Bastoy Island Waves

The intense north sea simmers with the attitude of viking Gods and sea monsters stirring in its depths. You stand defiant on the edge of the ocean world, its dark expanse would suck you up and swallow you whole, but you remain stolid in your demonic defiance of its awesome power. Your long white beard swings in the wind and shimmers with the ocean spray stuck to it. Bastoy Island houses the minimum security Bastoy prison located in Norway, about 75 kilometers (46 mi) south of Oslo. The facility is located on a 2.6 square kilometer (1 sq mi) island and hosts 115 inmates. Oyvind Alnaes, governor of the prison, leads a staff of 69 prison employees. Of this staff, only five employees remain on the island overnight. Once a prison colony for young boys, the facility now is trying to become "the first ecological prison in the world." Inmates are housed in wooden cottages and work the prison farm. During their free time, inmates have access to horseback riding, fishing, tennis, and cross-country skiing. The prison colony was featured in the DVD extras for Michael Moore's 2007 documentary Sicko. In 2010, both a documentary about the island by Michel Kapteijns was released and a Norwegian film directed by Marius Holst. Oslo is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental centre of Norway. According to the Norse sagas, Oslo was founded around 1049 by King Harald Hardråde. Recent archaeological research has uncovered Christian burials which can be dated to prior to 1000 CE, evidence of a preceding urban settlement. This called for the celebration of Oslo's millennium in 2000.