Saturday (01/08//2015)
After driving almost 4 hours from Oslo (see more details here), we arrived at our camping near the city of Kristiansand. We chose the Hamresanden Resort, which had good reviews in several websites, but I can already say that we didn't have a good experience. The guy at the reception wasn't friendly, but after 10 days in the country, I can say that he was a typical Norwegian. Well, they really don't care much about being friendly and showing that they're happy to have you there. We paid 295 Norwegian kroner (32 euros), because we had a car, a tent and there were 2 of us (there are different prices, from what I understand). We parked the car in a place relatively close to the bathroom, but I really wanted to stay in the motorhomes that were there in droves. One more beautiful than the other! Oh, they have apartments that look awesome, but the prices are 120 euros and up.
For the shower, we had to pay 15 crowns (1.6 euros) for every 5 minutes of showering (the only way Celo could take a quick shower!). Just insert the coin into the machine and the water comes out hot, without having to wait. Great shower!
We asked to use the kitchen to make dinner and the “nice guy” told us to pick up the key at a restaurant that was a little further away, without giving us any clear directions. We bought several things at the market. Kiwi (they are all over the country) for dinner and when we got to the kitchen, there was only a stove and sink, without any pots, plates or cutlery. I went back to the restaurant to return the key and said that I wasn't going to use it because there was nothing there, then the guy at the restaurant explained to me that he would have to hire someone just to clean up the messes that the guests left behind. How frustrating! I was wrong to assume that a restaurant's kitchen camping would be the same as in a hostel. The solution was to have breakfast, that is, a cheese and ham sandwich, and drink one of the wines we brought. We bought some bottles at the duty free from Dublin (cheaper than the duty free from Norway – we checked!!) and that’s what helped make the night less stressful.
We set up our tent in 2 seconds (I'll do a tutorial later) post about the material we took), we put our sleeping bags inside it, we took the wine, cookies and water and as soon as we lay down it started to rain. It rained all night, but our 25 euro tent held up well, thank God. Of course it’s not as comfortable as a warm room with a duvet, but we managed to sleep all night (I was better than Celo, who woke up with back pain the next day – look how old we are!).
Sunday (02/08//2015)
We had breakfast, got ready, took down our tent in less than 1 minute and drove to Kristiansand. This city is the fifth largest in Norway, with less than 100,000 inhabitants (the entire country has only 5 million). It is a city that mixes old and new well, with very interesting buildings and a delightful energy, especially in the fortress area. We stopped the car in a neighborhood called Posebyen, which was highlighted in our guide because of the cute little colorful wooden houses, and we walked to the cathedral Domkirken and the fortress Christiansholm Festival. The cathedral was unfortunately closed, so we only saw it from the outside and just stood on the fortress wall, enjoying the view on a beautiful sunny day. Take a look at the photos.
After a pleasant walk around this city, we drove towards Preikestolen.
If you want to know more about this 10-day trip to Norway, check out the posts below:
- 10 incredible days in Norway in the middle of summer (Summary)
- Arriving in Norway (a plane, bus, train and car saga)
- 1 day in Kristiansand and surroundings
- Between Kristiansand and the famous Preikestolen stone
- The famous Preikestolen
- 1 day in Stavanger and surroundings
- 1 day in Bergen and surroundings
- The largest Norwegian fjord and the largest European glacier
- Borgund Stavkirke, a medieval stave church
- 2 days in Flam and surroundings
- 2 days in Oslo, capital of Norway
If you want to book tours in Norway safely, check out the options offered by our partner Civitatis:
