June 29th – July 4th, 2009
It was nearing the two-month mark of my travels and I was beginning to seriously reconsider the year’s packing. The cool weather gear had been largely left untouched as week after week of warm, sunny weather greeted us at the customs counter. It was almost enough to change my perception of European weather entirely. But alas we hadn’t yet hit Norway and the “Scandinavian Swing” has been known to bring some brisk mornings and torrential showers. Perhaps our luck was about to turn for the worse.
As my astute readership can probably guess, the weather never turned. The only thing more predictable then hot, bright skies was the sound of Animal Planet echoing thru the thin cabin walls. What was the first song on my mental playlist? Why “Good Day, Sunshine” by the Beatles of course! It was slightly disorienting for me to go to bed while outside the night sun was still full of color. The days are remarkably long; sunrise was at 3 am with sunset coming around midnight. I had difficulty imagining what it must be like when the opposite side of the spectrum comes during winter. The Norwegians seem to appreciate the summer light as the sounds of activity were often heard long into the evening. It was like they wanted to soak up every ounce of sun and speck of nature while they had the chance. The camping ground which housed our little red cabin in the woods was full to capacity. The men were shirtless and robust, the women bordering on the same (though not shirtless), and swarms of blond-hair, blue-eyed children ran unchecked. The scope of the caravans and the make-shift patios were impressive. I couldn’t help but wonder if some of them didn’t spend all summer on the compound. Why go through the trouble of putting up shelving, cabinets, TVs and extra refrigerators if they were only here for a week or two.
The multitude of textures found in Norway’s natural landscape is majestic. The sea, a murky shade of brown, is never far from view. On a particularly hot afternoon I was persuaded to go swimming in the fjord, Norwegian for a small sea but akin to a lake. The water was refreshingly frigid and surprisingly clear. Paddling around in four feet of water my eyes could make out patches of seaweed on the sandy bottom which assuaged some of my fears of what was lurking below. After my dip, I layed down on a large rock to heat myself back up to 98.6 degrees. The warm, pebbled granite left small pot-marked impressions on my back. Soon the discomfort of my post drove me off and I decided that the shoreline was better suited to walking than relaxing. 
A 15-minute trek up the coastline from the camping site and one reaches the town of Stavern. It is a quaint “beach-town” where as described above the “beach” is hard and gray but the quirky shops and fish restaurants provide the required charm. The harbor was full of masts from the many sailboats that were moored to the docks alongside a few traditional wooden skiffs. The town’s main attraction was a refurbished shipping vessel which would have been typical of a commercial boat in the 1700s. The masts and rigging were an intricate spider-web of rope and pulleys. It was difficult for me to picture how many strong seafaring men would be needed to raise the sail for full flight.
It was by strange coincidence that just this very vessel would be put into use on Saturday, July the 4th for the reenactment of a sea battle from 1716. Our crew (Dana, Gregg, Rick, and I) scampered up to a rocky ledge for a better view of the action. There were three frigates entering the harbor and we could see the defending army, conveniently dressed in red uniforms, ready with their guns on the shore. The drums rattled in a slow and steady beat across the water. Once the fighting started, the thuds were silcenced by cannon fire. The noise echoing through the air was remarkable and the smoke surrounding the action was dense and thick. The ground artillery and approaching vessels jockeyed for just the right position to fire on the opposing side. A fiery explosion on land sent flames shooting out of a wooden shanty; a direct hit had been made by the sailors. Independence Day will never be the same at home.
Larvik Golf Club, which like Stavern is about a 2 hours drive south of Oslo, was proud to host the SAS Masters. As one of three players able to attend the ultra-exclusive garden party hosted by the owners (written with a hint of sarcism but not without extreme gratitude) they had especially wanted to hold a Ladies European Tour event there. Larvik GC, they told us had a strong female presence at the club, from the membership right up to its goverance. Upon reflection it became clear that the golf course itself was also female friendly. The collection of holes was unusual, (7) par-5s, (6) par-3s, and (5) par-4s, but there were very few forced carries and it seemed players of all ability, short-hitters and long, could have an enjoyable experience there. The thrashing the week’s leaders gave on those par-5s was impressive and scores were remarkably low. The 50-plus cut came at (-1) which was unusually low. Normally my T-58th would have been good enough to survive the cut. The specifics regarding this catastrophe are unimportant however. Se la vie!
Competition, not celebration, proved to be the theme of the week. While one would expect golf to be the name of the game, a special contest evolved between Team Terebey and Team Lacey – the sport of bottle collection. Once we discovered that the grocery stores paid actually money for bringing bottles in for recycling, it was only natural that we took advantage of the opportunity to earn some additional income. Waste bins and playing partners were excellent resources (though Rick got a few funny looks for rummaging through the garbage bins). Official earnings for the week? 136 NOK. Just enough to buy some hot dogs and beans for dinner on the campfire.
Loading ...
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after reading through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back often!
I possess been locating many different opinions on that and locate it submit to be one of the much more enlightening on the subject. Hope we can rise the quality of responses than what I have seen as many do not seem to be really appropriate.
Are you clairvoyant? You must be since your blogging so flawlessly fits the questions I possess on this subject. I only put a couple of phrases in the internet search engine and I am very grateful your blog jumped up.
We loved your website so much we added it to our sites to visit list at http://www.usbhubreview.net/sites-we-like Complete the FREE offer to make it permanent.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you actually recognize what you are speaking approximately! Bookmarked. Please also discuss with my site =). We will have a link exchange contract between us