Europe Day 7

Europe Day 7

The second half of the drive from Oslo to Stavanger was at once terrifying and beautiful. Oddly enough, the conflicting reactions were both the culprit of the same factor: The Goddamn Mountains.

We left Oslo at 8 in the morning, quickly leaving the comforts of city driving behind, we soon found ourselves on a snow covered road with about enough lane width to accommodate 1 3/4 vehicles. We had been warned about the general state of the roads in Norway, but it would have been tough to accurately describe the extent to which these roads…sucked. The speed limit was around 60 km/h. We were going mayyyyybe 20 km/h. As we ascended and descended mountain after mountain, I watched the ETA on our dash-mounted GPS climb from 3:00 to 3:15 to 3:30…not a good sign, but still plenty of time to get to Stavanger in time for our 6pm soundcheck. Unfortunately, that was based on the assumption that the road we were on would continue to function as a road, and not randomly turn into a cross-country-skiing only trail 4 hours into the drive. Right.

So at 4pm, we found ourselves at the terminal point of one of Norway's "major" roads, at the top of a snow-covered mountain. After a brief conversation with a friendly family of avid skiers, it became clear that we had traveled the past 2 hours on a "summer only" road. The only "winter route" to Stavanger demanded that we retrace the 2 hours back towards the nearest junction and re-direct onto a snow-ready route. Sure. An extra 5 hours to the journey? No problem. Who wouldn't want to spend as much time as possible sliding sideways around hairpin turns in a 8 passenger Mercedes Sprinter van?

To his un-ending credit, tour manager Mat handled the treacherous driving conditions with aplomb. Despite his best efforts, however, we did at one point find ourselves lodged into a snow bank, with several other close calls leaving us sideways in the middle of a blind curve or two. Yipes. On the other hand, the scenery was stunning, with dramatic peaks, icy lakes, and the occasionally mating wooly cow providing an oddly serene backdrop to what should have been a nerve-racking journey. 

We finally pulled into Stavanger at around 8:30 to find a freezing cold crowd of no more than 35 people. The promoter explained that the rest of the audience had left due to a combination of the long wait and bitter cold. As we were only 30 minutes late, I'm guessing that the latter was more a bit more of a significant culprit than the former, but who am I judge the wisdom of an outdoor festival in the middle of downtown Stavanger, Norway in early March? Whatever the case, it was also clear that Grieves and I wouldn't have a chance to play, an opportunity we were more than happy to forego in the interest of getting Ali as much stage time as possible. 

Ali took the stage around 8:35, and I followed Mat down to the hotel to check in and get a short run in before dinner. The evening run was wonderful, taking me through the harbor area of Stavanger, which was populated with a combination of massive fishing boats and equally massive Fjord tour vessels. As active as Oslo had been the night before, the streets were filled with people heading to dinner, walking in and out of clubs, and enjoying drinks. The cold didn't seem to deter any of the enthusiastic revelers and it was, once again, so nice to see people outside, enjoying life in a way that seemed foreign for reasons beyond the simple geographic disparity.

I continued my run up into the hills above the harbor, and was treated to a journey through a maze of tiny cobblestone streets, lined with weathered, but impeccably maintained, old homes, many of which were illuminated by candlelight alone, with many curtain-less windows revealing families gathered around flickering tables, eating and talking and drinking. Imagine that shit at 9pm on a Saturday night in a major American city. Exactly. 

After making my way back to the hotel, I rejoined the rest of the tour. A friendly fan of Ali's led us towards a local Indian restaurant. Sitting down for dinner at around 10, we spent the next couple of hours talking and eating, finally retiring to the hotel around midnight. A bit of an exhausting day, but well worth the trouble. 

After enjoying the extensive breakfast buffet (The complementary Scandanvian hotel breakfast game is about 300 levels above the pitiful American hotel breakfast. Fresh cheese, fruit, eggs, homemade jam, fresh juice…), I headed back towards the harbor to take some pictures and wait for everyone else to make their way to the lobby. 

On the schedule today: 3 hour drive from Stavanger to Kristiensand. 3 1/2 hour ferry ride from Kristiensand to Germany. 4 hour drive to somewhere North of Hamburg for a "night off". Yeesh! As sad as I am to leave Norway, I'm pretty excited that we're beginning to make our way down into France!

Thanks for reading:)