Oslo, Day

Hello!

Yesterday, Dad and I took an 8 hour train from Stavanger to Oslo, Norway's capital. During that time, I drew a picture, listened to Adventures in Odyssey (Yes. I'm almost 20, and I still enjoy it!), listened to Andy Stanley preach, and read almost an entire book (It's called Beloved Daughter and is about persecution in North Korea. I highly suggest it!). Here are some pictures from the lovely countryside:

After arriving, we walked to our hotel and searched for some food, to no avail. Norwegians like to eat dinner right after work, which is 4:30-5:00, and they eat a light snack at night, so their restaurants close around 6:00 pm. Our train arrived at 6:30, and it was 7:30 by the time we started searching, so you can imagine how hard it was to find a place to eat. I ended up buying a fruit smoothie, peanut butter, and potato chips at a minimart. Meh.

We tried to find a church to attend this morning, but we couldn't find anything, which saddens me. Oslo is such a sad, weary, and dark place. The people are in great need of Hope and Joy. I pray for an uprising in believers willing to venture to Europe to share truth. Places with money are not immune from brokenness.

While their website did not list a service, Salvation Army had a branch in Oslo, so we walked there hoping to find a service. The lights were off. However, we heard church bells ringing, so we decided to attend high church this morning! The service was unintelligible to us American folks, since everything was spoken in Norwegian and/or Latin. However, the music crossed language borders!

I'm used to reading words off of a powerpoint, but this church used masses in a hymnal. However, the masses were written as neumes. Weird! I guess it makes since, since Gregorian Chant was a sacred activity, but I have never seen anything like that used in "real life".

Here's a recording of the music.

After that, I went to a Seventh Day Adventist vegetarian buffet. It wasn't great, but I needed food. This city is so expensive! You can't get a meal for less than 85 kroner, and this buffet was 135 kroner: around $25! Man. My wallet hurts after that. We're eating only one meal out while in Norway.

For the rest of the day, we kind of wandered around the city. Nothing really significant happened, so I'm just going to share some pictures. :) We didn't really know what we were looking at, so forgive me if there's no caption. I'm still trying to figure out what everything is!

The church we attended this morning.

Me in front of the King's Palace. (Yes, Norway has a royal family, as do many other European nations.) I don't look very happy. I think I was hungry or something...

The memorial to a musician I have never heard of. 

Just catching up on the news. 

The same ad as London! Apparently our friends in Stavanger have this coffee machine. I saw the coffee containers when I walked into their kitchen and immediately recognized them. Effective advertising, apparently!

Dad in front of pretty plants on a random street.

I think this is some type of governmental building, but I'm not sure.

So picturesque! 

Beauty and the Beast in Norwegian! 

Tomorrow is my lesson with Frøydis! I am so excited!! Also, I received news from Tallinn: I am being granted an all-access media pass to the Song Festival, including pre-festival rehearsals. I think they are even giving me some type of tour guide/escort! This is a huge answer to prayer, as I thought they had forgotten about my email. The best part of this trip starts tomorrow!

I will try to blog tomorrow, but things start getting crazy, since we have to catch a train after my lesson.

Until sometime soon!

Amy

Stavanger, Day 3

Hei!

Today in Norway: A late morning! Funny how I continue to mention that… I did not realize how much traveling wears you out. I was ready to go home after the first week! Of course the benefits outweigh the tiredness, but it’s nice to stay with friends in a low-pressure environment. We do what we feel like and ignore what we don’t. :)

While here, Jennifer has been wonderful in the food department, providing for my specific dietary choices. She even bought me gluten free knekkebrod, a Norwegian speciality. It’s basically like a flatbread or cracker with a bunch of seeds. It is very good! I’m thankful to be able to taste regional cuisine.

After lunch, we took the bus to a farm from the Iron Age. To get there, we had to climb over a fence. Thankfully, there was a ladder!

Apparently, you are allowed to walk through other people's land in Norway, as long as you don't damage the property. Isn't that cool?!

Us walking to the farm.

Sheep graze the open land, and three historically accurate buildings lie on the land. This farm housed the forefathers of the Vikings just a few hundred years after Christ. 

No, not that tall one in the background...

The inside of the "longhouse." Notice all of the sheep and reindeer skins.

Here, our guide showed us how to make a fire, using flint and dried birch. 

A loom like those used in the Iron Age. They wove wool yarn made from their sheep.

Blue fabric symbolized a high social status. This is because there was a very intense process to create it- using urine. The best urine was that of slightly intoxicated men. They would collect all of the male urine after banquets and let it ferment for a week. Then they put a certain plant in the urine and let it keep fermenting for a week. The mixture was brown and gross. They dipped the cloth in it and washed garment- a lot! This is how you create blue fabric. I do not want that job!!

How to grind barley into flour.

The sheep are very timid and run away when you come near-- even when walking slowly! I really wanted to pet one, but they wouldn't let me. However, one sheep did. It was very soft. 

"Let me eat my grass in peace!"

We climbed a tall hill on the property. You can vaguely see the fjords in the background. 

There was a lot of wind!

With our tickets to the farm, we received free admission to the Archaeological Museum.

Did I scare you? :)

We went to a Viking exhibition. It was very interesting. We were able to see real skeletons and glass beads/broaches that were buried with the people.

Of course I needed to practice. Listen to this clip:

Psych! The first part of this was an ancient Norse instrument called a lure that we found in the museum. The second part was "Orchestra fail"... Sorry for the goofiness, but you have to have fun on vacation! ;)

Norse lure

Music is in every society!

For dinner, we tried to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant, but they were closed for holiday, so we ate Turkish food instead (falafel for me). Of course, there's always room for dessert, so we drove farther downtown for ice cream/sorbet. The town was buzzing.

We were able to see the inside of the church I mentioned yesterday:

(Some random ladies placing prayer candles down.)

There were also some quirky things about downtown Stavanger. 

Here's one:

What is it? Does anyone know? Are they fairy stairs? Nope. They are stairs for ducks and swans to wander from the fjord onto the land. How thoughtful! :)

And this:

I happened to find Aung San Suu Kyi's footprints in the ground. Out of all people! She is one of my favorite people and has been very beneficial for her homeland. If you don't know about her, you should look her up! What a valiant woman!

Last of all, this:

There is a slackline in downtown Stavanger! I love this sport, but I have never been given the opportunity to try. This is the picture of my first step...

And this is a picture of my third step.

Not so successful... I have "mad respect" for slackliners. It takes a lot of skill and practice.

Our day has ended now after packing and waiting on all of these pictures to load! Tomorrow we head to Oslo on an 8 hour train ride. There probably won't be much to say tomorrow, so

Until Sunday!

Amy

Stavanger, Days 1 and 2

I did not have time to blog yesterday, due to several flights and car rides. We have made it safely to Stavanger, Norway after a flight from London to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Stavanger. These flights only took 40 and 90 minutes, respectively. So short! I felt as if the plane landed right after we took off. 

To board the city hopper plane from Amsterdam to Stavanger, we had to ride a bus to the plane and climb up the stairs:

Though I couldn’t really eat anything on the flights, the good news is that I was able to eat the Danish biscuit filled with caramel. And, no, it was not like our biscuits, but more like a mix between a cracker and a wafer. Yum. :)

Fun fact: On our plane from Amsterdam to Stavanger, there were several really tall Dutch men on their way to a volleyball tournament. Check out this sign in the Stavanger airport: 

Gaute and Jennifer Juveth greeted us with smiling faces. It was great to see them after 6 months. They are graciously allowing us to stay with them. In fact, when Gaute came home from work yesterday, we made our way to Pulpit Rock, otherwise known as Preikestolen. I noticed that all of the roofs have ladder rungs. Apparently, it's required so that chimney sweeps don't get injured on the job. 

On the way, we saw a geopark, a park made out of recycled oil materials. It was really awesome! 

To get to Pulpit Rock, we drove to the ferry, which carried our car across the fjord. Check out that view!

Then we continued our drive and proceeded to hike up the mountain. Let me tell you— Pulpit Rock ain’t no Stone Mountain. I couldn’t look up from the trail because I didn’t think humans hiked up things like this. It's amazing how mental the battle is; I started thinking, "What would happen if I fell?", and I started slipping. To correct the problem, I quickly pictured myself safely hiking back down the mountain. It takes around 2 hours up and 2 hours down, but the view was well worth it! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

People stack rocks like this along the way. It reminded me of two cities in the VeggieTales episode, "The Story of Flibber-o-loo".

The flat part of the trail!

We thought we had arrived, and this rock was it, but it wasn't!

Now, we're at the top! (And yes, that's me up there.)

What a message: we have to take risks. A lot of people would be scared to go on the ledge, but if you stay farther back,  you don’t see as good of a view. Taking a risks pays off! 

I totally climbed in my xeroshoes. :) 

These pictures really do not do this justice at all! It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen--even better than fall in the North Georgia mountains1

Sweaty and exhausted, I showered and went to bed. This morning we woke up at 9:30! So nice. The pace here in Norway seems to be much slower than back home. People do not see work as the center of all life, so they come home and relax. I really like that philosophy. Next semester, I am going to try to have the weekends off, working hard throughout the week. Let’s face it: stress isn’t fun anyway! Who needs it? ;)

This morning/afternoon, Jennifer, Dad, and I took the bus to downtown Stavanger. As I mentioned earlier, there is a volleyball tournament happening here, with players from around the world, so we sat and watched for a little while. We also walked through the Old Town portion of the city, viewing houses built in the 1800s. Actually, we stumbled upon a house that allows you to walk through it for free. The bottom floor was decorated from the 1800's, and the top floor was decorated from the 1960's:

We also passed a beautiful church and many souvenir shops set up for tourists from cruise ships that dock in the port. 

Norwegians have an affinity for trolls. Isn't he cute?

Oh, and side note: the bus company is called Kolumbus- a little taste of home!

We came home and ate a late lunch, and I read a book for a little while. When Gaute came home from work, we ate curry for dinner and headed to their old house to run an errand. An observation: they recycle everything in Europe, including compost. There are trashcans for "organic trash", and there are ventilation holes in the bin. Just incase you were wondering about Norwegian trash...

Afterwards, we drove to the Juveth's church to look around, which is in the bottom floor of a 20-story building. We then took a glass elevator up to the top floor to see a view around the city. Quite beautiful! When in the stores earlier today, we saw a postcard of a really neat monument which happens to be very close by. So, of course, we drove there!

The monument is called "Sverd i Fjell", or The Three Swords Monument. According to stavangertravel.com, 

"This monument was unveiled by King Olav in 1983 and commemorates the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872, after which King Harald Fair Hair united the three districts of Norway into one kingdom.The crowns on the swords represent the different districts which took part in the battle."

Random tidbit: There is a robot lawn mower that mows the Juveth's lawn. It mows pretty much all day, every day. I find it mildly hilarious. Take a look:

We have one more full day in Stavanger before we take the train to Oslo.

Until tomorrow!
Amy