Norway

I've been back from my travels for about 4-5 days, and things seem very quiet here in Lancaster. While I was in Norway I kept  journal so writing this would be easier, so here is what I wrote:

4/02/12

As my time in Norway is coming closer and closer to a close I figured I would write a little about it since I have no blog/internet access. To start off, I took a train from Lancaster to Manchester on March 26th. I stayed over at my Aussi friend Noelle's place in town because I had to get the early train at 8:27 am. This reduced stress by a lot; if it wasn't for the fact that I realized my phone charger was still on my desk in my room back at uni. There wasn't really any way I could get it, however we had a nice night after I finished my chemical oceanography lab and tried and failed to turn it in. We walked around the beautiful canal by chancellors wharf on the way to pick up a hide away bed for me to sleep on.

I made the train in the morning and felt really comfortable with everything because I had been on the same tracks many times throughout the semester up to that point.

I walked to the airport in no time because I had been in the very same place when I first arrived in the UK, I was retracing my steps. I weighed my bag since with ryan-air they seemed rather particular on the carry on bag dimensions and weight. I borrowed Hulda's (Norwegian climber) backpack since it was the perfect size for carry on. It weighed 7 kg and fit into the little metal sizer upper container easily. However, they didn't even check if our bags were the right weight or size which made me a little mad since I left out some things at Noelle's.

The flight was a joke. Advertisement central every 7 min. If you wanted to sleep it would have been impossible. The flight attendants were young, probably because this type of attending took all the energy out of you. I was surprised these guys still had a smile on by the end.

Once I was in Oslo Rygge I took a bus into town to Oslo S (which isn't south surprisingly). While on the bus a smile came to my face as I realized Norway looked just like Montana. The plants, trees, and landscape all looked like they were transplanted from my homeland.

I had 8 hours to kill before my nine hour train ride to Bergen, which is supposedly the most beautiful train ride in Norway. Too bad I rode it from 11 pm to 7 am, haha. I guess that's what I get for being cheap. I walked around Oslo, managed to find the rail station then wandered down the biggest street I saw so I wouldn't get lost. I went up and down a hill and the weather was perfect with a violin playing on one corner and a sax on another. That was the first out of many times I had heard the song danny boy being played during my trip, and it reminded me of home.

I got some dinner at a bakery--a delicious pesto scone and sat infront of a nice building people were taking pictures in front of. I took a snapshot of it since it looked important and continued on to another building that was at the end of the road. It looked even more important (turns out they were the parliament and palace of Norway).

 I still had some time to kill, so I went up to a nice overlook  by the seaside. It was here I noticed the seagulls heads were black and the noises were different than I was used to. They sounded like a babies crying/angry cats almost. The other birds sounded like they belonged in the jungle.

I finally made my way back to the rail station and tried to sleep a bit. I found it odd that you had to pay for the toilets there, it was pretty difficult to figure out if I don't say so myself. When I was at the manchester airport I bought the first hunger games book (don't laugh), too bad I finished it before my long train ride.

When in Oslo I was amazed by how many homeless were there. One man came up to everyone individually in the train station and asked for money I think. When he came up to me speaking Norwegian, I just said English and he put his hand on my shoulder, nodded, and kept going. There was another women across the room who I watched tell her life story to a middle-aged business man sitting by himself. He sat there for the longest time just listening, but the longer he listened, the more sympathetic he looked, and as he left for his train, he placed some krone in her hand. I really wanted to tell him what a kind heart he had because I would have expected someone like him to just get angry.

I got on the train and tried to sleep, but to no avail. The train seats were the least comfortable my whole trip. I was only able to sleep when I was curled up in a ball. The contrast of the lights from Oslo will be engrained in my memory. By the end of the train ride, I was exhausted. I got off the train in Bergen and was happy to see Monica, my friend, greet me with open arms at 7 am.

We took the skyline to her apartment and the first thing I noticed about Bergen were the colors. The houses were pained white, blue, yellow, and red with the occasional green. Almost all of them had white trim and all were made of wood opposed to stone, just like home : )

We got to her place and I took a nap. I loved the beds! Only a heavy duvet comforter, no other sheets, just how I like it. The cover was also just very long and narrow, so it covered a person perfectly and seemed heavier than a normal blanket.

The first day, we mainly explored Bergen. Kate (my flatmate from australia) was already at monicas.  It was a beautiful city nestled away in the mountains. I loved how the houses were built on the hillside seeming to frame the city. We walked around the Uni which was integrated into the city. It wasn't as impressive, but we made our way into the town from there. We saw some old houses/buildings made in the 1490s, and we sat in the sun at the end of a nice dock. We walked around more, made our way into some souvenir shops, and a kafe where we soaked in the sun a bit more (we were missing it in england).

For dinner we had pancakes (more like crepes) with blueberry sauce, which is only for pancakes, and waffles for dessert. We watched a doctor show called House I think, then went to bed after chatting with monica's dad a bit and booking my hostel in lofoten. Her house was so cute, white with green Norwegian decorations painted everywhere, an old stove, tall ceilings, old fireplace, and homey atmostphere. 

Monica is not one to let us rest, so we got up early the next morning and got on a coach to hangdanger to see a waterfall. For breakfast we had bread and hava flat bread with raspberry jam and butter, white cheese and brown cheese. I really like the flat bread rye crackers with white cheese and jam, but not so much the sweet brown cheese.

Kate and I slept on the way there because we were exhausted. The fjord was beautiful, it looked like a big lake and the whole time us three were discussing country differences. I felt like whenever I would say something about Norway we would argue for 30 min about nothing when I was just pointing out a difference, most of the time it was even liking the norway style better. I brought that up and we all laughed about how cultures process comments differently.

We walked a short while then sat on a dock where we probably weren't supposed to be overlooking the fjord. Then we continued on our way to the waterfall that was supposedly famous. I got a cheap hat at a shop there and then we got back on the bus to Bergen.

 I tried my hardest to stay awake to see the scenery this time, and it was well worth it. We passed 2 small ski lifts and would go in and out of "winter towns", it was magical almost. Granted, it looked just like Montana but everything was in the mountains instead of leaving them wild.

Before going back to Monica's we stopped at the grocery store so I had food for my traveling. The grocery stores in different countries all seem weird to me, but I'm getting used to seeing "weird" grocery stores if that makes any since. This was when I first noticed just how expensive Norway is. Everything is sold in NOK, the Norwegian Krone. THe coins have holes in the middle which is probably to make necklaces out of them. Seeing a price of 31 for a candy bar is pretty normal. 31 NOK is about 3.10 pounds and around 5 USD. It's hard for me to get used to a 10 or 20 krone coin, but that's only about 1 or 2 pounds. I got a loaf of bread and some white cheese for my next two days. The bread was sooooo good. It needed to be sliced in the store with a bread slicer and made me want my bread maker. This is bread I got in Lofoten later that needed to be sliced but there wasn't a bread slicer.

The whole time I was also looking for a phone charger, but failed. I did get a watch since my phone had to be kept off to conserve battery and my watch broke earlier on. We got back, had a quick homemade pizza, then played curling back in town. I wasn't very good, but my team did manage to win and my stones managed to score all of the points somehow.

I got up super early the next day to go to the train station. I got on the sky rail and it just so happened that the security guards checked passes that day. Good thing mine was in good working order : )

On thursday, March 29th, I got on the 7:58 am train to Oslo and I got to see the most beautiful train ride of my life. This was the train ride I was sleeping on earlier in my travels. The towns were white ski touring mecca towns of dreams. Myrid was one place that really sticks out in my mine; that's where a lot of skiers got on. The towns were up in the mountains and people actually lived there. Skiers of all sorts of sizes were getting off at regular intervals.

In Oslo I realized my phone screen had been cracked. I got to an internet cafe quickly before my train to Trondheim and told my mom I probably wouldn't be able to talk with her much. Good thing I never found a charger. haha.

We had to take a bus for the last hour of our way to Trondheim because there was an avalnche covering the track. I was skeptical I would make my next train to Bodo because it was a pretty tight connection. I made it though!! And I loved the train I had. It seemed super old and spacious somehow, but the people on it were all my age and looked like they were all just heading out for a weekend of skiing. I slept well on that train and arrived in Bodo in no time.

 The ferry left Bodo at 15:30 and I got there at 9:13, so I spent a little time wandering around feeling homeless. I managed to find a beautiful dock overlooking the sea where I took pictures of mountains in the distance and had my first realization that I was traveling alone. I drank my strawberry milk then decided to head to the ferry with 4 hours to spare since I was getting a little cold. 

The waiting building/souvenir shop looked to be closed, but a man outside pointed me to the only open door. Not too long after that, he came in as well and we started talking. I went to the bathroom and managed to get myself locked in a stall. And it was a full length, I couldn't crawl under or over, so I started banging the door and shouting but no one came. I managed to get out after 45 min of jiggling the handle and lock. The man said he heard some banging but thought the stall was just too small or something. More people showed up and we continued talking. it was nice to talk to someone, and he seemed like an alright guy, good english, dressed fair. But then he said that he was really enjoying this, and I assumed he meant talking to someone so I said good I'm glad. Then he said it makes it even more special that I knew, but it was bad and stupid because he'll end up getting wet. I told him I have a while before my ferry came and booked it out of there even though he asked me to stay for just one minute longer.

It was cold outside and Bodo isn't very inviting, so I went back to the train station until his ferry had left. My ferry came, and it was actually a really really beautiful inside. I sat by the window on the left and took some pictures of the Lofotens on our way in. 

When we arrived in Menenskus I had no idea what to do. I only knew I needed to get to  Å (pronounced ore kinda). I started following some people who didn't have cars, assuming they were going somewhere hostelish like me. I asked them where the bus station was and they turned me around. It was 20:00 so it was getting dark, but as I realized the next bus didn't come until 22 a lady appeared and introduced herself saying she's from the hostel. She and a colorful German couple I had met earlier were waiting in her nice warm car.

The hostel is above an old museum, so the building is grandfathered into an old building law. It's basically just really old. It was a beautiful overlook onto the sea, mountains surrounding, and the smell of fish like you wouldn't believe. The rocks here are some of the oldest on the planet, the tide is one of the strongest if not the strongest in the ocean, and the northern lights are seen at their brightest. I basically went straight to bed the first night because I had been utterly exhausted from all of the traveling.

Saturday March 31, I slept in a while, I didn't have much need to get up and I really needed sleep. I awoke at about 10, walked around  to places overlooking the sea, like the concrete strip and my favorite place overlooking Vaeroy island and a smaller one in the distance.


More to come when I have time : )