And a bonus photo of a duck 🙂
Blog
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Dawn near the stream
I went for a wander down the side of the stream near my apartment in Oslo. The sun creeping over the horizon made for a pleasant walk through the snow.
Top of a waterfall. 
Bottom of the waterfall -
New camera!
My trusty old Canon S1IS died last year. I’ve been making do with a cruddy piece of junk bottom of the line Canon crapbox since then, so decided that since I’m in an exotic new land and popping shots off constantly that I should upgrade to something better. So today I bought a brand new Canon G12. It’s smaller than my old Canon S1IS but the picture quality should be somewhat better. Lack of a decent zoom range will be annoying, but it should be ideal for indoor shots and wide angle outdoor shots. The weather was pretty awful today, but I wanted to try out my new toy so took the following photos with it for your (well, more my) viewing pleasure 🙂
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Crazy water sculpture
This is a crazy sculpture thingy sitting in the water beside the Oslo opera house. It turns on it’s axis in line with the tide and wind.
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Frozen stream in Oslo
I went for a walk along the stream near my apartment. The river is starting to freeze over. I wasn’t ballsy enough to go stand on it, but it sure does make sure an idyllic view.
Funky looking half-frozen effect. 
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Oslo Opera house
I walked down to the Oslo Opera House (“Operahuset” in Norwegian). The walk to the top was slippery as heck. I should have realised it was a bad idea to walk up there when I had to walk past a sign warning not to walk up there and clamber underneath a chain blocking access. But other people were chugging their way up, so I headed up the ridiculously slippery slope to the top and got an awesome view out across the fiord.
View of the Oslo Opera House from the Opera Thon Hotel. 
View from the Oslo Opera House looking out into the fiord. 
Steep incline, glassy smooth ice …. not the best combination! -
Avalanche
Chris Laing and I saw a huge avalanche come crashing down off the side of Mount Joffre, or at least I think that’s which mountain it was. I don’t know the area well enough to confirm which exact mountain it was, but it somewhere very near at least. We were in Pearl flat a little further down the valley at the time. Glad we weren’t directly below it that’s for sure!
The photo was taken just after it occurred as I wasn’t able to get my camera out in time before the bulk of it had plummeted to the valley floor.
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Bandy
I went to check out a game of Bandy here in Oslo recently. For those of you who haven’t heard of it before, Bandy is a sport which is similar to field hockey, but played on ice. The rink is huge, as are the goals. There is much less contact than in ice hockey and a small ball is used instead of a puck. There are 11 players on the ice and only a few subs. I’d love to play, but my shoulder will need to be in much better condition before I can attempt anything like this.
Game of Bandy being played in Oslo, Norway. 
Giant ice groomer gizmo. Doesn't give as nice a surface as a Zamboni, but is a bazillion times faster! -
Photos from around Oslo
I went for a walk around Oslo. Here are some snaps from my trip.
A small cemetery in Oslo. 
Norwegian Parliament building in Oslo. 
An ice rink I skated on near the Royal Palace in Oslo. 
The palace where the King of Norway lives. 
River in Oslo, 
An Oslo T-blane station. 
The road enroute to Metronet (where I'm working) -
Sognsvann
I headed to Sognsvann just north of Oslo to go ice skating. It turned out there was way too much snow on the lake for skating, but I had a nice walk around the lake anyway.
