Apr 4: Stavanger on Easter Eve

A comment by an American in Norway said how interesting that in this country there is so much national holiday surrounding Holy Week and Easter (all of this week through Easter Monday), but yet so few people are engaged in any worship practices. In contrast, there is less  religious holiday, but more people are participating in worship.

The website for the change of the Easter bus schedules calls today Easter Eve. I’m getting really good at reading the bus schedules with the adjustments for the holidays. So, we hit all the right buses today–all 5 of them.

We started in Stavanger, as Erin was hoping to pick up a couple more gifts in tourist shops. However, they were closed for the Easter holiday. We did find a few shops open, but we didn’t get much. We ate lunch just a little bit from the Stavanger Cathedral (founded AD 1125), with lots of hungry pigeons eager for our crumbs. We were careful not to drop them. While eating, I got a call from Marta (the former MK and missionary to Madagascar). She invited us over for dinner to have homemade pizza. Great! We’d see her and her husband later.

Inside the cathedral, we heard a few minutes of the string quintet and soloist practice for an upcoming concert. Finally, we got to peak inside.

We walked around and saw Torrey, who lives (sometimes) in the basement. He has an American friend visiting from university in Spain. We’ll see them back at home tomorrow.

We headed home for regrouping with a grocery store stop on the way home–as stores have been closed for the past two days (Easter holiday) are closed on Sunday in general. We needed more milk and breakfast cereal. Erin stocked up on some Norwegian chocolate to bring back to the USA. She opted not to get the Kinder Egg, as they are illegal in the USA. She says they also are not the best chocolate.

At 5:30, we then took two buses to get to Marta’s neighborhood, who greeted us at the bus stop with her adorable dog. We had a great meal and played Ticket to Ride European version. It gets complicated with 5 on one board, but we had a great time, even though Kjell whipped us.

Marta had recently discovered that our parents knew each other as our dads were at Augsburg Seminary together and both went to the “mission field;” mine to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Martha’s parents went to Madagascar. They’ve kept in touch over the years, and now we have a personal connection. We also share a friend. Phyllis was an MK with Marta at boarding school, and her older sister were great friends. Phyllis was a classmate at Lutheran Bible Institute and just a couple doors down the hall from my room. I have fun memories of Phyllis. One I shared tonight was that our college had a rule that you couldn’t wear bib overalls in the dining room. One time Phyllis was caught wearing bibs there and was asked to go and change. Phyllis found the closest scissors and cut of the bibs, and she finished her dinner. Anya loves this story!

Kjell drove us home, and it is again too late for me to relay highlights from Bergen. But here’s a picture (for Kathi) as a preview of coming attractions!

With blessings,

Beth