Kinsarvik, Norway

Originally I had tried to book 3 nights at DSC01027the Tyssedal Hotel because I was worried about bad weather preventing us from being able to hike Trolltunga, but our reservation got mixed up and we were only booked for two nights. It ended up not being a big deal since the weather was perfect for our first day and we got to do the hike then, but the people at the hotel felt really bad and arranged for us to stay at their other hotel in Kinsarvik (about 45 minutes away) and gave us free dinner. Aija (the waitress/hostess…also quickly becoming our favorite person ever) was extremely helpful in finding us travel routes, booking the room for us at a discount, and making sure the other hotel knew we were to have free dinner that night. So after another delicious breakfast (same spread, equally as fabulous), we went for a walk around the small town to kill some time, bought a few post cards and a souvenir mug (that was about the extent of their souvenirs but we wanted something from there since it is where we got engaged!) and headed to Kinsarvik.IMG_0153

 

After checking in, we set out to do a “waterfall hike” that Aija had recommended for us. We started on a trail along a river that was very peaceful and pretty, but after a short while we came to the end of the trail and were out by some random buildings. The trail wasn’t nearly as well marked as the Trolltunga hike had been but after wandering around for a while and walking along a road (at which point we figured we were way lost and would never find any waterfalls) but somehow we ended up on the trail that led to waterfall number 1. It was huge. We took some pictures and continued on our way, hiking up a steep mountain in search of the next waterfall, assuming we were back on track IMG_0168for the “waterfall hike.” Somehow we once again took a wrong turn and ended up hopping along the rocks at the base of the DSC00986waterfall (which was cool) but eventually we had to backtrack and find the trail again where we found the most picturesque point looking out over the waterfall. I thought the first waterfall was huge…well this one was bigger and was definitely my favorite of all the ones we saw. We hung out there for a while, sitting around snacking and enjoying the view. We thought about heading back but decided if the first two waterfalls were this cool, the other 2 were probably worth seeing as well.

 

We hiked uphill for quite some time before coming to a spot where you could see both waterfall number 3 and number 4. We went off the path a IMG_0177bit to get a really good view of the 4th one. We were standing on top of a giant rock surrounded by mountains with an enormous waterfall rushing down one of the mountains. It was surreal. After marveling at how incredibly beautiful and peaceful  it was for a while (we hadn’t seen many people throughout the entire hike, but at this point there wasn’t a single other person..it was just us and nature) we started heading back down and decided to go to a point where you could stand at the top of the third waterfall. I got right up to the edge and looked over the side of the crack in the mountains where the water was rushing down. It wasDSC01003 awesome. Then I wanted Josh to come check it out so I went to jump to another part of the rock (this is literally right at the edge of a straight down several hundred foot waterfall cliff) and it was slippery where I landed. So I started slipping down to the part I had been trying to jump over. I tried to catch myself but I slid right into the ravine filled with water. When I fell my feet were less than a foot away from the edge of the cliff. It must have looked a lot scarier than it felt because Josh was yelling my name and was really mad at me for a long time after that because he really thought I was going to die right in front of his eyes. Soooo that’s when we decided we should probably head back down. I was completelyIMG_0192 soaked, but only a small skin tear on my elbow and a bruise on my hip from the fall so no harm done. When we got back to the hotel we enjoyed our free dinner and hopped into bed pretty early so we could get up early to head to Stavanger.

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