“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.
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| The Cathedral |
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| 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.
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| View from our campsite |
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| 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!
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| 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!
