Land of the Vikings...

Im in Norway, and Id say that its one of the most beautiful countries Ive ever visited. I flew in on the 18th from London. The plane landing was beautiful - the Haugesund airport is right on the coast. As we cruised in to the airport, I snapped pictures of the rocky little islands and watched the mountains in the distance. The rocks are bare and rugged - very similar to the Scottish highlands. There isnt any snow here, but its pretty darn cold. The sunlight situation is also a bit interesting. The sun doesnt fully come up until about 10am and it starts to disappear again at around 3pm. Therefore, Ive got a short amount of time during the day to get some sightseeing, running and bike riding in.

Now no blog entry would be complete without me raving about how great the riding is here, but really, its amazing. A trail system starts about half block from my relatives house and it winds up and down and through a forest covered mountain. The trees are absolutely covered in moss and there are lots of streams and lakes in the area. Every now and then I hit a waterfall. Im using a really fun steel frame bike that my relatives let me borrow. Im very grateful to have it, but let me just say that a rigid bike on these trails makes for some very rubbery arms and an exceptionally sore bum.

I went to Bergen on Wednesday with Solvi, and on the way there we got to stop and see their horses that they keep in a stable about 30 minutes away. I am not around horses often, and the size of their heads always surprises me. Its about half the size of my body. These animals are huge, and they were hungry. The little horse nibbled on my hand when I fed it. After the horses, we continued on to Bergen and drove onto a ferry to cross the fjord to get to the city. I hadnt ever been on a ferry before, so the experience was a lot of fun. I turned into a real tourist and climbed onto the upper deck to take some pictures. It took about 40 minutes by ferry to cross to Bergen - and Bergen is hands down the prettiest city I have ever been too. Everything was clean, stylish and manicured. The Norwegians have impeccable design style and the buildings werent overdone or gaudy. The city was perfectly laid out next to the Bryggen, or harbor, and the whole of Bergen is tucked inbetween seven mountain peaks. I took the Floibanen (a train-lift thing) to the top of one of the mountains to see the city from the top. It was well worth it. I did some drawings and a little bit of hiking, and left the top before it got to dark to see everything on the descent.

My relatives have been wonderful. The first night I stayed here it was my cousin Selinas birthday party and I was invited to partake in the festivities. Selina turned nine, so she had a little party with her friends and then afterwards all of the adult relatives came over for small dinner and cake. Now when I say cake, I MEAN cake. There were four of them. One chocolate with chocolate frosting, one with chocolate and mashed peanuts, one a traditional Norwegian cake with meringue in the middle and another with a graham cracker crust and a smooth gelatin top with blueberries and raspberries stuck into it. Needless to say all of the cake didnt get eaten that night, so weve been eating cake for the past week. But back to the relatives, I met too many people to remember all of their names, they were all very nice. My cousin Benedicte who is 21 has been inviting me out with her friends. A couple of nights ago we went to a cafe on the harbor and sat outside with drinks underneath heat lamps and blankets.

So far its been wonderful, and today I think that I will be going to a viking museum and maybe for a cruise on a big shipping boat out in the ocean... well see!

xoox
steph