Wiebe Wakker
June 27, 2016
Day 104 | Sunday June 26
For a Sunday I woke up fairly early and I met the other parts of the family who were already asleep when I arrived last night. Saskia’s husband, son and daughter. We had a nice Dutch breakfast and had a chat about what they are all doing here.
Saskia wanted to show me around town and because her daughter is getting her drivers license she drove our ‘tourbus’ through Skien. It is a nice town in Southern Norway. We did a quick stop at a lock (not the one were you put a key in but the thing to move boats to higher parts) which was apparently the only one in Norway.
With Saskia I went to a open air museum were some 400 year old houses still were standing strong. It was interesting to see how they were being build. They start with stacking wooden poles on each other. People with less money leave it like that and the ones with a bit more to spend cover it with wooden panels so it looks a bit better decorated, they even carve wooden ornaments on it.
My next stop was in Lillesand, 150km from Skien. Nicolai invited me over and he was one of the first in Scandinavia to plug me in on the website. I met him at his office in Lillesand. It’s a cute little town with almost only white houses. Nicolai has a lot of knowledge about renewable energy and gives advice about this to companies.
Nicolai didn’t had food in house yet so in stead of going to the supermarkt to buy it we took the boat and went fishing! It was quite a unique boat ride. The shores and cliffs are so beautiful here. He threw the fishing line in the water and I would drive the boat. Already after a few minutes we caught a mackerel. His 2 year old daughter was also with us and even though we didn’t understand each other it was fun to play around with her. Making weird faces and putting out a tongue seems to be a universal language.
After an hour or so we return back home. He lives here with his wife Christine and 3 daughters since 2 years in this old farm. I had an whole stable for myself to sleep in this night. Christine works as a psychologist for companies.
So far I really enjoy Norway. The people are very welcoming and what I have seen of the country so far is beautiful. And from what I’ve heard it’s only getting better when I go up north.
