The Plunge

We finally did it. We took the plunge. We jumped in the fjord. It was cold!! We are guessing it was about 42 degrees.

It has been really rainy so we said the next nice day we would jump in.  Wednesday night the clouds parted, the sun came out, and the fjord became glassy.

We threw on our swimsuits and decided to do it before we chickened out.

We counted to tre and went for it.

The first couple seconds weren't so bad, and then the cold hit us. I love Katlin's look of pure terror on her face!

It was a race to the ladder

 It was so cold that people started climbing out wherever they could grab on to something

Before we jumped in we cranked the heated floor in the bathroom

 Battle wounds

Gabby didn't jump in with us. She took photos.....and laughed

Here's the live footage

 

Tunnels, Glaciers, and Soup

Stein and Asbjorn took us on a field trip.  We stopped at another really old church. But this church is special because the movie The Vikings was filmed around this area.
















We also saw a frozen Furebergsfossen waterfall. If you look close enough you can see that the ice is blue.

 

 When the waterfall is at full force it flows over the bridge

We also got to drive through a couple tunnels

We stopped in the middle of the Folgefonna Tunnel. It runs under the glacier and it's 11,150 meters (about 6 miles) long.  It's the third largest tunnel in Norway

And I did the Macarena in the middle of the road!

We stopped in Odda

This is as close as we got to the glacier

We were starving at this point so we went to "The Barn" to eat dinner

We had a Norwegian Stew for dinner.

It was sooooooooooooo good! It reminded me of Zuppa Tuscana from Olive Garden.  I think I had four bowls of it.

  We also had Melkekaker for dessert
The food here is really good. It's real food not the processed stuff  that I'm used to. I never thought I would hear these words come out of my mouth but I'm actually a little sad about leaving all the good food!   

Row Row Row Your Boat

My mom couldn't stay forever so we went back to Bergen on Saturday.  We had done everything we had wanted to do so we sat down on this bench and people watched. There was a loose stone in the sidewalk so we counted how many people tripped over it. It was a beautiful day and  the bench was in the perfect position to get a little sun on our faces.
















Some art I found in Bergen.

After my mom left for the airport I went and got some varm sjokolade and a muffin to tide me over until the bus came.

Two ferries and a bus later I was back home. 

Just because my mom left didn't mean the fun stopped.

One of the teachers form Malmanger took us for a boat road. They said they would pick us up around 5:00.

They pulled up right to our dock!

Katlin

Gabby

Maggie

Erica

Unni, and her Husband, The Captain

That's my kind of tape!

Malmangernuten

The Island

Snack Time

I'm on a boat!

Gabby sat by the window the whole time looking for a whale!

The Island

The ladder people use to get to the lighthouse

TRRRRROOOOOLLLLLL! But for reals they told us we are going to show you a troll so get ready. And Bam there it was!

After the troll they told us that was probably the only wildlife we were going to see and not even five minutes later we saw a little whale.  They are shy things so when it heard the boat coming it disappeared really fast.  If you look really close you can see whale ripples.

 We circled around for a bit and saw the whale about three more times.

The water was very glassy!
















 Then it was back home.

I'm going to miss living by the water!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

I decided to take my mom for a hike up Skålafjell.

I think she liked the view

 In Norway you can't go on a hike without eating Kvikk Lunsj

While we were eating it some man came over to us and started talking to us really fast in Norwegian. When he finally stopped to take a breath we just said sorry English. He was so shocked and he said "but.....but....your eating kvikk lunsj.......that's so Norweigan, how did you know about it?" Then some other people came hiking up the mountain and he started speaking to them. 

We also signed our names in the book!

Before we started hiking my mom told me that we couldn't leave the mountain until we had found the mountain goats so I found them for her.

They kind of scared me because they were pushing each other around and I knew I was going to get it next.

Not my mom .. She sat right down

and started to sing songs 

Which then turned into stories.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is her favorite story, and she always wanted to be like Heidi when she was younger.   She finally got her chance! I don't think I could have planned this to be any more perfect than it was. Here she is sitting on top of a mountain with the fjord in the background, boats going by, and goats who do what she tells them to do. 

She was very happy with how her day ended up

 Me not so much.

 She didn't even feel bad for me or ask if I was OK. She just pulled out her camera and took a picture.