While I Was Gone (WIWG) #1

Does anyone remember that TLC TV Show, “While you were out?” where the one person would sneakily redecorate the other person’s home or “space” while they were gone for the weekend?  It was on during the height of the “everyone is a talented decorator capable of creating art out of found thrift store objects, fabric, paint and copious throw pillows” reality tv phase.

In hindsight, that phase was really just glorified stupid crafts, but at the time… entertaining! inspiring! creative! I always had big dreams of transforming my “space” (aka my student-rental bedroom) into something unique! and bold! that represented ME! but then when I realized I had no on-call carpenter, my dreams began to fade.  The nail in the coffin was that I also lacked the $1000 budget those shows relied upon, since this was the period in my life when I had about $30 a week for groceries…

Anyways, what I meant to say, before the reality tv tangent, is that I realize I disappeared from the blogosphere for 7 months or so.  Oops.  It got to the point where I felt so guilty about the abandonment that I didn’t even bother checking anymore.  While I wasn’t redecorating my home with throw pillows, found objects or chicken stencils, I occasionally took on a project worth sharing.  So, I present to you, “While I Was Gone” or WIWG, a series of recaps from these “lost months.”

WIWG #1

I don’t even know where to begin with this one.  It was one of the best things ever, so much fun, so fulfilling, but so completely unreasonable.  I mean, yes, that is the whole point of this blog, to celebrate the meaningless activities that make life fun, but I feel like I can’t explain why this particular adventure was so incredible.  Ok, here it is.

I met Joy the Baker.

The real thing.  Joy who I have been worshiping and following for years, the Joy who creates all the recipes I bake from and shares true vulnerability about her life and her thoughts every week on her blog (*cough*not leaving seven month unexplained hiatuses like other bloggers*cough*).  She published her book, and had a book tour, and the closest she planned to come to our town was Chicago, an eight hour drive to the south.

L and I google-mapped, we budgeted, we checked hotwire, we hesitated, and then, two days before we would have to leave to meet the real.live.Joy in Chicago, we booked the hotels.  We left after work on Friday, spent a night in Kalamazoo, Michigan, then on to Chicago Saturday morning.

We got there early.  We browsed.  We bought our books.  We sat in the front row.  We waited.

Joy arrived.  Joy talked.  Joy asked us real questions about our real lives.  Joy signed our books.  Joy hugged us and posed for a picture with us.

It was awesome!  I have never been much of a celebrity follower– I never really felt I had anything in common with the run-of-the-mill Hollywood celebs, but with Joy the Baker, I think her efforts to be truly honest and humble and kind and vulnerable allow her readers to feel like we know her, and we share something real with her.  So for L and I, it was an amazing day.  Thanks Joy!

 

Norwegian Endings

June 15, 2012

We awoke in the summer cabin on our last full day in Scandinavia to beautiful sunny weather. That’s our bedroom window at the top!

After breakfast, John took us for a boat ride in his wooden inboard motor boat.  It was built in 1950, and I imagine the upkeep is demanding, but it seemed a fitting vessel for our surroundings.

The water was relatively calm, and we spent about two hours puttering around several nearby islands, Norwegian flag flying.

J and I both got a chance to steer the boat for a ways, but it made me nervous, since I could just see myself getting distracted and driving into the rocks.  The steering is kind of opposite– you push to the left to go right and vice versa, which was no help, considering my extraordinarily poor spatial skills.

We saw a few fish jumping, and John put out a line with six or seven hooks on it to see if we could catch any mackerel.  We didn’t catch anything, but it was interesting to see the method John used– a long length of thick fishing line wrapped around a spool.  He let out more than half of the line and then threaded his finger through a pre-tied loop in the line.  While the line was in the water, he rhythmically dragged his finger back and forth to give the line some movement.  No rod or reel!

Back onshore, we met John’s 85-year-old neighbour who still does all his own boat maintenance.  In the shallow water near the shore we found a well-camouflaged starfish.

After returning to the cabin, we packed up our things while John mowed the lawn.  We wandered in the garden, which contains several different varieties of fruit trees, along with many wildflowers.  One tree has a small swing tied to a sturdy branch.

We left for Stavanger, about an hour’s drive away, at noon.  When we arrived at the Jørpeland ferry, there was a lot of traffic, which John and Karen commented was not normal.  After some investigation we determined that one of the two ferries was out of commission, so there was only one ferry making the 40 minute crossing.  J and I read our books while waiting to board the delayed boat.  We all enjoyed some ice cream on the boat.

John and Karen planned a barbeque with their children and grandchildren that evening, and the plan was that J and I would plan and make the food, so when we arrived in Stavanger, John dropped us off at the grocery store with Karen.  We planned to make chicken souvlaki and hamburgers, with my favourite spinach, strawberries and goat cheese salad.  It took some work to find what we needed in the grocery store, and some questions to figure out what the labels stated, but we eventually found all of the right foods and a snack or two for the trip home tomorrow.

By the time we got back to the house we had about an hour and twenty minutes to get everything organized for the barbeque, so there was no time for a shower or anything, which I sorely needed.  It was a little confusing trying to find the right kitchen tools in Karen’s kitchen, but we eventually got rolling and everything was prepared on time.

John and Karen’s youngest daughter, Anne, arrived first with her 3 children and one of her two stepchildren in tow.  Her partner was traveling for work, so he was unable to make it.  Her three kids are quite young, and don’t really know any English, so they ran around playing in the yard while we chatted with Anne.  She is getting married this summer, so before dinner, she tried on her wedding dress for me, which was nice, since I won’t be there for the wedding.

Tore arrived at the same time as his sister, Kjersten, and her partner and daughter.  Their son, who is adopted from Ethiopia, was at a party and joined us a little later in the evening.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner, so J and I were relieved that our “Canadian” food was a success.  After dinner, the weather was getting chilly, so we moved indoors to chat in the living room.  I sat with Kjersten, who was soon joined by her daughter, who is almost eleven.  It turns out that her daughter speaks quite good English for a Norwegian kid her age, so I talked with her most of the evening.  It was fun to hang out with a kid again– I definitely miss that aspect of my life in my job nowadays.

Everyone left shortly after nine, and we were about to go to bed, but John turned on the TV and the Sweden-England UEFA match had just started, so we decided to stay up late and watch, despite the fact that we had to get up at 3:30 am the next day.  At the half, we packed our bags and gave John and Karen a little Canadian thank-you gift for having us.

Once the game was over, I checked my email and we both went to bed.

 

Over the Mountains and Through the Valley

June 14, 2012

We awoke in our separate bunk beds around 8 am and got dressed in our tiny cabin bedroom.  We ate our standard breakfast of meats, cheeses and breads, minus the muesli (my favourite part).  However, the bread was fresh and delicious, and John and Karen placed a special jar of chocolate spread in front of my plate, because I told them the night before that I loved it.  They teased me– apparently peanut butter and all other spreads except jam, butter and caviar are considered kids’ food.

During breakfast, John suggested another “easy” walk up to the peak of a nearby mountain.  It is difficult at times to tell whether he is joking or not, but J and I were a lot more hesitant to join him on a walk this time, after yesterday’s soggy experience.  I get the feeling John is a chronic under-estimator of time, distance and difficulty!

We packed up the cabin and loaded the car, leaving for the summer cabin (located on a coastal island) around 10 am.  An hour later, we stopped at the base of the hike to Kjerag, a famous Norwegian tourist destination where a round boulder is caught in a kind of crevasse, between two cliffs, with a 1000 m drop below it.  Before the stop, the drive had taken us very high into the mountains, and there were patches of snow all around us.

The temperature had dropped from 10 degrees Celsius to a chilly 3 degrees as we wound our way up.  Neither J nor I really had the appropriate winter clothing for the cold temperature, but we joined John on a steep hike about a quarter of the way up to Kjerag.

The views from the top of the mountain we climbed were spectacular.  I’m sure they were gorgeous further on the trail, but the trail wound through some snowy patches, and takes about five hours.  We were really not prepared for this type of a hike, so we headed back down.

At one point, I slipped and lost my footing.  There is a chain looped through some metal posts marking the trail, and I was holding this, but my momentum pushed me right under the chain.  J just about had a heart attack, but I was fine.  I followed my dad’s advice from when I learned to ski: If you are going too fast, just sit down.  Because of that advice, I had a dirty bottom, but was unhurt, and didn’t slide very far.

At the base of the hike, there is a cabin known as the Eagle’s Nest, with a balcony overhanging the cliff.  We walked there and took a few pictures before getting back in the car.

The next part of the journey was a little harrowing.  It consisted of a one-lane road down the side of the mountain, with 21 hairpin switchbacks.  Near the bottom of the mountain, we entered a 1.1 km long tunnel carved into the rock. This tunnel also contained a couple switchbacks.

About halfway down this slightly terrifying road, we pulled into a rest stop next to a waterfall for lunch.

We ate our sandwiches at a picnic table next to the falls, then made our way down into the valley at the end of Lysefjorden.  I think this area is known as Lysebotn.  At the end of the fjord, there are a few homes, some sheep farms and a hotel/hostel or two, frequented by hikers and base jumpers.

We arrived a few hours early for the ferry down the fjord, so we joked that we should have let John take us on that “easy” hike from the winter cabin.

We walked in a circle through the little community, took pictures, and had some tea and cinnamon rolls in the tourist cafe.  Then we spent an hour or so reading in the car before the ferry arrived and we were able to board.  We were to be the first car off of the ferry, because we weren’t going all the way down the fjord, so we boarded last.  Apparently there are two ferries that make their way up the fjord.  The first is a tourist ferry, which comes all the way from Stavanger and is slow, as well as expensive.  Thankfully, John knew that there is a cheaper local ferry that moves much more quickly, so that is what we took.

Once we were on the water, the ferry gained speed quickly.  J and I went up to the outdoor upper deck of the tiny ferry to take pictures of the beautiful 1000 m cliffs on either side of us.  Several water falls with 100 m freefalls cascaded down the rocks, and John came up to point out Kjerag to us.  From the boat, the boulder looked like a tiny speck.  We could see a person (an even tinier speck) on top of the rock.

The ferry ride was just under half an hour, but even in powerful, freezing winds, we stayed outside for the whole ride, taking in the spectacular valley and taking pictures.

As we arrived at our stop, our quick local ferry, which had left 30 minutes after the slow tourist ferry, had to idle in the water for awhile because the tourist ferry was still at our dock.  Eventually, we were able to drive off the ferry and make our way up another steep, one-lane mountain road.  A short way up two hikers were walking on the road.  We stopped to offer to take their bags to the top for them, but they were not interested.  John has walked that road from the ferry to the hiking trail and he said it was three or four km just to the trail, so we all agreed they might regret their decision when they got to the top!

Along the way, we stopped at a large flat rock that you are supposed to be able to make tip, like a scale, when you jump on it because it is perched on another rock.  J climbed up and gave it a try, but didn’t have any luck.

Following the ferry ride, the drive to the summer cabin was about another hour through mostly one-lane, winding roads.  We made our way up a mountain, down into a gorgeous valley, up another mountain, and then finally down into another valley, across a bridge to the island.  We arrived at the summer cabin shortly after 5 pm.

The summer cabin is much larger than the winter one, with a bedroom downstairs for John and Karen, and enough room to sleep seven or eight upstairs.  There is a double bed (well, two beds pushed together, which is what they seem to think comprises a double bed here in Europe), so at least we won’t be spending another night in separate beds!  On the main level, there is a modern kitchen open to the dining room.  These rooms form an L shape with the dining room, and almost every window has a view of the sea.  The wood is all painted in peaceful, pale colours.  After unloading the car, we settled in for a few hours of relaxation.

We ate a similar dinner to the night before on the outdoor patio, accompanied by red wine and some much needed sunshine after the cloudy days in the mountains.  John wanted to take us out in the boat, but the wind was strong and cool, so we decided to try tomorrow morning instead.  After an hour or two of TV, J and I went to bed relatively early in an effort to rid ourselves of the chill we had been unable to shake since the 3 degree weather on the mountain.

 

Sirdal: The Winter Cabin and Wet Socks

June 13, 2012

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning after waking up around 8 am.  The plan today is to take a three-day, two-night road trip with John and Karen.  Today we’re driving to a cabin in the mountains that John used to own and has now sold to his daughter Kjersten.  It is generally used in the winter as a base for cross-country skiing.  Thank goodness we didn’t come to visit in the winter, because I absolutely hate cross-country skiing, and they apparently ski for six hours a day when they are here!

After breakfast we packed up and hit the road.  We made three stops along the way.  First we stopped for groceries, then at two “tourist trap” gift shops.  The first had some beautiful yarn and wool– I was sorely tempted to buy some in anticipation of the inevitable, yet likely distant day when I become an avid knitter, but thought that would be an impractical decision.  The second shop focused on candles and home goods where J and I found a beautiful wooden cutting board that wasn’t too big or heavy to fit in our bags on the way home.

The cabin was about an hour and a half drive from Stavanger – about 110 km through the absolutely stunning Hunedalen valley with waterfalls, farms, and cabins perched on steep climes.

The road was twisting and narrow, with a few tunnels.  The cabin is up a steep gravel road.  There is a level communal parking lot a little ways away from the cabin from which you take a small path to the cabin.  We arrived around 12:30 pm.

The cabin has four bedrooms: one with a double bed for John and Karen, one with two sets of bunk beds, for J and I, and two more rooms with a set of bunk beds each.  The kitchen, dining room and living room are in one long area with a vaulted wood-lined ceiling.  The walls and floor are also pale wood.  There is a bright blue fireplace in the living room, with bright forest green trim.  All of the pale wooden furniture in the living room and dining room were purchased from a Norwegian factory at the same time, and were remarkably comfortable.

J and I made a lunch of soup and bread and cheese, and we ate a delicious jam-filled pastry for dessert.  After lunch we spent a half-hour or so reading and relaxing, then John suggested an easy walk “just along the roads.”

Although the walk involved some beautiful scenery, it was not “just along the roads.”

After hiking about 4 or 5 km along the roads, including up a very, very steep hill, John said, “The hard part is over and now we have the fun part.”  Apparently, the fun part was another 2 or so km across soaking wet muskeg, making gradual downhill progress (apparently) towards the cabin.  Our shoes filled with water in the first few minutes, and we spent the rest of the time squelching along, trying to keep up with John’s blistering (note the foreshadowing….) pace.

I fell only a couple of times, and once J let go of a branch that flicked me right in the eyes and forehead.  After 2.5 hours of walking, we eventually made it back to the cabin, where we immediately changed out of our soaking clothes and put our shoes on John and Karen’s electric shoe dryer.  After the walk, we relaxed in our warm dry clothes and I nursed a blood blister on my foot.  I’ve never gotten a blood blister from walking before!

We had a dinner of pork, lamb sausage, potatoes and an interesting salad of peppers, tomato, onion, feta and nectarine.  I was surprised at how well this rather surprising flavour combination worked together.  After dinner we washed the dishes, watched the Portugal-Denmark UEFA game and ate chocolate.  A couple of hours later, J and I retired, exhausted, to our bunk beds.

 

Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock)

June 12, 2012

Today we woke up early because John planned to take us up to Preikestolen/Pulpit Rock on Lysefjorden, one of the top tourist attractions in Norway.  We caught the 8:30 am ferry from Stavanger to Jørpeland, about a forty minute ride.  John makes this crossing once or twice a week, so he read the paper while we explored the boat and took a few pictures.

Before arriving in Stavanger, we had looked at taking a tourist boat into Lysefjorden to Pulpit Rock, but the cost seemed very high– approximately 400 NOK (or $65+ CDN) each.

From Jørpeland, it was a 19 km drive to the parking lot at the bottom of the climb.  Although parking was expensive, the cost of the ferry ride and parking totaled only 226 NOK, a much better option than the tourist boat!  Being the spoiled wife that I am, J carried our backpack full of water, extra clothes, sunglasses, etc.  The hike up to Pulpit Rock is about 12 km round trip, according to John.

The first part of the hike is very steep, but has some gravel and soil mixed with rock, making the climb a little easier.  After about ten to fifteen minutes of hard, steep climbing, you reach an easier grade for another five to ten minutes.  There are even a few downhill sections.  For the first half of the climb, we were mostly surrounded by deciduous forest, but there were a few openings where there was a good view of the valley and the fjord.

Towards the middle of the hike, there is a long steep rocky section which was definitively the hardest part of the climb.  It is about 20 minutes of grueling uphill climbing on big rocks, with no soil cover.

The trail was marked by red “T”s spray-painted onto the rocks, but we often followed it loosely, just trying to find the best way up.  As we neared the top, there were a few mountain lakes, which J thought were probably formed by rainwater collection.  John said his children used to swim in them in the summer.

At the top of the climb, many parts spread out into flat wide rocky plains where we could roam to the edge for a photo or make quick progress towards the top.

As we approached Pulpit Rock, there was one section where we had to put our feet on a very narrow ledge, and hug the rock for a few careful steps.  This was probably the most dangerous part of the climb, but it feels easy after all the exhausting uphill hiking.  After the ledge it is only a short walk to Pulpit Rock.  The hike is supposed to take about two hours, but it took us about an hour and a half.

Pulpit Rock provides a spectacular view of Lysefjorden from 600 m up, but it was somewhat clouded by fog when we arrived, so many of our photos show this haze.  It did start to clear before we headed down, but by that time, many more tourists had arrived.

When we arrived, there were probably 20 tourists there ahead of us.  They were sitting in small groups enjoying the view, eating a snack or taking pictures.  I even saw a few drinking wine, which despite the early hour, seemed appropriate, given the dazzling surroundings.  J is pretty terrified of heights, so for him, this climb was a real victory over his fears, but he was pretty tense for the entire hour or so we spent at the top.  Despite his fears, he indulged me and took pictures as I knelt on the edge, stood near the edge, and put my head over the edge.

We ate a lunch of sandwiches and chocolate, in a place chosen by John and J, well-back from the edge.

On our walk back down, John knew of an alternate trail that no one uses, but it didn’t start until the bottom of the most difficult and steep rocky section.  Because the number of people on the trail had increased astronomically, we thought it would be nice to take the quieter route.  Before we turned off though, we ran into our New Zealand friends from the ferry!  We took a quick picture with them before they continued up to the top.

The quieter path was a great choice.  We didn’t meet any other climbers, and the path was much more forested and soil-covered than the main route, which it joined only a few hundred metres from the end of the path.  The alternate route didn’t seem to slow us down at all.

We took a few minutes near the trail lodge to change our shirts, which were drenched with sweat, before getting back in the car.  We took the scenic route home, stopping first at a cabin that had belonged to John’s father and now belongs to his younger brother.  My father spent a whole summer here when he was thirteen.

On our way back to Stavanger, we took a different, shorter ferry across the water and drove back through Sandnes, the closest town to Stavanger.  The scenery during the ferry ride was stunning.

Back at the house we had an early dinner of cod, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, then took a few hours for downtime to recover from the long hike.  Around 7:30 pm, Karen accompanied us to the grocery store to fulfill a request of mine to take a look.  I always like to see the set-up of the grocery store and the prices for staple foods.  This grocery had a very large selection of cheeses and meats, but a much smaller produce section than the average grocery store in Canada.  Most things were significantly more expensive than they would be in Canada.  From the store, we walked to John and Karen’s son Tore’s house.  The plan was to meet Tore, then pick up Thomas a few houses away, and walk to town for a drink.  Karen agreed to babysit Tore’s son to accommodate this plan.

At Thomas’ house, we met his wife and then walked to town.  Since I am not the biggest fish eater, I was starving by the time we got to the pub (Cafe Sting) and we ordered some chicken wings along with our drinks.  We got to know Tore and Thomas over several drinks.  Because it was a weeknight, by the time we left around midnight, we were the very last people in the restaurant.  During our stay, Thomas was constantly interrupted by friends and business connections, but we still had a really good visit.  Tore said that it is always like that when you are with Thomas!  We walked back to John and Karen’s house and went to bed.

 

Cheese! Exploring Stavanger

June 11, 2012

Today is our first day in Stavanger, and we awoke shortly after 8 am.  When we went up for breakfast, the table was already laid with fish, cheese, bread, muesli, milk, yogurt and fruit as well as coffee and tea.  We are starting to realize that the variety of breakfast foods available in Scandinavian hotels echo the foods eaten every morning by normal Swedes, Danes and Norwegians!  J had his first taste of a famous brown Norwegian cheese (that I have had before), his first experience using a Norwegian cheese slicer, and provided entertainment for our hosts who had never seen a cheese slicer used in his new fashion or the brown cheese eaten on a sandwich before.  We also tried an orange fruit/vegetable from Spain that seemed to be a combination of an apricot, a plum and a tomato.

After breakfast and a little visiting, John and Karen walked with us into town.

They told us a few stories about their neighbourhood and showed us a few important family locations.  We saw a few family gravesites, the home where my grandmother grew up, and the school she attended.  We walked along the harbour in Stavanger, where it is common for cruise ships to dock (today there were two).

As we reached the centre of town, John took us into the family tobacco shop, which is where he worked until he retired.  The shop has been in operation in Stavanger since 1899 and has always been in the family.  Today John’s son Tore, who is a few years older than Josh and I, runs the shop.  When we entered the shop, not only Tore, but also his cousin, Thomas Dybdahl, was there.  Thomas is a well-known Norwegian musician and he met up with my brother on a recent tour of Canada, so I was introduced as “Gordon’s sister.”  We planned to meet with Tore and Thomas later in the week for a beer.

We had lunch with John and Karen in a Chinese food restaurant where our waitress seemed to understand neither English nor Norwegian, but we did eventually get the right food and it was quite good.  After lunch, J and I were left to explore the town on our own.

J’s first priority was to see the Archaeology Museum, which John had warned us had very limited hours, so we walked there first.  The museum was pretty small, so I think we only spent perhaps forty-five minutes looking at the artifacts and clay pots.  I can’t really tell you if it was a good collection, but J seemed to think it was worthwhile.

We walked back down to town in search of Norwegian cash.  The first two machines we tried were unhelpful, but the third one worked.   We browsed through several stores, many of which had lovely housewares at exorbitant prices, so we only bought a small kitchen implement (a cheese slicer). There is a large central market set up near the harbour, which John and Karen said is “just for tourists.”  Regardless, we bought some likely overpriced, but delicious fudge from one of the shops.

After photographing Domkirke, a church built in 1100, we walked along the harbour, were mooned by a graffiti Mona Lisa, and then walked back through several narrow cobblestone streets.

I think I was still feeling the effects of being on the ferry yesterday– I had some vertigo, weakness and a headache, so around 3pm, we headed back to John and Karen’s house.  On the way home, we stopped in garden of the “Kings House,” which has beautiful tall trees.

When we got back to the house I took a nap and Josh relaxed for an hour or so.

I felt much better after an hour’s sleep.  The sun was out and it was the warmest it has been outside for the whole trip, so we spent the evening on the back porch, where we had a dinner of pork, bread and salad, plus hamburgers.  It was an interesting combination, but delicious!  After our very large meal, we took a short drive to two very important archaeological sites nearby.  First, we visited a cave believed to be the oldest human habitation in Norway.  Unfortunately, we had forgotten our camera, so J was forced to take “mental pictures.”  The second site was in someone’s backyard!  It was a large rock with several pictographs (aka cave paintings) of boats, handprints, people and the sun.  All of the drawings were done in an orange/red colour.

When we returned from our excursion, we showed John and Karen some pictures of Bernard, and they showed us some pictures of their recent holiday in Thailand with my parents.  We watched the Sweden vs. Ukraine UEFA match and then went to bed.

 

Off to Norway: Long Distance Walking and Longer Distance Sailing

June 10, 2012

After his long nap yesterday, J woke up at 4:30 am, and spent the time reading and watching TV.  I slept until our alarm went off at 7:15 am.  We got dressed and packed up quickly, then headed down for the continental breakfast which started at 8.  This spread was every bit as good as the one in Sweden, but it also included fresh breads and rolls, still warm from the oven.  As soon as we finished, we checked out and made the short walk to the train station.

Upon arriving, we met a couple who were also taking the train to Hirtshals (a small town on the coast of Denmark) and the same ferry to Stavanger (our destination in Norway).  Both of them were students doing their PhDs in New Zealand.  Gerd, who was originally from Holland, was about to start his PhD in Bio-Chemistry, and Alecia, a native Kiwi, was studying Physics.  On the train, we met up with an older Canadian couple, whom Gerd and Alecia had met the night before.  We chatted with them during the 20 minute ride to Hirtshals.

When we arrived in Hirtshals, no one seemed to have any idea where we were supposed to go.  Luckily, J had spent some time studying the map, and we found our way there.  Unluckily, it was a 3km walk from the train station through an industrial area.  We knew before we left Canada that my suitcase had a broken wheel, and this made the walk a lot more difficult.  Luckily for me, J pulled my suitcase most of the way.

We arrived at the ferry terminal about two hours prior to our departure, so we spent the time chatting with our New Zealand friends and checking our e-mail.  We and the other couple had planned that perhaps we could explore the town after checking in for the ferry ride, but given the distance from town, this vision was completely unreasonable.

Once we boarded our ferry, the Bergensfjord, we were separated from our New Zealand friends, though, because they had booked seats in the open area of the ferry and we had booked the very cheapest cabin available – right above the engine room.  This turned out to be perfect for us.  The noise was minimal, and the beds comfortable enough for a couple of long naps during the twelve-hour ride to Stavanger. There would have been no reason for us to pay extra for more space of a window facing the sea.  There was plenty of time to explore the outer decks during the long ride!

I planned to read and write on the ferry, but was almost instantly hit with motion sickness, so I was limited to talking, sleeping or eating during our ride.  I probably did a little too much of all three..

We ate lunch and dinner at the same cafeteria-style restaurant on the ferry.  We had mediocre sandwiches for lunch, but then spent most of the rest of our Danish cash on a more expensive dinner.  It was nothing spectacular, but we didn’t go hungry.  At the duty-free shop onboard, we bought a bottle of cloudberry liqueur, which was one of the souvenirs we were most excited about bringing home.

Even though the ferry didn’t arrive in Stavanger until fifteen minutes past midnight, it was quite light outside almost the entire ride, thanks to the northern location and being so close to the solstice.  When we were about to dock in Stavanger, we found our New Zealand friends again and chatted a little while we docked.

As we walked off the ferry into the terminal, we were met by my Dad’s cousin John and his wife Karen, whom we are staying with in Stavanger.  They drove us home and kindly allowed us to go straight to bed.

 

Off to Denmark!

June 9, 2012

We were up early this morning to ensure we caught our ferry to Denmark on time.  J was apparently up half the night, probably due to the fact that he slept all day yesterday!  We ate our last continental breakfast in Sweden and checked out of the hotel before the walk to the ferry terminal.  The walk was only 2 km, but with all of our luggage, it was exhausting.  I kept trying to think of ways in which I could have reduced my load, but couldn’t think of anything that would have helped in a significant way.  Anyone have any useful light-traveling tips?  When we finally arrived, we boarded the ferry without any problems and found a comfortable corner to stow our luggage and set up for the three hour ride.

Being that we were again on a ship, J soon set off to explore every corner of the boat, breathe the sea breezes and feel the wind in his (half-inch long) hair.  I checked my email with the free internet and guarded our large pile of luggage.  Eventually, a family came to ask if they could sit down, and I said that they could, but indicated that my husband was also sitting with me at the table.  At first, just a mom and son were here, but then the husband and another son arrived.  When I indicated again, politely, to the husband that my husband was joining me, he said “Yes, but he is one person, not three!”  I thought that was bit rude!  I wasn’t trying to reserve the whole bench, only one place, but apparently there was a significant misunderstanding.  Then when J didn’t return for nearly an hour, I think this family was really annoyed with me.

By the time J returned loaded down with snacks and most importantly, lingonberry liqueur, from the on-board boutique, the rude father had disappeared, leaving his kids and stuff nearby.   I left J guarding our belongings and went on a short walk around the ship.  As J had said to me, it really was more of a floating casino or entertainment centre than a ferry!  There were slot machines everywhere, a large restaurant, ping-pong tables, oversized chess boards, kids activities and a huge boutique, which was about 40% booze.

By the time I got to go on my walk, we were out in the Baltic Sea, and I couldn’t see any land on the horizon.

It was a little cool outside, but it wasn’t raining.  After looking outside and spending a few leftover SEK on the slot machines, I returned to our seat where the rude father had finally returned and wedged himself in next to J, so at least I didn’t look like a complete lunatic, imagining that I had a husband!

I read my book for the rest of the boat ride.  When we arrived in Denmark, we took a very long walkway out of the ferry and over the road to a plaza where we found a bank machine to take out some Danish Kroner.  We dragged our heavy suitcases along what we thought was the right road for about 10-15 minutes, until we found the bus station where we planned to catch the bus to Hjorring (our next hotel).  It was too bad we didn’t get a chance to explore Frederikshavn, where we landed in Denmark, but by that time I was exhausted and hungry.  I just wanted to dump our bags, so we boarded the bus and had a relaxing 40 minute ride to Hjorring, a small inland city.

The hotel we booked is in an older building, but the rooms have been renovated, and our hotel room must be double the size of our room in Sweden!  It is also close to double the price, so it is probably for the best that we are only spending one night here.  The service was extremely friendly, the room is clean and the location is ideal– a very short walk from the bus and train stations. 

After dropping our bags, we found the train station to check that we had the schedule right and the correct tickets, then found a hole-in-the-wall pizza shop where we purchased two pizzas and a 1.5L bottle of pop for 110 DKK, about $19.  It is enough food for lunch and dinner, so definitely a bargain!  After scarfing some pizza down, J laid down for a nap.  I was ready for some quiet time after the raucous ferry ride, so I didn’t mind relaxing in our spacious hotel room for a few hours.

I woke J up in time to watch the Netherlands – Denmark UEFA match.  After the game and before bed, we went out for a short sightseeing walk. The town was clean and quiet with beautiful old buildings and churches, plus many large fountains, sculptures and art installations.

 

The Great Laundry Swindling of 2012 (and other stories)

June 8, 2012

Today we slept till about 8 am.  J was in a hurry to get out and about, but I was in a much more leisurely mood.  I managed to hold off J’s anxiety till about 9 am when we headed down for breakfast.  I tried a few different food combinations today– I always try to take advantage of the free food, so my tray was loaded down!  I was slowly making my way through the mountain of food, but J was toe-tappingingly anxious to go.  He went back for seconds to avoid staring me down as I sipped my hot chocolate, but finished those before me as well.  As I was taking my last swallow, he was off and running, so I gathered my tray and put it away with food still in my mouth!

What was J so excited to get started on?  Well, since we arrived, we’ve been rewearing certain items of clothing in rotation, but the advisability of this rotation system had finally worn out– we needed to do some laundry!  The hotel had advised us that there was a service a few blocks away, so we gathered our dirtiest belongings and put them in a bag.  We toted them there, and after some confusion, they said they could do a load of laundry for us today.  It is pretty expensive (225 SEK – over $30!!), but there are apparently no plain old Laundromats here, because Swedish landlords are required to provide laundry for their tenants!  What a great law, even if it is causing us some inconvenience.

After disposing of our delicates for the day, we walked to a well-known “character” area of town, Haga, which is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Goteborg.  There were several cafes, second-hand shops, antique shops and clothing boutiques lining the cobblestone streets.  On the top of a very tall hill in Haga is a former fortress which is now used as a restaurant and event hall.  I saw it from the water on our boat tour, and was determined to take a closer look, so we climbed the very long flights of stairs up the steep hill to see it up close.

From the top of the hill, we had spectacular views of the city from almost every direction!  It was a stunning way to see the city, and we were so happy we made the effort.

When we were on the top of the hill, we noticed that the Fyskekyrka (literally, Fish Church, but really a famous seafood market inside a building shaped like a church) was very close by, so we walked down the hill and across the canal to take a look.

The building is pretty, and the inside is very interesting with beautiful light, but the seafood smell is overwhelming (especially for a fish-hater like myself) so our walk-through was pretty quick.  However, it was really neat to see all the different types of seafood and fish available for sale.  There were whole flatfish and crayfish and crabs as well as whole fish looking like they were frozen in time with their eyes and teeth still there.  The shops also sold fish that was already prepared for cooking and there were a few restaurants inside the Fyskekyrka, but it was too close to breakfast to stop for a snack.

We wandered in the sunny weather along the canal back towards our hotel area, and Josh wanted to stop at the grocery store for some items to make a cheap lunch so we could make up for the expensive laundry.  On the way there, a migraine set in, so we hurried through the shopping and made a beeline for the hotel where J laid down for a nap.

J spent most of the day sleeping off the headache, so I caught up on my interneting and after a walk, picked up our laundry, which suddenly cost double the originally quoted price.  So our clothes are clean, but at the cost of a new pair of pants!  I felt like I had no choice but to pay the exorbitant fee, so I handed over my credit card.  When I returned to the hotel with our clothes, my husband was emerging from his migraine-induced sleep.  We spent the next couple hours re-packing our bags in preparation for  the trip to Denmark tomorrow. I didn’t tell him about the laundry cost for a few hours, because I was afraid of triggering a different kind of headache!

Dinner tonight was being hosted by the conference on an historic steamer.

We walked in the pouring rain to the meeting place and then to the waterfront, where we boarded the old ship and picked a table.  J and I seem to have the uncanny ability to disappear or seemingly discourage others from talking to us at every social event, so we ended up at a table alone.  It could have been romantic, but we didn’t eat until about 9 pm and my blood sugar was pretty low by them (read: I was super grouchy!).  We were offered wine before the meal was served, and after accepting, about 10 minutes later, we were asked for 100 SEK for the two glasses!  We hadn’t expected to have to pay, since the meal was already paid for, so we scrounged together a bit of cash and then used credit for the rest.  Lucky we’re leaving Sweden tomorrow!

The menu offerings were fish and vegetarian, so J chose fish and I chose veggie.  I eventually ended up with a vegetarian meal after refusing several women who kept bringing me fish.  J’s meal was a large piece of unknown fish covered in a shrimp-filled cream sauce.  There were potatoes brought to the table in a separate bowl for us to share.  When my meal arrived, it was two huge slabs of quiche, one filled with carrot and asparagus, and the other with cheese.  There were also well-steamed carrots and asparagus (overdone in my opinion, but I’m no connoisseur).  I thought quiche was a rather hilarious vegetarian choice– isn’t it made almost entirely of eggs?!  Luckily I am not really a vegetarian!

The boat ride lasted over three hours.  We sailed out of the Goteborg harbour and through a large rocky archipelago.  Many islands were seemingly uninhabited, but as we got farther out, some housed small communities of summer homes.

A few islands had a lone house on them.  As we got out into the open ocean, we could see tankers and freighters making their way through the Atlantic.  As we headed back to Goteborg, the sun was setting and we got some great pictures of the ocean, islands and sky.

J managed to get a little tour down into the engine-room of the ship, which you could tell thrilled him to bits.  That man loves to be on ships! He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face the whole time.

Back in Goteborg, the rain had stopped and we walked back to the hotel.  When we checked in several days ago, they told us that there was free coffee and tea in the lobby, but we never investigated.  Since there was no dessert on the boat, we looked to see what was in the lobby and found some pastries and hot chocolate!  We took some of each and went to our room, where we soon fell asleep.

 

Marstrand and Magnificence

June 7, 2012

Miraculously, we both slept until the alarm went off today, so I think we are on our way to recovering from the jetlag!  J had his presentation first thing this morning so he was up quickly.  After answering a few e-mails, he was off to the university.  I had a leisurely morning– I finished the last ten pages of Middlemarch, had a long shower and a relaxing breakfast.

Just after nine, I walked to the Central Station and hopped on a train on my way to Marstrand, an island in the northern archipelago– about 40 km north of Göteborg.  I transferred to a bus in Ytterby, where a whole class of teenagers boarded with their teacher.  They were also headed to Marstrand, so when we got to the ferry terminal, we all boarded the ferry together.  The ferry is a passenger ferry only (according to guidebooks), but in reality, a few work vehicles and vans must be allowed on the island, because two vehicles were on the ferry and I saw quite a few such vehicles on the main drag of the island.

The crossing is only two or three times the width of the Fraser River, so the whole ferry ride is only about three minutes long.

Thankfully, when we got to the island, I was able to lose the noisy bunch of students and set out on my own.  The main drag of the street is all cobblestone, much like Göteborg, but it is all harbour, so there are boats moored on either side of the crossing.

There are a few restaurants, shops and cafés and the buildings across the harbour are perched haphazardly on rocks, which is reminiscent of Newfoundland.

Eventually the street trailed off into a hiking trail in the woods, so I took that path.

It took me all the way out to the tip of the island facing the Atlantic, and through a famously tall and narrow passage that must have been less than two feet across.

It rained on and off during the hike, but it wasn’t cold.  The trail sort of petered out on the rocks and it may have restarted somewhere further, but at that point I’d been hiking for about 45 minutes, so I turned around and headed back to town.

After wandering the narrow, steep cobblestone streets, I found a very, very steep road leading to the Carlsten Fortress, the major historic site on the island.

As I was heading up the road, I thought that this must be the reason that so many student groups seemed to be visiting the island.  When I got to the fortress, my suspicions were confirmed!  The grounds of the impressive stone structure were crawling with students of all ages, and there was a lot of Swedish yelling all around me.  A few little ones tried to speak with me, but when I told them I only spoke English, they didn’t know what to say!  The tour of the inside of the fortress was 75 SEK and I only had 115 SEK left for lunch and a few postcards, so I saved my money and took pictures of the outside of the fortress.  If my husband, the military history buff, had been there, we certainly would have taken the tour.  As it was, I was content to take some pictures and walk the grounds.

Before my hike, I noticed a cute local café where several people were sitting outside having their morning coffee.  After my exploration of the centuries-old fortress, I returned to that café, enticed mostly by the smell of baking from a few hours earlier.  I got a delicious brie-filled bunwich (making it five meals of bunwiches in a row..) and a blueberry pastry, which was also tasty.  I read my book while I ate and dried out from the rain.  After picking up a few postcards, I headed back on the ferry and then took the bus (packed with the same noisy school group in addition to another slightly younger, slightly quieter school group) all the way back to Göteborg.

I came back to the hotel where J was waiting in pre-afternoon nap mode, watching Asterix and Obelix in Swedish.  Shortly after my arrival and an exchange about his presentation (which went well) and my trip, he fell asleep.  As I mentioned, I really do stir up excitement in my husband!  Following his short nap, we went out for a walk.  We stopped for another one of my favourite chai lattes, and shared a chocolate muffin.  Then we spent some time shopping in a large department store, which had everything from fabric to household goods, luggage, clothing and stationery.  I found a pretty coil notebook for myself, and some capri tights for a good price.

We stopped at the hotel for a quick change of clothes and to drop off our purchases before we walked to one of the main city squares to meet with other conference attendees for a wine reception being held by the city.  There were a couple of delicious salads, plus rolls, wine and beer, so we treated it like dinner (and thankfully breaking my bunwich streak).

The reception was held in a stunningly beautiful old building that was completely ornate.  The floors had intricate wood designs and the two-storey doors featured inlaid wooden panels.  Two and three-tiered chandeliers hung from the ornate ceiling by velvet ropes.  The walls and columns seemed to be made entirely of marble and the ceilings were likely 14-15 feet high.

I tried to chide J into networking with his colleagues, but he wasn’t feeling very outgoing, so we stopped for ice cream at McDonald’s and walked towards the hotel.  It was warm and calm outside, so the water of the canal was calm and we got a few beautiful pictures before turning in for the night.