Since MT’s sleeping in his bed and I have nothing else important to do I want to tell you about the first four days of our summer vacation 2006. Really, I can’t believe it’s been four days already, but anyhow. Ehem, it’s still a bit long….. It all started out on

Thursday

The plan was to leave our house around 2 pm. But as 2 pm drew closer I had to face the fact that no way was it possible to leave so early, sadly enough. I had a lot of things to do in the house, still, and I also had to pack the car. Thankfully MT had a good time playing with E all day! When we finally were ready to move it was almost 7 pm (!). That was the time we planned to arrive in Volda. It was bound to be later….

MT fell asleep right after his first bit of the hot dog we bought at the gas station right by our house. The first hour of the drive were familiar enouhg, so he didn’t miss a thing. When we stopped at a store in Førde for something to eat and such, I woke him up since I didn’t want him to wake up in the car all alone (he would have freaked out, his biggest fear is to be left alone!). So needless to say; he was awake most of the journey from there….

We drove through lots of beautiful sceneries. I didn’t stop to take photo all over (wouldn’t have moved very fast then), but took a few in the Gloppen area, as you can see here:

We had to take two ferries, since I didn’t know their schedule we drove in our own tempo. But when we arrived to the first ferry, only to see it glide out and away from us, I was so frustrated and a little bit angry with my self for not checking the schedule (could have found it on their web site)! We had to wait for one hour - 1 hour - just because we were a few minutes late. Grrrr… But MT had fun though. He was so happy to get out of the car and run around and jump for a while. He had to sing a bit of pure joy as well. Children.

I’ve uploaded quite a few photos from that hour to flickr. That gave us (or rather me) something to do As you can see the sun has set, but only a little bit ago, the nights are light in Norway at this time of the year. We waited from 10:25 pm to 11:20 pm! Walking around we found a monument raised a few years ago as a memory (and a reminder) of those that got burned because they were though of as witches. I don’t know any more about this, though. But it stands right by the ferry on Anda, Norway…

Finally the ferry came, and we could wave Anda goodbye and look for Lote. I love all this funny names

We had about 45 minutes drive to the next ferry and just about enough gas. So I drove right past the gas station with a little bit of worry in my stomach. MT fall asleep again and I had the road to my self. Now it was getting late and I were keen on getting there. Thankfully we reached the ferry and the car didn’t stop. Phu! When I drove of the ferry my phone rang and I was directed to the house where I could find my cousin B (whom we were planning on visiting a few days). Some hours (!!) later I was in bed totally exhausted, MT had thankfully slept for a while by then, so he was not a total mess the next day.

Friday

We got up a bit later than when we planned. But come on, a little bit of sleep is required when you run after a 3 yr old!!

My cousin B wanted to see her horse (it was placed in summer vacation too), so we headed for Sæbø and another ferry, together with her and her brother/my cousin E, to Leknes. The weather wasn’t all that nice, but the day was still a nice one.

After being with B for a while, watching here fetch her horse (not an easy job when the horse rather would be with is friends out in the big green field!) - me and cousin E decided to take the car for a run around the area. I discovered that right behind the farm, at Øye, where the horse was placed, Norway’s narrowest valley, Norangsdalen had it’s place - off course we had to see this for our selves. MT wasn’t all that happy, but he had no choice - poor kid!

It was amazing driving in this valley. The mountain were so close and so steep. We could see several landslides and stones that had fallen down from the hillsides, new and old, and the houses on the summer farm (seter) were build into the terrain so it wouldn’t be badly harmed in case of a landslide. At first they were hard to spot too.

“The wildest alpine valley I ever saw was not in the Alps, it was the valley Norangsdalen at Sunnmøre, Norway.”
- English climber William C. Slingsby

We ended up driving down to the next fjord arm and the little town of Hellesylt. From this area you can go with ferry to the more known Geiranger on the Geiranger fjord.

We setteled for an ice cream and headed back to meet cousin B since we had a ferry to catch back there.
When we rode back to the ferry I took some photos of the area. At the pier I even got to take a photo of the St.Hans fire in making.

Since MT had to sleep some more we didn’t plan to do some celebrating of the day, though. But my cosins headed out later on (or, I drove them in fact, so I could get me some coffee…. MT fall asleep in the car, so I had big trouble getting him to sleep at all later on; so there went mummy’s time to her self!!! Again….)

Oh, man, I almost forgot: When cousin E (poor guy) made dinner, he set of the fire alarm; a few minutes later there were fire trucks and police cars outside. MT had fun. Cousin E was a bit emeressed and cousin B (who rents the place) didn’t care much; we were both a bit angry with her for that, to be honest. She had gone to take a shower and let us handle everything on our own even though we asked her to jump in an do it herself. Even though, it’s just not everyday the house is surrounded with fire trucks and police cars (maybe not surrounded, but bear with me…), so we’ll carish this memory together….
Saturday

This morning we had no rush. It was nice. After some breakfast we headed down town for a bit of an event (dei nynorske festspel). This day they served breakfast for everybody, free of charge. So there I got my coffee, since cousin B doesn’t have it at home. The weather was chill so we only stayed a short while. MT and I had a nice and healty walk up to the house, this western side of the country are all hills….

After stuffing some of cosin B’s stuff into our car (she’s moving Monday and asked for a little bit of help), and eating some ice cream, we headed out of there with Ålesund as our target.

MT fall asleep after a short drive, he kept on sleeping until we got here. After some searching (the hotels were booked full everywhere) we ended up on a good-enough-looking hostel. Much cheeper, and the funny thing is they got the one thing I really wanted: wireless connection to www. Yay!

After booking the room we went out to get something to eat. We ended up at Egon and it was so nice there, MT got his own ballon and food that came on a special kind of plate, with lots of fun drawings on it. He felt so good, and so did I. Since he already had slept a while he got to be up quite late too, but when I finally put him to bed with a strong request for the rest of the night alone…. He refused to sleep. Off course, he did the same the night before, going on vacation with lot’s of new things does that to a kid; I know. But it still got me so frustrated and angry. When he finally caved in and fell asleep I was exchousted and went to sleep my self not long after.

Sunday

We started the day with a real breakfast, even though it was delicious late… Then we went to church and a service held by a studie friend of mine (she didn’t know we were in town, since I don’t know her that good anymore), the service was nice enough, but strange to see that me and the boy where the two youngest one there(!!) After the service I had a good and nice chat with my (former, kind of) friend and MT was busy helping a man blow out the candles and such (he was so happy - and even got payed enough to buy himself and ice cream!)

After church we headed out west of town to the Atlanterhavsparken; one of Europe’s largest aquarium centres. And spent the rest of the day among the fish. I think MT had most fun climbing the rocks inside the center, but he also enjoyed the fish and had great fun fishing crabs and got to both touch sea animals and feed some too. It was a great place to be and some activities to attend, but it seems to me that the tanks and it all was a bit too worn out. Hopefully they also can put in some new stuff and clean it a bit up. And they need some more food, at 4 pm they didn’t even have hot dogs left…. We did buy some great stuffed animals, though!

On the way home we looked at some big boats; Hurtigruten and others. MT find that so funny, I do too Then we headed to our room and MT got to watch Pooh’s Heffalump Movie before he was put to bed. This night he thankfully agreed to behave and get some sleep. So this night is mine - and now I’ve spent it with you

That’s all for now; I’ll be back later to tell you more about our Summer Vacation 2006!!