Part one of the trip – Norway

I’m feeling really bad, because I promised to add details of our trip (which was almost a month ago) and I haven’t done jack about it… so I’m going to do it in stages. Here is the first part; showing Dad and Jo around Norway.

They arrived on Saturday evening (this is the 23rd June for anyone who didn’t realise how slack I have really been). After waiting forever at the airport, thanks to one of the airlines losing Jo’s baggage, we spent our first evening chowing down at Kontrasté. This was the place we went for my 30th birthday. It’s an odd but tasty French/Vietnamese fusion place that also has fantastic tapas.

On Sunday we visited the Norwegian Folk Museum in the morning, and in the afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to the cabin in Hemsedal. We spent a quiet night eating Grandiosa pizzas and drinking red wine.

Monday involved a LOT of driving, but some beautiful scenery. We put the car on two ferries, one of which was along Geiranger Fjord, the same fjord that Chris, Johannes and I travelled along on my first trip to Norway in 2004.

That night we stayed in Geiranger in a little cabin overlooking the fjord. The view was spectacular and we had a fantastic meal at the restaurant which accompanied the cabins. We had a little creek running along just beside the deck, which came from melting snow from the mountain above.

On Tuesday morning we took the hike up the mountain to the top of the waterfall. The signs say it’s a half hour walk, but I learned the hard way not to believe Norwegians when it comes to being realistic about hiking. Always add several hours and several degrees of steepness to whatever you’re walking up and you’ll get closer to the truth.In any case though, it was totally worth it. We even got to climb down behind the waterfall, which was very loud and pretty wet. We narrowly avoided two large tourist groups, so for the most part we had the mountain to ourselves.

We spent the remainder of the day driving up into the mountains, where we had snowball fights, laughed at some crazy Norwegian cyclists and then found a nice little cabin to stay in for the night at Skjolden.

Wednesday was time to head for home, and by that time I think we were all pretty sick of the car. We did stop just outside of Skjolden at the most perfect spot by a lake to admire the view and soak up some sun on the rocks. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been in my life.

After that we drove up to the glacier and looked at the nutjobs out there climbing around on it. Dad wanted to have a go, but we didn’t really have the shoes or clothes for it. I was really disappointed *not making eye contact*

Once we got home we were all pretty trashed. Poor Chris had to work the next morning, so we had a bit of an early night. I made a green chicken curry for dinner. It was to be the only dinner we actually ate at our place since we had so many people to catch up with over the next couple of days.

Thursday Jo and I went shopping because I still didn’t have a dress for Juliane’s wedding. It was an unsuccessful trip, but we had fun looking around anyway. Dad went to the Munch museum rather than being dragged around clothes shops. That night we had dinner with Glen and Trine at the Frogner Centre, which was gorgeous, with fabulous views out over Oslo Fjord. Jo ate ‘wolf fish’ which actually didn’t taste a lot like fish at all. Very meaty. I had a reindeer steak, which was very tasty.

Friday night we had dinner at Chris’s dad’s place, and I impressed everyone (myself included) by holding several conversations in Norwegian. This was the first time I’d ever spoken Norwegian to them so it was a bit of a surprise I think.

Saturday night we had dinner with Glen and Trine again, this time at their house. Chris ate himself to a standstill because after polishing off several crabs, no one else had room for all the prawns.

Sunday we packed all over again to catch the 5pm overnight ship to Denmark. So here endeth the Norwegian portion of the trip. Stay tuned for the next installment; Denmark.