NorwegianCountryside

We left Solstrand and headed to our next stop: Utne. Our drive to Solstrand from Bergen had been very short and on a major highway, but this drive was much much much different. Tiny narrow roads with no lines because they can often only fit one car across anyways, that curve and twist and climb along the fjord edges, with the most amazing views ever. The locals drive on them pretty fast, and just stay on the side, and if you run into a semi approaching, you have to slam the breaks and drive off the edge a bit, or back up depending on what is possible. The roads also end randomly and you have to take a connecting ferry across the water to another island or peninsula?…whatever it is called – we’ll call it land.

The other interesting thing from driving is that we got to see the countryside. There are tiny little towns nestled in the most beautiful places that have maybe 15 houses total in each one. The buildings are old, and you can tell that the road came after them because of how close and windy it can get near them. Also, with the farmers, they leave stuff out like cherries in separate packages in a stand, and then just leave a sign telling you how much to pay, and just trust that you will. It’s a pretty idyllic lifestyle.

We got to Utne and it had been a mix of sun and rain all day. The hotel was founded in 1722! It had all kinds of crazy quaint stuff in it, and a really neat layout. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was still really fun to just look around at all the antiques that it had.

We woke up today with a super bright sun in our eyes rising over the fjords. TODAY WAS SUNNY! And calm- look at some of my pictures. There are lakes in them, but you can’t completely tell its water because it is like glass and just reflecting the land above it. There were hardly any clouds which was really good because this was the day we were having a 2 hour ferry ride. We left and drove to Gudvanger (which is actually the place we were at the other day on our way to Bergen) and caught a ferry to a place called Kaupanger. It was STILL sunny out, so we got to sit out on the deck, and since it was a ferry and not so much a tour boat, it wasn’t so crowded and was quite peaceful. Two hours later, we got to Kaupanger, and continued our drive to Balestrand. Here, we are staying at a really old hotel from the 1850s built in the Swiss style, but we didn’t actually get to stay in the old part, just the 1960s add-on. The original building is really interesting though, and the view of the fjord is amazing here as well. My favorite part though is the mountain on the other side of our hotel – it’s completely picturesque and right now the sun is setting behind it.

Tomorrow we are driving back to Bergen, so there won’t be much to tell of that, and then the next day we are flying to Stockholm (yaaaay). I think we are both sad to leave this part of Norway though, it was definitely much better than either of the two cities and I think it gave us a good idea for what the country and people are like.

Oh, I would also like to add that birds are scary, and people who feed them are not nice. On our boat today there was a tour of Italians (they have a strange thing for birds anyways right – they stand in their squares and get covered in pigeons, no?) and they kept feeding the seagulls, who would then hover and dive and squak. And then the lady sitting next to me did it out of her hand. Now, some of you know that I have a fear of birds, so this was NOT ok with me. But, it did make for some interesting pictures.