Trains, Busses, and Boats!

Hi everyone, It is Sunday evening and I just returned from a weekend in Bergen on the west coast of Norway. Get ready-I have alot to tell about! It was a great but exhausting weekend that started last Thursday night when we got on the train to Bergen at 11:30 p.m. All 15 classmates went, and also Hanne, one of our Norwegian friends who is a former UND exchange student. The train was a sleepless night of sore necks. I think I slept for an hour at most. They gave us blankets and eye masks since it's only dark for about 2 hours but it was still hard to sleep. The scenery outside the train was amazing anyway-it's a good thing I didn't miss too much of it. We started in green, hilly Oslo and went into the mountains. At one point I woke up and looked outside and there were no trees and snow all around. We were at a high altitude among glaciers! Then the train descended again and we arrived in Bergen at 7:30 am. Everyone was very tired and stiff, and we couldn't check into our Hostel until 2 pm! We were able to eat breakfast and store our bags there though.

Bergen is a popular city for tourists. It is beautiful-the way people imagine Norway to look. There was a fish market which I tried to avoid. I'm not a huge fan of the smell of seafood! There is also a row of famous buildings. In 1360, a group of Germnas called the Hansa founded the Hanseatic League in Bergen. The Hanseatic League was a trading guild in Northern Europe. When it came to Bergen, thousands of Germans moved there. These buildings have burned and been restored a few times so they are not the original ones from medievil times. However, they are still over 300 years old (last rebuilt in 1702).

This wooden man was on the side of a building. There is no story behind it that I know of. I just like it!

This weekend was my first Hostel experience and it was a good one. I've heard that most places aren't as nice as where we stayed. It had a courtyard with a little cafe and a bar (of course!) There was a dorm room big enough for all 16 of us to stay together! What a weekend it was-I felt like I was at summer camp and I really enjoyed it! The room was filled with bunk beds and the bathrooms were shared with the other guests. They weren't bad because they were individual rooms with either showers or toilets. After we moved our bags in and made the beds most people went to sleep for awhile. Then we ate and hung out around the hostel and played cards and drank. Nothing too stressful!

Saturday was an exciting day. Hanne had a day on the fjords planned for us. We took 2 hour train ride to Flom, where we got on another train. According to the website, it is one of the most beautiful rail lines in the world. That is not an understatement. The train wound in and out of tunnels. At some places, you could look straight down outside the window and into steep canyons. There were waterfalls everywhere. There was a river and it was so clear that you could see rocks at the bottom from the train! It was a turquoise color.

At one point, the train stopped at this waterfall so we could get out and see it. You can't see it, but there was music playing and a dancer performing for hte amusement of us tourists. The performance was based on the Huldra. Hulrda are characters in scandinavian folklore. According to my internet research, the story says that they are witches who lure men into the forest for sexual reasons. They reward those who satisfy them. For example, they would enchant a hunters gun so it would never miss a shot. If they weren't satisfied, she would take a man's sanity.

There was more to come. After the train ride, we got on a boat that took us on a 2 hour cruise in a fjord. It is hard to explain how beautiful it was. The water was turquoise and glassy. The cliffs went straight up on either side, and there were waterfalls everywhere we looked. It is the time of year when the flowering trees are blooming, and they are everywhere. We could smell the flowers on the boat. Church attendance in Norway is low. Critics would blame this on the state religion being Lutheran ;) One morning after class, one of our Norwegian lecturers asked if we had been into the woods or the mountains yet. He said that to Norwegians, the woods were thier church-referring to the spiritual feeling he gets. After this weekend, nothing makes more sense than that.

The only negative part about the boat was that some passengers fed a few seagulls and soon a flock was following us, cawing and swooping around. Some of birds actually grabbed food out of peoples' hands and they acted like it was a huge novelty to see seagulls. Those birds fight with each other over dirty garbage and other dead birds and fish and poop all over everything and people were encouraging them to swoop around! I was afraid their feces would get on me. In this picture you can see the seagulls.

Hanne had reserved our boat ride at an earlier time, but it was moved later because Queen Sonja, the Norwegian queen, was going to be on the fjord that day. Towards the end of the cruise, there was an announcement that we would be passing the royal yacht. It was preceded and followed by small boats with guards and a police boat. When the boats passed each other, a staff person on our boat lowered the flag. Apparently, it is a sign of respect to the king and queen. We could see people on the deck but I couldn't tell which one was Queen Sonja. Notice the color of the water and the waterfall on the right side. I've never seen anything like it.

After we left the boat, we got on a bus that drove us up a steep and winding mountain road that curved back and forth up a steep mountain. It was hair-raising! I compare the feeling to the feeling of mowing sideways on a hill. Similar to the train, you could look out the window and be looking straight down a cliff. At the top of the mountain we stopped at a hotel and checked out the view.
The World Cup for soccer is happening this month in Germany and everyone is crazy over it. I had no idea when the World Cup was and I have almost no experience with soccer. It is huge here! During the games, they don't have commericials or anything. The evening consisted of drinking Hansa (a beer brewed in Bergen and named for the Hansa that was described above) and watching soccer or playing cards. It was like a mix of undergrad before I turned 21, bible camp (minus the devotions) and high school. We would sneak into the room to have some offsale then return to the grown up world. We went out to a student pub where everyone looked like teenagers and probably were!

This morning we got on the train to ride back to Oslo. Summer has finally arrived and it has been really nice outside. Unfortunately, the train wasn't air-conditioned and the greenhouse effect caused it to get very hot in the cars. By early afternoon everyone was shedding clothing and rolling up there pants. The atmosphere was lethargic and lazy. I spent two hours in the dining car eating a popcicle and drinking warm soda. The ice cream freezer sold out of treats! We were almost to Oslo when the train stopped because of engine problems! We made it to Oslo before it quit working in the tunnel a few blocks from Oslo Central Station! Another engine had to come and pull us. It sounds like an unpleasant experience, but it is something I will remember with a smile. My classmates are so funny and we laughed and joked and made fun of our sweaty selves the whole time. However, I was very relieved to get to my room and clean my sticky self!

Here are a few more pictures:

McNasty (also known as McDonalds) is everywhere in Norway just like in the U.S. This is one of the most unique ones I've seen. The food, however, was not unique! By the way, I don't really think it's "nasty". I think it's delicious!

This was taken in the courtyard at the hostel. Look at that hill!

That's all for now. My trip is starting to fly by-it's half over now. I can't wait to see you all again! I wish everyone could have been here for the trip to Bergen. The fjords are something everyone should see!