Day 112 & 113 | Underground vacuum cleaner

Day 112 | Monday July 4

Last night my host Kristian got in touch with a lot of companies with the question if I could interview them and some answered very quick and positive. This morning Agnes could make some time to answer a few questions. Agnes is the founder of Bærekraftige liv. This is a community of people who take care of each other and handle resiliences in their neighborhood. For example in Norway there are 3 major supermarkets who basically decided what Norwegians eat. It’s hard to tell where the food comes from. The community decided to start producing their own food and sell this within the community.

After I interviewed Agnes I went back to Kristian’s home and worked all day. For dinner they served crab and it was the first time I had this. I thought it was more fun to brake it open then to eat it. 

Day 113 | Tuesday July 5

I was welcomed by BIR Nett, Norway’s second biggest waste management company. They are putting in place a completely new system to collect garbage, called ‘Bossnett’. It is an automated system that transports waste underground using air pressure.

They brought me to one of the 2 collection terminals. Right now one is in place and the other one will be finished in 3 years (including the infrastructure). How it works is that citizens or companies bring their waste to a bin on the street. In the city there is always a bin within 100 meters. You can open it with a pass, drop your garbage in the bin and it falls into a bigger container. Two times a day the content is sucked through a pipe by vacuum! This pipe has a diameter of 50 meters and the machine that sucks the garbage has the power equivalent to 9000 vacuum cleaners. In the terminal the waste is collected and stored in large containers.  These containers are then picked up and transferred to various recycling facilities, depending on the type of waste they contain. 

It was time to leave Bergen. My next stop was 220km away so I knew it was going to be a long day as I had to recharge somewhere, and that point came a bit earlier as I expected. Because it was raining I lost a lot of range. I knew there was a chargepoint in Førde but I just couldn’t make that. I stopped in a tiny town and looked for a possibility to charge. I found a self-service gas station where on the side a socket was placed on the wall. There was nobody there so I thought it would be ok to take some electricity. After an hour I had 30% and was sure that I could make it to Førde. Once there I found a Gronn Kontakt station. These guys gave me a key so I could charge for free at their stations so within a short time I had enough to get to my host Asgeir in Eikefjorden. Asgeir’s address didn’t show up in my navigation so he picked me up in the centre.

Asgeir is a teacher at a high school and teaches students how to be an electrician. He thought my journey was a special project so that’s why he wanted to help me, he didn’t think that I would actually come to his place. He lives in an unique place, on the foot of a mountain with a view over the lake, quite astonishing.

My video about the Wohnwagon that went viral didn’t go unnoticed by some people and Vincent Everts, trendwatcher and EV-enthusiast wanted to know more about this. He has interviewed me before and in the first week of the trip I stayed at his place. He wanted to know how it went viral and was interested in the statistics of the video. Via Skype he interviewed me and I will post the video once he publishes it.

Pictures of these days

Day 111 | The top of Bergen

Day 111 | Sunday July 3

After a good night of sleep my hosts took me on a sightseeing and hiking trip through Bergen. Yesterday, with all the delays, we didn’t talk so much so today I had the time to get to know them better. Kristian works as an engineer at Norway’s biggest oil producer. His job is to find new bubbles of oil or gas and see it it’s suitable to drill. To compensate this he drives an electric car. His wife Christine works as a psychologist for children. Together they have 2 little girls, 4 and 6 years old.

At breakfast Christine told me that she know that dutch people have hagelslag for breakfast. These are chocolate sprinkles which we put on bread. Although this is not very nutritious food Christine could tell me that Dutch kids in general eat very healthy. Hagelslag is a returning theme in this journey and I can’t figure out why. I have a few boxes supply with me but they are finished since a few weeks. It’s hard.

In Bergen we went to the top of the hill with a funicular. I can’t remember I have been in one before and it is a fun experience. The wagon is pulled up a few kilometers with an electric wheel and brings you to a height were you have beautiful sights over the city.
On the top there was a playground for little children with statues of trolls everywhere. Trolls seem to be important in the Norwegian culture. Christine stayed at the playground and with Kristian I took the train back and he showed me Bryggen (the warf). It is a series of idyllic hanseatic buildings which has been on the UNESCO world heritage list since 1979. Every house has a different color which reminded me of Nyhavn in Copenhagen.

Close to Bryggen was a fish harbor, they sold crabs with a 2 meter diameter and parts of whales. Although the market looked nice it was more adjusted to tourists and it didn’t feel very authentic.
We went for a hike to the top of Stoltzekleiven. It took us about an hour to get there and on the top we had the nicest views. We wanted to do another hike but because of heavy rain we decided to return home.

When I opened my laptop I was kind of shocked. Last Wednesday I posted this short movie about the Wohnwagon in Austria. Apparently A LOT of people liked this idea and shared it and it got HALF A MILLION views! Pretty amazing. A few days ago I had ‘just’ 1.100 fans on my page and now I am already on 7.500! It’s crazy what a little movie can do and I have no idea were this will end, at the moment people are still watching and sharing it.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/videos/505244663017934/

 Images of today

Day 109 & 110 | Life on the island

Day 109 | Friday July 1

After 3 nights it was time to leave Stavanger. I’m on my way to the North Cape and this country is bigger as I expected. From the south to the north is the same distance as from Oslo to Parma. And that’s about the distance I covered in the last 2 months…

My next stop was in Mosterhamn, on the island Bømblo. Anne-Grethe heard about my project through the website of the Norwegian EV association. She lives together in this old and nice house with Leif Kåre, they have been together for 10 years and are in their late 50’s. Anne-Grethe had a hard time as she lost 2 of her children and she believes her best time is yet to come. She dreams of making a trip around the world and especially Australia, I hope we’ll meet there.

The island were they life on is not very big and to cover the most distances they walk. Leif Kåre is an mechanic and make pars for boats, Anne-Grethe works with people who have dementia in a home which is only 5 minutes from their house. To get to the other side of the island they use an electric car and have normal car to get to other cities.

Leif Kåre is a big football fan, in Amsterdam he visited the Ajax stadium and he went to London for the Arsenal one. So of course we watched Belgium – Wales at home and it was one of the first matched this cup I could see fully. After the match they switched on another channel were they had live broadcast of birds sitting on a rock in northern Norway. I was a bit surprised as I never saw a livestream of birds just sitting but apparently this is a phenomenon and actually fun to watch.

Day 110 | Saturday July 2

I had a decent sleep and felt I was recovered from the long walks in Preikenstolen. Today my hosts took me for a sightseeing tour around Bømlo. It is a very idyllic and typical Norwegian island. Many lakes with colored houses on the shores, deep forests and roads with yellow lines. There is something attracting about those yellow lines, I don’t know why.

We visited the old part where many years ago a goldmine was responsible for the biggest income of the island. Almost everyone here has a boat, to fish or just for pleasure. Anne-Grethe and Leif Kåre have a boat too but it needed service. Were they parked the boat they are building a new home which they will use in the summer.

Around 4 I said goodbye to them and started driving towards Bergen, one of the 5 biggest cities in Norway. When I neared the ferry I realized I had forgotten my jacket in Mosterhamn. I couldn’t go without it so had to drive back 45 minutes. I came back with 55% which was just not enough to make it to Bergen so I had to charge the car for a few hours and let my host in Bergen know I would arrive a bit later, which was no problemo.

Around 12.30 I arrived the my hosts in Bergen. To be sure I would find them they hung up balloons on every corner of the street. On the first corner even an Norwegian flag with my name on it. We talked for a little bit and then went to bed. They transformed their storage in the garden into a guest room and this was probably the smallest I slept in but I had the best sleep.