When you have family in foreign countries (that you want to visit) you need to make the most of it and that’s what I did when I decided to visit my brother and his girlfriend in Norway.  They had been living in Oslo for a little over two years and I had a good time with them showing me around their city.  Places that we visited included Frogner Park which had some pretty crazy statues, the Aker Brigger (Oslo’s waterfront with the fiord) which has some pretty nice restaurants, The Opera House which is a stunning building inside and out and you can walk up and around it getting some nice views and the Fram Museum that had exhibitions about Roland Amundsen (1^st person to reach the South Pole) and Captain Scott.

Other trips we took around Oslo were to some of the islands in Oslo Fiord were some really pretty views were had.  Me and my brother also hiked up Holmenkollen which was nice to get a good view of the city and fiord.  It was also really nice that it was so accessible from the city with just a short train required to get there.  Note, there is a Massive sky jump up there which is worth checking out.

Olso was really pretty and really dam clean but I couldn’t go to Norway and not do any hiking…so I headed west to Stavanger.  I got the train which took 8 hours.  To be honest I wouldn’t do it again as the scenery along this route wasn’t amazing.  From Stanvanger I went on two hikes.  The first was Priekenstolen.  I got their via a ferry and a bus that took you to the trail head.  It was very touristy but the views were worth it and I got really good weather.  Piekenstolen (the pulpit rock) is an amazing cliff face sticking out into Lysebotn.  The next day I hiked to Kjerag and got there this time by hire car.  Again, the views all the way along were magnificent and standing on the Kjerabolten was a pretty awesome experience.

 

 

Stavanger itself was really nice.  There are lots of shops, cafes and restaurant in the centre and old town Stavanger was stunning with its tiny winding streets.