Planes, Trains and Boats
Ok, so now I'm home, I can give you the full story from my trip, as I'm not paying exhorbitant prices for internet!
We left Aarhus on Sunday night at 10:30pm, arriving at London Stansted at 11:30pm. Our flight to Oslo wasn't until 6:30am on Monday, so sleeping in the airport occurred - as planned! And for those who think it's strange to fly out of Scandanavia to fly back in, it is, however it's about a third of the price, so worth the extra effort!
We had blankets and jumpers, so we were ok, however we were in a slight draft, so not the best sleep ever - we arrived in Oslo quite groggy! Once we found our hostel, we couldn't check in til 3pm, annoying as it was 12pm, so we changed and went to see the sights!
We went to the Munch Museet, which is the museum created when Edvard Munch, the Norweigan artist, died and left all his stuff to Oslo. His most famous work is 'The Scream' (see us imitating it below!), which he did about 3 paintings of, luckily, as the one at the museum has been stolen, so there's only a sketch there! We discovered later in the week that an actual painting of it is at the National Gallery, but more on that later!
We then wandered around, checked in, then wandered the streets of Oslo, up to the Palace, the Parliament and the University, all lovely old buildings. Oslo itself, however, didn't appear that nice, as there were lots of homeless ppl, and it was quite dirty. Also, the guy checking us in at the hostel was most unhelpful, which can certainly affect your experience of a place!
My most exciting thing, however, was buying my knee high, purple, lace up gumboots - I have been tracking them all through Denmark, but they didn't have my size, however they did have them in Oslo, so the city immediately seemed brighter! These boots will certainly be exceedingly practical in the rainy mass that is Aarhus!
After an early dinner and an early night's sleep, we caught the train to Bergen on Tuesday. This train ride, although lasting 7 hours, was just lovely, as it wound up very steep slopes, past glaciers, waterfalls and lots of amazing rugged scenery - a very enjoyable way to get across the country!
Bergen is a lovely city, old buildings, and a really nice feel to it - the hostel guy was nice, people seemed very friendly, and the city itself, and where we were staying, very close to the harbour, is just gorgeous.
Another early night, cos we had to be on the boat at 8am on Wed! Which we managed quite well, and had an awesome day for my 25th birthday. We started on an express boat, which took us through the widest fjord, which is about 200 km across, and just has great scenery. Then we switched boats mid-fjord (literally, another boat stopped alongside us, and we crossed a gangplank!), to go through the Noerefjord, which is World Heritage listed, and is the narrowest fjord. It was just amazing, like being in 'Lord of the Rings', sailing slowly through these massive mountains, with glaciers and waterfalls on either side - absolutely gorgeous! The pictures certainly don't do it justice, but it was just wonderful!
After that, we stopped at a place called Gudvangen, then took a coach up a very steep road, with 13 bends, so steep that the bus was almost vertical at some points! More amazing scenery, then a stop at the top to look at the beautiful mountains in the distance - words don't really do it justice!
Then back down the other side, then a train back to Bergen - lots of different types of transport! We then went out for dinner for my birthday, to an American steakhouse (which seems a strange choice, but I haven't had proper red meat since I left Sydney, it feels, so it was great to get a huge steak!) The place was really nice, actually, and the waitresses even surprised me with a huge icecream dessert for my birthday - so nice!
We were all too tired to go out, so we went to bed! This post is quite long, so I will do the rest in another post :-)
We left Aarhus on Sunday night at 10:30pm, arriving at London Stansted at 11:30pm. Our flight to Oslo wasn't until 6:30am on Monday, so sleeping in the airport occurred - as planned! And for those who think it's strange to fly out of Scandanavia to fly back in, it is, however it's about a third of the price, so worth the extra effort!
We had blankets and jumpers, so we were ok, however we were in a slight draft, so not the best sleep ever - we arrived in Oslo quite groggy! Once we found our hostel, we couldn't check in til 3pm, annoying as it was 12pm, so we changed and went to see the sights!
We went to the Munch Museet, which is the museum created when Edvard Munch, the Norweigan artist, died and left all his stuff to Oslo. His most famous work is 'The Scream' (see us imitating it below!), which he did about 3 paintings of, luckily, as the one at the museum has been stolen, so there's only a sketch there! We discovered later in the week that an actual painting of it is at the National Gallery, but more on that later!
We then wandered around, checked in, then wandered the streets of Oslo, up to the Palace, the Parliament and the University, all lovely old buildings. Oslo itself, however, didn't appear that nice, as there were lots of homeless ppl, and it was quite dirty. Also, the guy checking us in at the hostel was most unhelpful, which can certainly affect your experience of a place!
My most exciting thing, however, was buying my knee high, purple, lace up gumboots - I have been tracking them all through Denmark, but they didn't have my size, however they did have them in Oslo, so the city immediately seemed brighter! These boots will certainly be exceedingly practical in the rainy mass that is Aarhus!
After an early dinner and an early night's sleep, we caught the train to Bergen on Tuesday. This train ride, although lasting 7 hours, was just lovely, as it wound up very steep slopes, past glaciers, waterfalls and lots of amazing rugged scenery - a very enjoyable way to get across the country!
Bergen is a lovely city, old buildings, and a really nice feel to it - the hostel guy was nice, people seemed very friendly, and the city itself, and where we were staying, very close to the harbour, is just gorgeous.
Another early night, cos we had to be on the boat at 8am on Wed! Which we managed quite well, and had an awesome day for my 25th birthday. We started on an express boat, which took us through the widest fjord, which is about 200 km across, and just has great scenery. Then we switched boats mid-fjord (literally, another boat stopped alongside us, and we crossed a gangplank!), to go through the Noerefjord, which is World Heritage listed, and is the narrowest fjord. It was just amazing, like being in 'Lord of the Rings', sailing slowly through these massive mountains, with glaciers and waterfalls on either side - absolutely gorgeous! The pictures certainly don't do it justice, but it was just wonderful!
After that, we stopped at a place called Gudvangen, then took a coach up a very steep road, with 13 bends, so steep that the bus was almost vertical at some points! More amazing scenery, then a stop at the top to look at the beautiful mountains in the distance - words don't really do it justice!
Then back down the other side, then a train back to Bergen - lots of different types of transport! We then went out for dinner for my birthday, to an American steakhouse (which seems a strange choice, but I haven't had proper red meat since I left Sydney, it feels, so it was great to get a huge steak!) The place was really nice, actually, and the waitresses even surprised me with a huge icecream dessert for my birthday - so nice!
We were all too tired to go out, so we went to bed! This post is quite long, so I will do the rest in another post :-)
posted by Laura B @ 5:47 pm
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