Day 26 - 28 Stavanger

12 - 14 August 2014

Day 26
Train
Tonight I caught the night train from Oslo to Stavanger. Unfortunately it's dark most of the time so I missed the nice views except just near the end when I was awake and the sun started to come up. The average Norwegian must have long legs because the seats had lots of leg room, which I approve of.

Norwegian leg room

As long as the train says the name of the place you're going, then you're probably in the right place... Right? In this case it was fine, I was on the right train. I had to laugh at my name backwards (mot) because that's how I wrote it when I was in kindergarten.

I guess it goes to Stavanger

The ride was pretty good and I set a new personal best for sleeping on transport: 6 hours! The lady in the seat next to me only sat there for a few minutes then moved to another seat; I don't think I smelled that bad but at least I had two seats to myself. There was also a pet cat on the train that pissed all over the toilet so that gave it a....um... unique smell. The NSB site lets you book for pets though so it was allowed on. The other funny bit was I started the trip facing the direction of travel but when I woke up near the end of the trip, I was going backwards.

Day 27
Priekestolen (Pulpit Rock)
Once of the train I need to find my hostel and dump my stuff there. I got changed then headed back into town to catch the ferry. I got a bit lost on the way but eventually found the port and bought the special Priekestolen ticket that gets you on a ferry, then a bus and then also the return trip.

When the bus dumped us all at the bottom of the walking trail, I set off quickly in an effort to get away from the crowd. I had a quick look at the sign...

Sign at the base of the hike. It says 2 hours up and 2 down but I went up, took photos, had lunch and came down in just over 3 :D

...then started climbing. I soon realised there was no beating the crowd because people are everywhere.

Sooooo many people

The climb wasn't too bad even though it rained the whole time but it sort of felt like a game. You had to...

Avoid the slow people (almost everyone)

Cross the board walk

Navigate the rocks

Climb the waterfall. There's water running over and around all these rocks.

Eventually I made it to the top and because I'm super lucky, the sun came out just as I arrived. The first thing I realised is that it's really hard to take a good photo when you're actually on the rock as the helpful lady who took this photo highlighted.

Worse than average photographer skills didn't matter because this was a terrible vantage point

I climbed a little further and then I could get the photos you see in all the tourist things.

Panorama of Priekestolen

And of course I got the proof that I was there.

Priekestolen selfy

From the rock you could get a fantastic view of the fjord though.

Looking into the fjord from Priekstolen

Just before you get to the rock, there's another rock that sticks out where you can get...

A nice photo with the fjord in the background

And...

A photo with the whole of Priekestolen in the background

While I was walking around, I noticed that they're invested in keeping this massive tourist attraction in one piece by stick bolts all over the rock.

A rock bolt

By now, it had started to rain again and because it was super windy on the rock, it was freezing. I couldn't feel my fingers so it was certainly time to go. I only had to walk 5 minutes down the trail and I was out of the wind so I could stop for some of the lovely views.

By the time I got back to the bottom, I was definitely tired. The lack of sleep from the train and a 3 hour hike had caught up with me. I caught the bus and then the ferry back to Stavanger and headed back to the hostel. On the way I saw this odd statue too.

A steel guy standing in and looking into the bushes

The hike was great and I'd recommend it. Yes, it was busy but there are lots of places to overtake people. Because it's so touristy, you see all sorts of people on the trail like people carrying babies, big groups that block the trail, crazy fit people who run the whole thing, oldies with hiking poles (who were doing really well), dogs having a blast and of course people who looked like they weren't in the best shape and they might die on the walk. 

Day 28

Sverd I Fjell
I checked out in the morning and walked over to see some giant swords. Unfortunately they were really hard to photograph well because the bright sky kills the photo. The swords are made of steel and concreted into the ground and I think they look pretty cool.

Panorama of the swords in the bay

The giant swords and I

There was also a bike path near the swords that has a counter to show how often the path is used. I'm not sure if it's really necessary but it's fun to know that sort of information.

Bike counter

And then there were these annoying plants that were releasing seeds in the gusts of wind so every now and then you'd get a face full of flying white things.

Annoying reproducing plants

Bus
I headed back to the hostel and on the way I had a freak out moment. This was because the hostel says reception is closed during the day and because I had a bus to catch at 4PM, I was worried I wouldn't be able to get my bag and would miss my bus. It turned out ok because there were still staff around so I grabbed my bag and headed down to the bus station.

I arrived early enough to get onto the earlier 3PM bus and lucky for me, the driver let me on to the earlier bus. Looking at the map, the ride wasn't going to be boring.

The bus ride map. There were two ferries, a bunch of tunnels, twisty roads, some bridges and some views of the fjords.

On one of the ferries

In one of the longer tunnels. The descent in quite steep but the photo doesn't show it so well.

This is one of the most interesting and scenic bus rides I've done. I'd highly recommend it.

Thoughts on Stavanger

• Preikestolen is the most popular thing there and most people are there to go see it.
• More of a general Norway thing but drivers always give way to pedestrians.
• I don't think I saw a single traffic light in Stavanger. The whole place uses round-a-bouts and under/overpasses including underpasses for pedestrians. It's a fantastic set up.
• I saw quite a few people here wearing gum boots that were trying to be stylish but I don't think you can make gum boots look good.

Double what?
I looked up the Norwegian alphabet and how to pronounce the letters and when it came to the letter W the person says double-vee. Wait! What? That's actually correct. Why does English call it double-you when it's not, it's a double V. Stupid language!