in Norway arrived!

Yesterday we arrived in Norway.

The ferry crossing was very relaxing, thanks to a delicious buffet and comfortable seats, the 3:15 hours did not feel long at all. But then! Our drive from the harbor to the campsite in Kristiansand was quite adventurous.

Firstly, we had to go to customs in the harbor, register our cats, and then we were standing there not knowing where to go.

We had absolutely no network (so no navigation, no Google, no Apple Maps, nothing!), and no idea where to go 😅. The signage was limited, I only knew a rough direction of where the booked campsite is located. So, we started driving, hoping that our phones would somehow connect to a network. They didn't, and at some point, we had no idea where we were anymore.

🤔 Norway is not part of the EU… maybe we should have organized something in advance? But that wasn't the case. 1.5 hours and several phone calls with Vodafone later, suddenly everything was back to normal 😅

It's amazing how helpless we are without this technology 😂. How on earth did we manage without it before??

Now we were able to drive to the campsite and spend a cozy evening there 🥂. We had a reason to celebrate anyway, our house sale was officially completed yesterday 🍾.

This morning, we continued to Stavanger. Finally, we get a first impression of this beautiful country, even though we only drove along the E39. Mountains, fjords, lakes, streams, rocks, tunnels, more water… 🥰

In between, we stopped at the "Norwegian Aldi" (REMA1000). Of course, it wasn't just bread and water that ended up in the shopping cart, but salmon, fish patties, chips, cookies, barbecue sauce, strawberries,... I love foreign supermarkets, I could browse for hours 😁. And we didn't find it excessively expensive. But the exchange rate is currently really favorable (1:12)!

Then we continued: the road is being expanded in some sections. It's amazing how many stones are "moved" here! Shortly before Stavanger, the traffic got heavier, there were congestion and construction sites everywhere, we got lost,...

Finally, annoyed, we arrived at the campsite. What is this? A note: "We are full!" Great (you can't make reservations there)!

Luckily, Ingo then found a small private parking space 5 km away via Google, on an old farm. Very nice, so far we are only three here, it's quiet and green, and cheap, what more could you want? Now we are a bit further away from the city, but apparently there is a bus that goes there.

We will tackle that tomorrow!