Norway in a Nutshell!

I am back in town, after a wonderful trip from Bergen through the Fjords of Norway and back to Oslo. It was a really nice long weekend together with A., which was extremely needed!

The long weekend started on Friday after work. I went home, packed the rest of my stuff, had some dinner and made my way to the airport here in Oslo. I took the flight to Bergen, where I waited at the airport for A. to arrive. She came from Stockholm and while waiting for her I just realized, how jet-set we are; I come from Oslo, she comes from Stockholm, we are meeting at the airport in Bergen for a long weekend. I think the only way how it could be even more jet-set, if the cities would be New York, London and Tokyo instead.

 

Anyways, we met up after, what felt like an eternity, and went together to Bergen City by bus. We checked into the hotel and just quickly went up to the room to leave our stuff. 

A. had been out the night before, had been hungover the whole day and was craving for any kind of food. So we walked to the center and decided to go to Peppe's Pizza, since everything else was already closed.

The next morning we slept as long as we could to still get some breakfast. We had lazy breakfast with many different things and were sitting long and just talking. We eventually went out and walked along Marken to the city and the harbor. 

 

We made our way to the lower terminus of the Fløibanen funicular and took it up to the top of Mount Fløyen, from where we had a wonderful view over the city.

Although it was quite cold, we were really lucky with the weather, since it is mostly raining in Bergen. Not without reason the chapter about Bergen in my RoughGuide starts like this:

As it has been raining ever since she arrived in the city, a tourist stops a young boy and asks him if it always rains here. "I don't know," he replies, "I'm only thirteen."

Although the joke is not very good, it seems to be some kind of a truth, since everybody who I talked to beforehand told me to bring rainproof clothing.

Anyways, we enjoyed the view and since A. got a bit of "altitude sickness" we started to walk down to the city center. On the way we walked through a beautiful forest, from whose clearings we had good views towards the city and the small archipelago before Bergen. 

We walked through steep streets with nice wooden houses back to the center. We stopped by the famous Bryggen Wharf and then walked back to the hotel, since it was getting already dark and even colder. After a short nap and some relaxed time, we went to town to have dinner.

 

The next day started early. We had to catch the train at 8.40 to go onto the Norway in a Nutshell Tour. This tour is one of the most famous tourist routes in Norway and shows basically every kind of landscape you can expect in this country; beautiful cities, narrow fjords and barren mountain tops. The  tour can be done in various ways and versions, but we decided to take one, which goes from Bergen to Oslo. 

We traveled from Bergen by train along the fjord to Voss, changed there to a bus, which brought us over scenic mountain roads to Gudvangen. In Gudvangen we embarked a 2-hour fjord cruise to the fjord village of Flåm.

 

Flåm is Norway's only fjord village with train connection, the world famous Flåmsbana. We stayed there and this had been the right decision. 

Not only was it getting dark, but also were we, both A. and I, so overwhelmed by the impressions, that we simply couldn't take more. The landscape is amazing and the views are just impressive and breathtaking.

The afternoon in Flåm we spend relaxing. After a short walk through the village, which is purely focused on the masses of tourists coming there every summer, we had a snack in the cafe of the hotel and went then to the room. 

We had a nap and were relaxing in the room. When we went out again we realized, that we were about the only people in Flåm. The hotels were empty and we were the only guests in the restaurant in the evening. It was kinda scary, but on the other hand extremely relaxing.

The next morning we slept long. Our train was leaving at 11.30 and since we were the only guests in the hotel we had decided to have breakfast at 10 in the morning. This was nice for the staff, since they also could sleep longer. In the breakfast room we were again the only guests and were enjoying again a large buffet. Although there was nobody else, the hotel had prepared a lot of different kinds of food for us. It was really nice!

We took the Flåmsbana all the way to Myrdal. It was passing through wild and beautiful mountain scenery with waterfalls and steep mountain sides. The only drawback was, that the waterfalls were all frozen and the sites were not quite living up to the expectations created by the impressive pictures we had seen before.

Kjosfossen normally and how we saw it!

Anyways, it was a nice ride and it continued to be nice after changing the train in Myrdal. The Bergen Railway took us over the mountain tops with Finse on 1.222m as the highest point to Oslo. The 5-hour journey we spend talking, sleeping and drinking disgusting coffee. However, it was a wonderful time and I really enjoyed this trip with A. 

As I said before, we both really needed the time together. Luckily I had not only the Monday, but also the Tuesday off and so we could spend some quality time together in Oslo. This morning I went to work and A. packed her stuff and left after a short visit at my office. She is now going back to Stockholm and from there - after a one night stop over - back to Finland.

I will be here for 3 more weeks and will make the best out of it. After such a nice trip and such a good time with A. it was hard to start working again. Although it felt good to be back and to see all the other people again. I really like the office and my colleagues. I can't wait fro Friday, though, when my colleague L. invited a few people for dinner at her place.

This weekend was really nice and I can just recommend this country to everybody. It was nice to go off season, since I know the masses of people going on this tour during summer. It was nice, but sometimes a bit too quiet. More shops should have been open and more activities should have been offered. I reckon the best time to go to the fjords is the spring. I didn't see everything and this is good. There is no must-see in any place of the world, just relax and see some sights and soak in the atmosphere, you can always come back at some point!

~M~