Day 5-Exploring Balestrand

After a lot of early mornings in a row we decided not to set an alarm. Ali and I slept until 7:30 or so and the Dan and Connor slept even later than that. I think everyone was in need of some sleep! We headed to breakfast after we got up, breakfast is included at the hostel. The breakfast buffet was simple with all cold items, there was bread, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, sandwich meat, and cheese. I think there was fish too but I'm not sure as I don't eat fish. It definitely wasn't an "American" breakfast but that is OK, it would be boring if everything was the same as at home!

My parents were down at breakfast and we discussed our plans for the day. We also learned at breakfast that my parents had a normal shower with an enclosure in their room so Ali decided she'd be showering there. We decided to spend the day in Balestrand because everyone needed a laid back day.

We headed out midmorning and checked out the waterfront. We stopped in the Tourist Information office to ask a few questions. They were very helpful and quickly answered our questions and gave us a hiking map with some suggestions. We wandered around a bit and then stopped at the grocery store to buy food for lunch. We bought things to make sandwiches. Buying bread was fun, it comes unsliced and there is a bread slicer in the bread section. I looked at the pictures on the machine and figured out how to get the bread sliced, I was pretty proud of myself! After our grocery shopping adventure we headed back to the hostel and made lunch. Everyone was very happy with our simple lunch, honestly the kids were happier than they would have been had we gone out.

The hostel

Kitchen

Our lunch

Dan and the kids spent some time in the game room in the hostel. The kids loved playing ping pong and I think they might have spent some time playing Chinese Checkers. I was definitely warming up to the idea of staying at a hostel.

Hanging out in the game room

My family decided to head out for a hike. I had the map from the tourism office but apparently we are idiots. We couldn't figure out which way to head out of town to the trails. We ended up having to go back to the office and ask. When we finally were headed the right way we figured out that the sign to the nature trails is right under the sign to our hostel. We'd looked at the sign but obviously we only paid attention to the top arrow!

The hiking sign that we walked by multiple times!

It is about a 15 minute walk uphill to where the trails start. It was interesting walking by the houses and there were some nice views down to the water. At the trail head there is a nice map with a description of the different hikes. There is an Elementary School at the trail head, I can only imagine having a school in such a beautiful setting. We decided to do the short nature walk. It was a short hike with signs describing different things along the trail. It was beautiful and so peaceful along the trail.

 

Cool Swing at the School

Reading signs on the nature trail

Selfie on the trail

When we got back to town we checked in with my parents and talked about what our plan was for dinner. My dad and I headed back to the store (luckily it is a 3 minute walk). I decided to get hot dogs for my family and my dad got a frozen lasagna for he and my mom. It was a simple dinner but everyone was happy. There was another family eating at the hostel, there are two kitchens so they were using the other one. They had 3 children with them. My kids met their kids down in the game room, they were from Belgium. My kids had fun playing ping pong and pool with them. Meeting other travellers is definitely a huge positive for staying in a hostel.

We had a laid back night, we had to catch a 7:50 boat to Vik in the morning so we laid out all our stuff for the next day. It was a good day. I think we all needed some time to relax after being so busy in Stockholm!

 

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