Bergen, Oslo
“Vah-shah-da?” “Ing-a ting ting-a ling.” That’s how one says “how are you” and “good, thank you” in Norwegian. Well, at least that’s how it sounded to me and my friends. I returned earlier this week from a 6 day jaunt to Norway. Why Norway, you ask. Well, my friends Samantha, Amy, and Natalia were going to visit some friends, and they were nice enough to let me tag along. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect prior to leaving. Would it be frigidly cold? Would everyone be blond and blue-eyed? No to the former. And a big resounding YES to the latter.
We flew into Oslo for the first leg of our trip. The boys were extremely nice and took us out on a boat to show us the sights of Oslo. Thankfully we had perfect weather during the course of our Scandavian adventures.
The next two days we spent half-heartedly touring Oslo. We somehow always woke up later than we intended so most museums and others were closed by the time we made it downtown. We did make it to a park. It was without a doubt the oddest park I had ever seen. Naked statues everywhere. It's called Vigeland Sculpture Park, created by Gustav Vigeland. But EVERYONE (in Norway) IS BLOND. AND SUPER TALL. That is all.
A tower of naked people? Only in Oslo...
We mostly had an okay, no great time hanging out together. Norway is super expensive. I believe they told me it is the most expensive country in the world. THE world. So, we tried to save money by eating in and…going to the student bar. Cheaper drinks that way! Oh, and we also bought Viking hats. VIKING HATS! We looked great.
Just a regular night
The main reason for visiting Norway was to take a trek to see the fjords and the Northern Lights. We saw the fjords but no Northern Lights. But in any case, it was worth it. In total we spent about 18 or so hours on our fjord trip. We took a 7 hour train to Bergen from Oslo. And then a day-trip on a train, another train, a boat, a bus, and…another train. Oh, and another train back to Oslo. This was done in 3 days so don’t worry, we found time to sleep. We also found time to not pay for our hostel in Bergen. It was great.
