Christmas pictures

Here are som pictures from our Christmas celebration!
(Click the picture to view the complete album)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Concert and Christmas feeling

Until now Espen has been the keenest blogger of the two of us. Now its about time that I (Anne) give it try. Today is the day before Christmas eve and I can't say that the Christmas spirit is too strong... You can sense that it Christmas here, mainly because shopping malls and beaches are packed with holidaymakers and capetonians. It's kind of amusing to see how people in warm countries have a romantic image of snow, rain deers and santas around Christmas. We even encountered a husky sledge and an ice rink while doing some shopping yesterday! Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, we are moving into our flat in Rondebosch, a suburb close to UCT. Seeing that it's a special day for us we've invited a few friends over to our new place for supper. Our Muslim friends even promised to do their best to bring along some Christmas spirit :) Looking forward to that! Christmas Day will be spent with my old host family.

Our driving skills are picking up and we are now exploring the city at our own pace which is just wonderful! Yesterday we went to a rock concert with a South African band called Just Jinjer. The venue was the stunning Kirstenbosch Garden. It's a botanical garden situated along the mountain side behind Table Mountain. It was such a wonderful experience to listen to a good band while looking at the mountains, starry skies and views of Cape Town. My friend Wendy had packed a nice picnic basket with samoesas, chutney, homemade biscuits and a bottle of champagne. What else can one ask for?

Christmas this year will without doubt be a little different than usual, but if we wanted usual we wouldn't have come here!

Wish you all a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy your ribbe, pinnekjøtt and presents!

Bought the car (finally!)

Update: By popular demand, here is a picture of our beatiful car!

We now have our very own Honda parked outside the backpacker place we are staying. At first, we will only drive when the sun is up, but eventually i think we might have to drive at night too. The problem, is that the people in this country are driving on the wrong (left) side of the road! And also the steering wheel is mounted on the wrong side, along with the pedals.

We have also bought full-cover insurance on the car just in case we hit some(thing/one). The insurance also covers theft and hijacking(!).

Today the temperature is predicted to be 29 degrees, i can't wait!

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Before and after

We are now finally starting to realize that we are actually here. Today was my first day at "Work" and it was actually not as bad as it could be. The Internet connection here is very slow, but it's OK for the 3 days that i will be using this Internet Café. I have had several phone-conversations using my Telio ip-phone (+47) 852 10 855. To Norway (and probably all other locations as well), there is a 500 milliseconds delay, but i think that will be better when we move into the apartment at Christmas eve.

Some of the other things that has happened:

• We went to a party on Friday at Wendy's house. At about 11.45PM the squatter-camp close by started burning. No-one was injured, but the fire was pretty big and several shacks must have burnt up. That was not a very happy moment, so Anne and I decided to go home. Luckily Wendy's dad drove us home, so we didn't have to take a taxi or hike.
  
• On Sunday we went to the beach and stayed there pretty much all day. Later that day we ate a HUGE meal and when we woke up today, I was still full.

At this very moment, Anne is in Kensington, fetching our newly bought car. I still haven't seen it, but I hope the deal will not fall through like it did the last time. Can't wait to get it, because the public transport here is really bad (or non existing???).

Oh, and one more thing: Last night, for desert, we ate at at place called "Sinful". They served one of the best ice-creams i have EVER tasted. It was so good, but later that night we both regret it, because we got so full we could hardly walk.

Backpacking in South Africa

At last, we are finally in South Africa!

This will just be a short entry, telling everyone that we are alive and that (almost) everything is as is should be. Out flight yesterday was Oslo->Frankfurt->Cape Town. Off course when we took off from Frankfurt, Lufthansa forgot Anne's backpack. BUT: Ismaiel, that has allready arranged with the car we will receive later today, works for the airport with delivering luggage. We hope that it will be arriving today.

Some facts:

• We have turned off both our Norwegian phones, and bought new SIM-card with South African phone-numbers. (Beware: From Norway it's about 10NOK pr. min (But i think SMS is pretty cheap, so please don't hesitate to send them)
• Anne: +27 7265 13002
• Espen: +27 7657 09740
• We are now staying at Cape Town Backpackers, but will move to "our" apartment at 24/12.
  
• All our letters are forwarded to that apartment from Norway, so you do not need to spend much money on sending us letters. Just use the old address, we'll receive it someday ( say about 5-10 days)
• We still use our existing gmail-addresses:
• Anne: athorseng *at* gmail *dot* com
• Espen: powerpoint *at* gmail *dot* com
  

That's all for now,

Bye-bye Norway!

There has not been any posts for over a month, but that does now mean we have been sitting around and watched TV for 30 days!
This is what has happened since the last update:

• Espen has been sick
  
• The kitchen has been ripped out
• Anne has been reading for her exams and writing papers all day long. (All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy)
• We have been cleaning out our closet so that it's ready for Anne sister Kristine to live her with her family when we're away.
• Ismaiel in Cape Town has found a Honda car that we can buy when we get down there. Thank you!

Tomorrow night (11/12) we have invited many friends over to a local pub to drink beer and say goodbye. Because of all the things we need to get done before we leave, we found this to be a great way for us to say goodbye to many people at the same time.

Departure is closing in fast, and on the 13. December 18:55 we will take off from Gardermoen (OSL). Many hours later, including a transfer in Frankfurt, we will arrive at Cape Town International Airport at 11:20 on the 14. December.