The man at the bus station was extremely nice and really
wanted to help us get the cheapest bus.
He gave us several time tables and bus companies and then sent us to the
Stavanger public library to buy our tickets online, since buying online also
save you money. He also gave use gummy
cars (like gummy bears, but, you know, car-shaped). We headed to the library, but got confused
and used a café’s computer instead. We
looked up the companies he gave us, but they were more expensive than the
national bus line that we found. We
wanted to be sure it was ok, so we walked back to the station to confirm that
it would work. He said we should take
that one, even though it was a little longer, but it would work.
We went back to the library this time and bought and printed
our bus tickets. The library has a
“tourist only” computer that we could print from. Apparently, this is a common need in this
town. After we had our bus tickets in
hand, we set out to explore. We didn’t
make it very far, since S decided to grab a frosty from McDonald’s. After that, though, we were unstoppable.
The first site we happened across, since we didn’t really
have a plan, was Valberg Tower. This
tower was built in 1853 as a fire watch tower.
Most buildings in Norway are made of wood, so fires are a definite
risk. We didn’t go in, but apparently it
is now used as an art gallery. From there,
we wandered down into the old town.
The old town is very quaint.
If you ignore the Burger King and the giant cruise ships, I imagine it
looks about the same as it did 100 or more years ago. We were asked earlier in the day if we were
on a cruise and we soon figured out why.
Based on the 3 ships currently docked in Stavanger, there were at least
10,000 extra people in that town. We
walked along the fjord, admiring the water, the old wooden buildings, and stone
churches. We also wandered past the Stavanger
Oil Museum and got to look at the rig and dike equipment that they had sitting
out. One definitely looked like a
missile until I read the sign. We
eventually headed back to our hostel.
The next morning, our stuff once again in tow, we were off
to the bus station. I saw the bus
station man again and he gave me more gummy cars, which I ate right away in spite
of it being 9 am. When we boarded our
bus it was us, our driver, and an Israeli couple. It was great!
The couple was really nice and the bus driver talked to us off and on
and gave us information about where to get the best pictures. We were basically about to cut across the
country for the next 5 hours… and I was so excited.
It looked like it was going to rain on us as we pulled out
of the city and I was a little disappointed, but it quickly cleared off and was
sunny for the rest of our trip. S told
me to wake her up if she was missing anything amazing. By my count, it was all amazing. Once again, mountains and water and water
falls and snow and sheep. I did not
close my eyes the entire time.
We picked up more people as we made stops along the way and
we eventually turned onto a crazy, one-lane mountain road and started climbing
up and up and up. As we turned through
switchbacks and met other cars head on, I found that I was still less scared
than I am in taxis in Sofia. And the
view was certainly better. At the
highest point in the road, we were blocked by sheep. I think the driver said it was 1800 meters
high, but like I said, there were sheep, so I was distracted.
Eventually we made it to the town where we had to transfer
buses. After that it was another 2 hours
to Oslo. We drove past the most amazing,
huge, inland lake. The road went by it
for over 30 minutes. We were also in
farm country, so it was really pretty with fields and red barns. I loved it!
It would have only been better if I could have skipped the bus and hiked
the whole way (which was cost and time prohibited, unfortunately).
After we arrived in Oslo, we stayed at the same hostel that
we did on our first trip through and then headed out to spend our last Kroners
on real dinner. We went to Peppe’s
Pizza. I had a delicious calzone and got
tap water (not bottled) in a glass. With
ice. It was like a little piece of
America on the table.
Then we went back to our hostel and slept until 3 am. We had to catch the 4 am airport
shuttle. I definitely closed my eyes on
that bus. We arrived at Oslo Rygge
Airport with more than enough time to catch our flight to Thessaloniki, Greece
(because, believe it or not, the cheapest way to get back to Bulgaria is via
Greece).
