Evje -> Kristiansand

June 29, 2023

Last riding day in Norway

I woke up at the Odden Campground. Storm clouds had already rolled into the Otra River Valley, but it was not yet raining. I decided to leave my tent up while I got breakfast. There were not a lot of places open early for breakfast, so I went to a "Spar" grocery store. Spar seems to be the safeway of Norway, a notch above Coop Prix or Rema 1000. I got a spread of random food. Berliner donuts, "Lunch Cakes" from the hot deli, kiwis, peaches, and a ham and cheese sandwich. Lunch cakes, or "Burgers" are a Norwegian food that is essentially different types of meatloaf shaped into patties and grilled. They come in beef, pork, fish, and chicken, as well as many different flavors. I found the ones I bought quite tasty and filling. Again, I found the produce lackluster and about double the price I would have paid back home. Makes sense since everything is imported here.

After enjoying my breakfast back at camp, I used the last of the 10NOK coins I had bough the night before taking a long shower. When I was done, the rain had started. Shit. The forcast was calling for 14 hours of rain starting at 10:00am, and it was approaching that time. Thankfully it was only a short shower, and I was able to keep most of my stuff dry as I packed up camp. I searched for accomodation near Kristiansand: All hotels were booked up or expensive due to the impending Palmesus festival. There were no campgrounds, and wild camping in the rain did not sound fun. The nearest warm showers host was 60km away. I turned to Airbnb as a last resort and found a room with private bath near downtown for 80USD.

A side note about pricing in Norway: Tipping does not exist here. The price that is advertised is the out-the-door price you will pay virtually everywhere (including tax!). Hotels, sit down restaraunts, tours, you name it. At restaurants there is no option to tip when paying, and I have yet to see a single tip jar anywhere. While the prices may seem higher than the states for some things, once you factor this in, it is comparable, or even cheaper. I think the US could take a lesson from the Norwegians on this one. It makes it so much easier to compare apples-to-apples pricing, and takes out the guesswork of tipping. Just raise your prices enough to pay your employees fairly, how hard is that?!? Also, personal opinon: It is not the employees responsibility to assume the risk of running a buisness. Employees should not be punished for working on slow days/times. They are there to sell their time for a wage, the owner of the business is the only one who should be engaging in risk. Employees deserve to have a dependable income, not one that fluctuates with business volume.

Anyway, this seems to apply to Airbnb in Norway as well. In the states, Airbnb is borderline unusable because hosts will charge next to nothing for their accomodation, but tack on fees and cleaning charges. Not so much in Norway.

After figuring out where I was staying, I hit the road. I couldn't check in until 4:00pm, and I only had 50 miles to ride, so I took my time. By now it was lightly raining, so I experimented with different rain gear configurations. What I eventually decided on was only wearing my waterproof shoe covers and letting the rest of my body get soaked. Any other configuration made me too hot, and shoes are the only thing that takes long to dry anyway.

One of about a half dozen tunnels along the way. Spooky

I liesurely roade along the Otra river. I saw people white-water rafting below the dam at Troll-Aktiv camp. I stopped on someone's front yard to admire the smell of their freshly cut pile of birch wood, I rode along two large lakes on the Otay river, and through about a half dozen tunnels.

I eventually arrived at the town of Vennesla. Wet and hungry, and with an hour and a half to kill, looked for a lunch spot. Vennesla seems to be the Lowell of Norway. Old mill buildings lined the Otra river, some in states of disrepair, while others had been converted into apartments and restaraunts. I ate at a pizza place located in one of these mill buildings. The pizza was excellent, and the homemade gelato was also quite good.

After drying out and using their free wifi for a while, I got back on my bike. It was a short ride to Kristiansand, and I found my Airbnb not far from the bike path. My hosts were pleasant and let me keep my bike in their locked shed. This room had awesome black-out cutains so I slept great.

Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 428 miles (689 km)

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Jon AylingYep, the tipping thing is different in about every country. It tends to be rarer or optional in northern Europe, and more common in the mediterranean (generally only for restaurants and taxis, tipping in bars or hotels is still unusual). In the UK and Europe it's very unusual not to be shown prices including tax. When we went to the US we had a very confusing maths-filled first morning during which we realised breakfast cost way more than we'd expected!
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1 year ago

Margie ThompsonPizza looked good, just not crazy about eating the leaves on top. Don't find much in the countryside were few people live and even travel like the city, but beautiful and can't get bored with nature.
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1 year ago

Mark SoggeSo.... you were "only wearing my waterproof shoe covers and letting the rest of my body get soaked." Didn't you attract a lot of stares? No ticket for public indecency? ;)
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1 year ago

Claudia JuTo Mark SoggeHahaha, that was my first thought as well 🤣
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1 year ago