We stayed with a man by the name of Hal who works on the culture council for one of the cities. He does things like giving grants to artists or children's groups, and also controlling things like the cinema and film festivals for the area. Honestly we couldn't have had a better first couchsurfing experience. Hal's home was so nice. The downstairs reminded me of a cabin, all wood-paneling and the upstairs was a bit more modern (a lot of stuff from IKEA). He had a friendly cat, too. Hal was so generous and accommodating and is one of the main reasons we had such a great trip. On Saturday he drove us to a waterfall called Manafossen. It was about a 15 minute hike up a rather steep hill/mountain to a waterfall. Everything was so beautiful. The drive there was beautiful, the hike was beautiful and the waterfall itself of course, was beautiful. We got to fill our water bottles up at the stream at the bottom. I love it when we get to do that.
After the waterfall, Hal drove us to another place where glacier had moved hundreds (maybe thousands) of giant rocks into a big pile. Learning about that stuff in Earth Science class was so boring, but it was awesome to see up close what nature can do. (Take note of that all you teachers out there-field trip!) Hal told us that there was a battle during WWII between the Norwegians and the Germans there, but the Germans had a hard time because the Norwegians were able to hide in between all the rocks. Also on Saturday Hal gave us a short walking tour of the town of Stavanger. It's really pretty, and doesn't feel too big. The old part of the town is a bunch of white, wooden houses on cobblestone streets. There was also a pedestrian street where all the houses were painted different colors. Finally, we closed Saturday by visiting a monument of three swords near the sea. The monument was built to commemorate the famous battle by the viking kings to unite Norway in the 900's (don't quote me). A man by the name of Herald Fairhair was the victor and the "pioneer of unification" of Norway. Supposedly there were twelve different kings competing that day.
Sunday was the highlight of the trip. Our main reason for visiting was to hike to Preikestolen (Preacher's Pulpit) which, if you don't know or haven't googled it, is a huge cliff overlooking the Lysefjord. We were worried about the weather, but it ended up being a perfect day. The sun was out until we decided to hike back and the rain held off until we were driving home. What you do is you drive to a car park (beautiful drive) and then you hike the rest of the way up to the cliff. The hike up is timed at 1 hr 50 min and back at 1 hr 40 min. The first oh, 8 minutes or so is really really steep. I was questioning my resolve at first, but Hal assured us that that was the steepest part, though not the most difficult in our climb. There were three or four big climbs were it was mostly just flat out climbing up rocks. It was never something I thought I couldn't do though. Some people had brought their children and their dogs with them if that gives you any clue, and it was very well tread so it wasn't too hard to figure out how to follow the path. Even though it wasn't too difficult, I was very proud of myself and my body. I was worried about being sore the next day, but surprisingly I felt very good. So, good job body. The hike itself was beautiful, even from the first 15 minutes there was a great view. Once you got closer to the fjord though it was gorgeous.
Once you get to the part we call Preacher's Pulpit, you spent a bit of time peering over the edge, usually by getting down on all fours and then laying on your belly. It's an awesome feeling to look over, and it's pretty far down. The main part which you would think of as Preacher's Pulpit is a pretty rectangular space and juts out from the mountain. There is a crevice starting to form and eventually they think it will drop off into the fjord, but not any time soon of course. It's not all that though; there are plenty of other places to look over the edge, and you can even climb up a little higher (Hal did and hopefully I will be able to show you some of his pictures later). Sarah and I dangled our feet over the edge, too (Hal has a picture of that also). Now THAT is a crazy feeling. It's funny because "me" at home thinks she would never be so bold as to stick any body part over the edge of that cliff, but I did it, and it was awesome. At one point Sarah and I tried to peer over the edge as far as we could from our sitting position with our feet dangling. It was scary and we both felt like we were sticking our heads way out there, but looking back at the pictures, it's not even impressive. Hal got some really great photos of Sarah and I, and I will share them with you as soon as I have access to them.
The hike back wasn't too bad. Yes, we just wanted to get home, but it was far less tiring than the way there and I appreciated that. Some of it was kind of fun and I got pretty bold hopping from rock to rock. On one of the longest climbs, it probably took us a half our to get down. The fun part of was picking which rocks to step on and which path to take, because there wasn't really a defined set of rocks. Some people had a hard time with it and others (experienced climbers or idiots) leaped from rock to rock. Anyway, it was a great experience, both the hike and the time we spent at Preacher's Pulpit. This whole trip, but especially at Preacher's Pulpit, I just kept asking myself, how can anything be so beautiful? Is this real?
I think I am officially in love with Norway. Jeg elsker norge.
Monday was uneventful. Our train didn't leave until 2:30pm but Hal had to go to work so he dropped us off in Sandnes and we took the train to Stavanger in the morning. It was downpouring when the day started, though it did clear up later. We sat in a cafe until the shops opened and then wandered through the streets until we deemed it was acceptable to sit again. We went into a really cool cafe that had tons of books and board games and drank tea and played Yahtzee before lunch. It ended up being sunny by the time we left and the train ride back was beautiful.
I've found that the weather has been very unpredictable lately. Usually whatever the day starts out doing, it won't continue later. Like today, the sun is out, the skies are blue and it's only 8am. I bet this afternoon will get cloudy and maybe even rainy. It's like Norway wants the weather to be equal, so you get a taste of everything. And if I haven't mentioned before, the light is very confusing. It's light really early of course and also really late. I think the fact that it's light so late is way more confusing than when I got here and it started getting dark at 2 or 3pm. It's so hard to tell what time it is. Last night we came back at 10:30 and it was dark outside but the sky was still light blue like the sun had just recently set (which it did).
I forgot to mention something about the train ride back. A came up to us and asked if Sarah and I would make sure her grandfather (who was also traveling on the same train) made his connection at Oslo S so he would get to the airport. He was 95 yrs old and spoke basically no English or Norwegian. He was so nice and sooo smart though! I think we decided he was from Serbia. It's funny because Sarah just went to Croatia (which is closes to Russian) and so she knew a couple words that he also knew. It was so interesting, because we were basically able to understand the gist of what he was saying. Of course there were times where we also had absolutely no idea. We learned that he was a professor of politics and philosophy at some point and that he studied a bunch of stuff, and has traveled quite a bit. He went to visit Volvo in Sweden in 1970. Yeah, that's about all I got. But it was such a cool experience. I hope he made it home okay.
And that wraps up this story. I'm only a few minutes behind schedule. I have a test in a week and soooooo much to do before then. Enjoy the post and I will get Hal's pictures to you as soon as possible. Have a wonderful week!
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