emme.at.sea

out and about in norway

On Thursday, we went on a Semester at Sea trip to see the “Fairytale Home of Ole Bull”, as was described to us when we registered for it. Unfortunately, I don’t know really know where the whole fairytale label came from… but the house was still interesting and beautiful to see. Ole Bull was a famous violinist also known for being quite the ladies’ man and over time became wealthy enough to buy Lysoen island and build a house on it. Perhaps better than the house was the tourguide that we had for the day. She spoke in a very proper-sounding muddled stream of consciousness and inserted really funny comments between thoughts. On the way to Lysoen island, we also got to stop and check out the ruins of a monastery located in what is known as “The Valley of Light” – interesting because “Lysoen” means “Island of Light”. Returning from Lysoen island, our loony tourguide also had us stop at a little Norwegian farm (for a total of seven minutes) on the premise that we could “pick a flower as a souvenir, though it wouldn’t last too long.. hm. hm.” We mostly just peeked around at all of the animals and got to see some cute kids riding Viking horses like the ones we rode in Iceland. After we returned, we went into town to hang out at the fish market, where people sell fish (obviously), fruit, knitted goods, and various crafts. I wish I liked seafood and fish! Nonetheless, it was fun poking through the stalls and picking up postcards and the like. While we were at the fish market, I got to call home to my parents and also check my voicemail (that’s setup through my phone card). Checking my voicemail totally made my day, as Andie had called and left the coolest message ever that was her rapping about me getting better and traveling over summer! I’m sure I looked like a fool laughing so hard on a payphone in the fish market square, but it was definitely worth it. Thanks Andreat0r!! At some point in the day we also went to Xhibition, which is where our tourguide said young people go to shop. We had seen it before and assumed it to be a large department store, but it was actually an entire mall with a target audience of young adults. Quite a sight to see! We were mostly excited because it had an H&M in it, which we thought we wouldn’t get to explore until England. I think I held off on buying anything since it’s all so expensive here, but hopefully our money will be worth more in Russia…

around lysoen island

farm... norwegian style!

posted by Emme @ 11:20