Your Hometown

[Hanske]

In this thread I'd like you to post some pictures and simple facts of your hometown.

I'll start with mine.

_______________________________________________________ _____________________


I live in Drøbak, a village in the Greater Oslo Region, with about 14 000 inhabitants. It lies by the Oslo fjord, and was the place where the German ship, Blücher were sunk in 1940. This allowed the Norwegian government and royal family to escape to England.

A square in the village center


Oscarsborg fortress where Blücher was shot from


The Oslo City Hall


Norwegian Royal Palace

[Hanske]

Part 2

Norwegian Parliament


The Oslo Stock Exchange


Radisson Blu Hotel, Oslo Plaza. Norway's tallest building, the biggest hotel in the Nordic countries. Will be expanded to be Europe's biggest hotel.


Oslo Opera House

[Hanske]

Part 3

The National Theatre


Holmenkollen Ski Jump


Aker Brygge


Oslo Subway

[Hanske]

Part 4

Oslo Tramway


Telenor's HQ.


Constructions of Oslo's new skyline


Karl Johans Gate, an expensive shopping street and Oslo's parade street. This is how it looks like EVERY single 17th of May.


Oslo facts:
Population of the city center - 600 000
Population of the Greater Oslo Region - 1 400 000
Mayor - Fabian Stang, of Høyre, the conservative party
One of the most expensive cities in the world
The capital with the highest living standards in the world
Est. 1048 by king Harald Hårfagre.

I feel like I could show you so much more, but I think this was enough pictures for now.
I can't wait to see your hometowns!

[lxskllr]

Sigh... How the hell do I compete with that? My town is really a non town. The surrounding area used to rural, but is now a suburban wasteland full of chain restaurants that have no character, and 2,000 shops selling the same crap, from the same Chinese sweatshops.

If you allow a more liberal interpretation, I may be able to come up with something for Baltimore, but that's 25 miles away.

[Hanske]

Of course, if you want to post pictures of your country's, or in your case state's, captial, it's fine with me.

[WickedKitchen]

I grew up in Chicopee, MA. Most people say Chic-a-what? Yeah. Chicopee. It's an American Indian word but I don't know what it means.

Chicopee was a big manufacturing and textile town after it was founded in 1640 or so. It was the home of Ames manufacturing which made cannons and swords during the civil war era. In fact, they made more swords than anyone else in the country at that time. It was also the home of the first gas powered car called the Duryea. Chicopee also had the first publicly funded library outside of Boston, not that that means much but it was a first. There's a basilica there. It was just a big church when I was a kid and I remember the Pastor at the time guided the towering crosses in gold which was a cause for people to complain. It was a massive parish with a lot of money. That particular pastor did rub my thighs a few times but it never went further than that...only a pinch on the ass and the thigh rubbing...uncomfortable so I told him it was weird. He stopped. If I had never said anything I would've been a millionaire now but I digress...Chicopee is also the home of a large Polish population (me included) and the world renowned (at least to the Poles) Kielbasa Festival. I played sax on stage w/ Jimmy Sturr (Grammy award winning Polka band) three times...yeah I used his sax on two of those occasions so I guess I swapped spit with a Grammy winner even though it was another man. Eww. Chicopee also made it into the list of towns in Johnny Cash's song "I've been everywhere." Also, there's a statue in Boston's Public Garden of George Washington on a horse that was made in Chicopee, MA (i think by Ames).

The place has changed a lot though. Gone are the days of Woolworths, Bernauski's fresh fried potato chips, and Tastee-Freeze and now it looks more like Llksr described. Route 33 runs through the town and we used to go "cruisin". Ha. That was fun. Horsepower! Now there's a low speed limit and lots of lights. There's an air force base there called Westover. It used to be a big air base but has not been in government service for a long time. Now it's a commercial airport but not built up at all. The air force still uses it and I can instantly identify the sound of a C5-A. I grew up with them flying overhead all the time. They still do. It's also an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle as the runway is long and flat. President Eisenhower landed there once but that was before my time.

I left, and I'll probably never live there again. Oh well, it was nice reminiscing though. Use google for pics. I'm not good at posting them on here for some reason. I always have problems. If someone could shoot me a PM with instructions I'd appreciate it. I've been a member for a year or something so I should know that by now. I don't.

[precious007]

Jesus I miss Oslo

I'll have to get my ass there soon for at least a few days maybe next Christmas.

I'll be posting some pics soon.

But don't really know what pics to post, since I've lived in 3 countries and around 6 cities so far, lol.

[lxskllr]

Use google for pics. I'm not good at posting them on here for some reason. I always have problems. If someone could shoot me a PM with instructions I'd appreciate it. I've been a member for a year or something so I should know that by now. I don't.

Find a picture you like, and download it to your computer. Then use an image hosting site to upload the pictures. I like this host...

http://imgur.com/

They compress the pictures slightly, but it's fine for web use, and they're fast and reliable. After uploading, you'll see several links to the left side. Copy the one that has the [img] tags, and paste it in your post. You can use [img][/img] tags around any image url you find on the web, but hotlinking is bad netiquette, and some places will change the image on you. Most are nicer than I would be :^D The reason it's bad to hotlink, is the host is paying for the bandwidth, but not getting the clicks which can mean more ad income, and a higher Google listing.

It'll take awhile for me to get a hometown together. I'm just gonna use Maryland as a whole, and places I've spent real time in the area.

[AllanH]

Dublin is my hometown and I love it but have always place in my heart for Kiel, Schlesvig-Holstein, BRD and Novgorod, Russia, where I've lived and worked. And Bruxelles, Belgium too, where I've had plenty of sex.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Wow! Nice looking place Hanske!

[Hanske]

Jesus I miss Oslo

I'll have to get my ass there soon for at least a few days maybe next Christmas.

I'll be posting some pics soon.

But don't really know what pics to post, since I've lived in 3 countries and around 6 cities so far, lol.

If I were you, I'd go anytime between May and August. It's pretty cold during christmas. But where did you grow up? Where do you live now? I'm sure you'll find something. If not, why don't post some pictures of Bucharest?

Wow! Nice looking place Hanske!

I'm glad you like it. I'm really proud of my hometown. I try not to be too patriotic...

[Hanske]

I thought I'd show you two more things that every tourist in Oslo's got to see.

Akershus Fortress


Frognerparken or Vigelandsparken. A huge park with sculptures made by Gustav Vigeland.

[precious007]

Vigelands Parken has been my main playground for years....

I used to go there Rollerblading, Skiing in the winter, and ice skating ... there is an iceskating ring right when you get out of Vigelands to Majorstuen ;-)

There a huge waterland park right there in Vigelands parken as well ... used to go there in the summer ....

They have a 10 M - 15M high jump, lol

I lived in Skoyen Hanske if you know the area... and In Solerud :-)



I will post some pictures with my town where I was born (piatra neamt) and the city I live in now (constanta) ... right by the black sea :P

[Hanske]

Yep, I know where Skøyen is. That ice skating ring you talk about is Frogner Stadion. We used to go there with my school when I was in elementary school. Next to that you have Frognerbadet, wich is an aqualand. (do you say that?). If anyone's wondering why everything starts with "Frogner", it's because the area's called Frogner.