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Published: July 26th 2008
Fjord
The view from Oddny and Ingar's. We have now spent 2 nights in Stallvik, a small town on a beautiful fjord in Norway. According to the relatives, if we were to go directly west from here we would run into Greenland! We are really up there! It is strange in the summer here, it never gets dark at night and it is an odd feeling to see daylight at midnight.
It was quite the adventure getting to Stallvik though. We spent ALL DAY on 3 different trains and ended the day with a 1 hour ferry ride. We saw some interesting characters on the train…there was the lady who prayed VERY LOUDLY in Norwegian which was very awkward for everyone being that we were in the quiet car with no talking allowed. Seriously, she was LOUD. We aren’t 100% sure she was praying, but whatever she said she ended with ‘AMEN!’ They there were the obnoxiously drunk people listening to loud music and talking…also in the ‘quiet’ car. Chelsea almost had to physically restrain me from smacking the beer out of their hands and telling them to shutup. (I would have done it in my politest Norwegian, of course.) Last but not least, there was the
Sheep!
This sheep was terrified, Ingar had to force him to take a picture with me! cute 5 year old girl who I made friends with who wouldn’t leave me alone! I started making funny faces at her when she was waiting for the bathroom, soon she had completely forgotten she needed to pee and was making faces and talking to me in Norwegian. I was able to ask her name and how old she was, but then my language skills failed me. It didn’t really matter though, there is an international language for making kids laugh! Eventually she got bored and went back to her parents, which was a little bit of a relief because she had gotten quite loud and wild and created a disturbance in the quiet car.
We are staying with Oddny and Ingar, Oddney is my father’s 2nd cousin. Janne, their daughter lives next door with her husband Roar and 3 children, Iselin, Martine, and Brage. It is so cool to meet many generations of my family living in one place!
Yesterday we had an AMAZING ride out on the Atlantic Ocean. Some friends of Roar and Janna have a boat than goes 70mph. It goes so fast you have to wear special suits to stay warm from the
wind chill even though it is 85 degrees outside! We took a ride out to a peninsula/island with Norway’s only beach bar for lunch and drinks. On the way we were able to see some beautiful coastline, jump some pretty big waves (wow, so fast!) and race other friends in boats that didn’t have a chance. What an experience to be on a beach bar so far north in Norway! It was very hot, but there was a pleasant breeze and lots of beer to keep us cool. At lunch an amazing thing happened, Chelsea ate a mussel! I am so proud of her for being brave and trying new foods!
We had a BBQ later on the same night with more delicious food, Oddny is quite the cook!
Tonight we take another ferry to the Island of SmØla, where there is a town called Lillenes! My family comes from there and I am really excited to see it!
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Mary
non-member comment
WOW, again!!!
So wonderful to see Stallvik again and all those wonderful relatives. Mange takk, Oddny and Ingar, for taking such good care of your Americans!!! I think you two, David and Chelsea, are having a spectacular visit and probably are wishing you had more time in each place. On to Smola, to the little bit of Lillenes land!!!