–          01-04-15 / 03-04-15

I go hitchhiking with Misha to Preikestolen. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to go when the weather looked nice.

Wednesday

We take the bus at 9:30 to Flakkefjord and will start lifting from there to Stavanger. It turned out the bus didn’t drive to Flakkefjord and that the bus driver transmitted  it but it was said in Norwegian  and we didn’t understood. The bus stopped and the bus driver walked to us he tells this is the last stop. The bus driver is very kind and want to bring us to Flakkefjord but he has to leave. The man speaks a little Dutch and we have a simple conversation. We have to wait one hour for the next bus and we can drop our backpacks in the information building at the bus station. We decide to go to the supermarket to buy a fresh lunch and ask for a cardboard to hitchhike. We walk back to the bus station and the bus has arrived. This time I ask the bus driver if he drives to Flakkefjord and het tells me we have to change after 15 min. We have a beautiful view over the fjord through the windows of the bus. We arrive in Flakkefjord and prepare for hitchhiking.

This is the first time for me to go hitchhiking and I have no idea what to do and what works the best. Misha has some experience and tells me that no one knows, just do what you think will work. We walk from the bus station to the road in front of a gas station and I stand next to the road with the cardboard and smile to the people in the cars. After 10minutes a car stops behind us and a man and women can bring us to Moi. The man doesn’t speak English but the women does. We have some conversations about where we go and where we are from. They drop us at the gas station in Moi and wish us good luck. We walk to the access of the station and before we are ready to continuea car behind us hoots. It’s a family, a man, woman and a child. The parents are driving to pick up their daughter and had space left in the car for us.  I think about my own childhood and I don’t think my parents would drive that far so I could play with a friend. The parent speak English and are very interested in what we are doing and where we go. The girl next to me is singing songs and there is a nice atmosphere. They drop us off at a gas station in Helleland. and we search for a good spot. After 15 minutes a car at the other side of the road stops and a man waves at us. We walk to him and he can bring us to Stavanger. The man is a truck driver and has some impressive stories. I think this is the most interesting person we’ve met today. He’s telling about his live and where he’s going. He drops us off at the harbour of Stavanger and continue his trip.

We search for information about the ferries and in 30minutes a ferry leaves to Jorpeland, what’s on the island where Preikestolen is. The ferry leaves at 16:10 and we sail to the island. We arrive at the island and have no idea where we exactly are. We only have a big map for car roads so that’s a bit useless. We know we have to go to the right so we start walking. The weather is really nice and we can walk in t- shirts. We cross a camping place and see a sign on the road that camping in the wild is not allowed after the sign. So we walk into the forest and search for a nice spot to set up our camp. It’s not perfect but we found a place. We put up the tarp and make a lean to. During the process it starts to hail and we decide to make it a tent shape. We gather some wood and Misha light the fire. We make our food in a canteen cup on the fire. We have potatoes with onions and garlic and it taste delicious. We drink a hot chocolate after dinner and go to bed.

Thursday

It’s still cold but we slept well. We  take our time to wake up and Misha starts with making a fire. We start walking to Preikestolen at midday. We continue walking over the road. The road is boring to walk on and its quite steep. We’re talking about taking a lift up to the start of the Preikestolen track. A car in front of us stops and the people ask if we want a lift to the pulpit rock. We jump in and are very surprised about this offer without us doing anything for a lift. The man and women who are driving to their cabin in this area drop us off at the track and wish us good luck. They gave us the advice to look back sometimes to enjoy the view over the lake.

The track is covered with snow and icy because of all the people that walked over it. The weather is still pretty and we enjoy our hike up to Preikestolen. We see a lot of people who are not well prepared to walk here. Some are wearing casual shoes and slip over the track. Some clouds arrive in the sky, we hope they pass by. Someone made a snowman next to the track even with a carrot as a nose.

We arrive at the pulpit rock and enjoy the view. We take a break there to eat something and we make some pictures. We stay there for a while and walk back again. The weather is still good.

We arrive at the DNT cabin and take a break before we try to get a lift back. We sit in the lounge room upstairs and have a nice view over the lake. It’s dinner time but we are not hungry yet. We ask for a piece of cardboard and try to get a lift back to Kristiansand from here.

We go to the parking place and hope for some people who leave from the track or the DNT hut. The first car that’s leaving the parking place can take us to Stavanger. In the car are two guys, one from Poland and the other from Norway. They also visited preikestolen today. The Guy from Poland tells us about food from his country. We take the ferry back and have to wait for it to arrive. I think It was 20:00 when we left the island. After driving in circles for the right direction they drop us off at a gas station. A man stops and tells us that he can pick us up after a few minutes if we are still there. Someone walks towards us and starts talking to us he’s interested and think we are hippies. Well maybe we are, I don’t know. When are you a hippie? The man who we met earlier picks us up and can take us to the next big gas station. He’s a truck driver or something similar and can get free hotdogs and he gives one to us. There is also a woman in the car but she doesn’t talk to us. I think she doesn’t speak English. We buy some food in the next gas station and ask for a bigger cardboard. The people who work there are from our age and we have a little chat with them. It’s late somewhere around midnight and there are only a few cars on the road.  A man stops at the gas station and he’s driving to Kristiansand. He Brings us to my house and we thank the man. We’re back round 2:00 in the night.

I had a lot of fun and a very good experience with hitchhiking.