Fjord-tastic.

Jonathan and I just got back from an awesome 3 day trip to Haugesund, Norway. Having taken many gastronomic-centered trips around Europe in the past, Jonathan and I were really looking forward to an active, outdoorsy type vacation. We got our money's worth on this one. Despite some cold, rainy weather on the first two days of our trip, we still made the most of our time in Norway and went on lots of "walks" and hikes in Haugesund, Karmoy and Etne.

Karmoy is an island in Norway, and the location of the airport where RyanAir's worst pilot decided to "slam" our plane onto the runway (my fear of flying is now greater, thanks to him). It was a safe landing, just a very rough one. Even Jonathan made a comment about it. Anyways, Karmoy is absolutely beautiful and the home of the Vikings (you know, the guys that pillaged England and stirred up the gene pool a bit). We were able to walk around Viking ruins on Karmoy on a very rainy and cold day...despite the rain we still had a great time.

<---Avaldsnes (on Karmoy). Where the Vikings lived.

On our second day in Norway, Jonathan and I drove all the way around Karmoy making stops at various beaches and taking a walk through a fjord in the center of the island. It was still pretty rainy and cold, which ruined our plans to rent bikes, but the day still was pretty awesome! While we were hiking on Karmoy I asked Jonathan what kind of wildlife Norway had...somehow my mom has rubbed off on me and I feared that we would be attacked by a bear or some sort of wilderbeast. Jonathan, however, told me we were probably pretty safe and wouldn't see any large, dangerous animals on our hike. Well-he was WRONG. Check out this monster of a slug....next time I am bringing a flare gun (just to be on the safe side).

<----- Biggest slug EVER!

We finished our second day with a nice hike in the mountains in north Haugesund. The hike was pretty easy, but offered beautiful views of Haugesund.

<-----Haugesund is behind/below us

Our third day in Norway was definitely our favorite (and the weather was absolutely gorgeous). Jonathan and I planned a nice little drive to Etne; home of Norway's 5th tallest waterfall-Langfoss. The drive to Etne was a great start to the day. Jonathan had a lot of fun driving on the winding roads that followed along the fjords (I had a lot of fun being a back seat driver). After parking at Langfoss, we met a friendly Norwegian woman who showed us where the trail began so that we could hike to the top of the waterfall (which is some 600+ meters high).

The hike was beautiful. We spent about 6 hours hiking up the waterfall and around the backside of the fjord. We were the only tourists hiking the waterfall that day as tourist season starts in June in Norway.

After seeing how beautiful southwest Norway is, I wonder why in the world the Vikings would ever want to leave their home to come to England.