God tur!

On Monday morning, I got up early and strapped on my new backpack (Thanks, dad! It's been really handy ...) to meet my friends at the t-bane station. We arrived at Jernbanetorget at ten til eight, and I commented to Lisa that I was surprised to find that downtown is even there before 8 in the morning. Later, I would discover that it's there before 7 too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We picked up our delightfully cheap tickets from the ticket office, whereupon we were informed that there had been a derailment in the night (just what we wanted to hear!), and that we would have to take busses for part of the journey. Whatever, we weren't in any hurry.

The train trip wasn't quite as nice as the one in September, because it's snowier and foggier and generally gloomier now than it was then. But it was nice to climb up into the mountains in the middle of the country and see the snow and desolation. I know the mountains in Norway aren't very high, but the little huts scattered in the snow around the train station with the wind blowing and the sky looking all heavy and white and the lakes nearly disappearing in to the snow made them look like the highest peaks in the world. My ears popping every two seconds may have added to that impression. If you don't know already, Norway slopes up one side and down the other. In fact, the country is basically two enormous hillsides, one sloping east and the other west. So when you travel from Oslo to Bergen, you are basically pulled slowly up a mountain for four hours and then dropped down the other side for another four. But "the other side" (that is, the western part) is where the real fjords are. The slopes are much more dramatic and far away you can see these tiny streams turning into waterfalls and dropping many many meters down to the ocean. It almost gives you butterflies in your stomach just looking at it.

We arrived in Bergen at about 4 o'clock, which means it's pretty much dark already. We set out to find a hostel, and, on the walk there, commented on how much cuter the architecture is there.

Lots of wood and fun colors and fairy tale shapes. Some of the streets looked like the sets for a play, they were so miniature and jaunty-looking. After checking in at the cleanest hostel I've ever seen, we went looking for a restaurant and, later on, a pub.(The directions to which we got from a group of guys who appeared to be leaving off band practice for the night and gave the most vague and ridiculous -- and, turns out, inaccurate) directions I've ever received. At the pub, we spent a surprisingly long amount of time being wildly entertained by playing a game with free association.

The next day, we left our backpacks in lockers at the train station and went looking for the fish market. It was a little small that day, maybe because it's not tourist season anymore, but it was interesting. I ate a very small bite of whale meat. I'm horrified to report that it was delicious.

We did a little souvenir shopping and explored the harbor. I also snapped a photo of my new lover and muse, Snorri Sturluson:


Then we took the Fløibanen, which is a near vertical railway going up the side of one of the 7 mountains surrounding Bergen. We spent some time admiring the view from the top, and I made a new friend.

The consensus on Bergen seemed to be that it seemed a little more student-friendly and culturally interesting than Oslo. Lots of little odd-ball shops and pubs and much less homogeneous commercialism. (I.E. fewer H&Ms). Quite a few bands playing too. (Including the Newsboys! Score!) I'm sure the suburbs outside the city would have given us a different view, but downtown was definitely nice. We spent the rest of the day walking our legs off, and then went back to catch the night train back to Oslo.

Sleeping upright is definitely not my first idea of a good time, but it was an interesting experience. Particularly when a voice came over the loudspeaker at 2:30am, telling us we had to load onto busses AGAIN, and then get back on the train at a later stop. I had taken my contacts out and forgotten my glasses, so I had to be led around in the wind and snow to even find the bus. That was surreal. We got back into Oslo at 6:30am, which gave me just enough time to take the train back to my dorm room, change clothes and get to campus for my 8:15 class. Other than feeling a little nausceous and being unable to answer the questions anyone posed to me, that went fine. And that afternoon, I got to take full advantage of the little sleeping mask I had gotten on the train when I lay down for a well-deserved nap.