Rusket's VirtualTourist Home Page

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Railway station owner

Hehe, I have had some comments regarding my new look: I was in desperate need of help to transform myself into a business lady. So I sent an email to a womens magazine, and got a makeover. But I must confess, I do not dress like this all the time :-)

I am the proud owner of a railway station called Brøsjø! It is situated along the main southern railway line in the municipality Drangedal in Telemark, Norway. The trains do not normally stop there, but on the depicted occasion they stopped to let me off at my own station :-) I spend as much time as possible there, but i live most of the time in Stavanger.

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I have not been active on VT lately due to work. For the same reason there has been no travelling. But I am planning a holiday in april:

19 apr - 29 apr 2008: Bosnia and Croatia; Mostar, Split, Vis

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2007:

May / June: A month of travelling through Bulgaria, Greece and Norway. My brain and my camera are full of memories, hopefully I will find time to write them down soon!

July: Mini roadtrip in southern Norway with Igraine and her cousin + birthday celebration at my railway station. Stops at Byrkjedalstunet, Vinje and Vemork.

2 - 15 august: Travelling through Bosnia and Croatia: Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Vinkovci, Brcko, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Ilok, Osijek, Zagreb, Rijeka, Pula.

24 oct - 3 nov: Croatia; Karlovac, Zagreb, Split, Vis

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2006:

January: The crazy North - East Europe road / rail / air trip to
Helsinki, Tallinn, Tartu, Riga, Vilnius, Gudogay, Warsaw and London.
The other members of the expedition:
Backpackermoose, BodX, bradbrown, cachaseiro, poons, and Razmatac

April:
Bratislava, Komarno, Komarom, Budapest, Belgrade, Pljevlja, Zabljak, Durmitor National Park, Sarajevo, Mostar, Kotor , Cavtat, Dubrovnik.

June / July: Three days in St. Goar by the Lorelay, Germany, VT meetings in Sofia, Skopje and Ohrid, a little touring in Macedonia and Bulgaria, VT meeting in Copenhagen and visiting sons and daughters in law in Oslo :-)

September: Scotland, roadtrip with poons + 2 VT meetings

Desember: Roadtrip in western USA with son and daughter in law: San Diego, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Las Vegas, Flaggstaff, Grand Canyon, Kanab, Reno, Redwood National Park , Seattle, Whistler, Squamish, Portland, San Francisco.

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In front of the king's palace

I don't think I am a typical tourist; I rarely visit the well known places but prefer the odd little ones, and I love exploring local trainlines, trams and subways / metros. A typical example is when my youngest son and I visited Paris: We passed underneath Louvre by Metro, but did not get off to go up into the museum and see Mona Lisa :-)

The most exotic, off the beaten track place I have ever been is The Republic of Kiribati, which consists of three groups of atolls in the Pacific Ocean: The Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands. Kiribati lies on both sides of equator and both sides of the date line, and it is 3000 km from the easternmost to the westernmost island.

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My first journey

I have always loved travelling. When I was little we used to go by train to visit my grandmother who lived downtown Trondheim, two or three stops away.

My first longer journey took place in april 1961. My mother and I went to Copenhagen via Oslo to visit my uncle and his family. By train, offcourse :-) Ordinary people simply did not travel by air in those days. On the way back we travelled through Sweden. A Scandinavian round trip was cheaper than returning the same way. Why me, why was I the lucky one to go with my mother, and not one of my three older siblings? The simple answer to that is that it did not cost anything to bring me along, since I was not yet six years old ;-)

The picture shows me in front of the Kings Palace in Oslo. I did not dare to go closer, the guardsman in the background looked a bit dangerous :-]

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Bergsfjord

My second journey

The summer I was nine, my parents, my sister and I went to see another uncle and his family living in a small village called Bergsfjord in the municipality Loppa in western Finnmark. Unfortunately there are no trains going all the way to Finnmark, but the journey with Hurtigruten (The Coastal Express) was very nice! They are still running the service, nowadays with bigger, more modern ships: http://www.hurtigruten.com/index.asp
Although the Coastal Express has become very popular amongst tourists, it is still used by local people and for transportation of goods.
On our way back, we left the ship in Bod¸, and went back to Trondheim by train.

(6 years later we went back to Finnmark again, this time to ¨ksfjord, where my uncle and his family had relocated. I have built a Finnmark page with tips and pictures from these two journeys, and a third journey in 1983.)

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Hiller¸d Castle

Denmark

The following years there was a lot of travelling, but only within Scandinavia. In 1965 and 1967 my parents, my sister and I went to Denmark. The first time on a family holiday, the second as participants on a tour with my school chorus and string orchestra. I participated in both, and had some difficulties choosing when we had performances ;-) My sister sang in the chorus, my father was the chairman of the string orchestra and my mother was a tour guide. The picture shows some of the tour participants in front of Krohnborg Castle by Oresund, not far from Copenhagen. No, it is not Krohnborg, it is Hiller¸d, according to TheView! Thank you Allan, for this correction :-)

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Kl¸verhytta

Scouting

From 1962 to 1969 I was a Girl Scout. We went for many a hike, camping tours and jamborees.

The scouts in Trondheim have their own cabin in Bymarka called Kl¸verhytta (The Clover Cabin).

This picture, taken in the spring of 1968, shows our leader taking a picture of some of the older girls.

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Easter in Bymarka, Trondheim

Our cabin in Bymarka

My family bought a cabin in Bymarka by Trondheim in 1957. We usually spent 2 months every summer there, and the easter holiday. In 1968 there was a LOT of snow, and my father and I went up there one weekend to clear the snow before easter. When we got there we were surprised to find that the snow was already cleared. My two brothers had done it the day before, as a surprise for my father :-)

There was a tunnel both by the road, where I am standing on the picture, and in front of the entrance door, and we did not have to bend our heads to walk through it. Our neighbour Mrs. Johnsen planted a flag over the tunnel entrance :-) Between this weekend and the easter holiday we had even more snow, and it was easier to walk over the roof than around the cabin :-)

The first time I tavelled by air was in 1968. I had caught a ride with my cousin to Oslo, and on the return to Trondheim I bought my own plane ticket. It costed NOK 98 (student price)! I had long dreamt of flying, it was great! And I still love to fly!!! And to travel by train. And by boat ...

In 1972 The European Railway Association celebrated their 75th anniversary, and offered young people to travel through Europe for the price of NOK 475 (Interrail). This became my first real backpacker trip, and my first trip abroad. (No, norwegians do not call Denmark and Sweeden "abroad" :-) ) (Later Interrail became a permanent offer.)

As for me, this Interrail trip led to an early marriage, two children and several trips by air or car between Norway and Croatia :-) A busy life as a student, housewife and mother of two left little time for backpacking. But I have caught up with that bit the later years :-)

Over the years I have been on a lot of business trips within Europe. But business trips are not that very interesting; wherever you go you see an airport, a hotel and a factory or a company's offices.

My first trip outside Europe was to Morocco in 1982, and my first trip overseas to California in 1997.

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Koala

The later years

February 1997: (California)
June / July 1998: Florida and Houston, Texas
New Year 2000 / 2001: Mexico

August 2001 - May 2002: Around the world:
- By air to London and Newark
- With Amtrak to Providence, Boston, Springfield, St. Albans, bus to Montreal, Albany, Sandusky, Cleveland, Washington DC, Alexandria, Fort Lauderdale
- By air to Edmonton
- Car Through Jasper and Banff
- By air from Vancouver to San Francisco
- Car around northern California (Railtown State Historic Park, Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada, Sequoia National Park)
- By air to Hawaii, Fiji (Mana Island), Kiribati, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia
- 2 1/2 months by train around Australia: Sydney, Alice Springs, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Frasier Island, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Brisbane, Sydney
- By air to Malaysia and South Africa
- Safari by truck from Johannesburg through Zimbabwe
, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya
- By air from Nairobi via Adis Ababa and Cairo to Frankfurt
- Interrail: Frankfurt, Paris, Barcelona, Grenada, Rhonda, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt
- By air / train to Karlovac, Croatia and back home

July 2004: Interrail through Europe: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Croatia (Komiza, Otok Bisevo, Hvar), Hungary, Tsjekkia, Germany, Sweden and back home.
March / April 2005: Backpacking around Montenegro without camera! (Went back in 2006 WITH camera :-)

I have started building pages about these journeys. But I have no clear strategy, and write a little about this and a little aout that, so much to share, so little time to do it :-(