I’m out of town for a couple of days, this time in Kristiansand. It’s a pretty town in Southern Norway and although I haven’t gotten the chance to see much of it, what I’ve seen so far is pretty promising. My friend Svetla, who’d been here recently, urged me to book a room at the new Scandic hotel, by the “city beach”. Although this meant walking to the courthouse for a whole 5 minutes (and I’m incredibly lazy in the morning!), I reckoned it would probably do me good to have nice surroundings, a view and a spa on top of that! 

And I was right. Upon arriving at the hotel around 18 yesterday, I felt it was too late to go out and take pictures, besides I was exhausted and in desperate need of a bath. Bad decision, though, ’cause this is what it looked like outside at the time, while this morning everything was covered in a thin layer of  snow, the sky was grey and that made me cringe.

But I’d been lucky with another thing the night before, as I’d asked for a bathtub and got one, too! So I soaked in the hot tub for a while, disappointed there was no minibar to raid (at my own expense, of course) and no kettle to put on, either. Dinner was pizza in the hotel restaurant and it made perfect sense to order something light, and at the same time indulge in something else than a salad. Since I don’t know a soul in this town,  going out for something fancy felt too much of an engagement to make on my own.

Today I was in court from 9-17 and we encountered technical problems of all sorts, the microphones wouldn’t work, the headphones’ batteries died, this and that. The interpreters’ booth was stuffy and so I got a headache already before 10 o’clock. And my most used words outside the court room were : “pardon me”, since their dialect is not as much difficult to understand as it is impossible to catch. haha!

On my way to the hotel I had a quick stop for soup and beer at Hos Naboen, “pulled” a bikini from H&M and headed towards the spa. One and a half hour later, after having tried all the 5 saunas, the two jacuzzis and the jungle shower, I was tired to the bone and collapsed in bed.

Tomorrow I’ll be up at 7 to try the morning oatmeal with sugar and cinnamon and then walk with my camera by the beach, towards the courthouse. There’s a fortress and a couple of nice houses, can’t wait to capture them!

Nighty night!

xxx, Alina