Askvoll and Blåfjell

After my first week back in Norway, like the previous work weeks, I received a message from the volunteer in Askvoll on Thursday asking if I wanted to visit her. Originally, we only planned to meet for an afternoon, but since the bus connection consists mainly of school buses, it was impossible. Therefore, on Friday, I hurried with the canteen and got on the school bus. After 30 minutes, I arrived in Askvoll, which is located at the mouth of the fjord into the ocean. The volunteer took me to her apartment because she had forgotten that she had a meeting in the evening. So I spent the evening in her living room, reading, with an amazing view of the sea.

Unfortunately, it soon got dark and the wind whipped rain against the panoramic window. When she came back into the house, she told me that her roommate (some may remember: when I went to Solund, I visited two volunteers in Askvoll) had dropped out of the project and there were also some problems there.

On Saturday, the storm and rain did not stop, but she showed me Askvoll. The small sandy beach where I collected seashells and the ferry port. Then we went to the supermarket (one of my students worked at the checkout; how small the world is), so we could eat homemade lasagna for dinner. We ended the evening with "Erin Brockovich".

After a hearty breakfast on Sunday, we decided to go "på tur", which means hiking. It was still raining and stormy, but we wanted to try to climb the local mountain called Blåfjell. When we were still in the forest, the rain partially stopped. Along the way, we also found sheep bones.

However, when we reached above the tree line, the storm hit, but we still dared to continue the ascent and were surprised with some sunshine. Just a few meters before reaching the 533-meter-high summit, we had to turn around because we could barely stand upright anymore due to the strong wind, and the storm was now driving sleet into our faces. So we managed to descend in half the time and arrived back at the house completely soaked. After feeding the stove, we continued to relax on the couch until we watched a thunderstorm in the evening.

A few things happened in the past week:

On Thursday, we celebrated the marking of the new Vestland county. The two counties, Hordaland (Bergen and surrounding areas) and Sogn og Fjordane, merged. There was an official event at school with speeches from the mayor, music, and very delicious marzipan cake. You can find pictures on the school website (https://www.dale.vgs.no/vestland.6275805-367066.html). In the afternoon, the Open Skule took place, where I baked delicious pizza together with some students, and finally, we talked about the Northern Lights. They had already seen them here, this year!

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