A Very Norwegian Weekend

We had lots of fun and came up with tons of blog fodder this weekend. We will make an attempt to describe it all, but will most likely leave something out.




The weekend started with hiking. On Saturday, we hiked to the top of Dalsnuten mountain, which is across the fjord from us. It is 327 meters high, and I am proud to say Sidney walked all the way to the top and most of the way down by herself! The view is outstanding from the to, as you can see all the way out into the North Sea when looking west, and lots of other stuff. The first picture is of Sidney and Kimber looking from the top across the fjord at our apartment. There is also a gratuitous Sidney shot, for those that love her!

We saw two snakes during the hike, answering my question of whether they have snakes in Norway. We also walked through a sheep pasture on the way up, which was fun. We had to climb over the fences to get into and out of the pasture, but there were little stairs provided. The wind at the top of the mountain was very strong, and it wasn't even a "windy" day!



After the mountain and a little picnic of strawberries, crackers and cheese, we hiked another path that was along the coastal area. While this hike didn't have the ascent of the first one, it did have some difficult areas as the trail was not as well developed. As Sidney would say, we had to use "teamwork" to get from one place to another at times. This photo shows how the trail leading up this path looked.
We were tired after that, so we came home and discovered the soccer team was playing on Saturday, not on Sunday, as they usually do. More on the reason in a minute. That meant that our marina was soon full of crazy people going to the game. Several ferries came down from Stavanger, and several other private boats came in. It is very entertaining to people-watch from the 7th floor.


There were also several kids going through "Russ", which is the end-of-high school celebration that kids here do. They all dress in special "Russ" overalls decorated with various things, perform crazy feats to earn "credits", and drink heavily. One boatload of these kids parked in the marina and it was surprising to see how much alcohol they had! Kimber and I both think it is odd that the legal intoxication level here for driving an automobile is 0.02%, but apparently that does not apply to boating. The kids were apparently having a lot of fun. They also must have had a lot to drink, as evidenced by how many of them had to urinate in very public places prior to going into the game.

The sunset was fantastic last night. This picture shows the mountain we hiked, and the sun made it appear a beautiful red.



Today is May 17th, which is Norwegian Constitution day. It is similar to the 4th of July in the U.S., and starts with a children's parade. Everyone (yes EVERYONE) dresses in their traditional Norwegian clothing or Sunday best outfits and turns out for the parade. The different schools all are lined up behind banners for their school and class, and there are bands from many of the schools. We happened to be standing a couple of people away from the mayor of Stavanger, so we got a couple of special performances. Several little girls also give out flowers to the older people along the route, and apparently the mayor gets lots of flowers too (as you can see in the photo of him wearing the golden necklace.)
After the parade, we went up to Sidney's school for a few refreshments, hot dogs (which are a big thing in Norway) and some play. There are several things going on in town, but Sidney is tired, and frankly, after yesterday's hikes, so are we. We will spend the rest of the day relaxing and getting a few things done at home.