The Hike to Preikestolen

This a picture of one of the views from preikestolen.  The city of Stavanger and a wonderful sunset.  This picture was taken by T.  We keep telling her she needs to sell these pictures.

This is preikestolen (pulpit rock). This is a cover of a hiking pamphlet.

Yes we hiked to there.  It was very interesting.  If you are afraid of heights not for you.  It took about two hours to make it to the top.  They say there is a trail and sometimes there is, but the other times you feel like a rock climber.  Our three mountain goats loved it.  It did get a little scary when you hang to the rock to get to the next area.  We also had to climb up a little waterfall.  There were is some very beautiful scenery.  There were mountain lakes with waterfalls and just gorgeous views of Stavanger and the fjord.  It is definitely a must do if you come to Norway.  We saw every age making this hike.  You can also see that there are no safety fences.  They believe in leaving nature alone.  That being said our group did not venture close to the side.  Some people do actually BASE jump from the top.  I decided that I would leave that to them.  Anyway just wanted to tell you of the latest hike.

21 Days To A More Disciplined Life

I love the website moneysavingmom.com.  The writer has put it a book 21 steps to a more disciplined life.  For the next day she is offering the book on amazon for .99.  Please check it out.  crystalpaine.com/21-days-to-a-more-disciplined-life/

Have a great day.

Driving In Norway

The view from the top of preikistolen (pulpit rock).  It is called that because that is what it looks like from the fjord.

Ok so driving in other countries is always a challenge.  If you go to England you drive on the left side of the road.  If your drive in Germany you can drive fast, and by the way you learn to drive fast or get run over.  Other countries seem to have no real rules.  Well Norway has rules they are just different than ours.

So here we go!

If you are driving down a road and someone comes in from the right they have the right away and you have to stop and let them go.  There are no stop signs you just have to know this.  We have almost gotten hit a few times for not remembering. That means when you come to the road you slow down and almost stop to see if someone is coming because they will not stop.  Now if you are on a priority road that rule does not apply.  How do you know you you say.  Well there is a yellow triangle on a sign that means it is a priority road.  It can also change to one or no longer one as you drive down the road.

Ok remember I said no stop signs, well they also have very few red lights.  I think I might cancount them all on one hand.  So what do they do instead of red lights and stop signs?  They have round abouts or rotaries.  These are intersections that have a circle in the middle and you drive around the circle to either go straight, right, left, or go back the way you came.  The first one in has the right away.  It is crazy, but seems to work once you understand.  I will try and take a picture so you can see for yourself.

They do not drive above 55 mph, which drives the hubby crazy.  The truth is you can't really go much faster due to the layout of the town and no real highways.  They say they are highways, but they are not like what you and I think of whe we say highways.

So that is driving in Norway.  It is an adventure, but we are getting use to the differences.  I just hope we remember them when we come back to the states.

The Cost of Living in Norway

T took this picture on a hike.  There are sheep everywhere.  It is a very pretty place, but expensive to live here.

So here is the breakdown on living here.  Our rent is 5000+ dollars depending on the exchange rate.  The military only gives us an allotment of 4500+/-.  We looked at over 20 houses to rent.  They were ok, but most only had one bathroom, and after living in a hotel for a month and one bathroom I did  not think that we could do that for three years.  All of the house were laid out wired from an American perspective, but some more than others.  One house we looked at had a basement room that you went right into from the stairs and it was a bathroom.  You went down the stairs and rightbtobthebleft of the door was a toilet.  If that was the only room not so bad, but there were rooms off of that room.  Anyway that is the house story.  Internet, electric, phone, and cable cost us about 550+/- a month.  We can't really use the phone, because each call cost money per minute.  I only use it to call London for approval for dr appointments.  It is a toll free number so I think I don't have to pay for it. More on the dr thing another time.

So lets talk about food.  Milk is 4.30 a half gallon, if you can find a half gallon.  Most places only have it by the quart and then it is about 3.00.  Grapes are about 4.55 for .55 pounds.  A dozen eggs are 7.00.  A pepper mix which is one red, one yellow, and one green is about 3 dollars (I believe that was on sale).  2.9 pounds of bananas was 3.85.  A pint of coffee creamer is 3.00.  A head of iceberg lettuce is 2.75.  A fourth a pound of ham lunch meat is 4.21 and salami for the same amount is 6.00.  A single cucumber is 2.88.  A half a pound of tomatoes is 2.60.  That is just a few of the prices.

I do try to shop the sales.  So if nectarines are on sale we may have them this time instead of apples.  Sometimes there is not much on sale and you just have to pay the price.  The don't have coupons, but I have found a place that I would call the big lots of Norway.  We are still trying to do the Dave Ramsey program and pay with cash, but it has been hard gettingnangood idea of a budget. We think we may have one now, but exchange rates sometimes make it difficult.  

Next time I will talk about the shopette and the cellar, which are places to shop on the base.  I hope you find good deals this week.

just a short one

Well this will be a short one.  It has been a while since I have posted.  It rains here A LOT and this was the scene yesterday from my bed room window.  It was much brighter in person.  It is just amazing.

Well here is an update.  The little girls and I have been here by ourselves this week.  T is in London, N is at leirschool, and hubby is in the good ole USA.  It has been quiet here.  I know most of you are wondering what leirschool is and in a lat post I will explain.  

AY and AN had their first gymnastics Competiton on Sunday.  They both did very well.  Here they don't give scores or medals etc.  AN just got a good, better, best.  And she did really well.  AY because she is older gets scored, but we don't see them only the coach.  Well she was number one in her age group for the region.  It doesn't sound like much, but here that is big.  I wonder at times if being here will hurt them, but they are getting some good coaching.  It different than in the states, but I think Norway is trying to build a better program.

I hope to post again later in the week.