The next day morning we are heading to Stavanger and hoping to see many beauties of Norway. If it is your first time in the country, most probably you will be amazed by the view even by the one near the highway. So, I suggest you not to be the driver, unless you can drive and see all around at the same time (once more thanks to Papa Lithuania for making this trip possible, the best driver ever!). Somewhere on the way to Stavanger, we had to stop the car to enjoy the amazing view of a lake (one out of many). It was so calm and looked so warm that I wanted to jump and swim. However, we had planned a lot that day and I was quite sure the water would not be warm enough for a southern person like me to swim in. Most importantly we had a ferry to catch. There was some time to have a breakfast on the ferry with some snacks and milk. Milk which is collected from animals that are freely grazing during the summer and warm days. Than the weather gets cold they voluntarily enter under a roof in the farm. Such a great respect to animals...
Similar to Bergen, Stavanger old city has small white wooden houses and locals are really nice to tourist. At some point I come across with a Turkish tourist group of age over 65 and the conversations among them reminded me of home. Women in that group were interested in the curtains and other small details of houses and flowers around them. I remained silent and pretended like I don't understand them, cos I would not like to be questioned by grannies and asked to take their photos in front of each and every flower. The city center was quite crowded and expensive to have a cup of coffee. Souvenirs were over my student budget as well, thus I made my own souvenirs by taking own photos to remember this nice place.
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| #GoPro, Stavanger old city streets |
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| Coats and hats of deer and moose leather |
I can't believe how lucky were we with the sunny weather. We even managed to 'enter' the sea. Little Norwegian kids do it, so why would not we try. I must say the water was not as cold as in Baltic Sea, or I was just getting used to the cold seas.
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| #GoPro Stavanger. |
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| #GoPro, Stavanger road in the sea, Swords in Rock. |
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| someone celebrating something!? |
We are leaving behind the Stavanger and heading east, towards
Lysefjord. As we planned the trip, it was decided to take the long way and pass from Frafjordheiane national park, drive on the twisty roads, take the tourist ferry and have 2-3 hours of a boat trip in
Lysefjord, and if any time left walk to the
pulpit rock.
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Kjerag Restaurant (Øygardstøl)
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| Some twisty roads, down there Lysebotn seen from Øygardstøl |
We were supposed to take the ferry from Lysebotn but reaching there requires passing tiny and twisty roads and twists continues in the tunnels as well. Unfortunately a just car behind us just happened to crash into the tunnel wall and we were the only people to help at the moment. Luckily no one died. I can tell, the emergency system in Norway works great and an ambulance helicopter reached the location in less than 15 min.
The amazing view of
Lysefjord helped us to relax after the accident. However the rest of the day we could not stop worrying about survivors.
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| Waterfall stream and salty water meets, Lysefjord. |
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| Three seals in the middle, they look like rock, Lysefjord. |
Following our boat trip in
Lysefjord, we went few kilometers north to check if we can manage to walk to
Pulpit rock. Hiking to pulpit rock requires 2+2 hours both ways, and we did not have that time, also hiking in the evening (even summer time) with relatively less light was not safe enough. Well you can't have it all, also we need an excuse to come back!
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| Rainbow inspiration on my clothing. |
In order to reach our next camping place, we had to take another ferry and ones more we realize the decision not to hike to Pulpit rock was correct. Only two more ferry hours were left for the rest of the night. While waiting we decided to fill our stomaches with whatever food was left in the car. As the day ends Norway leaves us with unforgeable memories.
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| Dinner at sunset, waiting for the ferry. |
More Norwegian fjords and nature in forthcoming blog post. To be continued...
