The Island of Stord

The Island of Stord, where I grew up, is located approximately 2 hours south of the Hanseatic city of Bergen. It is a rather large island with about 20.000 inhabitants.
I have always though of Stord as Norway in a miniature; we have the sea and the rugged coastline, the forests and the mountains. In addition we are very close to the Hardangerfjord.

For me growing up on Stord was great! We lived in a neighbourhood with lots of young families, where the mothers were mostly home with their children. Consequently we always had someone to play with close by. We also did a lot of sports, and personally I played soccer and was swimming. My favourite during summer time was when I was invited to join one of my friends' family for a boat trip (my family did not have a boat). To cruise along the coast, to anchore up by a beautiful beach and go swimming in the clear sea.

I moved away from the island when I was 19, just after finishing high school. I could not wait to get away and see the world! To travel, meet new people and to experience new cultures.
My destination was Petaluma, California, where I would stay for one year as an au pair.

When I come back to visit my family these days I am constantly surprised by how much everything has changed! There are still no traffic lights on the island, but when I was a child we did not even have a roundabout. Shops and houses are poping up everywhere and there is actually something that might resemble traffic jam around 3pm :-)

The picture above was taken by my sister in law Elise, a quite a good hobby photographer. The picture shows Storavatnet Lake, just 5 minutes from my parents' house.