The run on the grocery stores is underway! Norway is about to shut down for the Easter Holidays. It’s only Wednesday but John has a half-day at work today and he doesn’t have to be back in the office until next Tuesday. The shops and the offices are closing up, and even though there are some business hours on Saturday, we’ve been told it’s best to stay home and avoid the crowds. I find that the only time the Coop at Kvadrat Mall is busy seems to be Saturdays, but last night John and I decided to stock up for the week-long hiatus and when we got to the mall it was packed!
I think half of the people were in Coop and those people were being very un-Norwegian and filling their carts to the brim. They were even buying pop! I rarely see Norwegians buy pop, but people were passing me with 4 packs of 2 liter bottles. Seems like there will be a lot of loose living over the next several days. The shoppers also had several liters of milk and juice, bread, packages of sliced meats, cheese, and candy. Lots of candy. Instead of filling Easter baskets, Norwegians fill these adorable hollow cardboard eggs. The eggs are decorated most often with chicks (I think chicks predominate the bunnies here) and some rabbits…they come apart along the long edge and you can fill them with loose candies.
Bins of loose candies have popped up in most of the stores, and people scoop and bag their own. No one seems to care that the bins of candy are open at the top and little kids have been sticking their hands in the bins for the past couple of weeks. No one seems to care at all….probably because all the fresh air around here promotes healthy immune systems. People don’t seem to be all that ‘germophobic’ in general.
I am praying for nice sunny weather for the next few days…dying to get out and take some more pictures….do more exploring. Last weekend it was sunny one minute and pouring buckets of rain the next. On Sunday, we’d had enough of being inside and ventured out to try to find the ski hills south of where we live, in Sandnes. The first half hour of the drive was great but then I caused a deviation from the plan….I spied a yarn outlet store…just sitting there out in the middle of nowhere in particular. There were tons of cars there, so it had to be worth seeing. I mean…these people had obviously driven out to the middle of nowhere to buy yarn for some reason. I started to remember what it felt like to hold a pair of knitting needles in my hands. It’s been years but those addictions never truly go away. I was envisioning projects before I had my seatbelt off.
What we had found was the factory outlet of the Gjestdal Yarn Company. Now I know why I’ve been seeing so many alpacas in my travels along the back roads around here! The yarn shop is housed in a log building with open wooden beams. One side of the building was dedicated to selling yarn, and the other was a good-sized cafe, and shop for selling Norwegian wool products. We didn’t take the time for a coffee and a sandwich, but I checked out the things they were selling and made a few mental notes for Christmas gifts. I also couldn’t wait to get home and call Mom to tell her what we’d found. I was certain she was going to tell me to go back and buy her $50 worth of baby yarn (and sure enough, she did just that).
I actually didn’t think the prices were too bad for good wool. I know the little yarn specialty shop in Halifax is very pricey, and there aren’t many places there that sell wool (or I should say material you can knit with….since Michael’s offerings are mostly acrylic). And it was kind of cool knowing it was all locally produced. A couple of weeks ago, as we were trekking out in the Norwegian boonies we noticed that it must have been shearing time; there wasn’t a fluffy coated sheep to be seen. Every one of them was sporting a slimmed-down, close-cropped silhouette. Those former fluffy coats were being carded, spun, and dyed into dozens of beautiful colors! Right where you could sit and get a latte, too!
I didn’t take any pictures of the place because we walked outside to a huge downpour, and we just dashed to the car as fast as we could to get out of the rain. We decided to head home and postpone the trip up to the ski hills until Easter weekend. It should be an interesting ride the rest of the way….there are some dandy cliffs overhanging the part of the road we did pass on our way to Gjestdal. Which explained why there was a sign at the beginning of the road saying it was open. I thought maybe it was for avalanches but I definitely think it had more to do with rock falls. My mother would freak if we drove her by one of those cliffs because it really looks like the side of the mountain is about to come down on your head. I will have to get out and get some pictures next time.
The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, so I’ve figured out what wool I want to buy and we’ll be heading out probably on Friday. I checked online and the ski hills are about 2 hours into the mountains. Glad I checked on that or I would have made John turn back after about an hour or so of not finding them. Last weekend we didn’t even know if we were on the right road (but we were)….We REALLY have to stop at the gas station and buy a map! GPS can get you home but it’s nice to know where you’ve been…or just exactly where you are for that matter.
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