Sogndal

I am spending my last three days in Norway, on a farm near Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane.  After a lovely 5-hour ferry ride from Bergen, I was picked up by my friend, Jan who is working on this farm.  He and I met and spent a few weeks together in New Zealand in 2010. 

On the ferry

The surrounding area is phenomenal and the farm itself is lovely.  I am staying with a girl from Whales who has written her Masters thesis on Arctic climate change adaptation so we will have had lots to talk about.  For dinner that first night, we headed to the main house for a lovely dinner hosted by the farmer and his lovely wife.  They had guests from Oslo visiting so I met lots of interesting Norwegians including some lawyers, professor and a childrens doctor.  After dinner we had coffee and a Norwegian specialty cake (kransekake), which was perfect because it was the only food left on my list of Norsk food to try while Im here.

Bergen - Sogndal

Last night in Bergen and I am chilling with a guy from Syria and another from Algeria.  They communicate in their similar language, and the Syrian knows English and the Algerian knows French.  The three of us talking is a jumble of languages.  We are speaking different languages to one another, I am fortunate to know both French and English because otherwise we really couldnt have communicated nor could I have translate for the Indian girl who showed up later.

I am currently on the ferry headed from Bergen to Sogndal where I will meet up with a Slovakian friend, Jan, whom I met in New Zealand two years ago.  The ferry ride so far is stunning and fortunately enough, there is free Internet!  I was just on skype with my dad and was able to show him the view that I was seeing as we sailed through the jumble of fjords and islands... so cool!

Bergen

I have to say that Bergen is the most beautiful city I have ever visited.  Everywhere you look there is something beautiful wthether it is one of the 7 surrounding mountains, picturesque buildings or an old fisherman coming in from his latest catch.  The weather today was something like +26 degrees out and I regret not having brought any summer clothes.

This morning I walked around the big fish market and then around the quays to check out the big boats.  Later, I climbed up a mountain near the downtown called Fløyen.  There was a funicular option but I opted out and spent a good hour hiking up the mountain (320m) only to see a truely phenomenal view of the city and the surrounding mountains and fjords.  The view was unbeleivable and got even better as I hiked around further at the top (found 3 geocaches).  I think Ill regret not having worn sunscreen because I can feel a sunburn coming on but its all worth it.  This took a better part of the day so now I am sitting in a park watching people walk by and two pigeons fighting over an old sandwich, as I eat my salad and chocolate.  Tonight Ill check out a Jazz Festival which is a part of the Bergen International Festival.

Bus and Bergen

This morning was my final goodbyes as Rebecca, Aya and Audun brought me to the bus stop.  Again, it hasnt sunk in that I will not be seeing these great people for a while.  As I write this, I am sitting on the bus that is going through some more gorgeous scenery and is lined with really cute houses and farms.  I am on this bus for 7 hours, headed to Bergen in western Norway.  I am sitting at the back next to the toilet and the intense heat is making this a very stinky ride  : (

This bus ride has absolutely phenomenal views.  It went from rolling hills covered in forests, to a 25km snow desert to a stretch of road with tons of powerful waterfalls streaming down the mountains into a large river which followed the road for a while.  This is the greatest stretch of road Ive ever driven on, I would easily pay $100 just to see this same drive again.  Everywhere I looked was stunning but I seemed to be the only person that noticed.  Everyone one else was reading books or on their phones where as I was wide-eyed staring out the windows.

I rolled into Bergen at 9pm and found my way to my hostel.  I got in and quickly had a shower.... 8 hours on a bus without air conditioning warrants a quick shower.  Then I met one of my roommates who is an American computer programmer from San Diego.  He was really great, we went for a nice walk and had a picnic near a water fountain.

Telemark

After a 1.5 hour plane ride and a 3 hour bus ride we got to the region of Telemark in Southern Norway.  The scenery here is absolutely gorgeous and in an entirely different way then Northern Norway.  It seems like Canadian wilderness, lots of trees and similar vegetation to our boreal forests; the nature here reminds me of northern Ontario.  Audun picked us up and we head over to an old wooden church.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I dont remember the specifics but it was built around the viking times and is one of the oldest of its kind in all of Norway.  After lunch and taking in some more scenery we drove to his farm near Seljord, Telemark.

I had never really spent time on a farm before aside from a few hours here and there picking fruit or veggies.  I wasnt really sure what to expect but was pleasantly suprised.  The farm itself is nestled in a valley and at the foot of a treed mountain.  His parents spoke decent english that they had learned and not really used since they were in school so the communication was a bit rough at times but they were such wonderful proud people.  We had told Audun that we wanted to be put to work on this farm to soak in a true Norsk farming experience.  We ended up cleaning cow "drit" (shit), feeding cows hay, pellets and old bread loaves.  We picked up eggs from the chickens, pet the horses and went on a tour of the farm and its equipment.  He gave us some old farm clothes so we looked like true farm girls despite the three of us being from the city.  Later that evening, we went for a walk around the property and ended up climbing a nice tall tree.

The weather in Telemark was so shocking compared to previously having been in Arctic Norway... the sun was shining bright and the weather was around +25 degrees out, in May!  I didnt bring much summer clothes so I was very hot but it got me ready for the summer.  The next morning we went for a nice hike up on their private mountain behind their house.  The nature smelled and felt like I was back in Canada and the view was phenomenal.  He told us how the used to heard goats and cows up the mountain which I had a hard time imagining because it was so steep.  After lunch, we were put to work again.  We had to cut down a bunch of bushes so that the cows had a place to graze we had axes, clippers, saws and an electric saw.  It was lots of work and it was HOT but it felt nice to work hard.  Dinner was pancakes with fried pork and jam, an interesting but tasty combination.  Dinner is at 4 then later on at around 9 it is time for supper which is bread with almost any topping or spread imaginable, which is the same as for breakfast.  I constantly felt hungry from all the work we were doing.

The cows had been in the stable all winter and were put out in the fields for the first time this year.  I thought they would be happy but after about an hour they wanted to go back inside the stable.  It takes a while to habituate them.  The calves have to be taught about the electric fences so they were brought out into a small "practice" pen with a small shock to learn not to go near the fence.  Then they are brought to a bigger "intermediate" course and finally they "graduate" to the big fields with the adults.  It was a really neat process to be a part of.  To ensure that they were herded to the proper place we stood along the path waving our hands if they go to close to us to encourage them to go the proper direction. 

The next day we went into the town of Seljord for a hike.  It was an 838m climb which I thought would be easy as pie but I guess we were all out of shape because it was more difficult then expected and the excruciating heat did not help.  It was worth it when we got to the top and saw the view of other mountains, the town and the huge lake that is fabled to have a sea monster in it (only seen by tourists and old people); their own Lochness or Ogopogo!  After this we treated ourselves to icecream and headed to the lake to see if we could spot the sea worm.  Unfortunately, we could not spot it but we did find a geocache.  We then went home and made dinner and cake for his family who had been such great hosts.  I am so happy to have had the experience of being on this real Norwegian farm.  I got sent off with a jar of home made "prim" which is a spead I fell in love with since I first got to Norway.  It is made of their traditional Norsk brown cheese, "brunost" and has a bit of a caramelly taste, mmmm.