Colors of the Wind

View from the Stavanger City Bridge

 The delay in the flights to Kenya set us back a little more than a day, but we are not complaining. Who would want to leave Norway early? This place is full of fascinating trails, beautiful scenery magnificent culture, and untold adventures. Following the scenic route of old Stavanger and our tour-guide/past Hopkins BME graduate, Sunny, we wound our way past the oil museum and the massive grain silos that can hold around 195,000 tons of grain, to a little café by the water. We feasted on fresh deli sandwiches, gourmet pizzas, and decadent desserts.

Immediately following dinner we set out on a trek through the town toward the not so distant shore to a nearby park. We hiked along a small forest trail and found a small boathouse with a small, 10 foot long, beach. The group decided here would be as good as any spot to sit, relax, and digest our food. However, the relaxation didn’t last long. It only took one person attempting to skip some stones on the calm waters for a full blown challenge to arise. With some valiant efforts, botched attempts, downright failures, and explosive rock on rock impacts, Kevin Colbert attained the title of stone skipping champion with a throw that could have sunk a boat at sea. 

After a night of debauchery on the harbor, most groups prepared for early departures to the airport. The Kenya team, on the other hand, set out for the Laerdal Global Health research center to complete some user feedback studies on new and very secret technologies. It was now off to find a dining place for a feast fir only for kings, or at least on that cost as much. Satiated by gyros and falafel, we ventured off into the city on an expedition to find hidden graffiti art on the 2012 Nuart exhibition.

Halfway through our hunt, we detoured across the Stavanger City Bridge for the view. At the midway point, there was no reason to turn back so we redoubled our pace and found our way to the other side, hoping to find a majestic island with a cliff face view. Instead, we found a small beach and diving area where Michael attempted to scale a sky scraping 3 meter wall, and I sampled the wild Oceanside raspberries. Our return home led to previously overlooked art and a pit stop through the Norwegian fashion mall. The final leg of our Norwegian adventure has yet to conclude, but we’ll save those details for the next post from Africa.