Hairdresser town
Thursday, 23. July 2009, 21:26:50
Yep, now I spent five great and relaxing days in Kristiansand. A nice and cozy town, not too big, not too small, very logically and practically built (just impossible to get lost there - look it up on a map and you'll know what I mean... *g*).
I arrived on Sunday night, after lots of trouble with the "train" - they had too few cars on the train, so everybody who wanted to go to Kristiansand was put on a bus instead. Well, thank you very much, why exactly do you think I booked a TRAIN instead of a BUS? *grr* Anyway, we arrived only half an hour late, so it was still acceptable. The accommodation was easy to find, the hosts very friendly, and after checking out the room I went to find something to eat. Which turned out to be VERY difficult. Most restaurants were out of question - okay, I knew that Kristiansand is a vacation town for Norwegians, but I didn't expect that it is impossible to find a reasonably priced restaurant... Well, so I looked out for Kebap places... Without much success! Lots of hairdressers (that was incredible - every third or fourth store was a hairdresser, at least that's how it seemed!), lots of bookstores, but no Kebap places. OK, by now I found them in another part of town, and I was even lucky that night and discovered a Kebap place in the center of the city. But that was kinda strange...
The next day I started out discovering the city and surroundings. A bit of shopping, and then out to Odderøya for a walk. Very nice, and it wasn't until the very end that I noticed that this is actually the place of Quart festival. *g* That night, I went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter. And this was really confusing - I'm very bad at understanding British, but I didn't worry about that, because there would be subtitles. Uhm, yes, there were subtitles. But it took me a while to figure out who Wiltersen, Slur, Galtvort, or Vensters are supposed to be... or worst of all Gulla. I expected it to be some Norwegian word I never heard before. What it actually meant, was "Ginny"... *argh*
Wasn't really impressed by the movie anyway, I gotta say. They should have turned it into two parts...
The next day, I went on discovering the city. First Christiansholmen, the castle, then the city beach (too cold for bathing though), then Baneheia & Ravnedalen (woods for walking), all very nice. As a conclusion, I took part in a (free!) guided tour through the city. The idea is great, I'm really impressed - what other cities do tourist walks for free? It could have been a lot better though - the guide was obviously very new to this, he was terribly nervous and didn't really know what to say. So that wasn't really a must-do... When the guide ends with something like "OK, we have over an hour left, but there's not really anything else to see here in this town, so let's keep it with that"...
Wednesday, I went out to Lindesnes, the southern-most place in Norway. It was a bit of an adventure to get out there, but it was also very nice. Wet and cold and rainy though - but well, after three days of almost constant sunshine I'm not gonna complain about that! Then a stop in Mandal and a bit of shopping and strolling around there. Then the weather got way too bad, so back to Kristiansand, where I spent the night in my room, rather annoyed and not really knowing what I should plan for today.
The original idea was to take the badebåt (bathing boat) out to two little islands and spend some time there. But would I really want to walk around on some island for hours waiting for the boat to return? And then drive around on the sea for hours in whatever weather? And get up early for that?
This last question was answered quickly when my alarm rang in the morning: It was gray and rainy outside, so I just turned off the alarm. "I can take the next boat and only do one stop." I did get up in time for the second boat - but I just didn't want to go. So I decided on visiting the open air museum instead... A good idea! Even though I've seen lots of such museums before, it wasn't special at all, but the weather was nice again and so I had a great and quiet afternoon outside. Then, after getting back to the city, there was another free town walk - and this time, it was just like I had expected the first time as well. An old and experienced guide, who managed to include everybody on the tour and who talked exactly two hours about Kristiansand and its inhabitants. Very exciting and interesting. So that was a great experience!
And now it's time for packing - tomorrow, I'll get on my way to Fredrikstad for another festival. Seems I'll have to go there alone after all...
That's really sad, would have loved to see Lena again and have a great time together, but at least some other people will be there on Saturday. Hope the festival is as nice as Slottsfjell!
I arrived on Sunday night, after lots of trouble with the "train" - they had too few cars on the train, so everybody who wanted to go to Kristiansand was put on a bus instead. Well, thank you very much, why exactly do you think I booked a TRAIN instead of a BUS? *grr* Anyway, we arrived only half an hour late, so it was still acceptable. The accommodation was easy to find, the hosts very friendly, and after checking out the room I went to find something to eat. Which turned out to be VERY difficult. Most restaurants were out of question - okay, I knew that Kristiansand is a vacation town for Norwegians, but I didn't expect that it is impossible to find a reasonably priced restaurant... Well, so I looked out for Kebap places... Without much success! Lots of hairdressers (that was incredible - every third or fourth store was a hairdresser, at least that's how it seemed!), lots of bookstores, but no Kebap places. OK, by now I found them in another part of town, and I was even lucky that night and discovered a Kebap place in the center of the city. But that was kinda strange...
The next day I started out discovering the city and surroundings. A bit of shopping, and then out to Odderøya for a walk. Very nice, and it wasn't until the very end that I noticed that this is actually the place of Quart festival. *g* That night, I went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter. And this was really confusing - I'm very bad at understanding British, but I didn't worry about that, because there would be subtitles. Uhm, yes, there were subtitles. But it took me a while to figure out who Wiltersen, Slur, Galtvort, or Vensters are supposed to be... or worst of all Gulla. I expected it to be some Norwegian word I never heard before. What it actually meant, was "Ginny"... *argh*
Wasn't really impressed by the movie anyway, I gotta say. They should have turned it into two parts...
The next day, I went on discovering the city. First Christiansholmen, the castle, then the city beach (too cold for bathing though), then Baneheia & Ravnedalen (woods for walking), all very nice. As a conclusion, I took part in a (free!) guided tour through the city. The idea is great, I'm really impressed - what other cities do tourist walks for free? It could have been a lot better though - the guide was obviously very new to this, he was terribly nervous and didn't really know what to say. So that wasn't really a must-do... When the guide ends with something like "OK, we have over an hour left, but there's not really anything else to see here in this town, so let's keep it with that"...
Wednesday, I went out to Lindesnes, the southern-most place in Norway. It was a bit of an adventure to get out there, but it was also very nice. Wet and cold and rainy though - but well, after three days of almost constant sunshine I'm not gonna complain about that! Then a stop in Mandal and a bit of shopping and strolling around there. Then the weather got way too bad, so back to Kristiansand, where I spent the night in my room, rather annoyed and not really knowing what I should plan for today.
The original idea was to take the badebåt (bathing boat) out to two little islands and spend some time there. But would I really want to walk around on some island for hours waiting for the boat to return? And then drive around on the sea for hours in whatever weather? And get up early for that?
This last question was answered quickly when my alarm rang in the morning: It was gray and rainy outside, so I just turned off the alarm. "I can take the next boat and only do one stop." I did get up in time for the second boat - but I just didn't want to go. So I decided on visiting the open air museum instead... A good idea! Even though I've seen lots of such museums before, it wasn't special at all, but the weather was nice again and so I had a great and quiet afternoon outside. Then, after getting back to the city, there was another free town walk - and this time, it was just like I had expected the first time as well. An old and experienced guide, who managed to include everybody on the tour and who talked exactly two hours about Kristiansand and its inhabitants. Very exciting and interesting. So that was a great experience!
And now it's time for packing - tomorrow, I'll get on my way to Fredrikstad for another festival. Seems I'll have to go there alone after all...
That's really sad, would have loved to see Lena again and have a great time together, but at least some other people will be there on Saturday. Hope the festival is as nice as Slottsfjell!
WIDGETIZE