Well hello Norway!

I'm a few days behind here on my posting, but not tons to catch up on. On the last full day in Paris, Jordan and I hit up the Louvre and spent about 3 to 3 1/2 hours wandering the halls of paintings, sculptures, statues, and all kinds of other things on display including mummys and tombs. We, of course, saw the Mona Lisa. It was nearly impossible to get a picture because there was mass funneling of people to take pics and if you got up front, it was iffy as to if you would make it back out alive! By the end of the walking around, our feet were dead so we grabbed a bite for lunch at a nearby bistro to take on the sun and a good meal.

After lunch, we headed to the modern art museum which was definitely an experience. I could easily say there was more modern art in Versailles than there and the art was...weird. I mean, I know art is art, but seriously. One room had two tvs with a video of people blowing air into an empty water bottle then sucking it in, over and over again as fast as possible. Every time I hear a plastic bottle crinkle, I think of that video now. Another room had just piles of clothes on shelves. Yes, that was it...and not in an crazy exhibit statue even, just piles. All of the artwork was from decades ago, nothing new, but the worst was the last room with a video. Now I'm not a big cat person, but there was a home video of this girl about 8 trying to get this cat to sit as she was wrapping it in a blanket. The girl was speaking French so I had no idea what she said, but then she just starts hitting this cat. Like spanking it, over and over (sorry Kasey). Even I felt bad for this cat and I certainly don't see how a home video of a kid beating a cat is worthy enough to be called art. Anyways, after that museum we made our way over to the Pantheon for a quick photo, walked through the yard of the house of Luxemburg, and then headed back to the room for some downtime and packing before dinner.

For dinner, we headed to a little restaurant on a corner nearby. It was happy hour and they were sure giving when it came to how much alcohol they used in the drinks. I got a whiskey sour that I'm pretty sure was more like a whiskey on the rocks. But we enjoyed our drinks, a great meal, and I finally got my chocolate mousse!! I had been eyeing the mousse on the menu at just about every place we ate at and that was my one thing I had to have before we left. It was yummy, yummy too! After dinner we headed back to the room and finished up packing. I managed to take a shower completely in the dark after some pesky 12 year olds thought it would be funny to turn my shower light and the hallway light off. Ahhhh, hostel life. But I got my revenge when it came to their shower time, so no worries there :)

Thursday we got up to check out and headed to the airport via train to make our flights. After sitting there all day, I boarded the plane for my layover in Oslo and spent another hour on the runway for us to wait on approval from air traffic control. Apparently they were short handed which meant all planes were being delayed leaving. Anddd because there was a delay in leaving, I was late landing in Oslo which, as is my luck, meant I missed my connection. Luckily, Scandinavian Airlines is on the ball and they had already rebooked me to a later flight.

Finally got in to Stavanger about 8:30 and Mike picked me up at the airport. We headed to his place to drop my bags and for me to grab some dinner. Talk about an amazing, amazing view! His apartment has a view of downtown and the river from these huge windows out front and each bedroom in the back also has a view of the river with a bridge connecting to town. The floors are heated. Gas fireplace. Hardwood floors. The bathroom is bigger than the rooms I've been staying in. Such a nice change of pace for me and beautiful, beautiful home!

So after dropping off bags, we headed downtown (which is just walking distance) to check out the food festival and see what was going on. There were lines of bars and restaurants and then in the streets were more temporary stands. We walked through checking out the scenes and people and then had a few local beers while catching up. Such a pretty downtown and you can tell that without the tents,the downtown would be even more picturesque. After our drinks, we ran to a friend of Mike's place to say hello before returning to the apartment and heading to sleep. Perfect relaxing end to a day full of airplanes, airports, and layovers.

Mike didn't have to work today so with rain in the forecast, we decided to head out of town and take in some scenery and to show me what Norway looks like. We headed to Brusand to check out what is called Hitler's teeth. Basically, what it is is cement blocks buried alongside the water from WWII to prevent forces from making landfall. While it sounds historically interesting, the actual sight was kinda a letdown looking just like some cement blocks on the side of the road. We still stopped to check it out and made our way to the beach, but we were both slightly disappointed. With nothing else really on the agenda, we decided to make the hour and a half drive to Flekkefjord. That drive, on the other hand, was worth it. I can't even describe how beautiful it was...and constantly. Everywhere you looked, there was water and large stone hill or mountainsides. It was also so agriculture seeing sheep and cows and pastures anytime there was flat or even mildly flat land. Talk about a drive where you just have your mouth open in awe and finger constantly on the button snapping pictures. Can't wait to get those pics up for viewing. Once we got to the town, we parked and walked to the city center to grab some food. It happened to be there 175th anniversary of the city so there was some live music playing along the water as we ate. Very cool atmosphere! After we ate, we headed back to town and now we are watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics with commentary in Norwegian and salmon and broccoli in the oven. Not a bad life I live....not a bad life!!! This girl is one blessed person.