With Hil’s friend wrapping up her gap year folk school experience, our window to visit Sogndal with Sofia as our local guide was closing rapidly. On Sofia’s last free weekend at the folkehรธgskule, Hil and I squeezed in a quick trip, traveling to Bergen by plane and then on to the village of Sogndal on the north side of Sognefjorden via ferry.
We spent the first night in Bergen and were able to enjoy a walk around the city, getting our bearings and planning for our half day prior to ferry departure. We failed to account for the Bergen Marathon, but thankfully it didn’t have a huge impact on our plans and did add a lot of excitement! We were able to enjoy the historic harbor and Bryggen’s museum of the middle ages, the excavation of hundreds of years of the remains left by the cycles of fire and rebuilding.
The rune stick collection was fascinating and so much fun to explore! Some of my favorites were the insults, prayers for protection against the elves and trolls, magic spells and simple messages aka “post-it notes” like Meet me tonight for a kiss or Gudrun says, go home.
The 5 hour ferry journey was one of the most amazing things I’ve done… like a water bus, the ferry made many stops along the way. The weather was beautiful so we were able to ride on the top deck and have a wonderful view while breathing in the crisp fresh air. We moved much faster than I expected, making the ride a bit brisk with the wind, but every time we came in and out of a station, it was perfect for taking in the views!
Sofia was there to meet us, walk me to the hotel and give us a little tour. We bought a selection of Norwegian treats, including Lefsesnack, which were very tasty. It did not get fully dark until 11 pm! By then the girls were off on their night hike and I was tucked up in bed.
Visiting Sogndal with Sofia was very chill; I stayed at a hotel in order to leave the girls lots of time on their own to reconnect. They ended up joining some school activities and hiking out to watch for aurora borealis and see the stars (a total of 34,000 steps on Saturday and hitting another 10,000 steps on their way to breakfast at 8 am the following morning!) Meanwhile I enjoyed some casual strolls around town.
After a short but sweet visit we were back on the ferry to Bergen where we had a few more hours for visiting. I used the thrift shop tip shared by our tour guide in Stockholm a few years back to score a couple of nice souvenirs: a vintage Norge mason jar with glass lid and a pretty little plate!
We had a wonderful time visiting Sofia and are looking forward to seeing more of Norway. The youngest is even now researching similar Folk Schools in Sweden and has found some programs that are quite inspiring.
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