Category: Norway

Day three in Norway was reserved for a full day train and boat tour of the mountains and fjords near Bergen.

The trip started much before sunrise and started with a train ride from Bergen to the ski town of Voss. The mountains were large and looming when they peaked out from behind clouds and tunnels.

It kind of sucked because people were being very greedy about window seats, so the three of us ended up sitting on adjacent aisle seats in between a family of four who had laid claim to all four window seats in the section. Pretty rude. I returned the rudeness by shoving my phone in their faces to take pictures.

We arrived in Voss, still cloaked in darkness, and boarded a bus to Gudvangen.

I’m tellin’ you, man. This bus ride was something else. The sun crept up slowly as we crept higher into the mountains and the cold. Soon everything was cloaked in snow, and it was like we’d been transported to a winter wonderland fit for fairy tales.

The five of us had the whole back row of the bus to ourselves, so it was our turn to be greedy and take advantage of our all-angles window views.

When we arrived in Gudvangen, we took the liberty of playing and exploring outside.

We spied on this little hotel that we will likely return to someday. All the beds were covered in furs.

Cannot emphasize enough how gorgeous this place was.

Jonathan played the most… Hahaha.

And then we headed inside for some foods before our boat arrived.

But mostly, we did it for the cool viking chairs.

And then it was on to the most gorgeous boat ride of my entire life…

But that will come in the next post because all these beautiful pictures are taking up too much space in this blog post! WordPress actually cannot handle the beauty. Stay tuned, y’all.

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Whichever day of the week this was, it was lazy like the best kind of Sunday. We’d purchased the Bergen Card for each of us, a card which allowed us free entry to most of the main attractions in the city along with free public transportation in the area. We were reserving our last day in Norway for some sort of fjord tour, so we planned this day to do all of the interesting things our cards could get access to.

But the house was just so cooooozzzyyy…

My mom woke us up around ten, and though it was hard to get out of bed, it was even harder to leave the living room. The view was so amazing!

I made us all the breakfast I ate everyday when I studied in Denmark: plain yogurt with chopped up apples (and this time I added raspberries and bananas) with muesli (soft granola) mixed in. We kicked back and enjoyed the sunrise, hopping between the balcony and the couch when we got cold. It was marvelous.

We finally did get the motivation to leave around noon, and we headed over the Gamle Bergen, an open air museum which is supposed to depict life in Bergen some two hundred years ago. Because we were visiting in the off season, the buildings were closed, and there were no character actors wandering around to answer questions. It was still adorable though, and we wandered around on our own for a while.

My mom had a very lively conversation with some geese because she a little cray..

And then we climbed a little hill to watch the beginnings of a sunset. (There really isn’t much daylight to go around this time of year.)

My mom also found a swing!!

Then more sunsetting…

And more exploring…

Then on to Bryggen, a colorful little street similar to Copenhagen’s Nyhavn in terms of fame.

We also marveled at this amazing building that actually turned out to just be a Starbucks.

I’m 99% certain it didn’t start out that way. That’s just kind of what happens in these old cities sometimes. Churches get taken over by Starbucks, four star restaurants taken over by McDonald’s, etc. etc.

Then it was time to ride up the Fløibanen Funicular! A funicular is somewhere between a train and an elevator in that it rides up on tracks, but the path it takes is so steep that the vehicle itself is redesigned at an oddly steep angle to better fit the slope, and it just goes straight up the mountain without messing with switchbacks or climbing all the way around and up.

It was a lot of fun, and the view of Bergen was beautiful. Jonathan kept saying he didn’t really care about what was up top and that he only wanted to experience the funicular itself, but, to no surprise, once we got to the top, he didn’t want to leave.

The town down in Bergen was cold and dry, but after only half the ride on the funicular, we started seeing snow and ice along the pathway. Up at the top, it was nothing but snow and ice. Like a magical teleporter train to a different world.

There were bunches of people riding up the funicular carrying skinny cross country skis, and all the kids were in little snowsuits.

Plus, the view was just breathtaking.

And there was a playground! Whoop whoop!

We also climbed this wheel thing that used to be an actual driving wheel for the funicular.

We found this out-of-season rope and zipline course…

And a troll!

More sunsets. (It was a long sunset… Haha.)

And the ride down…

We were hungry when we got to the bottom, so we stopped at a little tapas restaurant and ordered a few yummy dishes.

We’d planned on going to the aquarium, but we ran out of time while eating because everything in Bergen closed at three or four. The aquarium was the second-latest attraction available (closed at six), but we were a little too cozy in the restaurant, and it took about 25 minutes to get across town to the aquarium.

We wandered instead…

Over to the art museum, the latest attraction in Bergen…

Then we stopped for some unreasonably delicious hot chocolate before finally heading back to the house after a busy day.

We were all quite sleepy, but we had to stay up to book our fjord tour. It could have been all-inclusively booked at the tourism center, but we decided to book it ourselves in pieces to save the moneys. (Also the tourist office was closed by the time we could get there. Haha.)

Once all that was settled, we slumped to bed to prepare for an early and eventful morning the next day. Stay tuned for next time.

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

We had an early morning to get to the airport for our flight to Bergen, but that didn’t stop us from visiting Lagkagehuset twice before boarding!

The view from the plane was gorgeous in its own right. Snow-capped mountains and fjords galore!

The airport was also rather entertaining…

Downtown Bergen was positively adorable.

And the view from our Airbnb was just silly.

We dropped off our things and met our wonderful (and tall) host, Reine. He was a friendly, smiley teacher who loves to travel, and he was so kind about getting our place ready for us. His house was so cute, split between his area and ours. (His area could be considered a mother-in-law.)

We had the top of the house, considering of two bedrooms, a gigantic and comfy living room, a balcony with sweeping views of the water, and a bathroom and kitchen.

It was hard to say goodbye, but back to the city we went.

We weren’t exploring long before we got cold and hungry enough to settle down in a little Thai restaurant by the water.

Somewhere along here, Jonathan got it in his head that he needed an authentic Norwegian sweater. It had to be red, blue, and white with a zipper, and it had to be magnificent. Luckily, there was a six-story shopping center in the middle of downtown, and we set off in search of The Perfect Sweater.

We were about to give up hope, when I saw The Perfect Sweater in the very back corner of what Jonathan had deemed ‘the last store.’ It wasn’t cheap, but it was on sale for 50% off, and it was beautifulllll (his word, not mine).

The price made him hesitate, but I could see how much he wanted it. Might as well try it on, in my opinion.

I think he checked himself out for at least ten minutes. Finally, the following conversation took place:

Me: If you bought it, would you wear it tomorrow?

Him (instantly): Yes.

Me: If you didn’t get it, would you be thinking about it tomorrow?

Him (chuckling in defeat): Yes.

It was decided then. The pretty Norwegian store clerk cut the tags for him so he could wear it out of the store, and the big reveal to my mom was quite entertaining.

We had a last look at the mall through the floor of a glass bridge…

And then it was back to the Airbnb after some grocery shopping.

Our place really was so cute.

And I was positively pooped. Somehow being in the house was so relaxing though, so we all hung out in the living room for about three hours before actually going to sleep. Silly mistakes. We mostly spent our time marvelling the views and discussing the plausibility of moving here.

Stay tuned to find out if we bought the house in the end! Until next time…

(I’m going to stick to my Danish farewell since the Norwegians and the Danes can understand each other anyway.)

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Trondheim, my dear mother (and father), is a tiny little place that is forgotten by all, somewhere in the near-middle of Norway. It is the third largest city of Norway, but that really isn’t saying much, seeing as how Oslo is the only city that matters (kind of like how Reykjavik is the only real city in Iceland). No offense to Trondheim. But this was the first out-of-Denmark-non-tourist-site I’ve been to, and it was a little unnerving to be unable to find souvenirs!

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Needless to say, because it was such a small, quiet, cold, rainy, dark town (sun sets around three pm), it was hard to get much done. Add that to the fact that I was tired (still am), and you get a full week of basically nothing. Mrp. I’m fine with it!

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Nidaros Cathedral, built between 1070 (?!?!) and the 13oo’s, burned down in pieces during several fires, and reconstructed to its original fourteenth-century glory between 1869 and 1969. Crazy stuff. It was also built on the tomb of St. Olav. He is important. But I am not sure why.

View from the back

More pretty angles!

Old Town and the bridge that gives couples a year of good luck for every time they cross together- we only crossed twice. Whoops!

Some pretty river views near Old Town

Trondheim’s own little Nyhavn

Shopping district (Jackson experienced his very first shopping spree and has since been nerding-out over his new hip clothes. What a nerd.)

Okay. This obelisk has a cool story, to be continued after the next picture.

Apparently this is the track they use for summer skiing races. Because it is Noway and that is just what you do in the middle of downtown in Scandinavia, apparently.

My first European rainbow! Jackson had to head up to class, so I stayed downtown in search of a souvenir shop. I was unsuccessful, but I did find this little gem, a lot of rain, a lot of second-hand stores, and a sweater from Denmark that had a tandem bike stitched onto the back. I would have gotten it if it hadn’t been an extra large!

A dinner for champions, home-cooked by Uncle Ben. (The salad was all me.)

A hike up to the second campus in a rare bout of sunshine

The chocolate milk is actually insane in Trondheim.

A late-night walk along the river. Oh wait. Just kidding. It was actually about 4:15pm.

Another baby hike/walk on my last day. We spent most of our time watching a dog, four boys under the age of nine, and a dad try to kick a soccer ball back and forth on a hillside. Much falling occurred.

That sculpture thing again in the middle of downtown. So cool!

This is how Trondheim airport works. I felt like Madonna or something.

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And then I flew home! But wait. I didn’t talk about the things we didn’t photograph:

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On Thursday, we got together with Brian and Sofia from UW for a little reunion, and we ate at a Thai restaurant with those wonderful sunken tables before watching Spectre in the theaters. Norwegian movie theaters are even more expensive than those in the States, and you have to reserve seats ahead of time like in the actual theater. So strange.

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On Saturday, I got to meet all of Jackson’s friends, the Dutchies and the Germans! (He only knows one Norwegian. Funny how that works.) We went to dinner in the city and came back for some good old-fashioned Catan, and I creamed them all. Jackson was my side-kick. But they were all super nice, and Koen, one of the Dutchies, is letting us stay in his Netherlands apartment when we visit in a few weeks! Yippee!!! Jackson’s roommates were also total sweethearts. Aranka (Belgian) is even part of a Charleston dance group at NTNU. And Yannick (German) is a mechanical engineer, just like yours truly. How can you ask for anything better?

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Jackson’s little apartment/house is positively perfect for college living, and he pays a fraction of the price that I’ll have to pay for something much less wonderful once I get back to Seattle. Each room has a downstairs, a way-too-steep-and-would-probably-never-pass-safety-laws-in-Washington staircase, and a loft bedroom. However, all the houses look slightly distorted and short, despite their two stories, because the slope of the roof starts right after the first floor and makes a really steep triangle up to the sleeping area. Maximal use of space! Genius. Why do we not do these things?

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But my favorite part of Trondheim was that everybody understood my Dorwegian. That is my personal rendition of Danish with some Norwegian flairs thrown in here and there. Seriously! It was amazing! I felt so cool and Nordic. In Denmark, even if I try to speak Danish, Danes will switch to English without hesitation. It’s disheartening and makes me doubt my Danish skills, and therefore I rarely put them to use (despite my Danish final which is apparently next week. *sigh). But in Trondheim, both in the city and on my flights with Norwegian, they responded in Norwegian every time! Twice, on the plane and in the store, a lady began talking to me in English, but when I responded in Dorwegian, they switched to Norwegian! IT WAS THE GREATEST.

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Okay. I think that about sums up my Trondheim adventures. Oh, and I just realized I forgot to include a single picture on this post that contains my face or Jackson’s. So here you go:

Model status in the woods.

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Venlig hilsen/ best regards/ Vennlig hilsen,

Lizzy-wa