Seventh Trip to Norway

Seventh Trip to Norway

On the 29th and then the next six days myself and a hardware engineer were sent to Agotness to help
out with SIT testing of the Brynhild WOCS which has an MCS in it running SMACS6 software.

The trip went reasonably well and hopefully everything was left in a better state than when we had
got there.

I totaled up the amount of times I've been shipped out to Norway now and was surprised to realise
this had been the seventh trip. It was my first visit to Agotness so it was nice to see another part
of the Aker Empire.

The main differences over there are the price of everything (especially booze!) in that most things
are much more expensive and the fact that they drive on the right. I've always had a hire car when
I'm out there but I've only made a couple of mistakes (touch wood) and always when making right hand
turns. The last one scared my passenger a bit, but no harm was done.

One other thing to watch out for when you have a car is parking. It seems very hard not to accidentally
pick up a parking ticket and the spaces always seem to be poorly signposted and ridiculously
expensive!

The food is much the same, but the hotel breakfasts are more healthy, which is probably a good thing
but as someone else remarked 'Their breakfasts would make a good lunch' as it consists of bread, cheese,
fish and meat. My favourites are chocolate called 'Smil' and an orange drink called 'Solo'.

I always enjoy my visits to Norway and we had a chance to look around Bergen for a few hours on the
Sunday and after eating at the fish market we had a good look around the old wooden buildings of the
'Bryggen' with its very narrow floor board covered streets.

The scenery over there was lovely and it was sunny almost all the time. The drive from our hotel
in Sandsli to Agotness was particularly pleasant as it crossed the tall Sotravein bridge. The mountains
in the area are very rocky and jagged and of a different character to the smooth topped brooding
hills of my part of Scotland.

It was good to get home again though. I've a feeling I won't be back this year but I'd have no
problem at all if I was asked to go back in 2014. Norway is starting to feel like a home away from
home now ;)