My trip to Norway

Long delayed, here it is! (mostly copied from emails):

The flight from Copenhagen to Bergen was pretty short, and as we neared Bergen the landscape was incredible. I was really nervous flying in because all I could see was snow and I had decided not to bring my hat or scarf, just my black gloves. But when we got onto the ground, the temperature was really nice even though it was 9pm, so it turned out to not be an issue at all. I hopped on board the airport bus (flybussen) and got dropped off near the train station in the center of town, only a few minutes walk away from my hostel. I checked into the hostel and got a bed in a room with 14 other mixed-gender people. And some of them snored. That was fun. I set my alarm super early so I could get to the train station and get myself oriented before getting on the train at 8:40 to start the tour.

After picking up my ticket I wandered around some nearby parts of the town, just biding my time and getting a look at things since I knew I wouldn't have much time to spend in Bergen. Nothing special, but I took lots of pictures anyway. It's a cute town, what can I say! Then I got on the train in the same compartment as a Mexican-looking guy and an American couple (of which the woman was super annoying sounding) and some other Norwegian people. I started out sitting by a window, but on the wrong side of the train for the fjord views, so I stood outside the compartment by the door so I could get pictures through the windows on the doors. But then the train crossed over and the pretty views were on my side so I got to sit down again.

Many pretty pictures later, the train stopped and I had to worry about finding the bus we were supposed to get on, so I asked the Mexican-looking guy if he was going on the same tour (since his ticket had looked like mine when he handed it to the conductor) and he said yes, and the American couple also said they were going, too, so we were all in this together. Along with many other people who had been in different compartments. I didn't catch his name when he told me, but the guy turned out to be Indonesian and he was on a business trip or something, but we paired up to take pictures for each other, which was nice. I'm pretty bad at taking the one-handed pictures of myself. He was pretty nice at the beginning, but I got tired of him toward the end of the trip because he got really picky about how I took his pictures. But maybe I just don't obsess enough over my pictures. I also met some Spanish brothers on the tour as well who were nice (and I got to over hear Spanish!) but I just talked to them once. The woman of the American couple was really nice, she was proud to see me out travelling by myself because she knew it was hard, but that it was also a lot of fun as long as you kept an open mind. She offered many many times to take pictures for me since she knew how bad it was to take the one-armed pictures. She also offered me cookies and other snacks a few times - she was pregnant, so I think the Mothering was turning on in her :-)

The tour was absolutely gorgeous as can be attested to by my many pictures (and a few videos). Sorry for overloading you, and I'm very impressed with anyone who actually looked at them all. I never thought I would be in the middle of a fjord, but that just shows you what travelling can do! Just book a ticket and you can fulfill your wildest fantasies!

On the final train back to Bergen, I was in a coach with a group of teachers and 15 kindergarteners who had just gone on a 3-day skiing field trip. Holy crap, I can't even ski and these 6 year old kids just went skiing for 3 days?!?! I was in shock, but then again they're Norwegian so I guess it makes sense. They were cute but I was sad because I couldn't communicate at all with them, since I know no Norwegian and they're not old enough to have started English lessons.

Even though most of Friday was spent on various forms of transportation, I was still exhausted when I got back to Bergen at 6pm. I guess I walked around a lot while I was on the boat - who knows! But since I knew I wouldn't have much time on Saturday to explore the town, I dropped off my day bag and headed down to the harbor. The weather was gorgeous, so I walked along the water and then around some old building - I wasn't quite sure based on the map which building it was or what the significance was, but it was pretty, so it worked for me. Then I walked back and got some ice cream to eat on the pier in good Norwegian fashion. These people have a thing for ice cream, even in cold weather. It's weird, but the ice cream was very good. Around 8:30 I decided to head back and cook some dinner (pasta) and take a shower and get in bed so I could wake up earlyish again and go down to the fish market, since it was all put away by the time I got back. Though, the place where it stands during the day still smelled immensely like fish.

Back at the hostel I met a girl from Canada named Amanda. She was really nice - she had taken the year to work her way around the world. She worked for 7 months in Australia doing landscape work and then spent some time in London and now was in Norway for a few days before heading back to London and then who knows where else. She was really nice, so we made plans to go down to the fish market the next morning (Saturday). Then I went to sleep because I was too tired to wait for a shower. Whew.

Saturday morning I woke up a little before 8 and Amanda and I got dressed and walked down to the market which was supposed to be open. Not so. Well, they were setting up, but it was all very quiet. I was hoping for the whole yelling and fish-throwing deal. But alas, such was not the case. Disappointed, we walked down along the water again and talked for a while, and by the time we made it back up to the market around 9 things were livening up. a bit. There were more vendors out selling souvenirs and a some more fish stalls were set up, but nothing too crazy. One thing I don't get about Norwegians is their infatuation with trolls. In every tourist shop there were these UGLY troll souvenir dolls that would give me nightmares if I were smaller. But I guess they're part of traditional folk lore or something. I just thought they were plain ugly. But so we wandered back and forth in the square for another 45 minutes or so (the square was only about 150m long, so it was a lot of back and forth) before we headed back so I could get my stuff and get on the 10:28 train. Which I did successfully! WOOHOO! no missed transportation.

On the train, I whipped out my camera (again) and my headphones and settled in for a while. At Voss, one of the stops during the tour, a girl who was on the same tour yesterday hopped on the train and sat in the row in front of me. I talked with her later a little bit and found out that she was from Australia but working in Stockholm for the time being before hopefully travelling some more (money permitting). She was pretty nice. I also got to talk to a Norwegian girl (I asked her if I could take pictures out her window since she had a better view) and she was really nice. She also said that her mom was an elementary school teacher, and in Norway they have one day a week where they spend the whole day outside, walking through the woods or learning to make fires and things like that. I thought that sounded amazing - something that would be awesome if we had it here in the US. It was a long train ride to Oslo, 7 hours. I slept through part of it, which was nice. Then I read through more of it. Quite pleasant.

Arriving in Oslo was nerve-wracking. I walked out of the train station that probably had 15 tracks and when you get outside, the whole city center is crowded with people and under construction. Yes, the construction even followed me to Norway. But I bucked up my courage and took out my printed googlemap and tried to find the hostel. Which was a little more challenging with the roads torn up and pathways diverted. But I made it, and once I knew where I was staying, I felt a whole lot better. I dropped off my stuff and got a better map from the hostel people and then set off again since I, again, knew I was leaving mid-morning on Sunday. I am totally disoriented in cities, so I ended up in a completely different place from where I was intending to go, but it was really good. I ended up in an old military fortress place that was absolutely gorgeous. It was sunset and there was beautiful stone work and I really wished that Tyler were here with me. I took a bunch of pictures, of course. I walked around there a while before starting back in the direction that I thought was the hostel and a grocery store so I could get some dinner, but, again, I ended up somewhere else. This time, I found myself in the place I had intended to go the first time - over to the parliament building and the royal palace. Even though I was hungry, I decided that since I was here, I should walk down to the palace, which I did. It wasn't terribly interesting, and by then it was probably 8:30 so I headed back (with a few confused turns) to the hostel to eat.

When I got back, I met 2 of the other people staying in the room - 2 girls from Finland who were studying at a small 150-person technical school in Norway for the semester. They were very nice and talkative, which was good fun. After eating, I took a shower, wrote in my journal, and passed out. So tired!

I woke up early again so that I could wander around Oslo a little bit before catching the bus to the airport. It is kind of creepy to walk a strange city early on Sunday morning. That, and I'm paranoid. I kept feeling like people were following me or watching me and all sorts of strange things. I tried to walk to the botanical gardens, but the gate was locked (something I didn't think of) so I just walked down along the river that runs through town and sat on a bench and ate my breakfast of a banana for a while. It was really nice weather and the sun was out. A little more walking around by the river and then it was time to head back to pick up my stuff. By then, all the girls in the room were up (there were 5 of us total - the 2 Finns and a girl from Hungary and one from Germany both who were studying at another university in Sweden for the semester) so I talked with them all for a bit before getting my stuff and heading for the bus terminal to go to the airport. I got to the bus terminal early and could have walked around a little more, but I didn't have any other place I wanted to see and I really just wanted to sit down, so I waited for the bus and got to the airport early. Which was nice because I got a long time to read my book, which I had really gotten into.

So I read for a while before hopping on the plane and coming back to Lund! All in all, a very nice trip full of gorgeous scenery and nice people. It's given me a lot of hope that this summer getting to travel around with Tyler will be absolutely amazing and that we'll meet a lot of fun people!