Second Chance World Tour: Two Cabins in Norway

Vacation cabins are fairly common in Norway and boy am I glad!

Because here I have been for a week in not one, but two cabins!

When I decided to visit Norway because it was roasting in the rest of Europe, I looked up my high school exchange student Oystein. It took some research to find each other's emails but we connected and he and his wife Liv kindly invited me to visit. We negotiated their vacations and travels with mine and somehow I ended up on a boat going down a fjord somewhere south of Bergen. Here is Oystein waiting for me on the dock in Malkenes on the island of Tysnes.

How long had it been?

Well, 50 years since I first met that rosy-cheeked, smart, kind young man with whom I shared calculus, chorus, and graduation. “Do you look the same?” I had queried him on the phone when getting boat schedules. “Well, I have no hair and I do have glasses,” he warned. “And I have no glasses and and a new knee!” I joked. There he was, both of us ghosts from the past, and yet still easy friends.

And he was an excellent tour guide around the island, showing me Arbakkasanden, a set of ancient stones and an iron-age burial ground.

Sharing a cabin is not tourist life.

Even though the view from the kitchen table is idyllic, you could call it life with the vigorous and very fit locals! Since Liv was initially visiting her sisters, Oystein and I developed a routine which centered around food, fish and work. Breakfast—soft-boiled egg, good solid bread, butter, yellow cheese, brown cheese (sweet boiled- down whey from goat’s milk), caviar spread and raspberry jam. Lunch was usually the same minus the egg. Supper was the same plus fish and potatoes! And oh such fish!!!

This is their island summer cabin and focuses on fishing, boating, grandchildren and work.

Oystein likes projects. He calls this work “play”, since it is different than his profession in child psychiatry. First task of the day is rowing out and hauling in the complicated three rows of fish nets with two sizes of holes that confuse the fish (and me). He so carefully disengages the very many legs of a tangled crab, and voila—lunch! And then one or two fish and voila – dinner! I show no interest in cleaning them and appreciatively eat them instead—pan sautéed with a little flour and butter. Fresh and sweet – you couldn’t buy a meal like this!

(And repeat the fishing process in the evening, freezing any excess.)

Then raspberry picking. Add yoghurt and sugar – voila, dessert!

Did I earn my keep?

Well, some of the food was free from the land. And yes, I worked! Helped haul these ancient ceiling tiles from the cellar of the very ancient falling down barn (which he will somehow restore as another year’s project) in a wheelbarrow to be stacked against a rock ledge, to be used for some other project… And I helped close up the cabin for the summer by hauling into the boat-house picnic tables, a boat (cleaned by me), anchors and cleaned and dried nets.

And in leaving I cooked for us stinging nettle soup! Delicious – nettles (picked with gloves), butter (of course for the requisite Norwegian cholesterol intake), onion, potatoes and salt. We could have used some bouillon, nutmeg and cream but who is going to complain! So good to eat from the land! To just see nettles growing and remember some ancient wisdom that said they are good for something!

And who is going to complain about anything about this cabin on this beautiful island? It’s not a hostel! And my own room! (Well, I could make noises about the lack of an inside toilet, but we survived. Better than camping…)

And then an 8 hour trip to the winter cabin in the eastern mountains.

Waterfalls on the way.

https://youtu.be/JSS0cQ9I3zg

Two beautiful stave churches from 1200 AD with complicated peaks (supposed to resemble stone cathedrals?) and wood carvings.

A quick stop at a sports outlet where I snagged a pair of long underwear at ¼ the price at a “back-to-school sale”. (Mine disappeared in the Bergen hostel. Really!!!!) And then joining Liv in this beautiful wilderness.

First order of agenda was to check for a toilet. Yes! And so much more. Spacious. Comfortable. My own room. Fireplaces. A boot drying machine. And the addition of one more meal per day in the evening.

And am I working here?

Well, I’ve nixed hard manual labor for now in order to get caught up on the blog and let my poor wrenched shoulder heal. (Lifting "too much luggage" on three plane flights in one day to get to Bergen.) But… we did climb above tree level for a whole day searching for cloud berries.