Week in Review: Week 5
It’s almost hard to believe we’ve been in Europe for over a month now! Time sure has flown by. For the first time this trip we stayed in one place for more than a week which was really awesome. It felt a lot more like a home, than a place we are crashing for the night. We were in a village called Hommersåk, which is in southwest Norway, near Stavanger. Now we have travelled east to Oslo, as we near the end of our time in Norway.
We’ve been surrounded by beautiful fjords, mountains, the North Sea, and hills covered in grass and sheep. The scenery this last week has been nothing but spectacular, which has resulted in over 5,000 pictures between the two of us! Our days were filled with hiking, mini day trips to check out nearby sights, and relaxation (or recovery from said hikes…). Just like last week, this week has us sharing a couple of the same highlights.
Highlight of the week
Sharleen: Hiking Kjerag. We hadn’t planned on hiking Kjerag, and had only decide to do it after talking to our Airbnb hosts, Aud and Øivind. It is listed as a challenging hike for experienced hikers and people who are reasonably fit. I wouldn’t consider myself to be either of those, so I wasn’t too sure how it would go! But since we were in the area, we figured we might as well try, and worst case we could turn around at any time if it was too much. Everything about this hike turned out to be amazing. The drive up was beautiful (even at 5 am), the hiking trail was some of the prettiest scenery we had seen in Norway, and I just couldn’t get enough of the fjord views! It ended up being a challenging but beautiful hike, and we made it all the way to Kjeragbolten. I was really proud of myself for getting all the way up, so I figured I had to try to stand on Kjeragbolten. The boulder is wedged 1084 meters above the fjord below and as I made may way around the ledge, I realized it was just too scary to stand on, but I was able to sit on it for a few quick pictures! I felt so happy, excited, and proud after that hike, it was definitely one of my favourite parts of our trip so far.
Darrell: Hiking Kjerag. This hike was kind of on a whim, as we seemed to have caught the hiking bug while here in Norway. Although our first hike to Pulpit Rock wow’d us with views at the end of the hike, Kjerag was amazing right out of the gate! From the drive to the base of the climb to the last summit, the views were outstanding. Maybe it’s because we are not ones who usually go on hikes, but to hike across mountain sides and wide-open “glacier like” valleys was really awesome. It definitely felt like we were on a different planet for large sections of this hike. The terrain and the views were something that I have never experienced before. For me, the suspended boulder (Kjeragbolten) was cool but not the highlight - although watching Sharleen climb onto it was a pretty crazy experience! I’m not sure I have ever watched someone else do something and was that nervous for them! I watched other people climb on and off the whole time we were there and wasn’t concerned at all, but watching my wife do it was a whole other thing! It was quite a relief when she was back on solid, less abyss adjacent, ground. Overall the hike was a nice challenge, a great experience and a “can’t miss” when visiting Norway.
Least favourite part of the week
Sharleen and Darrell: Sunscreen. We had underestimated how hot Norway was going to be so we had to buy some sunscreen for our week of hikes and outdoor adventures. We tried to save some money and bought a bottle of sunscreen that was 50% off, which was still close to $30 CDN, and thought we could use it on our body and face. Well as it turns out, this bottle has been quite disgusting. It feels like a mixture of Vaseline and honey, and leaves us sticky and greasy all day. At one point we even felt like it may have fake tanner in it because we were finding gross residue on our face. This has left us not want to wear it, which has resulted in terribly interesting face tans and a few burnt legs. Thankfully, we have a special sunscreen delivery on the way, thanks to some Canadian visitors!
Favourite city/town/village visited
Sharleen: Lysebotn. Unlike previous weeks, most of our time this week was spent away from cities and on hiking trails. We went to the village of Lysebotn after our Kjerag hike to take a ferry home. I should clarify that there is really nothing to do in this small village, but we had a lot of fun here exploring a few waterfalls, driving a crazy road, and waiting for our ferry. The town is at the very end of the Lysefjord, and is only accessible by boat or by one road. The road you take from Kjerag has an elevation change of 900 meters, and has 27 hairpin turns before you arrive into town. We got to drive down this road which was pretty intense, and then took the ferry for 2.5 hours through the Lysefjord so we could see both Kjerag and Preikestolen from below. It was a relaxing way to end a tiring day of hiking.
Darrell: Stavanger. We stayed just across the water from Stavanger, which made it easy to visit and explore. It’s a popular tourist destination due to it’s location to the Lysefjord and classic Norway hiking trails, and it’s has the third largest port in Norway. We were able to see a few cruise ships during our walk around the city, and they are shockingly large from the street! I’m also a sucker for European cities with center squares and cool “happening” streets! I really enjoy wandering around anywhere that is full of cafes, bars, restaurants, or cool architecture. Stavanger had a bunch of colourful buildings, a mix of old and new architecture, and it was easy to explore by foot.
We were also super lucky to be able to explore the islands just outside of Stavanger, thanks to our awesome Aribnb hosts Aud and Øivind! They invited us for a nice ride on their boat on Sunday evening, and took us around a few islands between Hommersåk and Stavanger. We don’t go boating very often, so whenever we do it’s a treat. It was also an awesome way to see the local scenery on our last day in the area.
Favourite meal
Sharleen: Veal Stew. As we’ve mentioned in pervious posts, the prices in Norway are quite expensive, so if and when we eat out, it’s usually to grab something quick like pizza or a burger. On our way to Odda we grabbed lunch in the small village of Etna, at a place called the Fugl Fonix Restaurant. We had low expectations, as it kind of looked closed when we pulled up, and we almost walked away to find a different place. But after venturing inside, the waitress was super friendly, and the menu sounded very tasty and seemed reasonable. I had the veal stew which was so delicious and comforting. It was the perfect meal to give me energy for the intense hike we were undertaking the next day.
Darrell: Fish Soup. While exploring Stavanger, we decide to splurge and go for dinner. We were really looking to eat some locale Norwegian food and we had been doing quite well at eating in or having cheaper meals to try keep costs down. Since Stavanger is known to be the culinary capital of Norway, we wanted to try some of this delicious food! We went to Skagen Restaurant, where we had read amazing things about their fish soup and boy was it delicious! It was packed with a bunch of seafood (mussels, fresh fish, and shellfish), and every spoonful was insanely flavourful and rich in texture. It actually makes my mouth water just remembering it! Although it was our appetizer, it was the perfect match to our bottle of Prosecco, and a stellar way to start a meal.
We've really loved our time in Norway, and only have a few days left before heading on to Sweden. This last week has probably been one of our favourites so far!
