NORWAY
Aug. 25- Sept.7
As much of a shock to ourselves as to anyone else, we ended up our last few days in Scandanavia. It all started out so innocent though. On our last day in the U.K. we decided to try and find the quickest way into Europe. At one of a few cheapie travel shops, a girl suggested RYANAIR, an internet based airline. Well we decided to find a computer and check this out. We scanned pages and found ourselves a flight to Oslo for 14.50 British Pounds (about $30 CDN). Well this was too good of a deal to pass up, so we booked and bid adieu to our travelling companies. That night, we slept curled up on our therm-a-rests in the corner of the airport.
We woke only partly refreshed, and bought a coffee before our flight, then slept some more on the plane, and woke up (again only parly refreshed) in Norway.
As with most budget travellers, one of the first things that we discovered was that Norway was not a cheap country. The prices were even more than Britian, although to compare prices to India or Viet-Nam would be pointless. We were spending more for one meal in Norway than two days budget in these other countries. Never the less, Norway was a stunningly beautiful country, and we were determined to enjoy it to the fullest. The first thing we did, was to plan our route in the country and purchase a train pass, and then maximise both our time and budget. After nearly a year on the road, and this was by far the most organized that we had been for any country.
After a day in the capital of Oslo, we boarded a train and headed North. The Signature trains in Norway, are the most incredible trains that we had ever seen. The coaches are warm and very comfortable, with built in radios so that travellers with earphones can listen to Norwegian pop music while they travel. Actually, most of what I heard on the radio seemed to be dance music from the U.S. and Britian. Further proof that the world is shrinking.
We discovered something on our trip north that would plague us the entire trip. After the middle of August, the people of Norway consider tourist season to be over. This means that routinly, things would be closed or being repaired. The train, for example, was diverted for about a 100 km section while the track was being fixed. Since diverting a train can be tough, we were placed on a bus. The bus was not nearly as fast as our train, and when we finally arrived in the Northern City of Trondheim, it was very late. We found a city bus, and headed out to a campground, and arrived exhausted to pitch our tent in the dark. We slept like logs.
The following day, we slept in to around noon. We realized that the constant travel was finally getting to us, and that we were worn right out. We took the opportunity to spend the day just lazing around the tent. We visited the store and snack on Norwegian stew several times. Hard to believe, but after a trip this long, Mari and I almost needed a vacation.
We had heard that Scandanavia in the fall could be rather rainy, but for the first few days it remained sunny and warm. We had been busy snapping pictures of fjiords, and mountains, and decided to head into Trondheim itself to photograph some of the cultural history. The main attraction in Trondheim is the incredible Nidaros Domkirke. It is a massive gothic church, which retains the title of Scandanavia's largest medieval building. We were incredibly impressive by this building. Although it was a cathedral, it was covered with the most incredible carvings, and seemed very linked to a viking lifestyle. We discovered that when Christianity was making inroads into Norway, it was the gothic carvings that attracted people, who were still unsure of this crazy new religion.
The cathedral was started 1000 years ago, and over time it was built, added to, and then forgotten about. About 100 years ago a re-structuring project was commenced, and a full new front was placed on the church. This included millions of dollars of building, but the musuem admitted that their new technology would not possibly last as long as the original stone cutting, a trade which had been lost for generations.
On the same grounds as the Nidaros, there stands a military museum. Mostly focusing on the second world war, the building also housed a collection of early swords. I was most impressed by one belonging to an early King. The sword was 2.5m long, and would have required both of us just to lift it. I imagined that the King would retain power just by picking it up, and scaring people with it.
On the day we left Trondheim, it was pouring rain. We had to pack our tents up inside a small kitchen from the campground. Our Train was an overnight one, so it rainy never spoiled our views, there just wasn't any. When we woke the following day, it was still drizzly. We had just spent 9 hours on a train, and were switching to now head west. As the train journied, we discovered that the rain continued, but we also discovered that the road did not. Near the train line was an old dirt track, but mostly the train was the main line of transport. It seemed odd that as we passed ski resort towns, that the winter would see our train packed with snowboards instead of suitcases. We also noticed that the train slowly inched itself higher, until we were above the tree-line and looking at pockets of snow, and glaciers looming in the distance. When we unloaded in the town of Myrdal, there was little around but a train station. The reason we got off, was to yet again switch trains, because here starts the famous flam line. The Flam railway is famous because it travels down a mountain and ends up at the very scenic Aurlandsfjiord. The train passes many waterfalls, and drops down through long tunnels. It also is the steepest railway on standard guage line, which drops 900m over the course of 20 km. It was the most amazing ride we had ever been on. But, as you can imagine, when we arrived at the fjiord, all we did was set up our tent and fall asleep.
The following morning we set out exploring. It was magnificent. We spent the day hiking up mountains, along valleys, the coast of the ocean. And everywhere we went, fresh raspberries awaited us. We gorged ourselves on sights and berries. Just when we thought it could get no more beautiful, we decided to take a ferry trip. The next day, at the early hour of 6, we boarded a small boat. As the sun was rising, it took us out the relatively shallow bay that we were in. After passing more waterfalls, sheer rock walls, and birds that I can possibly count, we were switched to a larger ferry. We spent the next four hours, heading due west, leaving a fjiord. Sometimes the walls were so close, we had no more that 10m on each side, and the scenery never wavered, but remained gorgeous at all times. When we finally landed in Bergan, we were almost out of film. We learned that there was a bus service from Flam, but we wondered who would possibly take it, if they knew how beautiful the ferry was.
Bergan was an interested town, and although several museums were closed there was many street performers still out. In town we did some shopping, and Mari found herself some stunning copper jewelry which seemed very medieval, and I spent my time lifting gothic swords, impressing upon myslelf that I wouldn't want to meet anyone who could carry one comfortably. The remaining site was the fish market. It is so popular, that it has multi-lingual staff to cover needs in Japanese, English, German and French. Although impressed, we really didn't need any fish in our luggage.