Handnesgarden in Norway

So let's start from the beginning: The past few days at Allmogegarden we were picking berries. I think we had about 27kg of raspberries and even more blueberries. At Allmogegarden, I met Emma and we both wanted to go to Handnesgarden in Norway next. Since we were two now, the plan was to hitchhike to the next farm. On 28.07, we took the bus to Jönköping and wanted to start at the nearest gas station. But that was a bit difficult because we were in the middle of the city and didn't know how to get on the right 'highway', so we spontaneously decided to take the train instead. But that's also more complicated here because you have to book everything in advance, otherwise train seats are fully booked. So we took the bus to Oslo at 5 pm in Jönköping. We arrived there at 11:30 pm... the next train to Mo i Rana, where there were still available seats, only left on 29.07 at 10:46 pm. That means we had about 22 hours in Oslo. We spent the night sleeping a bit at the train station (which, however, closed from 2-4:30 am), so we walked around outside. The next morning, we slept between some trees at the harbor. About 10 meters away, there were also 4 Germans sleeping;). Around 12, we looked for a park and sat there for a while. On the way there, we passed many things that I think were sights (there were tourists taking pictures), but they looked just like in any other big city, so I didn't take any photos. The train ride took about 8 hours to Trondheim and another 7 hours to Mo i Rana. The distance looked much smaller on the map. Then we took the bus to Nesna and from there took the ferry to the island.

Here on the farm, there are about 31 cows with calves and 16 horses (Percherons, Pointos, Shetland ponies) and many birds (geese, chickens, ducks, quails, turkeys...). The cows are a very old Norwegian breed. At the moment, there are 2 Germans, 2 French, 1 Belgian, 2 Norwegians, and during the week, 3 refugees from Afghanistan and Africa are also helping. We didn't do much on Sunday. And today, we started looking for the cows at 1 pm. They're allowed to roam freely throughout the island and today they were brought in to be measured and weighed. (There's also some scientist from Oslo here right now, but I can't tell you exactly what he's doing). To find the cows, we split up and walked across the island. I really had no idea where I was. But there are also blueberries here, so I didn't starve. And it was really cool because we constantly had to climb some cliffs to move forward :). After about 3 hours, I accidentally arrived back at the farm, but I didn't see a single cow (only sheep). We found a few cows around 6 pm. I think we'll look for the rest tomorrow. And then we let the ponies onto another pasture.

Now back to Allmogegarden: It's really the coolest farm to wwoof at and I can't imagine going to a more beautiful farm. It's hard to describe if you haven't been there. It's a completely different world. And I already miss the amazing people there, the food (which was amazing), the daily routine, and the beautiful evenings.... And I definitely want to go back there again. Maybe in winter, because they really chop wood every day with horses and there's lots of snow :)

Oh, and I wrote this text yesterday evening but I didn't have internet then.

Right now, everyone is using the internet, so it's too slow to upload the pictures... I'll do it later.