Northward Bound

“The stars are putting on their glittering belts. They throw around their shoulders cloaks that flash like a great shadow’s last embellishment.” –Wallace Stevens

A few days ago I got back from my journey to northern Norway and due to a very busy past couple of days, I’m finally ready to tell you all about it!

So last Saturday morning (Oct. 6^th) we got up nice and early and caught a train to Oslo at 5 am and then got to the airport to hang out a bit and catch a plane at 10.30 to Bodø. We arrived to Bodø at about 12.30. Here’s our view flying in. It was a little scary seeing we were going to be landing by so much water. 

From there we walked quite a ways to the town center and to find our ferry. After securing the location and times of our ferry, we hiked to the nearest grocery stores to stock up for the next few days. We got on the ferry at about 4 o’clock and had about a 4 hour ride to the Lofoton Islands. It was a little gray and cloudy outside, but it was a beautiful ride across the open ocean. I definitely got rocked to sleep a couple of time by the ocean waves. On board we met a guy named Tyler from Minnesota. He was traveling around Norway in a camper for a few weeks. He offered us a ride to our cabin, saving us an 8 km walk, which was so nice because we were all exhausted by this time. We stayed in an old fisherman’s cabin on the island Hamnøy. It was such a wonderful and warm change from our typical cold camping experiences. There were 5 beds, a bathroom, a good size kitchen stocked with dishes, and a little living room. The best was though the view of the mountains outside our cabins. Instead of trying to describe how wonderful it was, I’ll just post some pictures.

On Sunday, we took about a 45 minute ride bus to Ramberg, a neighboring island. Here we spent the afternoon exploring one of the many white sand beaches up here in the Islands. The view was incredible from all directions. We hiked out to tip of a point and sat and ate our lunch there. I couldn’t figure out how to do a panoramic photo with my camera, so instead I just took a video to share my wonderful lunch view.

After lunch we hiked back down to the beach and relaxed for a while, built some sandcastles, slept a little. And then we got the idea to go a little crazy and go swimming! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I now can say I’ve been swimming in the Arctic Circle!

Due to a misreading of the bus schedule, half of us ended up taking a taxi back and the other half hitch-hiked back home to our cabin. We spent the night making dinner, reading, playing cards and listening to some music.

On Monday, we got up and hiked around some of the surrounding islands. All of the islands are connected by bridges that look like this.

We ended up on Risør at a beautiful little café. We saw so many cute little shops, museums and art displays along the way, but unfortunately mostly everything was closed for the season, except this one café. It was a beautiful and relaxing way to spend the afternoon. 

On the way back we stopped at the only grocery store and the islands and stocked up for our last few days there. We got back and had hoped to take out a rowboat that came along with our cabin, but that too had been taken in for the season. So, instead, we played some cards and cooked up some dinner. That night around 9.30 we were able to see the Northern Lights right from our own deck. At first they were a little dim because of the all the clouds, but soon they were so bright and took up the whole sky. They rippled and danced in greens and purples. They lasted for about an hour and were so spectacular! Cameras couldn’t really capture them, but here’s a few attempts.

On Tuesday we went to a town called Å. Å is the last letter in the Norwegian Alphabet and Å is the last island in the chain of the Lofoton Islands. It was a pretty cloudy and gray day out and rained a few times, but it was still nice to walk around the old fishing town. We ate lunch right by an old boat and then hiked up to a mini light house. 

That night we had reindeer stew for dinner- so delicious. Then we spent the night watching a movie and cleaning the cabin. We had to get up nice and early- 4 am- to hike to where our ferry would take off to take us back to Bodø. It was about an 8k walk and took us a little under 2 hours to get there. We were very excited to get on the ferry and get warm and sleep a little. Once we got back to Bodø, we stored our packs at the train station and spent the day café hopping in Bodø. That night we boarded the train for a nice 21 hour train ride back home to Bø. We had two transfers along the way and the ride home was so beautiful. I felt like I was on Hogwarts Express in the winter time. There hadn’t been any snow and it hadn’t been that cold in the Lofoton Islands (They are the biggest warm weather anomaly in the world, in fact one of the days we were there it was about 50 degrees F), but on the train ride we went through so much snow. It was beautiful. 

We finally got back home at 7 at night on Thursday. I highly recommend anyone who wants to travel to Norway to be sure to go to the Lofoton Islands- seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been!

This past Friday, for my Individuals, Environs and Society class, we took a hike up to Høyslass, a mountain right behind the school and talked a little about Norwegian fairytales. 

That night I visited my Norwegian friend Christine at the bookstore she works at and talked with her for a while. After that, I went with a couple others to a man named Gordie’s house to make applesauce. Gordie is in the international program and taking classes at our university to stay busy while his wife teaches at another university and travels around Norway performing for the year. His wife is a pretty famous fiddle/violin player. Gordie is originally from Canada, but now lives in Scotland with his wife.

Yesterday I had a day excursion for my class. We went down to Kragerø to visit an old maritime museum and then take an hour ferry ride out to an island known as ‘Spinster’s Island’.  It was very VERY cold on the ferry, so we were all happy there was a lower level we could huddle in out of the wind. On the island we hiked up a lighthouse and then took a walk down to the sea. Finally, we took the ferry back and had a delicious dinner of fish soup at local restaurant in Kragerø. The bus ride back made me realize how quickly it’s starting to get dark here. By 7 o’clock it was already completely dark and I was told every day its gets darker 7 minutes earlier! That’s so crazy!

Anyways, I’ve got an Introducing Norwegian Language midterm this week, so I’m actually going to go spend some time studying. Lots of love to you all! Jeg er glad i dere og jeg savner dere!

-Marissa

'I've got to get busy writing...Busy! Busy! Busy!'

‘Get busy living, or get busy dying.’ –Stephen King

So I know it’s been a while since my last post- Sorry! So I’ll give a short update about what I’ve been up to since my weekend in Stavanger. On Saturday of this past weekend, we took a nice walk to Gvarv, the next closest city to Bø, for Applefest. There was delicious apple everything- apple cakes, ciders, artwork, etc. I bought a nice big bag of apples and I still haven’t eaten them all. 

Eplekake med is! (apple cake with ice cream)

That night there was a ‘Cowboys and Indians’ party at Kroa, the student pub. It was kind of shocking for us American students for them to have this as a theme and it interesting trying to explain to all of the other international students why it was so offensive and never would happen in the US. Sunday I bought a plane ticket for a trip to Prague Oct. 31^st till Nov. 4^th. I’m going to meet my high school friend Angela Pappas, who is studying abroad in Spain for the semester, and spend a nice long weekend in the city. On Tuesday night, my friend Katie and I learned how to make ginger beer from one of our Norwegian friends. It is quite popular here for students to brew their own beer as a hobby. So our first batch is in the process and won’t be done for three weeks or so. That night a bunch of us American students got together to make some apple pie from our Applefest apples for Coffee Hour. Coffee Hour is a weekly Wednesday get-together in the school cafeteria with free food, tea and coffee. On Wednesday, I also had my first midterm in my Norwegian Film and Fiction class. (Yes, everyone, I AM in school right now and I AM taking classes- surprise!) It was an essay exam about a novel and film we read/watched call Kristin Lavransdatter. I probably should have studied some more, but I hopefully didn’t do horribly. That night, there was ‘Open Scene’ at Kroa, which is basically open mic night. There was some standup comedy, a couple of dancers, a really great band and then few people played the hardanger fiddle. Bø claims to be the home of the modern hardanger fiddle, which is why on their shield they have three of them. Last night I had the most amazing time. My Norwegian friend Christine had my friend Katie and I over to her house. Her roommates and she made us traditional Norwegian meatballs, potatoes, mashed peas and an amazing apple cake.  The food was so delicious and it was so great to be in a real home.

 Today, I went on a field trip for one of my class to several different locations in West Telemark. Our first stop was at Vesås farm, which is the birth place of the famous Norwegian author- Tarjei Vesaas. We spent some time looking around the farm and were even invited inside for a tour. The part of the building we were in was built in the early 1600’s. 

Next stop was Grimdalstunet, the home of Anne Grimdal, the artist who created most of the decorations on Oslo City Hall. There were a lot of her sculptures placed throughout the yard. Many of them involved animals, and my favorite were all with bears. 

After eating lunch here we headed to the Hotell Dalen which is the largest wooden building in West Telemark and hosts many important guests, like the royals. 

Finally we stopped at the Eidsborg stave church and the West Telemark museum. The church was established in the 1300’s and was beautiful. Unfortunately it was all locked up so were couldn’t go in. The museum was pretty interesting, just your basic history museum.

 Tomorrow, bright and early, at 5 a.m. we leave for our journey into the Arctic Circle and we’ll be spending 4 days or so in the Lofoten Islands. Here's a map with the Islands circled. 

Keep your fingers crossed for me that we get to see the Northern Lights! 

Sending my love back home to you all!

On Top of the World!

“There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them.” ― Jo Walton

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to take a train out to Stavanger and go and see Preikestolen or Pulpit’s Rock and it was quite an adventure!

We took the Friday morning train at 1 am and got into Stavanger around 7.30. The train was pretty full and not much sleep was had, but we still made it! We spent the morning hiking around the old town, looking at Cathedrals, hanging out at a café and looking at the farmer’s market.

The Cathedral

Old Town

In the middle of the afternoon we took a car ferry out of Stavanger to a city called Toa. It was an absolutely beautiful ride across the harbor, as we were completely surrounded by mountains. It was about 45 minutes that we spent on the top of the ship looking at this incredible view. Unfortunately, we almost got stuck on the boat. Fortunately, we never found the spot to buy a ticket, so we rode for free!

Once we got to Toa, we took a bus and then a taxi to the base of Preikestolen where there’s a hostel. We had been told there was an abandoned cabin not too far from the hostel so we were potentially going to stay there. However after about an hour hike through the forest, we gave up. Instead, we decided to hike partially up Preikestolen and camp there. Norway has this amazing policy known in English as “Every Man’s Right”, in which you are allowed to camp anywhere as long as you are far enough away (usually 150 meters) from the nearest house or farm for up to two nights. We set up camp (3 2-person tents for 6 of us) on a beautiful overlook and were even able to see the sunset over the ocean and Stavanger off in the distance.

View from our campsite

Our shelters from the cold

To put it nicely, the night was unbelievable cold. I went to bed wearing 4 pairs of wool socks, underarmor pants, my hiking pants, a short sleeve t-shirt, underarmor long sleeve, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweater, my winter coat, hat, mittens and a scarf and I slept in my sleeping bag with a blanket, snuggling up next to my friend Katie, and I swear I thought I was going to lose my feet to frostbite! The temperature had dropped where below freezing, as we woke up to ice on some of the paths. Due to the cold and starting our hike the next morning at 5 am, not much sleep was had this night either.

We had made the decision to get to the top of Preikestolen to see the sunrise. It was pitch black when we started out in the morning. We all had flashlights, but also took some time to turn them off to see all of the beautiful stars. All of the public run paths in Norway are marked with a red letter ‘T’, so being very carefully we made our way up the mountain, only getting lost a couple of times. When we came back down and saw what we had climbed in the dark, we were all very impressed with ourselves. Some of the parts were very steep. As the sky was starting to lighten, we were getting kind of nervous we might not make it in time, but low and behold- WE DID IT!

It may not look too crazy- but imagine climbing this in the complete dark

For two hours, which included an amazing sunrise, a ridiculous amount of photos, some brave peaks over the edge, and a well-deserved breakfast of apples, nuts and bread, we had all of Preikestolen to ourselves! That’s right ladies and gentlemen I got to see the sun rise over a true Norwegian fjord at one of the top ranked best scenic views in the world! I am one lucky individual! Now, please enjoy a selection of some of the wonderful pictures taken. (Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery before we even made it off the ferry, so the photos were taken by the friends I was with.)

We started our hike back to our camp as soon as the first hikers started showing up, so about 9.30. By the time we got back, there was just a straight stream of people hiking up to the top- one after another. We enjoyed some more bread and peanut at our campsite and then packed everything up and head down the rest of the mountain. We took a taxi and then the ferry back to Stavanger. By the time we got back into the city everyone was pretty exhausted and hungry. We got some fish and chips and spent the afternoon eating and napping in a park.

Later that evening we went into town and a nice meal at an Indian restaurant. It was so delicious and beautiful inside the restaurant. Afterwards we wandered about the city to see what a Norwegian city was like after all the shops closed down and eventually to kill some time found a park higher up to look at Stavanger all lit up at night. Best part of all, during the hike through the wooded area of the park, there were some mysterious spotlights pointing on the ground. So being curious college kids, naturally we go and check them out. THEY WERE TRAMPOLINES! Right there in the middle of the woods were about 10 individual trampolines with spotlights. So a good 20 minutes were spent bouncing around on them.

We had decided earlier in the evening, instead of having to hike out way to the edge of town to set up our tents and dreading another freezing cold night, we were just going to spend the night at the train station before we caught our train back home at 10.30 the next morning. So we left the park and got settled in at the station by about 9.30, ready for a wonderfully warm night! How wrong we were… come 11 o’clock and we were kicked out. Turns out, unlike most of the other train stations we’ve been to in Norway, including our little one back here in Bø, the Stavanger stations closes from 11 to 5.45. We now had about 7 hours to kill with no place to go. Our solution- bundle up and sit in the park. At first, it was quite enjoyable- the temperature was good, we took turns sleeping, some went walking around the town some more. Then bring on about 2.30/3 o’clock. Not only did the temperature drop very low but it was also bar close. Maybe it was the alcohol or the sight of 6 foreigners huddling together under sleeping bags in the middle of Stavanger, but whatever it was, we had many a Norwegians come up and strike up some interesting conversations with us.

At 5 o’clock we decided to head back over to the train station to wait for it to open and hopefully catch some shut eye before our train. On our walk over, to our delight and simple amazement, a Seven Eleven was open! This is virtually unheard of, seeing as most places are not even open on Sundays and if they are the earliest would be 10 o’clock. It was heaven to walk inside that warm building and warm up with some hot chocolate. At 5.45 we walked over to join the few other people waiting for the train station to open. And we waited… and waited… and waited. At 6.15 we decided to just go next door to the bus station and wait out until the train station opened up, which never actually happened! We spent the rest of our morning hanging out and sleeping in the bus station, sneaking into the Radison hotel down the street when we had to go to the bathroom, and eventually boarded the train at 10.30 for our nice 6 hour train ride back home.

It was quite the eventfully and simply exhausting weekend, but completely worth it!

Sending you all back home my love!

Searching for Selma

'I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a ferris wheel.' - E.B. White

Today in my Telemark Regional Identity class we had a discussion about identity, specifically Norwegian identity and talked a lot about Norway is coping with keeping its traditions alive, while integrating into modern society. One guy demonstrated this through some Norwegian music, playing for us some groups that keep the old traditions alive and then some that focus on mixing old with new. For the more modern music he played this song (click here!) which is absolutely great, mainly because of the little girl dancing.

After our morning discussion, we took a bus to Seljord (a town about 20 minutes away) to go to Dyrsku’n, the largest agricultural fair of its kind in Norway which has been running since 1866. Think of a state fair in the US and then Norwegianize it and you pretty much have Dyrsku’n. There were goat, cow, and sheep showings, local food, crafts, rides, animals, and music. There were lots of people- old and young- walking around in their bunads, the traditional costume of Norway. All of the local food gave out so many samples and it was so delicious! I bought some pancakes and then a hotdog-like thing, but best of all I had ice-cream made from Telemark cows- so good! 

After getting some food we watched some student musicians perform (video below) and then went and looked at some of the animals. 

We were able to go up in a ferris wheel and saw just how large the fair was, plus we got a really great view of the mountains surrounding the town. 

I did do a little shopping (spent a lot more money than I realized- opps!), and I bought my first real Norwegian sweater. And Mom- you are NOT going to make mittens out of it! It was really different to see because in addition to all of the traditional and typical fair things (sweaters, shirts, trinkets, wood carvings) there were also some really random things people were selling, including toilets and car seats.

Before we hopped on the bus back to Bø, we decided to spend some time searching for Selma. In Seljord, there is a huge lake that is home to a monster, aka Selma. She is often compared to Nelly, the Lock Ness Monster. There is actually a map of all of the different spots around the lake that Selma has been spotted. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to see her.

Well I hope all is well at home for everyone! I have forgotten to ask for addresses. I’ve posted mine, but would love to get some in return. So if you’d like a letter feel free to either leave a comment with it or email me at mhojnacke@wisc.edu. Thanks and much love for you all! Jeg er glad i dere! 

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got food in my tummy!

'Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."  -Orson Welles

So nothing too much has been going on. Some class, some hiking, and some trip planning! Last night we had an internationals meeting and afterwards they served us a traditional Norwegian dinner. So with that I thought I'd tell you all about some of the food I've been eating here. We were served open faced sandwiches, which is a typical lunch here for most. Usually it is topped with some cheese, veggies and a slice of meat. Norwegians are known for their moderation, especially in their food. The Norwegian cheese cutter was designed exclusively to cut the thinnest slice of cheese possible. Here's a picture of it for those of you who don't know what one looks like.

Some of my favorite food here would have to be their bread and cheese. All of the bread is full of grains and seeds and is so wonderful. It's really fun to buy some at the grocery store because you have to put each loaf through a bread slicing machine. They also have so many wonderful kinds of cheese here, but two of my favorites are this Norvegia cheese and this brown goat cheese called brunost. My favorite thing ever is taking a piece of flat bread and putting Nutella and raspberry jam and some brown cheese on it. It tastes absolutely heavenly!

 

Unfortunately, everything here is pretty pricey. A jar of peanut butter about half of the size of a Jiff jar in the states costs about 6 US dollars and one apple costs 1 US dollar. So I'm learning to budget!
Otherwise I tend to get together with some other international students a couple of times a week and we all cook dinner together. One of the girls who lives on my floor is a vegan, so she does a lot of her own cooking and often shares with me which is wonderful. The most challenging thing for all of us is there isn't a microwave. I can cook just fine without it, but I have to get creative when I want to heat up some left overs.
Well all of this food talk is making me and hungry and it's almost time to make some dinner, so with that I will leave you all!
Sending my love back home!

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

‘My proposal is: To set off walking this afternoon. To stop when we are tired. To get a lift when we can. To walk when we can't. To do it at once, and do it cheap.’ – Charles Dickens

I have official left Bø and seen more of Norway! This week I do not have any class until Friday, so I used this opportunity with a few other friends and went down to Krisitansand, the 5th largest city in Norway located right on the Baltic Sea. We left on Sunday morning and hitchhiked our way down to Krisitansand. Hithhiking is very popular and safe (don't worry Mom and Grandma) here in Norway. In fact in most guide books there is a whole section about how to best do it. It took us 4 cars and about 5 hours to get down to Krisitansand. We had to wait no longer than about 20 minutes on the road each time until we got picked up- which is not bad at all. Once we got to Krisitansand, we found a cheap camp site about a mile away from down town and set up a tent we'd borrowed from another international student. It cost us 150 NOK each night, or just under 30 US dollars. It was a beautiful site and had a beach to the Baltic Sea right on it. So the first night we sat on the beach eating our bread and watching the lighthouse in the distance. On Monday, we went into town and explored a fortress and cathedral from the 1670's, which was shortly after Krisitansand was founded. We walked around the old town too and looked at the beautiful houses. In the afternoon we went swimming in the Baltic which was quite freezing, but stunning at the same time. We went back into down for dinner at a nice little cafe where we could sit on the roof and see both the sea and downtown. On Tuesday, due to some really bad blisters one of the girls (Kimberly) spent the day at the campsite. So that left me and Katie. We spent the morning hiking around the camping area by the sea and found a mini-lighthouse and a dockyard to explore. In the afternoon we attempted to find a rose garden and a botanical garden, but ended up lost and in a large park and instead went and got some pizza to eat by the sea. On Wednesday, we spent the morning relaxing by the sea and then got a late lunch at a restaurant by the sea. Due to Kimberly's blisters, we decided to take the train back home to Bø instead of hitchhiking. Krisitansand was a really beautiful city and so here are some pictures to show you its loveliness. 

View from our campsite's beach

The dockyard we found

Me with our mini-lighthouse

The Cathedral in the town square

View of town at night

The Fortress

Swimming in the Baltic Sea

The roof of the restaurant

View of Krisitansand from our hike

Love and miss you all!