"Life must be lived as play."

At the end of the last blog, I forgot to mention that Leslie sent me a Betty Crocker Yellow Cake mix. Sweet Jesus, my favorite cake. Conveniently, one of the fancy grocery stores here carries the frosting, but not the cake mix. I had a taste of America in Norway and it was goooood. And noticeably sugary. I guess America will taste a bit differently when I return.

To start, the days of this past week were the longest days of the year. Possibly of my life. There were said to have been 55 minutes of darkness each night, but I took it upon myself to observe such an occurrence and it never really happened. It was like perma-dusk or perma-dawn. Never did it reach complete darkness. Everybody always asks for more hours in a day….they just need to spend their summers at a different latitude!

So, as normal as my life seems from the day-to-day, I’ve been lucky enough to do some really, really amazing things recently. Although “recent” means like the last few months now since I’ve been so bad at keeping up on blogs.

ADVENTURE TWO (list cont’d from previous blog entry): My friend from Cal Poly, Andrew, visited towards the end of March and we had QUITE an adventure-loaded week. I gave him the walking tour of Bergen one day and the following day was entirely spent driving around Norway, admiring the beauty of Steinsdalsfossen (“fossen” means “waterfall”), Vøringsfossen, Hardanger Fjord, and so many beautiful spots along the way. We got a bit lost en route between waterfalls and found the most idyllic, storybook spot along the fjord….the reflection was INSANE and there was a perfect fog that formed horizontal stripes hovering over the water and hugged the fjord’s sloped walls, which was all then reflected in the perfectly still water. The water was SO clear and SO flat, it was the perfect mirror. Definitely one of the top 10 most beautiful places I’ve been in my life. Then we found our way to Vøringsfossen and were given a nice reminder that we had reached the mountains…deeeep snow, not showing any signs of melting. The coast hadn’t seen significant snow for some time so it’s easy to forget that just a couple hours away is still on snow lock-down. After driving so far, we were not about to let our improper, cotton attire to keep us from reaching the falls. Without snow, this may have been an 5-minute stroll, but with the thigh-deep snow, it turned into about a 25-minute trudge each way. For the most part, we were able to shimmy our way across the top, but sometimes the snow was weak and our legs would break through. My jeans and shoes were soaked. Absolutely soaked. But it was WORTH IT. At the end, we had a breathtaking (and private because not many people are crazy enough to trek that far in that much snow) view of a huge valley full of waterfalls. It was a good day.

The next day marked the beginning of our trip south in hot pursuit of Preikestolen. Andrew, Alex, Mariann, and I piled into the car and headed out on a gorgeous drive full of ferries and “panoramias” (our panoramic pictures taken inside the car). The drive took forever, but I was able to successfully deliver everybody safe and sound to the small town of Tau, just outside of Stavanger. There we met up with a friend of Mariann’s dad who proceeded to give us a 5-minute tour of the entire town and lead us to the cabin we would be staying in for the next two nights.

The cabin belongs to another friend of Mariann’s dad and it could not have been better. It was located right on the water of a small fjord and was literally within sight of the entrance of the road up to the Preikestolen hike’s starting point. The only downfall of the cabin, which actually made it kind of fun, was the lack of a shower. We were pretty stanky by the time we headed out a few days later…

We rested up our first night there, meaning I slept on the hardwood floor with no blanket or pillow. Pretty typical of me and, yes, I know it’s a bit odd. Don’t freak out, it’s not like I sleep like that all the time though. So the next morning, we awoke to some great weather with perfect, dramatic clouds. March is early for Preikestolen season so we were very lucky it was not snowing or hailing (yet…it did later…).

The hike up “PreikPreik” was not the #1 hardest trek of my life, but deffffinitely not the easiest. There was one particular that, from the bottom looking up, looked like absolute torture. I’m talking it looked like some giant boulder rockslide down this tight gap between peaks with a small creek running underneath then out through the boulders…and that was the trail. After we made it up that nasty-looking, but actually fun, section, we were basically on top of the bare rock mountains and just had to work our way around to the fjord wall. Cue the rain/snow which continued lightly the rest of the day, but didn’t really bother us because, well, three of us live in BERGEN and the fourth in Oregon. We have some experience with handling precipitation.

On the way up, we only saw maybe just a handful of other people along the trail. When we finally made it to Preikestolen, for the most of our hour or so up there, we were alone. I can’t even begin to describe to you the feeling of being up there. After seeing pictures of this rock for years, and to finally be there, and also to be able to stand up there alone, no guardrails, no crazy tourists, a nearly perfect view of the fjord for miles….in the words of the late and great Grandpa Ernie, “oooouuuuccchhhhhh.” It was so, so wild. We spent soo long just laying on our bellies with our eyes peaking over the edge, trying to mentally grasp the lack of anything between us and the water 604 meters below. It was intoxicating and nauseating. We couldn’t look away.

We took a trillion pictures then eventually headed back as the rain began to intensify. That night we lounged around, ate a warm dinner of risgrøt, and about 90 macaroons that were on major sale at the nearby store. The reason we bought so many is because we all had a buncha 50 øre coins (similar to the US penny but actually worth like 8 US cents), which were to be eliminated from circulation the following month…so we spent them all on cheap, delicious macaroons. Wise? Yes.

That night consisted of no sleep for me. My brain was just restless and then we were up at 3am and out the door within a half hour anyway. We had to reach the earliest ferry to Stavanger to give us enough time to get to the airport for Andrew’s 6:30am flight. Zombie status. We made it though! And then Andrew departed from the land of trolls and nugatti.

From there, Mariann, Alex, and I headed into the nearest small town, Sola, to park at a random store and sleep a bit more in the car. Stupid me did not have any blankets and only one jacket…and in springtime Norway, even in a closed car, in direct sunlight, and with two other people in proximity, I was freezing. Like, teeth chattering, hating life kind of freezing. Mariann and Alex slept like champs though so I gave ‘em a couple hours before I cracked. So then we got some food and freshened up as much as we could in the store’s bathroom (remember we haven’t showered in a few days and had the big hike the day before). Lack of sleep plus lack of hygiene was just such a nasty feeling, but the trip continued on awesomely nonetheless. We drove into Stavanger and did a couple hours of exploring, shopping, “panoramias,” and taking the world’s best fake picture of me on PreikPreik. Stavanger has such a picturesque city center with so many little streets of colorful, old wooden buildings. We dug it big time.

And as we left, we got away with murder by finding a way out of the parking structure without having to pay! At Preik, we had also gotten away with free parking. STICKIN’ IT TO THE PARKING GODS. So then we joyfully drove up near Haugesund to stay a night at Mariann’s family’s cabin. But when I say “cabin,” I mean insanely incredible cabin compound of 3 glorious cabins with cool lofts and epic views, a new dock, a boathouse, a mini soccer field, and absolute privacy. Wow. Pinch me. So we strolled the property, made waffles topped with a brown cheese spread (“prim”) mmm, and napped in the main cabin while we waited for Mariann’s aunt and uncle to arrive with the keys to “our” cabin.

Once in our cabin, we settled in, showered, made dinner, were gifted a very nice bottle of wine from Marzi’s familyfolk, and watched a terribly mediocre movie. Such a solid night of relaxin’! Despite the fact that the cabin had 3 bedrooms, all 3 of us opted to snooze up in the loft together anyway. I mean, why would we waste a perfectly awesome loft?? Vi var såååååå koselig.

When we woke up the next morning, we had absolutely nowhere to be at any certain time and that felt AMAZING. We took our time with breakfast and cleaning then eventually hit the road to the Haugesund city center to see a bit of Marzi’s old life. In truly Norwegian fashion, we ate soft-is (their version of soft-serve ice cream that is far from guilt-free) despite it being bone-chillingly cold and slushily raining. And then we headed back to Bergen.

It was the smoothest, luckiest, and most flawless trip imaginable.

ADVENTURE THREE: The month of April consisted of lots of regular life, likely with some hikes and fun nights peppered in, but now that it’s June, I couldn’t really tell ya much of what I did so long ago. However, the most notable event by far was the Easter trip up to where Solfrid grew up in the Sogn og Fjordane fylka (like a county). It was stunningly beautiful!!

The Øvrebø property is just unreal. The house is giant and awesome, and sits right at the base of a mountain, which is also part of the property. On the mountain is a well-established gravel road/trail system perfect for ATVing. There is a quaint little creek coming down the mountain, which goes over two pretty great waterfalls, and flows into the river in front of the house on the other side of the road. Across the road is more property, including a boathouse on an idyllic lake. From the top of the mountain, there is a view of it all: snow-covered mountains, lakes, islands, ocean…basically my dream location.

Cato gave me the tour de property from the back of the ATV and it was absolutely terrifying. This ATV is not meant for passengers. No back seat, no handles, I was just flying around every time we hit a bump, which was rarely unintentional (Caaaatttooooo -_-).

Our second day there included a trip to the family’s fish farm, just a couple minutes walk away. So many salmon! There were 12 pools of 20,000 fish and 1 pool of 90,000. Whew! And those fish had a serious view, as well. Later that day we all rode up the mountain, explored a few of the side trails, then came back to the house to play 3999 rounds of hide and seek with Emil and Mina. Emil also learned how to ride his bike without training wheels that day! He hadn’t quite figured out how to brake yet but he has since gotten the hang of it. The day came to a close by watching Beethoven in English. Wowww that made me feel old.

Easter morning started off with traditional giant eggs full of candy for each kid (I was included in this category yesss) hidden somewhere around the house. That was fun to see the Norwegian version of an Easter egg hunt! I was never very competitive in the American style hunt…Anyway, so then we went to Solfrid’s best friend’s house in Dale, where we had some great food and I had a really, really cool choking/coughing episode due to the skin of a walnut in my throat…that wasn’t embarrassing or anything…After the meal we headed out on a Easter stroll along the fjord to visit the family’s sheep. Along the way, we broke off many an icicle to lick rather than carrying a water bottle. It was probably the most Norwegian I have ever felt! Such a beautiful town, fjord, country….


That night, I rode the ATV to the top of the mountain to watch sunset all by my lonesome. It was borderline a spiritual experience. At one point, I randomly glanced up and spotted three birds flying together sooo soooo far up in the sky, I can't even believe I saw them in the first place. This doesn’t sound too spectacular, I’m sure, but it was seriously one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I watched them for so long until I looked away for a split second then could not find them again for the life of me. I even tried taking pictures of the sky and zooming in all over, but they were SO high up my camera could not even capture them. And then the sun set and I watched the last bits glow on the mountaintops and the orange turn to red turn to dark blue. I felt so alive.

Since then, much has happened. As many of you know, and as I mentioned in my last blog, my mom came to visit for two weeks. We went to France and a bit of Norway. But, all of that will require an entire entry in itself and this one is already terribly long. I’ll write that bit sometime soon, I hope.

But other than my mom’s visit, life has been unfolding. Lots of fun nights out, lots of new places visited around Bergen, lots of good times. But also, Mariann and Alex have left Bergen and I’ve been a bit lost and weird without them. I have since become closer with other friends and made quite a few more, but I still miss them terribly. On a more positive note, we have been having the most amazing weather (until like now) and I have even gotten seriously tanned here! Not much ozone and lots of sun makes for a dangerously fast tan. And during this amazing weather spell, the city had their big festival, Bergenfest, which I never quite figured out what it entirely consisted of but the place was so lively! One of the last events was a philharmonic performance of Grieg’s work, which Annemarie and I attended. Spectacular! Can’t wait to go to some more of those shows.

Other recent notable occasions have been Emil’s 6^th birthday! Wooo he’s gettin’ big! And the Sankthans Celebration, which is the Norwegian tradition for the summer solstice. There was a large gathering on our neighboring island where loads of people walk to the beach, BBQ, hang out, play music, and have a HUGE bonfire. Really charming and lots of fun! And most recently, this past Sunday was spent with Lydia (from Martinez!) and a group of other awesome girls at the Bergenfest music festival! It was the most mellow, tiny festival I’ve ever seen. We got to see Kings of Convenience, Ingrid Michaelson, Ane Brun, and Emeli Sande and we got our groove on. We were so obviously not Norwegian because we were dancing hard. Such a good time with new friends!

Also, EuroCup is going on! SO MUCH FUN to follow while in Europe. Norway never even made it in the tournament but it has been great times following the rest of the games. People really take soccer seriously on this side of the pond.

Okay, I need to cut it out and go to sleep….I’ve been a bit sick. My next adventure is soon but I’ll really try to cover my last adventure before I head out! Vi snakkes!!!

PS like the Norwegian tunes??