BalyRoad - featuring "Hamburg Fine Dining Society"

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" goes to Stavanger! Restaurant Akropolis!

2010-08-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

Restaurant 5, 23/08-10

It was a rainy Monday evening in Stavanger. I was walking around randomly downtown, looking for a place to eat dinner. The rain forced me into zipping up my jacket. It was a bit windy too.. Not very pleasant at all. But a man must eat! So I ignored the rain, and stubbornly continued my lonely pursuit for a decent restaurant. Just when I was beginning to consider the possibility of just grabbing some fast food I saw an old familiar place! The Greek restaurant Akropolis! I had been there once before, 2-3 years ago, together with my friends Ellen and Preben, and remembered the wonderful lunch I had there then! I didn't hesitate for a second, but rushed towards the restaurant with great haste!

Inside the restaurant I saw many formally dressed people occupying most of the tables. They were probably in town for the annual ONS conference, the biggest oil conference in Norway. A couple of very busy looking waiters were running around while carrying an impressive number of plates in their hands. One of them noticed the new arrival, and lead me to a small table under the stairway.. I felt a bit like I was stuffed into a box. Very limited space to move arms and legs. Fortunately, the waiter returned shortly after, and asked if I wanted a table on the second floor. I replied: "Yes, I would very much like that"

The meals in the menu all sounded very exotic and unfamiliar to me, and I didn't understand much of it. It was like Greek to me! (Sorry, I had to..) Specialities like Minotauros, El Greka, Gyros and Calamari all sounded tempting, but I chose to go for a slightly less exotic meal, namely Moussaka! Moussaka has become quite common the last few years, and you can buy boxes of easy-to-make Moussaka in the store. However, I cannot recall ever eating a "real" Moussaka. Only the cheap, easy ones.

The Moussaka was very tasty! It consists of minced meat on top of a bed of potatoes and aubergines, topped with white sauce. It looks like Lasagne in many ways, but has got a different taste. A fresh salad with tzatziki accompanied the meal. The Moussaka itself has got a mild taste, so I was relieved to discover that the red onion in the salad added some punch and craziness to the overall experience. I was very satisfied in the end!

My major complaint about restaurant Akropolis is that the first floor is only 1,95 meters high.. So I have to move around very awkwardly in order not to bump my head into things. But It's a bit charming somehow as well. Most Greeks are probably not as tall as me anyway.

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 4 - Schlachterbörse

2009-02-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Restaurant 4, 26/01-09, Schlachterboerse

3rd of October is "Tag der Deutschen Einheit", a day of celebration in Germany. This day commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990. I was in Hamburg last time this took place, so naturally I decided to check out the celebrations. In the Speicherstadt area a lot of tents had been put up, each tent having a theme from one of the 16 States of Germany. A lot of traditional German food and drinks was served everywhere. In between all the tents I spotted a small coffee booth and I decided to have myself a cup of this wonderful drink. By coincidence, the girl selling me the coffee had actually lived in Norway, so we started talking a bit. Kathy, that's her name, told me that she was working part time as a waitress in a restaurant called "Schlachterboerse". I hadn't heard about the restaurant at the time, and didn't know anything about it, but oh my would that be about to change!

Not long after this I had to go to North Africa for a month, for work, but when I came back I decided to check out Schlachterboerse. I had read briefly about it on their web site, but I didn't know exactly what to expect. But as soon as I entered the place I knew this would be something out of the ordinary! The place radiated a kind of warmth, like the feeling of coming home after a long time, and the staff and customers all looked like they were part of one big family. I was seated on a long table with a bunch of strangers I had never seen before. As soon as I placed the first piece of steak between my teeth I couldn't help but smiling, realizing I was eating one of the best steaks I'd ever tasted!

This was my first visit to Schlachterboerse, in early November. I have often thought about going back again, but haven't really had the opportunity. But about a week ago I was at my friend Meggan's birthday party, and I started talking with two other friends, Jorma (from Finland) and Pierre (from France), about good restaurants in Hamburg. Pierre looked at me and said "listen Tor, there are many good restaurants in Hamburg, but if you want a really extraordinary steak then nothing compares to Schlachterboerse"! My eyes widened, and I immediately told Pierre that I had actually been there, and that I loved the place! One thing led to another and me, Jorma and Pierre agreed to meet up Monday evening and go there again!

Schlachterboerse is an intimate restaurant, not very large at all. The restaurant has three stories. There is one room in the basement behind the counter, one room right by the entrance, and one room in the very back, a bit elevated from the rest of the restaurant. Not sure if that's actually a good description, but whatever. We were sitting in the main room.. so not the elevated area, and not the basement. The walls are decorated with all sort of stuff! Lots of pictures of famous people who have visited the restaurant, the Bee Gees for example. Behind the counter, close to the ceiling, two big bull horns are hanging on the wall. On one section of the wall they have put up a bunch of money bills from different parts of the world. In order to be on the safe side one should always call ahead and reserve a table before going to Schlachterboerse. I had done that of course, so when we entered the restaurant we already had a table waiting for us. We had a look through the menu and quickly decided on ordering the Chateaubriand medium/rare to share between all three of us. The waitress responded by saying "I knew it! It's the best!". We then got the waitress' recommendations for wine, a 2006 South African red wine, very fruity and not too strong. We also agreed to have some tartar for starter.

The waitress seemed to recognize Pierre, and when Pierre mentioned that he had been to the restaurant a while ago with his parents, the waitress asked Pierre to bring her greetings! She also recognized my face, but when I told her it was only my second time at the restaurant she refused to believe me and said she was sure she had seen me at least 10 times. Perhaps I have a "doppelganger" in Hamburg...

The Chateaubriand at Schlachterboerse is a story for itself! Truly special! You're not just getting a piece of steak on a plate like a usual restaurant, but the waitress brings the whole piece of meet over to your table and cuts it up for you right there and then! The Bearnaise sauce is probably the best Bearnaise I've ever tasted, and the side dishes of friend potatoes and spinnage stew supplements the steak brilliantly. The Chateaubriand is the center of attention though, because the quality of this meat is top notch! It's so tasty and juicy, and almost melts in your mouth! Perfection is a word that comes to mind! Jorma, Pierre and me were really enjoying the meal. I had to close my eyes a few times and just enjoy the moment. Jorma had not been to Schlachterboerse before, but he liked the place immediately, and said he would like to take his parents here one time if possible.

Afterwards, me and Jorma had a dessert consisting of red berries in rum sause with ice cream. Pierre decided to go for the chocolate fondue. A suitable finale!

All in all this was a memorable visit to Schlachterboerse, and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening! Pierre suggested we should do this again. Not necessarily at Schlachterboerse, but another fine restaurant. We're already talking about one particulate seafood restaurant we want to check out. But one thing is for sure, Schlachterboerse hasn't seen the last of me yet...

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 3 - Corco Vado

2009-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Restaurant 3, 15/01-09, Corco Vado

BACKGROUND: I was sitting around in my hotel room reading some tourist guides, mostly looking at the "dining out" sections, looking for interesting restaurants. Some of the restaurants in the tourist guide sounded pretty cool, like "Restaurant Raven", "Alster Pavilion" and "Corco Vado". However, I wasn't able to decide where I wanted to go so I threw away the tourist guides and went down-town to buy some football training wear. Afterwards I was getting hungry and I was a bit annoyed with myself that I hadn't noted down where some of those restaurants were located. I decided to walk in the direction of "Vapiano", a good Italian place I had been to before, and just keep my eye open for other potentially interesting places. And I was about halfway to "Vapiano" when I discovered a restaurant with a familiar sounding name, "Corco Vado"! I immediately remembered reading about the place in one of the tourist guides and decided to check it out!

FIRST IMPRESSION: I stepped inside the restaurant and was greeted by a bartender. He guided me to the coat stand where I put away my hat and coat. The restaurant was almost empty, only one other table was taken. So I was free to pick whatever table I wanted. In the middle of the restaurant there was a small area that was elevated a bit from the rest of the restaurant, so I took one of the tables there. I realized that the restaurant also had some closed-off rooms you could rent for private parties and such. I later also learned that the restaurant actually has a private two lane bowling alley you can rent! I didn't get to try that out though... I sat down at my table with my back against the wall so I had a perfect overview of the whole restaurant. I noticed a couple of Brazilian flags hanging from the ceiling. The menu also had some Brazilian sounding dishes, so the restaurant definitely had a Brazilian theme going. The sitting areas were devided into booths along the wall, just like an American style diner. A little detail was that each booth had a painted window above the table, so you almost got the feeling you were sitting by a window even though it was only a brick wall. All the chairs and couches were padded with a stunning, intricate flower pattern. The tables were solid wood, and were not decorated with a table cloth. I liked the style of the restaurant. It was quite simple, and not too fancy. 8/10

WAITING TIME: On my previous two restaurant review I have had no complaints about the waiting time, but this time I actually did. Well, it wasn't a bit deal really, I got my food and everything right on time, but after I had finished eating and the waitress had taken away my empty plate I had to wait 20 minutes for the check! Of course, I could probably have asked the bartender to get it for me, but I wanted to see how long it would take for the waitress to walk by me. I have to take away a few points here because of the long wait for the check, but I got the food and everything on time, so I can't give a too negative score. 6/10

STAFF: Staff was friendly, but nothing more. I have to admit that when I'm writing this review now it's been three days since I was at the restaurant. And honestly I can hardly remember the staff. So they didn't exactly leave a big impression on me. I noticed, however, that the waitress messed up the orders from some of the other customers. She forgot some of the stuff they ordered. But I got everything I ordered, so I won't complain. I'll just give 7/10 points for this one. Nothing special, but I don't have any major complaints either.

APPETIZER: I decided to go for the Chorizo appetizer which sounded good. It was two thick South American style sausages with mustard and a small salad on the side. The sausages were really tasty, and they had a lot of meat in them, so it was almost a bit too much as an appetizer. Especially if you, like me, have a big steak or something as the main course. But I was hungry, so I didn't mind having
a big heavy appetizer! 8/10

MAIN COURSE: I decided to try out the "Steak Rio de Janeiro" from the menu. When the waitress took my order I was unsure whether to go for "Steak Rio de Janeiro" and "Steak Cognac - Pepper Sause". So I asked for the waitress recommendation, and she said I should definitely try out "Steak Rio de Janeiro" if I hadn't tried it before. It was more unique than the other one. So I took her advice. The steak was served with home made potato wedges, a salad and a crisp breat on the side. In addition, the steak was served in a pepper sause with mussels in it which was something completely new to me!
I never thought of steak and mussels as a good combination, but it proved to work quite well actually! I was a little bit unlucky with the piece of meat I got, because on one side they hadn't cut away all the excess fat from it. So I had to cut it away myself. But other than that it was a lovely meal! Great potato wedges, crisp buttery bread, and with the excess fat out of the way, the steak was lovely.
8/10

TOTAL VERDICT: Cosco Vado was definitely a place worth checking out, and also a place I'd like to go back to. But probably not alone. I would like to go with a small group of people, and also try out that private bowling area they're supposed to have. The restaurant specializes in both "Fleisch" (meat) and "Fisch" (fish), so it's likely anyone will find something they like here! 7.5/10

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 2 - OLD COMMERCIAL ROOM

2009-01-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Restaurant 2, 10/1-09, Old Commercial House - By Michaeli's Kirche

BACKGROUND: 5 days have passed since my last restaurant review. So what happened, have I not been to any restaurants since then? Well, I must admit I have been to a couple of places, but haven't bothered to write a review. So my new year's resolution is already starting to fall apart. But if I tell you that the places I've been to lately have been McDonalds and Starbucks then perhaps you agree that it would be a waste of time writing a review? Anyway, today I decided to go to a place I've been wanting to go to for a while, namely "Old Commercial House". First time I found out about the place was in September 2008 when I did a "Stadtrundfart", which is a guided bus tour around Hamburg. When the tour bus drove past the St. Michael's church I saw a sign across the street from the church saying something like "the best labskaus in Hamburg" or something. Ever since then I've been wanting to try out this lapskaus. Today I finally got the chance to do so!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: One of the first things to struck me upon entering the restaurant was the social atmosphere. Customers were talking loudly with each other around the tables and laughter was hanging in the air. The waiters and waitresses were also spending time chatting and joking with the customers. One of the waitresses noted the new arrival and guided me to a nice table by the wall, close to a window with a view to the famous Michael's church. The walls were decorated with old black-and-white photos from Hamburg, many of them taken near the restaurant. Several photos were from the early 1900s. Some were photos of guests that had visited the restaurant before. The majority of the photos and interiour had a maritime theme. I liked the atmosphere of the place right away! 9/10 points for first impression.

WAITING TIME: I didn't have to wait long for anything. I was guided to a table just a few seconds after entering the restaurant. I spent a couple of minutes going through the menu, although I already knew what I wanted (labskaus). When the waitress came by I ordered the labskaus, and something to drink. Just a few minutes later everything was served and I was happily eating. Later, the dessert and coffee was also served promtly. 10/10 points, no issues with waiting time.

STAFF: The staff was very friendly. The waitress and waiters were taking time to talk to the customers, and repeatedly walked by to check if everything
was ok. The waitress who served me appologized for not speaking very good English, but this didn't cause any problems or misunderstandings with the orders. The first waiter who guided me to a table said "I have a beautiful table and a beautiful waitress for a handsome gentleman like yourself". I think the waitress was a bit embarassed by that. And I didn't quite know what to say. In my first restaurant review from Block House I mentioned that the staff there didn't really make me feel special, but here in Old Commercial Room I felt the waitress did a better job at it, and I did feel like I was being treated a bit special! I give 9/10 points to the staff here!

MAIN COURSE: The labskaus was served with two eggs, pickels and some red beets. The labskaus had a pinkish colour, and was very smooth. When I think of labskaus I usually think of my dad's labskaus, and that labskaus is usually quite rough, with whole pieces of meet and potatoes and other stuff in it. The labskaus at the Old Commercial Room was not like that, it was completely smooth, almost like mashed potatoes. But I actually think I would've prefered to have some bigger pieces of meat and stuff in it. The taste was good though! It tasted pretty much like I expect a labskaus to taste. But some spices or something would have been good I think. I had to put some salt and pepper on it simply to give it a bit more taste. All in all I was quite happy with it though. I mean, a labskaus is a labskaus, so it would take something really spectacular to blow me away, but I wasn't disappointed either. It was pretty much like I expected. I have to say, though, that just the fact that they are serving labskaus is great! You can't get that in many other restaurants these days! 8/10

Total verdict: Old Commercial Room was a very intimate and friendly restaurant in a great location, just next to St. Michael's church. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay this evening, and will definitely try to go back again later. Before I had even arrived at the restaurant I already knew that I wanted the labskaus, but when looking at the menu I realized that they also have many other interesting fish and meat dishes, so next time I'll try some other stuff. Old Commercial Room has been visited by several famous guests over the years, some examples are John Denver ("country road", "leaving on a jet plane"), Sean Connery, Jethro Tull, Dennis Hopper, The Beatles, Willy Brand, Jack White (White Stripes), etc. So the restaurant must be doing many things right when they are able to attract these kinds of guests!
9/10 points for a great meal at the restaurant!

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 1 - BLOCK HOUSE

2009-01-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Restaurant 1, 5/1-09, Block House - Kirchenallee

BACKGROUND: My new year's resolution is to write a restaurant review for every restaurant I visit. Today was the first, and the lucky restaurant to receive my visit was Block House on the Kirchenallee street, right next to Hauptbahnhof Sud in Hamburg. I had been down to the Hauptbahnhof to renew my U-bahn ticket, and afterwards I got hungry and wanted to find a restaurant nearby. When I saw Block House I decided to go there. This wasn't the first time I visited a Block House restarurant in Hamburg, but I hadn't been to this particular one. Still, from my previous visits I knew that Block House served quality food, so this wasn't much of a risk. Block House is a chain of restaurants in Germany. I think there are 34 restaurants in total, and many of them are located in Hamburg. But they also have restaurants in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.

FIRST IMPRESSION: The entrance to the Block House restaurant is easy to find. Just go to Kirchenallee and look for the big Block House sign (doh!). Upon entering I noticed that the place was quite busy already, even though it was only 17:30 in the afternoon. Several waiters were running around taking orders and serving food. One waiter rushed by me and told me in Germany to just take any table I liked. At least I think that's what he said... So I moved further into the restaurant and found a table pretty much in the middle of everything. The restaurant itself is quite large. One of the first things I noticed when moving a bit into the restaurant was the theatre kitchen where I could watch the chefs prepare the steaks and everything. That's one of the things I really like about Block House! It's quite entertaining to watch the chefs do their work, especially if you're just by yourself like I sometimes am. The style of the interior is plain and simple. White brick walls, and dark wooden paneling some places. Several wine racks were spread around the building. Nothing too fancy about the interiour really. I got the impression that this is a place where the food is in focus, and they haven't put too much effort into making the interior look spectacular. Nothing wrong with putting the focus on the food though! I give 7/10 points for the first impression.

WAITING TIME: Top score on this! I entered the restaurant at 17:20 and sat down at the cozy little table in the middle of the restaurant, quite close to the coat stand actually. Around a minute later I got the menu. I decided on what to order quite fast, and another waitress came by and took my order at 17:30. At 17:33 I got my salad appetizer. I finished it by 17:40. The first waiter then came with the main course at 17:42. Yeah..., I actually had my watch out and took a note of all of these times. Later, after I was finished eating, I got a coffee just a minute after I ordered it, and I also received the check just a couple of minutes after I asked for it. 10/10 points here!

STAFF: I've got no real complaints about the staff. Everytime I needed something I got the staff's attention pretty quickly. It could be because my table was right in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiters/waitresses walked past me all the time, so I didn't have to do more than look at them to get their attention. While I was eating I was left alone, except one time when one of the waiters gave me the mandatory question if everything was alright. I said "sehr gut!",
smiled, and continued eating. I did get the feeling though, that the waiters/waitresses only did precisely what they were supposed to do, and nothing more. To deserve a higher score they would've had to make me feel more special. 7.5/10

APPETIZER: The typical appetizer at Block House is their crispy salad with your choice of dressing. So that's what I took. I've previously had the American dressing with it, but this time I decided to go for the French dressing. Other alternatives are Italian and Greek dressing, and maybe even other types. The salad itself is very basic. Lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions etc. It's a salad that works fine as an appetizer, but doesn't blow you away. I felt like I could easily have made this myself at home in a few minutes. Except the dressing maybe, which is quite good! Anyway, the salad appetizer didn't impress me too much, so no top score for this one. I give it 5.5/10 points.

MAIN COURSE: The first thing that caught my eye when I opened the menu was the "New Year's Cut: Rib-Eye Steak 230g, mit Garlic Mashed Potatoes und
Knoblauchbrot". A red wine from 2006 (didn't get to read where it was from, the waiter took my menu before I got the chance) was also recommended, so I ordered
that as well. And let there be no doubt about Block House abilities to serve steaks, cause this was top notch! The medium cooked steak itself was just as it should be, tender, juicy and very tasty. And the mashed potatoes and garlic butter was a great supplement to the steak, and the tastes complemented each other in a great way. Not to mention the "Knoblauchbrot" which lifted the total experience even higher. The only thing was the "knoblauchbrot" could have been a bit crispier. The red wine was also good. I'm not a wine expert, but this was a very fruity wine with a gentle, but quite short aftertaste. All in all I have almost only positiv things to say about the main course! The only reason I won't give it 10 points is because of the "Knoblauchbrot" wasn't quite crisp enough for me. So 9/10 points on this one.

TOTAL VERDICT: I had a great meal at the Block House. My expectations were quite high, because I've been there before and have liked the food there, and I wasn't disappointed this time either. I would definitely recommend a meal at one of the Block House restaurants to anyone visiting Hamburg. The restaurant itself is quite large and on the night it was very crowded, so the waiters/waitresses were quite busy running around attending all the customers. I got their attention every time I needed it though. The only thing was I got the feeling they were in a rush all the time, and didn't feel like was being treated special in any way. Some places I've been to I do get this feeling, but that's mostly smaller places. Maybe it's the price you pay for being a big restaurant that you can't spend too much time with each customer? Anyway, it wasn't a big deal, and as I wrote in the beginning, I really did have a great meal. 8/10 points.

New year, new possibilities!

2009-01-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year again, when people say good bye to the old, and look forward to what the new year will bring. Some people say it's like closing a chapter in a book and starting on a new one, some say it's like putting the signature on a painting and start painting on a new white canvas.

Some people have new year's resolutions. Especially people who smoke. I think I've had some new year's resolutions myself up through the years, but I can't remember what they were. I've got one this year as well. It's simply to write a restaurant review every time I've been to a restaurant. Which is quite often considering how much I've been traveling lately! So since I'm working in Hamburg at the moment I'm going to start here. I'm pretty sure I'll get bored with it after a while, but I'll give it a go at least!

I'll probably put the reviews out on this blog as well.

Libya, Hamburg, and so on...

2008-12-02T04:25:00.000-08:00

My last blogg entry was when I returned to Hamburg from Egypt, around one month ago.

I only spend one weekend in Hamburg before I flew down to Tripoli in Libya to work there for two weeks. Again I travelled with the three Germans from RWE Dea. Marcus, the project manager, was the only one who had been there before. We basically had no idea where we were going to stay in Tripoli. Our worst fear was that we didn't have any hotel reservation at all, but we also had a faint hope that perhaps we would be staying at the Corinthia hotel, maybe the best hotel in North Africa. We got something in between, a decent hotel called Thobacts. Quite small, very disorganized staff, but brand new and very clean.

Work in Libya was less stressful than in Egypt, but we still had to work almost every day. Over the two weeks we stayed there we managed to take two days off, both of them Fridays. One of the days we spent exploring the old part of Tripoli. It was certainly an experience walking through the narrow streets and looking at all the stuff people were selling in the markets. Some streets were filled with small shops selling various spices. The smell was wonderfully exotic! There were also plenty of shops selling fake stuff. Fake iPhones, fake D&G clothes, fake CAT choes, and so on...

The next Friday we went to Leptis Magna, an incredible place! It's one hour's drive outside Tripoli, and is an old Roman city that was destroyed by earthquakes and villains hundreds of years ago. As the years went by the whole city was covered in a thick layer of sand. But recently the old ruins have been excavated, and the old Roman city has been partly restored. So I was walking through the old streets of a once great city, admiring the great triumph arches, tall columns, and of course - the impressive theater! Sitting in the theater looking down upon the stage I let my thoughts drift and imagined being at an old Roman play, surrounded by soldiers, workers, traveling merchants... It was all very impressive!

We were working in Tripoli most of the time, but of course we had a trip out to a drilling rig to set up the system there. This time the rig was out in the desert. It was not the kind of desert with sand dunes, but a very rocky kind of desert. Me and a local Libyan IT guy flew down there, while the Germans drove by car. An 8 hour drive... The plane departed from Tripoli airport and landed in the middle of the desert, at "Mabrouk oilfield", run by the French company Total. We then drove from the airstrip to the oilrig. We stayed out there for 4 days, working quite hard. There wasn't really much else to do out there than work. I found it quite enjoyable though! The temperature was not too hot during the day, and not too cold during the night. And just being out in the desert for the first time was all quite exciting!

All in all I enjoyed Tripoli quite a lot! I felt very safe when walking around in the streets, and the people I met were very friendly. "Welcome to my country!", "Yes basketball!", "Hello long man!" were examples of what people were saying when they saw me. I did get the impression though, that it takes a long time to do stuff in Tripoli. For example, a year ago the government decided to demolish lots of buildings to build a new highway there. But still they haven't started the construction of the highway, so all the remains of the demolished houses are just laying there in piles... Not very nice to look at. On the other hand, the Libyan government seems to open up a bit more to foreign investors and so on, and I saw many new skyscapers being planned in the next few years.

After Libya I returned to Hamburg again, but I also got to get back to Norway in the weekend, for the first time in two months. My brother was also home from the US that same weekend so it was good timing. Now I'm going to stay in Hamburg until the 19th of December, hopefully not longer, cause I would like to celebrate Christmas at home as usual. I've never spent a Christmas away from my family actually! It will probably happen sooner rather than later, but this year it would be good to be at home, considering I've spent so much time away lately.

Cairo, Egypt

2008-10-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

For more than two months I've been working on a project for the German oil company RWE Dea AG. I've mostly been working from Hamburg, but on Saturday 18th of October me and 3 Germans from the oil company flew down to Cairo in Egypt to continue the project there.

Today it's the 31st of October, and I'm returning to Hamburg for the weekend, after two busy and very challenging weeks. But we got the job done in the end, and our computer systems for real-time drilling operations are now up and running. So my stay in Egypt was all in all a success!

My time in Cairo was mostly spent working, but I did have some time to look around in Maadi (the part of Cairo I stayed in), and made a few interesting observations. The first thing that struck me on the way from the airport to the hotel was the traffic. I knew Cairo traffic had reputation of being particularly bad, but now I could see for myself how it was. And it was really bad... Almost all drivers seemed to be only thinking about themselves, and not minding the other cars around them. People were changing lanes at random without any signal, some cars suddenly stopped and went in reverse, some cars drove in the wrong direction, and the most obvious thing - everybody was honking like crazy all the time! I later heard from a Germany woman living in Cairo that some of the honking is done in a code language to communicate in a way.

In the evenings I usually went out to eat with the three Germans from RWE Dea AG. Most of the time we went to TGI Friday's by the river Nile, or Restaurant 55 on Road 9. One thing that made the Egyptian restaurants different than European restaurants was that almost all restaurants were serving "Shisha" - water pipe! This is a big cultural thing in Egypt, and almost everybody smokes it. You get all sorts of flavours - mint, apple, peach, anis, cherry, cappuchino - you name it! My German collegues loved the stuff and smoked it almost every night! I should emphazise that none of them smoked water pipes with hashis or marijuana or anything, only "harmless" tobacco with added flavour.

After setting up our computer systems in the office in Cairo we all headed for the "North-West Khilala" rig site for 4 days to set up the system there. We didn't really know much about what the rig site would be like. We knew it was in the Nile delta, and not in the desert, but we had no clue what the living conditions were going to be like or anything. But whatever expectations I may have had it turned out to be quite different than anything I had imagined! First of all, the drive from Cairo to the rig was a total adventure! The closer we got to the rig, the worse the roads got, and the scenery more and more interesting. We drove by small villages where farmers rode on mules or plowed the fields by hand, or with the help of some bulls. The women were washing clothes in the river, often dressed in a full burka. Kids and animals alike were all bathing in the Nile. It was facinating to see all of this! It was raining most of the day, so the roads got worse and worse. The last distance we drove to get to the rig didn't look much like a road at all!

I had to work almost non-stop at the rig site to get the work done, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, cause there isn't really much to do there. Only watch some TV, or perhaps read a book if you remembered to bring one. My 3 German collegues had brought a "Shisha" from Cairo, so they spent most of the evenings getting it to work, and then smoking it. One problem at the rig site was the cell phone coverage, it was very limited. But we found out that a small area in one corner of the rig site was a little bit better than other places, so we managed to stay in touch with civilization there.

One interesting thing I learned in Cairo was that foreign companies are required to hire 3 Egyptians for every foreign guy they hire. Naturally, for an oil company it may be hard to find 3 qualified petro-physicists or geo-physicists for each foreigner they hire, so instead they hire some Egyptians to walk around serving coffee or drinks to the staff. And also some to work as company drivers (which is very useful to have, since only the local Egyptians know the unwritten rules of Cairo traffic).

My birthday came up during my stay in Cairo, and the 3 Germans had somehow found out about this, so they arranged tickets for a laser show at the Pyramids, and then later a dinner at a superb restaurant at a hotel right next to the Pyramids. It was a big surprise, and a very memorable birthday!

Now I'm trying to have a relaxing weekend in Cairo before heading for Libya on Monday. That will be very intersting, and possible the most challenging job I've done so far...

Hamburg

2008-09-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

The last three weeks I've been working in Hamburg, Germany. The project I'm working on is quite interesting, and will probably also take me to Libya and Egypt soon. I don't want to write too much about work though, so instead I will put down a few words about my expeiences in Hamburg so far.

First I should tell you that I've never really been to Hamburg before. I've driven through on my way down to Krefelt one time, but I never had the chance to stop by and check out the city. So I didn't know too much about it before I got down here. And I must admit Hamburg is a bigger city than I thought it was. With a population of 1,8 million it is Germany's second largest city, only Berlin is larger. Hamburg has also got the second largest harbour area in all of Europe! Only Rotterdam in Holland is larger! It is safe to say that Hamburg's maritime heritage and history of sea trade identifies the city in many ways. We in Norway will be familiar with the Hanseatic Union that Hamburg was a big part of. The city Bergen in Norway is also known for being a part of that.

When talking about Hamburg I guess it is impossible not to mention the Reeperbahn. Arguably Europe's most well known red light district. People come here to visit some of the many clubs and bars in the area, but some also head for the more shady places, like the closed off Herbertstrasse where a women of a certain proffession offer their services to men. I haven't spent too much time in this area of town, but I did notice that a lot of the hookers hang out around Burger King of all places.

The hotel I'm staying at is called "Hotel Smolka". It's a small hotel, probably no more than 50 rooms, but I really like it! The staff is very friendly, and the location couldn't be much better. I think the area is called Eppendorf (or perhaps Rothenbaum, one of those two definitely), and it's a very upper class neighborhood. The houses and apartment buildings in the area are very classy, and there are also a lot of consulates here. One of the guys working here has been all over the southern part of Norway, even in Spangereid where I grew up!

Most of the time I spend in Hamburg is work. And when I'm done working for the day I don't always have the energy to go out and do a lot. So my exploration of the city has mostly been done in the weekends. Here are some photos I've taken, and a description of what I was doing when I took them:

- Most of the work I do is done in an office in Hamburg, but I've had a few trips to this drilling rig to set up some computer systems.

- These photos are taken from "Miniature Wonderland", the worlds biggest miniature model train exhibition!

- In center of Hamburg you find the "Rathaus" (town hall). It was completely destroyed during a big fire in the 1800's, but was rebuilt and finished in 1896. I had a tour of this building. Quite interesting actually. Hamburg is both a city and a state in Germany, so they have both a city council and a state government. They're both located in the "Rathaus".

- This is St. Michael's church, often regarded as "the symbol of Hamburg". Walking up to the top gives you a brilliant view of Hamburg, in all directions.

- This is one of the oldest houses in Hamburg. It's located in the Rothenbaum area, where they have a law that says you cannot build a house taller than the trees already located on the property...

- The Planitarium is located in Hamburg's Stadtpark (city park). It's actually a movie theatre with a 180 degree screen in the ceiling. So you buy a ticket, lean back in your chair, and watch spectacular space themed movies! In the movie I saw they simulated a hyper-fast space travel from Earth to the closest galaxy (Alpha Centauri). It was really cool actually!

- One Sunday someone arranged a car race for veteran cars. Thousands of people bought tickets to come and see this! I was just walking around in the park when I suddenly heard some loud engine sounds. Naturally I was pulled towards it and was quite excited when I saw what it was! :)

Hotel booking - musical style!

2008-08-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

My friends Yngve and Hannah invited me over for chilli the other day. Afterwards Yngve told me about this incredibly funny radio show he had heard. We spent a few minutes googling and managed to find the show on mp3. I've listened to it a couple of times now, and it really is funny! :)

The radio show is called "O-Fag" (it's Norwegian, it's the name of a school subject kids have in primary school). The hosts of the show are two well known Norwegian commedians, the "Ylvis brothers".

In this particular show one of the Ylvis brothers challenges the other one to call a hotel in London to book a room. But to make it more interesting the whole thing has to be done in the form of a musical!

I can't quite explain it, you have to listen to it yourself. Check out this link (it's in English)!

http://rita.nrk.no/community/o-fag/mp3/uploads/o-fag_hotellbooking.mp3

Hop on the bus, Gus...

2008-07-30T02:08:00.000-07:00

During the last couple of months I've started taking the bus to work almost every day. At some point last Spring I was getting so frustrated with being stuck in traffic every morning, and found out it's a lot more comfortable chillin' in the back of the bus, listening to my iPod, half asleep.

Besides, it's supposed to be good for the environment to take public transportation. Maybe even help stop the global warming stuff going on. But considering my job is to help oil companies find more oil I guess I'm not entitled to brag too much about helping the environment...

Anyway, lately the traffic has been a lot better! It's flowing really smooth all the way to downtown! A lot less cars on the road for some reason! So I could probably start taking the car to work again now, but so far I've been sticking to the bus. I guess I just like it so much.

There is one thing that may get me to take the car again though. The case is that in order to get to work I have to take two buses. First bus nr M2 to downtown, then bus nr 19 to my office. Previously the timing has been perfect! Bus M2 arrives a few minutes before nr 19 leaves. So I practically hop from one bus to another. The last two weeks however, there's been a new bus driver on the M2 bus. And this new driver drives so slow, and makes these looooong stops at every bus stop along the way. So by the time we arrive downtown I can do nothing but watch the 19 bus disappear around a corner. I always miss it! So I either have to walk for 30 minutes to get to work, or wait 15 minutes for the next bus. Either way, it's really frustrating to miss that bus!

I'm going to keep taking the bus for a couple of more weeks, but if this continues I'll probably switch back to the car, even though I may contribute to a little bit of global warming...

Going to Qatar.... NOT!

2008-07-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I'm leaving for Qatar! I'm going to be working there for 3 weeks, until 13th of August. I didn't know I was going until yesterday, and a two days notice is kind of short when you're going away for three weeks... But it's fine, I don't mind going!

It's going to be hot down there this time of year, temperatures will be in the 110°F region, that is around 45°C. So I plan on spending most of my time indoors.

Anyway, I'll try to share some of my experiences and pictures from my trip on this blog once I get down there!

UPDATE!!!!
NOT GOING AFTERALL!

The kind of job I have is fairly unpredictable. Yesterday I received confirmation from our customer that they absolutely wanted me in Qatar for three weeks. So I booked tickets and started updating myself on our operations down there. Still I knew there was always a possibility of the whole thing being cancelled. Things can happen very fast in this industry. So I didn't bother to start packing, decided to delay it until the evening before I was about to go. That turned out to be a wise decission...

Today, at around noon we got a call back from our customer. Now they wanted to renegotiate the deal, and didn't feel comfortable with the rates we had agreed on. So the whole trip got cancelled, at least for now.

New A/V receiver

2008-07-06T01:19:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've been in the possession of 5 surround speakers. I bought them maybe two years ago for just 100 NOK ($20). The packaging had been slightly damaged by water, so the store couldn't sell them for the full price and needed to get rid of them, so they sold them very cheaply.

Anyway, I've had these surround speakers set up in my apartment since October. They look really nice. The only problem? I haven't had anything to connect them to! The speakers sure look pretty, they're tall and elegant, but without an amplifier or receiver to connect them to they really haven't fulfilled their purpose yet.

So last Thursday I decided to go downtown to look for an audio/video receiver! This was by coincidence the official "shopping day" in Kristiansand. One day every year all the stores in the downtown area get together to arrange a "shopping day" with all sorts of discounted prices and good bargains. The city was packed with bargain hunting shopaholics! I turned a blind eye to all of this though, my only thought was to find an electronics store selling hifi stuff.

"30% discount on all shoes", "take 3 shirts, pay for 2!", "buy a lawnmower, get a free first-aid kit!". I discarded all of these fantastic bargains. I was on my way to "HiFi-Klubben", one of the best sources of hifi equipment in town.

I'm really not big on shopping on impulse. Usually I spend a lot of time on the Internet, trying to find out all I can about a product before deciding whether to buy it or not. This time though, I was ready to trust the store staff and listen to their recommendations. This is pretty much how it went down:

Staff: "Hello, how can I help you today?"
Me: "Hi, I have a TV, 5 surround speakers, but nothing to connect the speakers to. What do I need?"
Staff: "Are the speakers really huge and powerful?"
Me: "No, not really, they're nothing fancy, pretty average I guess"
Staff: "Then get the NAD T754! It's the best thing since sliced bread!"

He went on to explain all the great features of the unit, and told me he never had received any complaints about it. We talked a few minutes more before I decided I would go for it! 5000 NOK ($1000), a lot of money, but I felt lucky.

Back home I connected everything. The first tests I ran were promising. I got the menu up on the TV and quickly went through the initial configuration. It was almost too easy! But of course, I had to run into some problems. The final test I ran was to test the sound on each individual speaker. That's when I discovered it! There was no sound on the front left speaker!

I went from being happy, to confused, to extreeeemely frustrated, then even more frustrated, then threw the whole receiver out the window! Well, actually I didn't throw it, but think I was contemplating doing it. Eventually I resigned and sat back... I had tried everything, but nothing would bring any sound on the front left speaker... I realized I wouldn't be able to get this thing working on my own, so I decided to bring the NAD T754 back to the store and get them to test it there.

Now, I had spent more than an hour trying to figure out what was wrong, maybe two hours! So when the guy at the store found out what the problem was after 30 seconds I didn't feel too smart. It was just a tiny little thing missing at the back of the receiver. he plugged it back in and everything was working.

So back at my apartment I connected everything again, and sure enough, now everything was working perfectly! I was happy again, just like I was when I first thought everything was working!

Anyway, after 8 months living in my new apartment I've now finally been able to put my surround speakers to use! I still need to get some new cables to connect the DVD player and stuff like that, but as far as the sound quality is concerned I've got no complaints!

N.Y. and Philly

2008-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

I returned from the US five hours ago, at 12:20 local Norwegian time.
The jet lag is messing up my head. My eyes want to sleep, but my body wants to stay awake. I can't decide if I'm hungry or not. I think maybe a little bit. I'll grab a snack later. The time difference is six hours. Sleeping on the airplane is near impossible. Especially when you're 6'8" and have longer legs than usual...

This was my third summer vacation in a row that I spent in the US. It's quickly becoming a tradition. I probably wouldn't have gone over there this year if my sister Hilde hadn't convinced me to go with her. But I'm glad she did! It was a great trip!

My brother Arne lives in Philly, so our main motivation of going to the US was to visit him. Me and my other brother Johannes went over to visit him there last year as well, but since then he has bought a new apartment, so I was eager to see what it looked like. We didn't go to Philly right away though. My brother was on a business trip to Las Vegas the first week, so me and my sister stayed in New York the first 4 days, and then later took the Amtrak down to Philly to meed up with Arne there.

I've been to New York twice before, but never as long as 4 days. The extra time was nice to have, cause then we didn't have to rush around Manhattan in order to see everything. We did the usual touristy stuff like visiting the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Time Square and so on. We also went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway. I had always wanted to see that musical, so even thought we had to wait in line for one hour to get tickets it was a great experience! The hotel we stayed at was the Skyline hotel in Hell's Kitchen. It was just a couple of blocks away from Time Square, so no complaints there. The service was also good. We were upgraded from a normal hotel room to a suite for some reason. On the bad side there was no breakfast included. And also there was some restoration work going on in the elevators so they were often unavailable. A little bit annoying. I wouldn't mind staying at the hotel again though!

In Philly I saw my brothers apartment for the first time. It was a very nice place! Very central, and a very interesting layout. The apartment was spread out on three floors. Sitting room and kitchen on 1st floor, bedroom and bathroom on 2nd floor, and another room on the 3rd floor with access to the roof! A friend of my brother's also teamed up with us in Philly and stayed with us the whole week. So the apartment was a little crowded with all 4 of us staying there, but it worked out quite fine! From Philly we had day trips out to the Amish country, Washington DC and Nazareth (Martin Guitar Co). We also had plenty of time to check out the historical district in Philly. I saw a lot of it last year, but didn't mind refreshing my memory. The Art Museum, Constitution Center, Liberty Bell and Penn's landing were just a few of the tings we saw. We also went to the Eastern State Penitentiary. That was incredible and can be recommended to everyone who ever visits Philly! Al Capone is one of the prisoners who have been in there. It was the first Penitentiary ever built and served as the model for more than 300 other prisons world wide. Originally the prisoners would be isolated and not allowed to talk to each other. The purpose of this was so the prisoners could think about the crime they had committed and develop a feeling of guilt and regret.

Now I have decided that I am in fact hungry, so I'll wrap this up.

The bottom line is that my vacation in the US was a great success! The weather was great most of the time, and my sister was a great traveling companion! I'll try to add some pictures later.

Blogg kick-off!

2008-06-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Internet is already flooding over with all sorts of blogs. Travel-blogs, fashion-blogs, sports-blogs, celebrity-blogs, food-blogs... you name it!

So this simple little blogg will just be a small drop in the big blogg-ocean. But I don't know, maybe some people out there will somehow find it interesting to read about my observations and experiences as I travel the world.