Sirdal R&R

[temperature today: 6.9 - 11.9 C]
written 11.11.13

Woke up early for breakfast to prepare for today's activities. Last night, there was so much dancing but since we had a long day and I wanted to be ready for today, I left early. This was one of the scenes from last night.

Last night, I also signed up on the town tour instead of climbing the mountain, thinking that it is not safe with me only bringing my sneakers instead of hiking shoes. So this morning, we started with a walk downhill towards the town center not knowing the obstacles we were going to pass through...

 Houses with roofs that have plants for insulation...

 We are not halfway through...

 A very unusual troll, showing himself during daytime...

 Walking through a scenic route. Lots of pictures were taken here...

And another scenic view of simple Norwegian farmland

 

 

Turning around, I just looked at the slope of rock where we all came down from to get through the other side. That is one pretty high, steep slope with only a rope and a hand to help you down.

 And now walking through mossy area with our poor shoes getting wet. My sneakers now need to be replaced.

 How I love the look of these moss. Anna said that the white ones are gathered for home ornaments. They can place it in bowls with water and it will stay alive for days. How cool is that. The white moss can be used for Christmas decor, don't you think?

 Then we walked some more along a swampy area. Poor shoes, I'd say! Somewhere here, our classmate Isaac found a large mushroom, almost the size of my palm, color red, which looks like the ones they draw on cartoons when I was young.

After a relatively long walk, perhaps an hour?, we arrived at the town center and was greeted by the former Mayor who let us watch a video on the beginnings and what we can find in town. After that, we were treated to a very big lunch. Right after this, we went off to pursue recreation activities that were ready outside. I chose to bike.

 This is my bike after I fell the first time (I think). Lucky that my biking buddy, Romulo, was still a few feet ahead of me. Okay, I fell once and had to stop again once because I heard an unusual sound with my bike. Since this was the first time I biked after a long time, I had to be careful. What was just so confusing is how one old man, Abdullah, can bike uphill when we, the younger set, could not even go up halfway. We ended up going back to the center. But the view is still incredible while we were biking. I just had to stop to take some pictures like these:

I am so glad we went back earlier because I get to try this! It was so cool. I am glad Hassan is a sharpshooter and a good teacher. I managed to have my arrows shot on the board the first few times while the others just flew off it. There was also a gun shooting happening on the other side but I chose this. I guess that if they make me choose again, I'll still choose the bow and arrow over guns.

Unfortunately, something bad happened to our other classmates who were trying to climb the mountain. Nia fell and had broken her wrist and needs to be moved to the hospital at Stavanger as soon as possible. We left early, with the bus picking us up, and went all the way up, up the mountain until we saw the patches of snow.

The guys were kind enough to let us off for a while to let us play with snow. I wanted to make a snow angel but the snow was not thick enough and patches of grass where still visible. Yet I still went down and tried to make one!

Later, I got up and joined a snow ball fight, only to find myself being hit in the face with one! Now I know how cold and how hard a snow ball is. And how numbing. Unfortunately, that ball was meant for another but it got me. Ouch.

 The winding road going down, down.

After going down the mountain, here we are at another fjord. The mountain on the left was where my classmates tried to reach. By this time, Nia was on her way to the hospital. We are just hoping that she would be okay.