Nepal CBID Team 2013: Traveling to Norway

We all met up on the Homewood Hopkins campus at 1pm on Saturday. It decided to start raining, of course, just as we left our apartments and lugged our suitcases across campus to our meeting spot. We took some quick photos (below) before jumping in our shuttles and departing. We flew out of Dullas. The Nepal group was also paired with the Tanzania group and the Jhpiego India group. The Medtronic India group flew on another airline. At the airport we all had one last meal together then got on our flights. Our first flight was to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we went through security (which revealed that the Dutch take body searches more seriously than Americans do) and then got on our flight to Stavanger, Norway. This flight was much smaller and only lasted a bit over an hour.

In Stavanger we collected our bags and met up with Ingrid Laerdal. Ingrid placed us on a shuttle to our hotel (Comfort Hotel Square?). We got assigned to our rooms and then had a couple of hours to unwind before meeting up for a tour later on. Our tour was conducted by Tore Laerdal, owner of Laerdal, who showed us around Stavanger and talked about its history. Then we all got on a ship that brought us through a fjord. The boat ride was chilly but beautiful. We got off in the middle of the fjord for a delicious dinner.

This morning some of the group got up (intentionally and not) to watch the sunrise at 5:30 down by the water. Everyone ate breakfast and met up at 8am for a full day with Laerdal. The day was filled with lots of interesting talks, tours, activities and interspersed with delicious meals and snacks.

Tonight's plan it to meet up and tour a local famous abbey and then have dinner. We are all loving and enjoying our time in Norway so much.