Excursions in the surrounding area (04.05.- 30.05.2021)

Exam

After the rainy canoe trip, it was time to study for the oral theory exam. Since our teacher had uploaded 6 presentations 5 days before, I had to work through them first. After Sara and I spent all those days studying and testing each other, we were relieved when the exam was finally over.

Bread and Cake

A classmate of mine offered to do a workshop on baking bread. I gratefully accepted the offer and he gave us many tips for making the perfect bread dough one evening and the next morning.

I had given Sara a voucher for a surprise cake for her birthday, which I then baked for her. It was a kiwi cake. In addition, we went hiking in Baneheia for a day.

Arendal

After the exam, we took a day trip to Arendal, where we went hiking on the island of Tromøya with some classmates. The landscape on the island is really beautiful and the area of the Troll Forest lives up to its name. You can see many twisted branches and trees and sometimes feel like you're in a fairytale world.

Arendal itself is a nice little town with a beautiful church and a street with old houses. There isn't much else to see and we were done after an hour. Nevertheless, I liked the seaside town.

Grimstad, Lillesand

To see the other small towns on the southeastern coast of Norway, we set off again and first visited Grimstad. This is the second location of the UiA (University of Agder) with a focus on technology. The town is nothing special and has nothing to offer besides a small harbor and a small downtown area. We then continued to Lillesand, where we had an ice cream after a small tour.

National Day despite Corona and Rain

On May 17th, Norway celebrates National Day. On this day, Norwegians commemorate the signing of the constitution in 1814 on the same date. Despite Corona and very bad weather, there were parades, speeches, and concerts. It is tradition to have brunch with friends and family in the morning and watch the parades in the afternoon.

On National Day in Norway, around 13 million hot dogs are eaten (with a population of 5.4 million). Ice cream is also popular, and people dress in "bunads," the traditional costumes, and take to the streets. Despite the weather, I had a very nice National Day with brunch, parades, and a delicious ice cream. At 11 p.m., there was a fireworks display that I watched from a mountain.

Kayak Day Trip

During the time after the theoretical exam, we also planned to go kayaking. On Thursday, we met Len at the rowing club and went through some theoretical content on land. For example, we did a dry exercise on capsizing and talked about the position of the paddle. Then it was finally time to get in the water. After some technique exercises in the water, we paddled upstream on the Otra River and took regular breaks to practice the technique. After a lunch break on land, we continued up and down the Otra River. Back at the rowing club, we did capsize training. Everyone had to capsize once and free themselves from the kayak. Thanks to the wetsuits, the water wasn't too cold, and capsizing was only a bit of a challenge for me.

The next day, we were supposed to go on a tour around Odderøya, but then we received the news that our teacher was in waiting quarantine (he had contact with a positive person and had to be tested himself). Accordingly, the second day of kayaking was canceled, and we were also in waiting quarantine while he was being tested. We were not allowed to leave until Monday unless we had a special reason. Then we received the news that he had tested negative twice, so we were allowed to leave quarantine.

Bike Ride to Ålo

Sara had the spontaneous idea to go on a bike tour along the south coast on the weekend. However, we needed bikes for that. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to borrow bikes from the university. We started in the morning when it was already 18°C. Our destination was a small place called Ålo. Sara wanted to go there again because there are many small islands with beautiful houses.

We rode the 40 km in one direction very relaxed, so we could enjoy the scenery and take as many photos as we wanted. On the way back, we took a break at a beach and at least dipped our feet in the water. Unfortunately, it was too windy to go for a full swim.

Cooking and Zoo

Since our project of homemade gnocchi wasn't quite finished, we met with Debby again and tried it again. This time the gnocchi turned out pretty good and they tasted very good too.

The university offered all exchange students the opportunity to go to the zoo for free and get a free ice cream. I gladly accepted this offer and on Friday, Sara, I, and two classmates went to the Dyrepark (Zoo) and spent the whole day there in bright sunshine. It was really amazingly beautiful and most of the animals had large, natural enclosures.

In the time before our last trip, I went climbing with Elena twice on Odderøya, which was a lot of fun and something I would like to continue doing after this semester.

In addition, Sara and I went swimming in the lake near the university and started making plans for after the semester. Initially, we want to go hiking to Trolltunga and Kjerag. Then we will drive towards Oslo and Lillehammer.

You will find out what we have been doing in Kristiansand in the past few weeks and what other plans there are in the next post.

All the best,

Your Maike :D