New Zealand Adventure: Hiking, visting and eating in Norway

Two days ago, in the morning I went for a run around Klepp. It was a nice way to see the area. After running around the town I headed out on a country road. There were lots of Norwegian flags every where. Many of the farms had the flag painted on the barn and a flag pole. While running along I was surprised by an overly friendly sheep. The sheep popped out from behind a fence right into my path and then chased me for a bit. I guess those type of things will happen when you are in sheep country. After recovering from my fright and returning home, I had a delecious breakfast with Tore and Suzanne. We had bread with a variety of toppings and some rolls Suzanne got from a bakery near by. She got cinamon rolls and something that translates to school roll. The school roll is similar to a donut. It is a sweet bread with white frosting and custard in the middle. It was a bit too sweet for me. Near the end of breakfast Liekney showed up to watch the baby so that we could go to Dalsnuten. We had planned to go to Pulpit Rock but the weather didn't look very nice so we decided against it.
    Dalsnuten is a hike that goes up a large hill/small mountian for a beautiful view. It startes by going through a forest that had lots of streams bursting with water from all of the rain. Then we headed through a muddy swamp section next to a small lake. Tore and Suzanne were able to avoid the mud a bit better than I was. The next section I found particularly difficult. We were clamoring over rocks up the side of the mountain. I think that Tore and Suzanne may be halfmountain goat. They knew how to climb up over all the rocks. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where to put my feet so I could get over rocks and wishing my legs were longer. We were so lucky because as we were approching the summit the clouds cleared and we had some blue sky and sun shine. From the summit there is an amazing 360○ view. You can see the sea, Stavanger, Sandes, where you start the hike, sheep (or sou in Norwegian), farmland and two small lakes. It was beautiful. Later when I am at a computer I will post photos.
One the way down I spent a good deal of time trying not to fall in the mud. The rocks were very slippery from the rain. One of the things I really liked about the hike (other than the company and the view) was that there were T's painted on rocks and trees to show the trail and that there were planks that made it easier to walk without getting muddy. On the way down we met a voulenteer that was going to fix up some of the planks. His daughter had gone to school in Wisconson. It is cool that many people here seem to have a connection to the USA. While we were talking to the voulenteer I was watching a kindergarden trip and saw a boy that really had to use the toiket and just went. It was quite funny. Suzanne noticed too and we had a good laugh about it. They told me that it is quite common to talk to people that you meet in nature but much less common to talk go people you meet on the street in Norway.
    After our hike we went back to the apartment to get Tore and Suzanne's daughter Hannah. Then we went to Grete's house. Imet her husband and daughter. I was amazed at how good herndaugbter is at English. She is only 10 but I was able to have a conversation with her. Grete made us a delecious califlour soup for late lunch. After eating we went to the beach near her house. Grete's hobby is photography so she took lots of pictures of us at the beach. I hope I can post a few later. The beach was very cool. There were huge sand dunes covered in a special grass to keep the sand in place. The beach was quite narrow and covered in sea weed. There were a few surfers in the water. I think they are a bit crazy because the water is super cold. Normally the beach is very windy but when we visited it was only a light breeze. I really liked going to the beach because I got to walk and chat with everyone.
   After the beach went back to Grete's house. Tore and Suzanne went home to put Hannah to bed. I hung out with Grete and her family for a bit longer. I helped her make pizza and small pancakes for dinner. For dessert we had really yummy rhubarb porridge.
Yesterday I got up and had kind of a lazy morning around the house with Tore. We had breakfast an watched a bit of tv. Around 11 Liekney showed up to watch Hannah again. Tore an I went into Stavanger to do some wandering. On our way into town we stopped by the site of a Viking battle that united Norway. They had three huge swords in the rocks. I wish I could remember the name of the place so I could look it up. When we got into town we went through the old town which was very cool. All of the buildings were similar looking with white siding and a variety of colors of doors. Both Tore and I liked looking in the windows. We walked past the canning museum but neither of us were that interested. Stavanger used to be driven by the sardine business. After visiting the old town we walked around the water to a brick fire tower. From there we wandered down to color street and got hot chocolate and cakes from the chocolate shop there. The color street was super cool. It looked a bit like it had been transplanted from San Francisco. After warming up at the chocolate shop we wandered to a book store. We looked at the travel books and I attempted to find a map with Montana on it but had no luck. Montana is a very well kept secret. Some wherein our wanderings we went past a super cool play ground thats made of things used in the harbor and surrounding industries. they had orange fishing buoys that you can walk on. I had to give it a try. it was super fun. We went to lunch at a place called cheese house. We had yummy cheese burgers. I really enjoyed wandering around and chatting. It was super fun.
When we got back to the house. We played with Hannah. When Suzanne got home we tried a marshmallow cup cake lollipop thing that we bought at the mall. It wasn't as nice as the chocolates from earlier.
Tor Inge took me to the air port. It was nice to get a bit more time with him.
I had a tad of a flight drama because of the dog. My flight was delayed a few times and then when I finally got to the UK I had a heck of a time getting through immigration. They had all sorts of issues with my travel plans and that I am an au pair.