Into Norway

Flew out of Portugal and landed in Oslo, grabbed our car/home for the next 10 days and hit the road. I think Norway is supposed to be like Seattle, pretty cloudy and rainy. That day was all sun that welcomed us. We were headed to a campsite I'd found but decided to mix it up because we're crazy. Instead we drove to the bottom of an Oksgen hike and decided to start backpacking it at around 6pm. For some reason I misheard Joshua when he asked if I was up for it. I thought he said it was 3 miles up and I was like 'of course that's nothing'. A few hours into hiking straight uphill through a badly marked hike in a very hot dense forest made entirely of uneven rock hidden by slippery moss I was informed it was a 5 mile to the top hike. 

sky at around 11:30pm

We persevered though and found a beautiful spot to set up our tent where the top opened up and there was no one around. Immediately grabbed a rock to eat on and watch the sun dip behind our mountain, which didn't happen until about 11pm. Glad we did it, our camping spot was beautiful, but man were we tired. We woke up a few times in the night to see that it actually never got dark up there, you could always see the landscape no matter the time of night, which was cool.

Next morning we finished the hike, sans backpacks, to get to the fjord view. On our was we started to encounter tons of sheep with little bells on their necks. They did not seem to happy we embarked upon their solitude. 

lots of sheep dotting the mountain

Then we began the difficult hike out, darn Norway and their entire mountains surfaces being made of rocks covered in greenery. Got to the car and gave ourselves a nice old baby wipes bath. 

Evora & naps

Joshua had been in Portugal working for about a month when I flew over to meet him. I was really excited to get to meet him in Evora, the cute old town surrounded by huge stone walls, aqueduct running through it, no tourists, where he had been staying.

The 3 days I spend there went something like, wake up and have a mini espresso, Joshua goes to work, I pick 1 thing in the little town to go see, see it, find an outdoor cafe in a park to drink wine/beer/coffee, read my book at said cafe, realize it is now to hot to exist outside and go back to his place made of thick stone to take a nap. After nap Joshua comes home, we go out to dinner with his coworkers to some cute restaurant where the Portuguese coworker orders us carafes of wine or tiny glasses of port and food, we meander the cute streets at night to Harmonia (a members only bar that is super old in a beautiful building with peach walls, a terrace, live music or a movie playing, and a sassy bartender that will only speak to us as if he were a cowboy) and head home to repeat tomorrow. 

It was the most glorious 3 days!!!

One of my day adventures I went to the Chapel of Bones. It was made as a place to confront and accept your morality. The leg/arm bones are installed longways, so the walls are literally an entire thickness of bone. It was nuts.

                            

                         

                         

I also took a day wondering around a huge park they have. There were some old ruins, bunches of peacocks, and weaving paths that kept leading to spaces tucked into the landscape to sit or eat or relax.

I already loved Portugal from our trip there a few years ago but getting to hang out in a town off the beaten path was amazing. The whitewashed walls where somehow the whole town agreed upon using the same 3 accent paints on the outside, cobbled streets, that we happened upon a music festival one night, that everywhere has an outdoor space and cheap amazing wine. It was truly a treat to get to spend this slow time with Joshua after having been apart for a month and for gathering myself the right time zone.

Alas, after 3 days it was time to go, luckily it was to fly to Norway!