Thursday, June 3, 2010

June 2nd- Norway in a Nutshell



Norway in a Nutshell is a way to get around the country while seeing the most important sites Norway has to offer. You use 3 methods of transportation: train, bus, and boat, ....followed by 2 more trains.

At the Bergen train station we met another mother-daughter travel team from Minnesota! Really nice- Cathy and Karrie. The train to Voss was short and really let us see the little villages/towns along the coasts/islands of Bergen. The ocean was beautiful and it was great to drink coffee and wake up a bit.

At Voss we got on a bus- probably close to the craziest transportation ride I have ever received. Drive crazy fast up this hill only to see at the top the most gorgeous view ever. Right away, however, we started going down hairpin turns seriously. From the picture you can see the valley below. Yep, we kept taking sharp left and right turns over and over to get to the bottom. All along there are beautiful things to look at all to get to the famous World Heritage Site of the Sognefjord.

We got on our boat, the Skagastol Folro, in the town Gudvangen. We dumped our luggage and found seats with our new friends. Can you even really put into words the sites? It felt so peaceful....when you werent looking at the 1,000 cameras everywhere, or the Asians throwing bread for the loud seagulls, or a little kids singing as loud as possible. But seriously, for the most part it was amazing. I can't imagine how they even built the houses at the top of the mountain with the steepest drop offs! It was a two hour boat ride. I hope you like the picture! The best part was other then the few villages, the nature is completely untouched by humans. So nice to see that once in a while. There are a zillion waterfalls. I have way too many pictures of waterfalls.

We got off the boat in Flam and ate a great soup lunch with the travel buddies. The train to Mydral was really cute and wooden. The biggest waterfall ever is called the Kjosfossen. They had this old Norwegian folk fairy woman doing her dance- funniest thing ever!

At Mydral we had like a 2 hour wait so we just saw and chatted with Cathy and Karrie. Then the train to Oslo was like 4-5 hours. That is really long.....we sat with a really old couple from Norway. Learned a few things and overall just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

Once we got to Oslo, the scariest most un-fun part of travel exists. When you have no idea where you are or how to get there. I knew the Hostel we were staying at but from the location we didnt have a lot of help to find it. But thank the Lord above we met nice people and found eventually the hostel. We are sharing the room with two 21 year old's from Germany. We are getting along fine.

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