Stavanger: The 900 Year Old City

You've probably never heard of Stavanger, but it's a The Oil Capital of Norway. Surrounded by fjords, this city is on the West Coast of Norway. They also dabble in fishing, because, of course. This year, 2025, they will be celebrating all year, as the city will be turning 900 years old. The Protestant Church in the city center was even built in 1125. We don't get this in the states, so it was pretty cool to experience.

In the winter, it's pretty cold up there, so there wasn't much for us to do outside. We were going to take a hike to Pulpit Rock, which is one of their main tourism attractions, but would have probably frozen. So, we decided to take a shorter hike up Dalsnuten. When I tell you the 360 views were amazing, I am NOT kidding. You could see the fjord for miles, and even a little bit of the ocean. It was a bit of a hard hike, even though short, but so worth it. In the summer, there are far more hikes to take and boating to do. Other than our hike, we shopped in the city center and explored all the old buildings. It had snowed when we got in, and the snow against the old, white, wooden houses made it look like a fairytale.

As far as restaurants go, we actually had a lot of home cooked meals, as we stayed with family friends. However, we visited some cute little places for snacks and drinks. Boker og Borst is a cute little coffee shop, that also serves wine and beer, on the rainbow street in the city. You can even play board games there! Molina Bakery has massive cookies, croissants, and other pastries that's a bit more outside the city in the suburbs. Sumo is a sushi restaurant that was a little fancier, and so good, I wish I could've stuffed my face more. We had Norwegian meatballs and potatoes with gravy one night, homemade, but I would recommend finding some and trying them.

The city center has a ton of little shops, souvenir and fashion, that even includes a street of artists shops. And the rainbow street (decorated with a rainbow painting on the cobblestone) is full of coffee shops and pubs. When you're there, you'll notice that almost everyone drives an electric car, as the city of Stavanger is moving towards all electronic.

Being such an old city, Stavanger has so much charm and quaintness as a smaller city. I could not recommend it more, as it is so easy to navigate, and is beautiful to explore. I will be going back, but in the summer instead!