Home Away From Home.

I suppose there are a few places I could call my "home away from home", and now I have one more place to add to my list. Norway.. but also, in particular, Rasmus and Kari's home in Kristiansand. :) They have made us feel so welcome, and we are very thankful for them! ..Unfortunately, our time with them is coming to an end.. we leave tonight on a night train. But our time here has been SO good. Rasmus is so kind, and so knowledgable! Whenever we go somewhere, he can tell us the history and purpose, etc of whatever we see. He knows so much! He is a great tour guide. :) He also is an expert driver on these crazy, winding roads. :) And Kari.. Aww, I love her. :) She doesn't speak as good of Norwegian as Rasmus, but she can definately get by! She is so cute and funny. She was serving us supper one day, and she said, "This is cheeze from Norway. This is bread from Norway. This is meat from Norway. And this is tea from.. oh, probably from India." :) Haha, we love her. She makes us laugh so much. :) They have been wonderful to stay with. :)
Now. Let me tell you what we've been up to for the past couple days. :) Or, really only, day and a half, I suppose.
The evening of the time I wrote last, they made us fisk for supper. :) Anna and I are both just not crazy for fish, but the salmon that she made.. I have to say I really enjoyed it! Probably because it is authentic Norwegian fisk. Caught right off the coast of Kristiansand. :)

The morning after, we went to Lindesnes, a spot that is the absolute furthest (..farthest..? Is there a difference?) you can go on mainland Norway. 2518 kms from the North Cap! (Nordkapp, as you see in the picture at the bottom) In the picture below, you can see that the red "A" balloon is the town of Lindesnes, and the black arrow is the lighthouse that is right on the coast. (..Obviously. Thats the best spot for a lighthouse. :)) 

It was beautiful. And God gave us a GREAT day, as well! The sun was shining, and we were all in good spirits as we began our drive along the coast. Oh, man. I LOVE the ocea. Have I mentioned that? There is just nothing that compares. They took us along the scenic route for a while, which is very twisty and turny, and looks like it would be SO much fun to drive on! It reminded me very much of driving through the mountains of BC, on the way to my Grandparents place. :) So fun! Then, we made our way back to the highway, the main highway from Kristiansand to Stavanger, on th west coast. This was a much straighter drive. :) We got there, and it was awesome. There were no trees, the landscape was made up completely of huge rocks. It reminded me very much of what I imagine to East Coast of Canada to be like.. I have never been, but from pictures, it might look something like this. :) 

Anna and I standing at the sign directing us from the farthest South you can go in Norway, to the Northnmost tip. :)

Ahh.. Just beautiful. :)

We climbed the steps up to the top of the rock hill the lighthouse was situated upon, and on the way up, we found a network of tunnels that go everywhere inside, and around the hill. Apparently, this hill is the remains of a German WW2 fort. There is also one in Kristiansand. They were all built in strategic places, where ships were likely to come and attack. .. or whatever. :) (I'm not a huge history buff..) Anyways, the tunnels in this hill were so fun to explore. And to try and imagine what it would have been like when it was actually being used as a fort, with soldiers running around, and cannons going off.. crazy! 

Anna exploring the tunnels! There were so fun. :)

Anna went about exploring them right away, I just wanted to get to the top, because I get "out of puff" (as my Grandma would say) :) so quickly with this darn cold. We thought we had lost her when she didn't come back up to the top for about 10 minutes. As it turns out, she had gotten lost herself! There are so many twists and turns, its like a labrynth. Its so cool. :)

Me with the lighthouse! :)

On the top of the hill is the lighthouse. I LOVE lighthouses. :) And it is usually so very windy up there, because of it being on the coast, and such, but it wasn't! And the sun was shining, it was 6° C outside.. Really beautiful.

Mmm. :) I just can't get enough of it. :)

Kari! And the wide open, unending ocean. :)

The lighthouse. So beautiful.

Anna and I had our picture taken with the lighthouse, by Rasmus, and then.. possibly the most tragic thing of this trip so far happened.. Well, Rasmus was handing me back my camera, and the darn string got caught in someones fingers, and.. it crashed to the concrete steps below. :( ..Even sturdy little Red couldn.t survive that. Yes, my camera broke. We are looking for a cheap replacement here in Norway, but that word ("cheap") does not seem to exist.. :) Rasmus's brother in Bergen, where we are going tomorrow, is apparently really good at finding really cheap things, so we hope to get one soon. But life goes on. :) If you climb up a little more on the hill, you see the old lighthouse, which was a little building with large caves built into the five sides of it. Here, they would build huge fires, and thats how they would warn ships where the coast is! Brilliant. This lighthouse, I believe, was built in 1656. Which makes it the oldest one in Norway! I think the new one was built in 1915, because thats what it says above the door. :) But thats just an assumption. :) We then had lovely little picnic on the side of the hill. Yum. :) After we were done eating, we made our way back to the car, and back home to Kristiansand. Kari had a ladies supper she was attending tonight, and needed to be back by 4:00. And we were!

Haha, figure this out! ..How did I get a picture.. when we are looking at my broken camera.. hm. :)

Rasmus and I taking apart my camera to try and fix it. We got it back together, and..! Well, it worked as much as it did when we started, so thats good.. But the search is on for a "new" old one. Pray that I find one! It would be nice to have pictures of the rest of our trip!

 Then, Rasmus and Kari both thought it was a good idea for me to go to the Emergency Health Clinic in Kristiansand, because my cough was getting worse. So, after dropping Kari off at the supper in town, Rasmus, Anna and I went to the Clinic. We sat in the waiting room for about 2 hours.. (Sorry, Rasmus and Anna!! ..It was a long wait..) Then finally my name was called, and I went in to see what exactly was wrong with me. :) After taking a blood sample, and examining me, the doctor diagnosed me with pnuemonia. ..And according to good ol' trusty Wiki, symptoms for pnuemonia include "cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty in breathing".. Check, check, check, and check. :) So, he gave me a prescription, and it was too late to go and get it filled then, because the pharmacies were closed, but the lady at the desk gave me two litle pills to start right away. And 500 NOK later.. I am on the road to health. :) But I have travel health insurance, so.. here's hoping. :)

Really, with all the things that have been going wrong with me, losing my bag, not getting to go to Egypt (not just me, of course), breaking my camera, getting pnuemonia.. whatever God is trying to teach me, I hope I learn it real soon!! :)

We went home, went to bed, and now here we are, having a nice relaxing day at home. Rasmus is off at a meeting, Kari is reading the newspaper in the living room, and Anna is sleeping in the living room. :) (Please pray for her too. She is maybe picking up a cold, and has been coughing a bit lately. I just hope she doesn't have my pnuemonia..! Pray for her. That it stops before it really gets going!!) And I find that being on the computer takes my mind off of being sick, and I don't cough as much! ..So, here I am. Updating our blog. As I said, we will be going to Bergen, Norway, tomorrow, and then we have 4 sort of whirlwind days, and so the next time we update this might be when we are in the Czech Republic on March 14! Which is only.. 5 days away. WOW. This is a crazy trip we are on. :)

Haha, well, we will write more later. Hope all is well in Canada, and wherever else you might be when you read this! :) God Bless.

Demara