mandag 30. mai 2011

Nightlife in Hamburg

I must admit that the nightlife here in Hamburg is among the best I have ever experienced. Like anywhere you go it is also here, the people you go out with that make you night, or break your night. I am lukcy enough to have fallen into a great crew with alot of good people and I've made many friends already. Saturday is our big night out while in yard (since we can sleep in a little bit on sundays) so ofcourse we make the most out of it. It is funny how different it is going out with the different departments onboard :) All in all I have had sooo much fun here in Hamburg! (Sorry for crappy photos, not good camera on my Htc!!)
Night out at the beerhall with Navigation (Demis, Matt, Matt + Rebecca (Matt's wife)
Night out with the Gunner's.. that beer barrel was for our table...
Me and Matt loooooves... (haha, only in Germany do you have shops like that in the background)
McFlurry Magnum (almost like a ritual to go and have icecream every now and then..)
Me, Matt and Dimitry in our "sexy coctail bar" haha.
Tapas night!
Matt, Gareth and me on our way home from Tapas

fredag 27. mai 2011

Pimp my Ramform

We had a meeting today with one of the "big cheeses" of PGS, and he was talking about all the upgrades we are getting, the 3 million jobs that are being performed simultaniously onboard now and the 60 million dollar spent or whatever and he mentioned that last boat the went through the same operation was like pimp my Ramform :) Pretty funny and pretty true! We are getting so much nice and bright and cool stuff onboard! In the navigation desk we have no less than 24x24 inches screen + 2x44 inches.. we are buying Bose 7:1 speaker system to the instrumentroom (for entertainment only), cabins are being upgraded, galley is being renewed, a wall in the gym has been knocked out, new treadmill (hurray) etc etc. I think it will be pretty cool! Tried taking a few pictures from the caotic transformation, I also got a few nice pictures from Dimitri.
Me, Matt and Demis trying to remove Nortek head
Streamerdeck caos!!
Me and Gareth waiting for shipments to get onboard
Navigation department :)
Challenger and the city of Hamburg
View from Helideck
Beachbar on the way home from the yard. (notice CHA in the background:)

lørdag 21. mai 2011

Out jogging

Hamburg's got this beautiful park that luckily is only 5min from my hotel. There are so many flowers in this park at the moment that the flower sent is almost too much! Definitly a better running park then the track in Sasebo, Japan! Friday I brought my camerea (phone) on my trip and took some pictures!




 There is also alot of pretty cool grafitti around the area. I came by these walls on my way back from the park. It is actually the wall of a nice hotel! 

onsdag 18. mai 2011

Crash Course in Hamburg

After only 3 weeks (beautiful weeks though) at home in Maui it was yet again time to leave for work. I arrived in Hamburg Tuesday morning (a week ago) and I must admit, it felt goood to set my feet on European soil again for the first time in 8 months. It felt like getting back to civilisation again.. There was normal cafe's, old beautiful buildings, tall people, H&M, Zara, Bianco.. (did some shopping yeah..) and I was atlast back in the same timezone as everyone at home!!
What I have learned so far about Hamburg is that it is a beautiful city with so much to offer! I am really surprised and amazed! First day I walked around city centre and found a big lake and canal and old beautiful buildings and a fantastic park that is now my running spot. I also met one of my favourite people Virginie, that was on her way home from Viking, so we had a nice lunch at a seaside restaurant, did some shopping and went out for dinner and some wine on Reeperbahn.
Reeperbahn is a story for it self by the way. The boat happen to be in yard just about 10min under water tunnel from this famous place, and our hotel is just on the other side of this street. Here you will find tourists and punkrockers and prostitutes and drunks and buisness people side by side. You will find very nice restaurants, but next door might be a sexshop or a erotic movie theatre.. the bars seems never to close, and when I walk to the boat at 6.30am people are still stumbling out of bars and nightclubs.. Quite an interesteing walk to work every day:)

(last two pictures is borrowed from Google Images as I haven't been out capturing the freekshow of Reeperbahn with my own camera yet..)

Butterfly Rain Effect 2011

I was so excited for this years Butterfly effect on Maui. It was my very first one, the wind was back and all was suppose to be great.. Except that it was poooring down rain, super crazy gusty wind and actually quite miserable.. But when that is said, it was also alot of fun. We cleaned up Hookipa for weeds, we did yoga on the beach in a big circle, kitesurfed/windsurfed/SUP together, had pizza at Kanaha and made some new friends.


In the evening there was a fashion show that was actually really good! I met a swedish girl there, so we had some food (and Margarita) on Milagros before the afterparty at Charlies. All in all a fun day, even though the weather gods were not smiling at us... And I was actually freezing cold at one point!!
(Pictures are all from http://betheeffect.com )

torsdag 5. mai 2011

The Butterfly Effect Maui 2011

On Sunday I am going to attend my very first Butterfly Effect event. This is a watergirl event that happens at ceveral different locations around the world each year. 

"The Butterfly Effect brings women together for noncompetitive ocean sport gatherings in coastal cities all over the world. The aim is to instill self-confidence and a love for the ocean in women of all skill levels by providing one-day downwind events, ocean sport holiday trips, and/or ocean sport clinic trips." http://betheeffect.com/home/

I am super excited and sooo looking forward to this event! Hopefully I will get some cool pictures and a nice experience and new friends to blog about afterwards:) 

søndag 1. mai 2011

Maui life part 2

Time for a little update on what's going on here on Maui! Short summary, wind is still blowing, the sea is still beautiful turquoise and the temprature is 25-30 C. So life is still pretty good! I've had 13 great kitedays of the last 14!! And I have been out trying the Wainman 2012 proto types :) Thanks to Mike and Todd..  I know what we're going to be riding next year!! (there is going to be new sizes.. 6.25m, 7.5m, 9m, 10.5m)
A couple of days ago I figured out that I have barely spent any money since I came here.. so I figured it was time to spoil myself a little bit:) Strong NOK makes these purchases pretty good...
I have also been to Milagros and had my favourite amazing Nachos! Can you believe this meal, including the Margarita, is only $10!! Amazing. And to everyone that've had to listen to me dreaming about Milagros Nachos, this is why! (beats the Hard Rock Cafe Nachos ANY DAY)
But all good things have an end:( I have to go back to work on Sunday. Only one more week of this. The good news for all in Norway is, that after 4 weeks in Hamburg I am going to Norway!! So I will be in Norway from 8.june - 13.juli! So looking forward to see everybody and to go to Liv and Håkon's wedding and maybe meet Irene's new baby if it arrives on time! And if anyone is going to Maui between May and mid August, I have a great big nice room for rent!