'Hard'

I had another post all planned and then I walked up a mountain (Preikestolen) last Saturday. Which was hard on more than one level. First of all it was hard (as in difficult) climbing the thing. Secondly it was hard (as in hard like stone) because the path was mainly made of boulders and rocks and stuff. And I noticed both!

It took me and my friends nearly twice as long to reach the top than most fit people. And I fell over twice. Once backwards where I got stuck in a little pool of water with hard rocks surrounding me. On the way down I fell forwards where I probably was very lucky not to fall any further than I did: it was a nice drop! It hurt enough though. Although at the time it was mostly my ego that was bruised, once I was home, I noticed several other bruises.

It was however very worth it, the view was absolutely fantastic. A sheer drop of around 600 meters into very turquoisy water. Amazing. Never to be repeated however! Too hard....

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The water (yes, again)

The well is that large grey concrete thingy that's always in the way!

This morning as I flushed the toilet, I noticed the tank wasn't filling up. And as I washed my hands, there wasn't that much pressure. When I got back home from work this afternoon, there was no water. I sent a text to my landlady who phoned me back about an hour later telling me her husband was on his way over.

He looked in the well and found there was enough water. I would have liked to take a photo, but I doubt he would have leaned in again just for me (he was halfway in). He then had a look at the water pump in the basement and found that the pressure wasn't really what it was supposed to be. And finally he opened the the thingy and found there was a loose connection. 

A loose connection! That was all that was preventing me from having nice and fresh and clean water. Which apparently is as good or better than mains water! Either way: I have running water again. Again...

PS: on an even more positive note: all the plumbing is already in for a dishwasher, so guess what I will be getting? 

Are we nearly there yet???

Early morning view

On Thursday I thought: finally tomorrow I can sleep. And then I was asked to work. So on Friday I thought: tomorrow I can sleep. And then I was asked by a friend if I wanted to take a trip to Preikestolen. We would be leaving at 5.45am! Which meant no sleep again, but I did want to see Preikestolen (Pulpit Summit).

I was picked up at 6am, we picked up another friend and then we took a scenic route towards our destiny. The mist was clearing, we hardly had to wait for either of the ferries (the thing about fjords: you have to cross them at some point), we had beautiful views and just after 11am we arrived at the parking lot. From where it would be a little under 4 kilometers (just over 2,5 miles) to the top. Albeit with an incline of 334 meters (about 1100 feet) from 270 meters to 604 meters above sealevel. Didn't sound too bad and the two hours given for the trip up sounded okay. Little did I know...

Fresh and ready to go!

We started and pretty soon it became obvious to me that those two hours were very optimistic. Unless you were young or well trained or a child. For me being none of those it was a bit more of a struggle. Which showed itself, when I lost my footing at some point and fell backwards in a little pool of water. My legs were sticking up, my bum was securely lodged in said pool. It was quite funny though, even if I did need the help of two sturdy and cute looking guys to yank me to my feet again!

I am there you know. Somewhere...

Now, the problem wasn't so much the elevation but the path itself. First of all: it was thronging with people trying to either get up or down! Second of all, where I had expected a proper path, the path that was there, was basically lots of boulders strewn about. Climbing up and over, sometimes wet stones. However, apart from that one fall (and one near), I managed to clamber my way up the mountain to the top. Where the view was worth it. So beautiful, so blue! I had expected a flat surface, but even at the top, it wasn't. Nor was it quiet, since there were lots of people enjoying the view and the fact that yes, they had made it. Children and dogs included! It had taken us over three hours!

Definitely worth it!

People had picknicks, even barbecued, hung over the edge, sat in the mountain or had a little doze on the edge of the cliff (ie me). We enjoyed sitting there in the burning sun, then had our photos taken on the edge and decided it might be time to actually try and get back down. The two hours given to get back down were a bit more reasonable in my eyes, but still, we had to do it first. The fact that it was mostly downhill, didn't mean that much, since the boulders would be the same: big and occasionally wet and slippery. Besides we were getting tired already.

'War wounds'

Fortunately it was already half past three by then and there were more people going down than up. We still had to be careful though, which I noticed at some point where I took one route down, slipped, lost my footing and went crashing to the ground. This time forwards. I hit my head slightly, grazed my left arm and my right wrist. It gave us all quite a scare, especially me. I was treading extremely carefully (read slowly) from then on. Knowing that if I would fall again, I would have no chance of escaping with only bruises. So, it took us just under three hours to get down.

Satisfied but very very tired

By the time we made it back home, it was nearly midnight. It had been a great day with beautiful weather, even more beautiful views, a great walk (despite...) and fantastic company. So, Preikestolen can be crossed off my list. Been there, done that, NEVER AGAIN!!! 

An 'easier' part

Living on the edge!

Photo on Sunday 2013-16

While on my tour of Haugesund a while ago, I spotted this monument. Normally I am not really one for poetry, but I loved this one. And I wanted to share it with you! Of course you reading it in Norwegian won't mean much, so below is the English translation!

So gather your flowers

in a big bouquet

Gather your lights

to see through the dark

Gather your happiness

to bear all the crying

Gather your hope

to hold on to the dream

Gather your thoughts

to withstand all doubt

So gather your people

Gather our fellow man

Gather together

Lars Saabye Christensen

I prefer Dolly...

One of many birds that I see in my garden.

I live in the countryside. Waking up nearly every morning with the sound of sheep, gulls (no, not Alfred), sparrows and that other one, the big one, the one that was not a stork. Oh yes, the curlew. 

When I drive to work early in the morning, I might be able to see said gulls, sparrows and curlews. I have also seen deer (twice now) and sheep on the loose. Deer flee as soon as you see them and sheep move as one and get to the nearest grass. Which is plentiful in this area I can tell you. 

WHAT YOU LOOOOOKING AT???

This morning I had the 'luck' of seeing yet more animals. Of the bovine variety (ie cattle)! There were four of them and they were standing in the middle of the road. At least one cow and two bulls I saw, albeit all very very young. But where sheep take off running as one as soon as they think they see you coming, those bovines don't. Not unless you get really close. When they trot off. Straight ahead. Using the road. Where I drive!

Needless to say, I was not that amused. Especially since I had to get to work. And when one of the cows had decided the grass was nice, the other three didn't follow suit. Causing the lonely miss to reconsider and get back on the road. I just had to turn around and go the other (and longer) way. Because I just knew that otherwise, I would show up to work with four bovines ahead of me!!! Which I doubt is a very good idea...

It must have been Alfred!

No, this is not Alfred. I think this might be Mabel.

Remember Pete, the Irish gull? The one that sat on the edge of the boundary between road and deep sea? Well, he has a cousin. A Norwegian gull that must be called Alfred. And he was scaring me half to death today!

I had finished work and was walking towards my car, when a gull squawked or whatever it is they do and flew overhead. It came back. It squawked again, flew a bit lower. And again. And again! And yet again. Fortunately I reached my car then and Alfred landed on a pole, while still watching my every move! 

Perhaps I was too close to its nest, perhaps it was drunk, perhaps it was just a bully. Whatever it was, it did scare me a bit. Especially since he came closer with every nosedive! If I had put my hand up I might have actually touched him. 

What next? Crows??

'Abundance'

This one had me stumped for quite a while. It bugged me before going to sleep and while I was at work, but I do think I finally found a photo that shows abundance. To some degree anyway!

The photo was taken in Skudenes a few weeks ago and shows a so-called antiques shop's wares. Basically a lot of old junk that was sold, but since I love looking at old junk, it was fantastic for me!

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Shrinking sheep

You know the old joke don't you? Why don't sheep shrink when they stand out in the rain? Well, to be honest, I don't know the answer to that, however I do know they have plenty of chance to actually get wet over here! Because it does rain on occasion.

My sister, who lives in a country known for its rain (ie Northern Ireland), is experiencing temperatures of over 20 degrees and no rain. My parents too, are experiencing high temperatures and hardly any rain. And over here? Well, their night time temperatures are not even our daytime temperatures! The rain is quite present and the sun quite absent. 

All this means the world around me is a bit gloomy and a bit smaller than normal too, since there's also low hanging cloud and fog. From Friday however, the temperatures are to rise to a full 16(!) degrees during the daytime and the sun is due to come out as well. Which means I can get to work in the garden again. 

I just have to remind myself of something my Mum always says: most of the rain falls beside you, not on you!

Photo on Sunday 2013-15

Last week we were in Skudenes (me and the parentals) and one of the many lovely sights we saw was this bow head. Fixed to the rock! I wonder whether that piece of rock will ever sail somewhere? 

Anyway, she was taken from a sailing ship called Concordi and placed here in 1925!

Post Title

The hotel

As I didn't quite know what to name this post, I decided to just use what Blogger suggests: Post Title. I had several ideas floating around in my head. Foggy being one. Others were: The taxi; the hotel; back to the past; do I really want it anymore? All explaining some part of what happened to me over the last two days. But let me start at the beginning. That usually seems to help explain things to people who might otherwise be lost in a jumble of words. 

On Thursday I was asked whether I wanted to pick up some 'speiders' (scouts) today (Saturday). Well, getting the chance to do something else than drive according to timetable again was very tempting, so I said yes. Then yesterday I got a phone call: could and would I go to Stavanger earlier and take passengers with me? Since it was very foggy over here, I couldn't see the airport. And if I can't see the airport it's not safe enough to fly apparently. So, I headed to the airport with a big bus, picked up the remainder of the passengers (there were three other buses) and we drove to Stavanger airport. Where it was foggy.

My 'designer' room

I had to drive from Stavanger today, so it was decided I would stay in a hotel. But when I got to the hotel, there was no record of me. Nor did they have a spare room. The receptionist phoned around and a hotel around the corner had one room left. I walked to the hotel around the corner (it was) and found that they did have indeed a room free. But it hadn't been cleaned so couldn't be used. Which meant I was still without a place to sleep. The receptionist phoned another hotel in their aquaintance and lo and behold: a room was available. I did make sure he asked about it being clean though, I didn't want to be caught out again. It was after all 11.30pm! The hotel was about ten minutes away, so I decided against walking and got him to phone me a taxi. 

The taxi arrived and started driving. Eighteen minutes later it stopped at the hotel! I payed the taxi, got into the hotel and got a key to a clean room. This morning I had to pay for the hotel, got into another taxi back to where the coach was parked. Unfortunately I wasn't that familiar with the area. Well, I had never been there before, so I basically knew nothing. I had however been quite clever the night before and asked the first taxi-driver about the address. And we did find it, albeit after turning around once. 

I had been told where I had to go, but since I didn't even know where I was... But Lady Luck smiled on me again as there were two coaches waiting in the parking lot going to the same place I was! I got there in good time, got my people half an hour before they were due and left to take them back home. After dropping everybody off where they wanted to be dropped off, I drove back home. Missed my exit, had to drive the long way round, which turned out to be a really good and possibly faster option.

So, was it all it used to be cracked up to be? Apart from the fact that I didn't really know what was going on, having to sleep in a hot hotel room and having to pay for the lot? Well. Probably. Would I like to return to the touring part of driving a bus? Ehm... Probably not. It was a lot of waiting. It was irregular. It was lonely. And I missed my own bed. On the other hand: the driving part of it was great. Just being able to drive without having to stop every other second because somebody wants to get on or off was fantastic. The different scenery was lovely to see. And I even saw a motorway!! But for now I am happy where I am.