Forests and Fine Dining

Today I haven’t really done much. On Friday, my first first day off for the weekend, I packed up my laptop with the intention of going down to the school and working on my thesis for most of the day. Instead, the other instructor from UND who came to ACN for the semester, Burt, called. He mentioned during the week that he wanted to see if an old walking path was still there on the island, so we set out to find it at about 10:00 A.M. On the way to the canal, we stopped quickly at the mall for water to take with us, and then we began our hike.

We walked from the mall down to the canal, across the bridge, and along the shoreline until we ran out of walking path. Knowing that it was there somewhere, we checked a roadside map, backtracked up near some apartment complexes, and eventually found the path.

Now, from what he’d said earlier, I thought this was going to be a walking path that was sandy and beach-like, since he did say that it followed the shoreline. Where we went instead was far more exciting to me. As a flat-lander from North Dakota, I’ve never really been in a dense forest before, the kind of forest where the sun is blocked out from the tree canopy overhead. This was that forest. It was incredible to walk through, to look at all the undergrowth, to even look at the roots sticking out of the path, itself. I need to find more hiking spots when I get back home (preferably in the forest somewhere).

During our trek, we went to two small towns, Alby and Rød (though I don’t know that many people even lived in either one—for Williston people, think of Epping/Springbrook, just outside of Williston with very few people living there). Alby had a teeny little museum, but we didn’t go through it—walking was the main goal of the day. We did go through the Naturhus in Alby, just to see what it was. There was also a café in there, as well—you could get a full meal, then sit in the normal seating area or take a blanket from inside the café and sit on the lawn to have your snack! I thought that was a neat idea.

By the time we got to Rød, it was already almost 1:00 P.M. Also by the time we got to Rød, we were starting to feel very tired and a little hungry. There wasn’t a whole lot to see there, except that we stumbled across what looked like an artist community where there was a ceramic shop and a guitar-maker shop (which I may have to find again to take pictures for Kellen). Again, we were both pretty fatigued after walking for three solid hours, so we headed back for Moss.

Once we got to the top of the big hill on the island, we made our way back down to the canal where we stopped and had a quick bite in a café Burt said was good and reasonably priced. I had a cup of coffee and a croissant sandwich, and I was good to go again. I think we made it back to ACN around 2:00 or 2:30, and then it was time for a shower and a nap.

Friday night, I met two Norwegians who are from Moss at a new Italian place just south of ACN. We had a great conversation about education, as one of them studied education and pedagogy in the U.K. I ordered a half-calzone half-pizza (so they basically made a pizza and flipped one side over onto itself). First off, one can never go wrong with pizza. Second, this pizza was very, very good—the Norwegians said that this was authentic Italian food. I responded with a prayer to God in thanks for Italy (and pizza).

For the rest of the weekend, I haven’t done much, although I did take a hike up into the hills above ACN on Saturday evening. There’s a path that leads back into some of the hills, and I was immediately enthralled with the promise of another forest hike. Nay, this wasn’t as good as the Alby/Rød adventure, simply because much of the forest above the school has been cut down to pave the way for a half-dozen apartment buildings. Ah, progress. Still, it was a neat trip, and I even went up there again today to take some pictures.

In all, I’d say that’s a successful weekend: explore the countryside, dine with the locals, and explore the countryside even more.