Back in September of 2013, I was so lucky to be able to travel throughout Norway. The first exciting thing was to meet my family and while we were there we made a good trek around the country and visited many cities. On our trip, we made a stop Stavanger.
We were visiting the city of Bergen and decided to take a ferry to get to Stavanger.
We boarded a Norled boat early in the morning. The trip was a few hours and made some stops along the way to pick up and drop off passengers.
The landscape was very indigenous of the coast of British Columbia. Open ocean, rock formations with a odd tree or low scrub. Very similar to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Vancouver island.
I made that comment to Dave as we were sitting inside enjoying the scenery and later once we were docking a couple sitting in front of us, remarked that they thought the same of the scenery, and they were from Seattle.
When we first arrived, i looked around the town, and didn't really think much of it.
Looked small, and it was very hilly and i was completely disoriented. I couldn't figure which way we were suppose to go.
I had booked a hotel that was a couple km from the main downtown area. Wasn't easy to get too, and was kind of far to walk with all the luggage. We asked for some directions and decided to get catch a city bus.
When we first got onto the city bus, the bus driver didn't speak English and he didn't speak Norwegian, I thought to myself.. GREAT, we are screwed. However, the word, Hospital is pretty universal.
We took the bus up the road a bit, and then we had to walk the rest of the way to the Hotel.
St. Svithun Hospital Hotel. That is right, i said, Hospital !
The hotel was an experience in its self. It was a hotel connected to the local hospital. So if you can kind of wrap your brain around that, it was a great place to stay. Faily cheap by Canadian standards, only $85 a night and that included breakfast.
The breakfast buffet was to die for ... well if you took me literally, you were at least in the right place if something medically did happen. Best breakfast buffet in all of Norway !!
You can visit this guys site and read more about the
hotel
When we started to explore the city, we found some interesting places to visit. Down by the water front, we first saw a church. This was the Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger Domekirke) .
This was built in 1100. However it had caught on fire, and was rebuilt and refurbished. I photographed the outside as I loved everything about the church, and the details and nice curves on the windows.
I choose to turn this picture into a black and white, as i like the texture of the building.
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| "Stavanger Domekirke" photographed by Christina Ostenstad |
Another hidden gem is Gamle Stavanger (Old Stavanger).
We stumbled on to that after taking a test drive in an electric car.
The driver dropped us there, and said, Great place, you must see.
The Gamle Stavanger, is the oldest section of the city. Picturesque white painted homes.
The main occupation in stavanger was fishing and a canning plant.
Which was situated in the middle of town close to the ocean.
The wood homes were built in the 18th century and they are now protected as a heritage site.
"Going Home" photographed by Christina Ostenstad
This is my favourite photo of all times. I love the potted plants in front of the homes, and the cobble stone roads. Each house was white, and most of them had different coloured front doors.
The woman that I photographed walking down the street, stopped and chatted with me for a few moments. She had lived in this area for a very long time. She was elated to find out that I was a Canadian-Norwegian decent and she said, that i looked like a true Norwegian. We exchanged some works in English and a little in Norwegian.
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| "Storm coming in" photographed by Christina Ostenstad |
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| "End of the Row" photographed by Christina Ostenstad |
When I was walking down admiring the homes.. I was captured by this little guy sitting in his window. He was very quiet and was looking for someone or maybe just watching the people walk by.
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| "Who's there?" Photographed by Christina Ostenstad |
Next time you are in Stavanger, visit the old city and stay in the hospital hotel !
