Høstferie Sist Dag (10)

I suppose you could say we ended the trip in the same way we started it.
It was a pretty average morning, and it went off without a flaw:
Up at 5:30- check
Pack bags- check
Take down tent- check
Cook havregryn- check
Eat havregryn- check
Walk to ferry- check
Wash dishes- check
Brush teeth- check
Wait 23 minutes for ferry- check
Board ferry at 7:15- check
…
Due to unsynchronized ferry and bus schedules we waited an hour and a half before taking the bus from Stavanger to Kristiansand. It became obvious while walking downtown at eight in the morning that Saturday night in Stavanger had been a wild one. Benches were strewn everywhere, almost as commonly as the incredible amount of McDonald’s garbage decorating the cobblestone.
While en route to Kristiansand, I discovered that a one hour detour through the mountains on a one-and-a-half-car-wide, winding road meant we would miss our connection in Kristiansand. (There was only one accident during our detour through the mountains; it involved a biker slowly tipping over while waiting for the bus to get around a switchback. He couldn’t lift his motorbike up, so the bus driver got out to help the very embarrassed, leather-clad biker.)
The bus driver told us that because of the delay, we would get half-price on the next bus, but that it did not arrive for another two hours. This wasn’t so bad; we got to walk around the streets of Kristiansand. Unfortunately, it meant we would also arrive in Oslo two hours later. We had planned to catch a ride with a friend from there, but we didn’t expect him to wait for us. After some Subway, we boarded the next bus to Oslo, only to find out that, no, we don’t get half-price?! In any case, we didn’t have much choice in the matter so to Oslo we went. Because our previous plan had folded, we now needed to take a third bus to Leira from Oslo. No problem, right? Our friend Stian informed us over the phone that the last bus left at 21:00, fifteen minutes before we arrived… Now what? I called the bus company and described the situation, hoping that because of the delay we could get some sort of compensation. As it turned out there was a way to make it work. All we had to do was get off at a stop ten minutes before Oslo. The bus to Fagernes would leave Oslo and get to this stop, Lysaker, ten minutes later. That relieved a little bit of stress the stress for a little bit. By looking at the clock and the bus schedule, which I had in front of me, it became apparent that the current bus was 16 minutes behind. This meant the bus to Fagernes would arrive at the stop 6 minutes before we got there. We talked to our bus driver and he made a couple of phone calls. He told us the bus would be there waiting! We jumped out of the bus to grab our luggage, which, conveniently, was at the very back underneath numerous other bags. While Olof and I crawled around in the undercarriage, the bus driver shouted over the passing cars, in broken English, that “it’s gone”. I got out to look, while Olof obliviously continued to wrench out our bags. I couldn’t see the bus, but our driver seemed to have changed his mind and he said it was still there- on the other side of a 6-lane divided freeway. We ran as fast as we could, found the tunnel under the road, and ran back up the hill, finally reaching our ride home. Breathing heavily, we grudgingly paid another expensive ticket. But did we ever surprise Anton! Sitting there with his broken wrist, he could only laugh at the sight of his two foreign friends from folkehogskule, desperately boarding the bus at some small unknown stop outside of Oslo. The last leg of the journey consisted of sharing this long, complicated story and many unsuccessful attempts at sleep. We’d been up since 5:30 and when we finally arrived at midnight, I was ready for bed. But instead, I stayed up for another hour to socialize with the small crowd occupying my room.
What a day! Very chaotic, but we got home eventually. It only took a few phone calls, some really fast running, and a lot of time and money.
A couple of e-mails and another phone call also rewarded me and Olof each a bus ticket to Oslo in compensation for our troubles!
All in all, it was a great trip. We saw a lot and met up with a bunch of friends in different places along the coast. We owe a big thank-you to Ivar and his brother, Rebecca, the Tveitaskog’s, Sunniva and Elise, Sondre, Nils, and Stian (who would’ve given us a ride). You guys were great!
We had rain and shine, and both Olof and I gained some significant travelling experience. It was well worth the trip.













Getting a risky hair-cut from a barber who didn’t speak any English. A mere $35 compared with the $100 price tag at the first shop I checked.





Making pankaker in Tau.



And for now, it's back to school (in other words, a four day hiking trip).

Høstferie Dag 9

There are boats everywhere on the west coast. This morning, we took the ferry across to Tau, where we hoped to meet Nils Terje. I say “hoped” because our plans were unconfirmed and we had no luck contacting Nils. In any case, we docked at eleven o’clock sharp, and sat facing the Atlantic and the sun, wondering what to do. Eventually, we managed to reach Nils, who had yet to get out of bed. “But it’s early!” I guess Norwegian culture isn’t so different after all.
We took to the highway and made our way to Preikestolen, a 626m tall chunk of rock jutting out of the mountain side. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.










Back in Tau, we enjoyed ice cream on the deck with Nils before finding a place to set up our tent (which has been carried for 9 days, only being used twice). We cooked some delicious Norwegian pankaker on the campstove tonight. I’ve concluded that the best meals are the ones you cook yourself, in the fresh air under the stars.
Tomorrow is a traveling day; the alarm is set for 5:30 (and 5:40 and 5:45 just in case!).

Høstferie Dag 8

Well, my aching feet can attest to the amount of walking we did today. With a full day to kill, we decided to walk the seven or eight kilometres to the Stavanger sentrum rather than taking the bus.
It was another laidback day on holiday, spent meandering through the street vendors and canal vendors (selling fresh prawns, crabs and shrimp). I gave myself a tour of the Oil Museum, and found it to be quite interesting. Many displays, interactive exhibitions and scaled oil rigs meant there was a lot to see. Despite the associated reputation for spewing inexorable amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses (which was not mentioned at any point in the museum), I must admit that the                  This model actually preceded
complexity and scale of the technology          the rig itself. Before the 
behind oil exploration and refinery is quite    days of CAD, perfectly scaled
impressive.                                     models were made to verify
As backpackers, Olof and I are bound to eating                     plans.
cheap. We struck a deal at a local grocer and feasted on a loaf of bread, a bucket of potato salad and 1.5 litres of orange juice- all for only 36 NOK (roughly $6, a bargain in Norway)!
We tread through Old Stavanger after lunch, a UNESCO World Heritage sight. It consists of an old neighbourhood with white wooden houses and narrow cobblestone streets. The best part was returning the smiles of all the old folks peeking out the windows at the tourists.
Another promenade brought us back to Sondre’s place for some tacos and Jack Johnson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheels of my Dreams

Eating like Kings (from the Middle Ages)

Høstferie Dag 7

Earliest morning since August 19th! (7:15, it’s a rough life.) We caught a ride to town with Kristi and spent the morning with Elise and Sunniva (friends from school living in Haugesund). Another expensive bus ticket brought us to Stavanger, where we toured around the harbour and walked the cobblestone streets with Sondre, another Valdres acquaintance. The sun has finally found its way through the clouds and it made for a very enjoyable day. The trip has been quite enjoyable in general actually. Olof is of the same opinion, and while roaming through Stavanger’s downtown area today, he mentioned that he in fact liked Norway a lot better than the Netherlands. “In Holland, everyone is really stressed. They’re always horning at each other and stuff.” He has requested for me to clarify that this is due only to English which has not yet fully been mastered (for the most part, I beg to differ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tveitaskog museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Domkirken                              Haroldshaugen

Høstferie Dag 6

Twenty-nine fish! Our work was well rewarded this morning and even more so at dinner. They weren’t huge trout, but they tasted great!
We went to town with Kristi today and watched a short film exploring the area around Haugesund. With most of the picture captured from a helicopter, there were some quite impressive arials. However, what was more interesting than the panorama-style video, was the fact that we had the entire auditorium to ourselves! We also took in a little bit of Viking history afterwards. Unfortunately, the client at the admission booth failed to inform us that the exhibition closed only half an hour after we arrived. All in all, it was another good day on holiday. Although, we have discovered that it is wise to book train tickets well in advance, as they seem to have a tendency to increase exponentially in price, and eventually sell out. Looks like we’re hitch-hiking! (Olof says he would rather try the bus.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Høstferie Dag 5

As I promised, I won’t mention the weather.
After a relaxing morning, Olof and I got together the tackle and packed the camp stove in order to grill some fresh trout amid the wilderness of the Tveitaskog farm. The camp stove could have been left behind, partly because we forgot the lighter, but more significantly and unfortunately, because we didn’t catch any fish. We spent most of the day trekking the varying landscape of rock, water, and forest (in which Hans and Kristi have planted 50000 trees over the last 25 or so years). We came home to some delicious reindeer for supper. Since then, we have gone out with Hans to try a different fishing tactic; we set out five nets, so hopefully we will have better luck in the morning. Despite not catching anything today, we have by no means starved. After putting Santa out of business, we were again treated to an endless supply of Inger’s Norwegian pankaker. Life is good in Haugesund!

Høstferie Dag 4

I appreciated the shelter of the laundry room yet again, as the rain came down harder last night. However, the thermometer read 19.5 degrees Celsius at midnight, which made for a very warm walk up the mountain from town. It was a pretty layed back day, aside from a couple of minutes spent catching the bus. We were very fortunate to catch a ride with Ivor’s family to Stord (halfway between Bergen and Haugesund), so the bus ticket wasn’t as expensive as it could have been. (While proofreading, I realized that this makes it sound like we missed the bus in Bergen… Don’t worry, we had planned all along to ride with Ivor, it was in Stord that we nearly missed the bus!)
In Haugesund, it was also raining (the forecast for the rest of the week consists of… yes, rain, so I won’t bother mentioning the weather in my next few posts). We braved it out downtown for an hour or so and looked around for a while. I checked in at the barber's and promptly left when I heard 500 NOK or almost 100 CDN for a haricut?! Luckily, my third cousin twice removed, better known as Hans Tveitaskog, arrived in time to save us from the land of $8 hotdogs and $50 pizzas. Finally a name I can remember (and pronounce)!
We jumped in the car and Hans said to us, ”My first question for you is whether you have rain gear.” We stopped at the store and he generously purchased some cheap (by Norwegian standards) rubber boots in preparation for a day of fishing tomorrow!
We went to his mother’s home for “grandma’s meatballs” and then took a brief tour of the farm and a detailed guide through it’s most recent addition, the family museum! There is plenty of history on the Tveitaskog farm, which has been in the family for over 350 years. Hans has restored part of the old farmhouse and is continually adding new artefacts: record players, castrating tools, family trees and photos, and countless other articles of interest. It is quite an impressive collection of historical memorabilia. The family connections made it all the more interesting.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow! After all, they say the best time to catch fish is in the rain!