We eventually reached an intersection where we had the option of continuing along the coast or driving up into the mountains. The route we were on was a little curvy, but would have had an amazing view if the sun was out. The sun was not out, so we headed to the mountains for a shorter drive with more stable roads.
During that part of the drive, I used our phone for the first time to make a call to the Sannidal tourist office. My great-great-grandmother was born in that town, so we were wondering if someone there would know some of the distant history and help us get access to the church that she probably attended while she lived there. The girl on the other end of the phone didn’t think she could help, but she suggested we call her mother—she works for the church—and gave us her mom’s number.
(Unfortunately, before we got to that point of the conversation, Mom and I entered a tunnel. The call was fine for about thirty seconds and I decided this Norwegian phone was way better than my own, but then it dropped the call, probably because it was another tunnel that stayed underground for a couple miles. We came back to the surface, I almost called the tourist office again and then we went into another tunnel. After the second, I called back and apologized for the dropped call—that made a lot more sense than me hanging up while she was talking to someone else in the office about how to help us.)
After getting Bertha’s phone number (I thought her daughter said “Myrta”, so the phone isn’t perfect), I called her to talk about my great-great-grandmother Pauline Martine who married Simon Olson (that’s all the information I had, but Mom and Dad knew a little more). She had emigrated to the U.S., but did they have any death records? Any information about family? Gravestones of her parents? Bertha didn’t know offhand (go figure), but suggested that we meet tomorrow—Sunday—at 10:30 so we could talk for a while before Mass starts at 11:00.
When we finally got to Kristiansand, we had to find our hotel and we followed the directions perfectly. This time, we didn’t get lost—the hotel did. The address that Google Maps showed us was on the opposite side of the highway than where the hotel was actually located. We backtracked and found it almost immediately, so while that was kind of annoying, at least I had the consolation of knowing I wasn’t the reason we missed it.
The place was packed. With lots of little kids. We understood that it was meant to be a family-themed hotel, but with all the parties going on and kids with their faces painted… it was a tad surreal. Of course, when you looked at a local map and saw a zoo and an amusement park within a mile or two from the hotel, it was a little more understandable why.
So why were we stuck in this place? We were making reservations about four months ago and this was the only hotel we could find that had rooms with two separate beds available. It turns out that there was a sailing festival in the city that weekend with boats from all over the world (Europe, Africa, etc.). When it was over, there was going to be a boat race where they were sailing to somewhere in England. (I didn’t catch all the details, but “boats from around the world” and “lots of people there” were the only ones I really needed.)
As has been the case with most of our rooms, the “two separate beds” have been pushed together and latched in a way so it could also be used as a single full-sized bed. We’ve always pulled them apart as soon as we get to our room, but that didn’t happen this time. We wanted to, but the beds were pushed together against the right wall, they were attached to a headboard and there was a bedside table that looked like it was attached to the wall right next to the headboard. Uh-oh…
We went downstairs to the reception desk and one of the girls came up to help us out. She worked in housekeeping last year, so she had the inside scoop: the bedside table could be moved around a little and detached from the wall, so she pulled it off, then brought it downstairs for us as we moved the beds apart.
The rain had dried up by then, but with the sky still cloudy, we had no idea whether we’d start to get dumped on again. We also didn’t feel a major urge to leave the hotel, so we went downstairs to eat at the buffet. Nothing exotic there, but it was filling. It also wasn’t very loud considering all the little kids in the building, so that was a bonus.
Now we get to wake up early tomorrow, but it’s for a purpose! We need to get to Sannidal by 10:30 to hopefully learn more about some very, very dead relatives! Because of our high latitude, the sun will be awake a few hours before us, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to climb out of bed, so it’s sleepy time for me.
