Kjeks eller beger? - E

Sorry for the lack of updates the past 2 weeks! We’re having a hard time finding time to sit down and write a blog post- so much to do, and so little internet access! Right now we're in Verona with a wonderful family, and we've seen so much! But I still have to fill you in about our last weekend WWOOFing in Norway, when we sold ice cream at a town market in the mountains! We've been writing blogs on the trains, but haven't gotten a chance to post them!


Two Fridays ago, June 19th, Øystein, Logan, and I drove through the fjords to Røldal, a mountain village that used to have an important annual market, and it has recently been reincarnated as a handcraft market. It’s the site of a stave church that, even after the reformation and its turning in to a protestant church, was a popular pilgrimage site because of its crucifix that supposedly drips healing sweat on midsummer’s night. Hence the important market weekend happening around midsummer’s night. We didn’t get to see the sweaty crucifix though.



So I got to put my basic Norwegian skills to use, serving ice cream to the locals. Most of the time we got along fine, but if they said anything other than a flavor or number, we just looked confusingly at Øystein for help. It was definitely a unique experience, selling organic ice cream in the mountains of Norway, and so much fun. That weekend stayed at Øystein’s family cabin a half an hour from the town, in the middle of the snow-patched mountains, hiked a bit, played cards, and learned a lot about the history of migrating sheep herders in Norway!



We drove back Sunday, and the next morning we milked the cows for the last time. I wanted to record our last moments with our lovely cow-friends, so here's some video of we took of us milking in action! (and some video of us hiking, made as tacky as possible with MovieMaker...)



While planning our travel to Denmark, we realized that we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to Kristiansand in one day, where had to take a ferry on Wednesday to Denmark. So that night we sent our first requests on Couchsurfing.org to people in Stavanger. Couchsurfing.org is a internet site where people who need a place to stay can find hosts who want people to stay with them for free. It’s all about cultural exchange and experiencing the people, not just the sights, of the places you go. So I sent our requests for a couch Tuesday night on Monday night, and the next morning got a reply from Isak, a 20-year-old who was already hosting a couple of Germans but could take us too. So we got to Stavanger by bus, walked around the city for a little while, and me Isak downtown. He took us back to his parent’s basement (which was actually a lot nicer than it sounds) where we met his girlfriend, and after a while the Germans showed up. Then we all went to the park and had a picnic, cooking our hamburgers on little disposable grills. Great inventions.

Norway was beautiful, and we were so lucky to be able to stay with the Kolles and the other wwoofers. I'll miss them! Here's the whole family (including the kittens), the day we left to Stavanger.

More to come: Denmark, Berlin, Naples, and Rome!