Friday's Excursion

Stein, a local principal and our supervisor, and AnnasSophie, the superintendent of the school district took us on a marvelous trip this Friday. The first stop was a beautiful waterfall! It was pretty wet so my camera has some water spots on the lens! Just pretend those aren't there!

Next stop was the ridiculously long tunnel that went in the mountain. I think Stein said it was over 11km long. I did a little singing and noise making while we took pictures! It was so neat!

Next stop was the hydro-power plant. This is super important as it helped build Norway's economy back in the day. This plant is no longer in use but is used as a tourist attraction. They restored it back to the factories original everything. So the amazing architecture...yea this is how it was built! Could you imagine if our factories were built like this?

This is me standing in a section of the piping used to transport water from the waterfalls to the power plant.

Trying to make industrial machines look artsy. It was a decent attempt. 

I was looking at the generator and realized that Siemens was written on the side. Hmmm....any relation to the Siemens plant in Southeast Iowa? Let me know if you have an answer to this question!

I tried taking a stab at getting this thing to move. It was difficult. One of the other girls helped me....as well as Stein! It barely moved until he helped us! It looked like a piece of art though. Kinda like a big sunflower!

They use the plant for performances now due to its amazing acoustics. Jennifer and I sang the ISU Fight Song as well as Season of Love from Rent while standing on the large stage. Supposedly a lady was supposed to sing from the highest one that requires a special ladder. She was afraid of heights so they used a crane to get her to the top of the stage! haha!

Then we entered the control room. So many buttons! I wanted to touch EVERYTHING!! ...I may have touched some of the buttons on the radio without asking....but nothing broke!

After our tour we went on a drive to see the dam that was built in the early 1900s. Each of these rocks were hand cut. Could you imagine?! It was huge!

Below is a picture of Stein, myself, and AnnaSophie with the amazing view behind us! They were fabulous traveling companions! 

Then we took off for a hike to the glacier. Below is the picture of the lake that the glacier runs into. You can't see it in the picture but the glacier is on the top of one of those mountains in the background. Stein said it's been shrinking through the years. :( 

This picture doesn't do it justice but the water was the most beautiful sea green color I had ever seen! Simply stunning!

Stein took our picture after we each stuck our hand in the water. Yea, it was cold!! I guess I could tell you who's who since I do some name dropping in this blog! From left to right: Kim (Iowa State), Me (Iowa State), Steph (Utah State), Hannah (Utah State), and Jennifer (Iowa State).

Then we stopped by this adorable restaurant that used to be a barn. This is the front of the building.

Here is the back where we entered downstairs. 

It was so cute inside! Just look at that table! So quaint! 

Since I love taking pictures of my food here is one of my meal! Homemade breads on the left, beta suppe on the right, and cranberry juice in the glass. It was delicious! I had thirds on the soup!

Then we had a very well known Norwegian dessert, melke kakke or pannkakka. I've heard both words used to describe this dessert. I'm not sure if there is a different between the two but either way it was delicious. It is similar to a pancake but much thinner and spongier. You sprinkle sugar in the center, fold it, and spread jam on the top. Then when you sit down you roll it or fold it so that the jam is in the middle. This avoids a mess! It also comes with another Norwegian favorite: coffee! It was all delicious! 

This was a fantastic trip! Stein is an amazing tour guide! He knows so much about this area! I felt like I had my very own professional tour guide who told me all sorts of dates and names that I was hoping to remember! AnnaSophie was great too! I loved hearing her stories about her traveling and cross country skiing adventures! They are awesome!