Norway. Not someplace I planned to go during my gap year, but when adventure calls, I always answer.

Earlier this year, I met with a couple good friends from running club in the UW-L’s Student Union. The reason for our meeting? Norway. One of my friends, Tess, had some distant relatives in the town of Sandnes, on the Western fjords of Norway. She’d visited them several times, but not for a few years. They had reached out to her to ask if she had time to visit over the summer – friends were welcome! Both Tess and my other friend, Alyssa, had a two week break and I had a whole year break. With a little re-working of my schedule, I lined up a flight from Uganda to Norway. A culture shock? Absolutely.

After a 12-hour layover in Amsterdam and a sleep-deprived flight, I arrived in Stavanger, Norway. Immediately after baggage claim, I was greeted with big hugs from Tess & Alyssa. Not far behind them was Ståle and Kristi, my hosts for the next ten days. I was treated to lapas (pancakes) and with homemade jam. This was also the first time I was introduced to Norwegian brown cheese. It would become a staple in my diet for the remainder of the trip.

We chatted for about an hour and I got to know my new family. Ståle had a booming voice and a great sense of humor. Kristi was softer, but had an air of confidence about her. Tess had told me she was an incredible biker and had once been the second ranked biker in Norway! Later, when we biked with her I would see her incredible endurance and competitive edge. Ståle and Kristi also had three girls about our ages who were attending college in Oslo. It seemed appropriate that Tess, Alyssa, and I would be taking their place as honorary daughters for the next ten days!

After lapas, the three of us said goodnight to Ståle and Kristi and went downstairs to our bedroom. It was actually more like an apartment. There were three mattresses for us arranged in a row, a sitting area with a couch, our own bathroom, and a kitchenette with a fully stocked fridge! Already, I could tell these next ten days were going to be amazing.

It was dark when I arrived at their house from the airport, so when I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to look out the window and find a fjord! Across the water was the city of Stavanger, located on Gandsfjord, just West of lysefjord. By then end of our trip, we had explored many miles of both of these fjords by bike, by ferry, and by foot.

The biking in Norway was incredible. Of course, we had a professional biker to show us all the best routes! Kristi also had quite a collection of bikes – both road bikes and mountain bikes. It was out of pure luck that we all had roughly the same shoe size, so I also had my first experience with clip-in bike shoes. I’m proud to say I never fell once… until the last day. Every free morning, we would hop on the bikes and explore the area. On our longest ride, we made it all the way to the North Sea – a 30 mile loop!

We took the ferry a couple times: an hour ride along Lysefjord on our way to Fløre and again to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). Preikestolen was a must-see tourist attraction. And it did attract tourists! Standing out on the flat slab of Preikestolen, over 600 meters above Lysefjord, we were surrounded by an explosion of languages and cultures. Dozens of cameras captured the same picture looking out over the fjord and fjellene (mountains). I’m not ashamed to admit that my camera was among them – the view was breathtaking!

Fløre was one of my favorite places we visited. Only accessible by foot or ferry, Fløre is the location of the world’s longest wooden staircase, built to accommodate the development of a hydropower plant in 1916. There are 4,444 stairs leading up to a lake and a beautiful view over the fjord. 4,444 steps didn’t seem like much until we reached step number 1000. We were 15 minutes into our hike and I was sweating even though it was only 50 degrees out. Kristi could’ve ran up the whole thing in under an hour, but she patiently waited for us and bribed us with seigmenn, Norwegian gummy candies. It worked! We made it to the top and were rewarded with an incredible view and a peaceful hike back down through the woods.

Then there was the hiking. We hiked every single day, rain or shine. Most days, we just explored around the town of Sandnes where Ståle and Kristi lived. In their backyard, there were trails leading up to a system of hiking trails. We climbed a couple peaks and watched the sunset over the fjord. However, my favorite hike was to Kjerag. The main attraction is Kjeragbolten, a massive boulder wedged roughly 1000 meters above the fjord. This was unbelievable and walking out onto it definitely gave me an adrenaline rush. However, we all agreed that Nesatindane was actually our favorite spot on the climb. Nesatindane is a well kept secret at Kjerag – a rock feature that sticks out above the fjord like a beak. We sat out on it and dangled our feet above 1000 meters of cool mountain air.

Traveling over the fjords and up the mountains was incredible, but what really made the trip was Ståle and Kristi, our Norwegian parents. They were so gracious and happy to show us their beautiful country. The promised we’d always have a place to stay in Norway when we come back. It’s hard to say what the future holds, but I would love to return to Norway. There are many backpacking trails and much uncharted territory. If there is a next time, I’m bringing my trusty pack and a few maps!

And of course, no trip is complete without a mandatory epic jump shot.