Reality check

Hello from Norway!

I thought I'd use this post to describe the day-to-day hecticness involved in a trip like this. For the past two days I've been moving nonstop, only relaxing right now on this overcast Saturday morning.

On Thursday morning, I woke up at 6:00 to catch an 8:30 flight from Copenhagen to Stavanger, Norway. After arriving at 10:00, I rushed to get a bus from the airport into the city center so that I could find the ferry schedule and hop on a boat to see the Lysfjord. Unfortunately the ferry had just left when I arrived, so I had two hours to kill before the next one. Still carrying all my stuff, I decided I had enough time to walk 30 minutes each way to my hostel to drop off my bag. Turns out the reception was closed for a few hours during the middle of the day, so I turned around and walked back to the city center--a bit further actually, to the ferry terminal. At 1:30 the ferry departed for the 40 minute trip to a small town call Tau. From there a bus was waiting to take the half-hour drive to the starting point for the hike to Priekestolen. It's about 3:00 by the time I start hiking for what would be a four-hour hike. Afterward, I arrived back at the bus for a 7:55 departure back to Tau, followed by a ferry ride, and then the 45 minute walk to my hostel. I arrived tired, sore, still carrying my bag, and ten minutes past the closing of the reception counter, but thankfully they stayed open to wait for me. Day one!

No rest for the weary, though. Ideally it would have been good to spread out my two days of hiking, but yesterday's forecast was sun and today's was overcast with the possibility of rain, so I had to choose yesterday. Again, I had a 6:00 wake-up call, followed by a 45 minute walk to the ferry terminal to make a 7:30 bus departure. This trip was to Kjerag, a mountain by the same fjord as Thursday, but located at the far inland end of Lysfjord, so the bus took a few hours. We arrived around 11:00, for the five-hour, strenuous hike. Thankfully, I wasn't carrying all my stuff as I did the day before! After the hike the bus left at 4:45, and we got back into Stavanger at 7:00. On the walk back to the hostel I did some grocery shopping, and finally got back to my room around 8:00.

An exhausting two days! But very worthwhile. Later on I'll try to post some pictures and thoughts on the hikes, but for now I wanted to shed some light on all the little logistics that go into making these trips happen. It's not easy!