Land of the midnight sun (and ice cream maybe):

You’re only as young as you feel… that is unless you are hiking with 25 pound packs up a 10% incline for 2.5 miles, then you feel pain. Sweat and pain. Side note, Trent is considering developing an adult diaper that you can wear in a fashionable way that is mainly built to grab the sweat that builds up overtime on a hot day between your butt cheeks. Please feel free to suggest names and / or let us know if you’re interested in investing. Anyway… only two weeks in and we’re already learning things like it’s okay not to like every museum you go to, especially the modern art museums with a rope tied to the ceiling spinning around and a picture of a creepy nude dude with his cats. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder, unless it sucks.

After the unpopulated beauty that was Iceland, we were ready to be back in civilization. We arrived in Oslo, the capital of Norway, around midday and were kind of relieved to be back in a city. Oslo doesn’t feel like a large city, it is very easy to walk around or hop on and off their excellent public busses and trams and is a very picturesque (and clean!). The people are very helpful and switch between Norwegian and English (and many other languages) effortlessly. Walking around you’ll run into streams and waterfalls, stumble upon random historic churches from the 1600’s, and of course see a lot of the touristy sites that tell some of the history of Norway, of which they are very proud. In general, the people of Norway have a lot figured out and things run very smoothly here.

We spent a lot of our time in Oslo perusing the streets and sites. After checking in with our gracious host, we ventured back out and explored the paths alongside a river through the city and around the University. Pretty amazing, even if it sounds a little slow… we’re finding we need slow every now and then. As you walk around you keep running into random waterfalls and old suspension bridges and locals out with their kids and pups. The path eventually runs into a fun bohemian area called Grünerløkka with lots of younger folks hanging out in cafes and enjoying the pretty amazing weather. Side note: everyone was eating ice cream. Like, everyone! Any hour of the day. Man, woman or child. Sun up to sun down. Ice cream. Everywhere. I mean… we tried it. It was delicious. However, it was just ice cream.

Reminder to self to Google ice cream craze in Norway.

 

 

 

(Big guy here got the little cone)

 

Oslo has a pretty rich history, and the next day we tried to take in as much as we could. Here’s the thing, we (Trent and I, if you were already so bored that you forgot whose website you were on) both REALLY want to enjoy museums. We consider ourselves pretty cultured (I mean, I grew up loving Italian dressing and French fries and Trent used to think Taco Bell was authentic Mexican) so we should really find museums interesting, right?

Wrong. I will be the first to blow our cover to say this isn’t the case. For most museums, we both had to plaster on a serious case of poker face to hide our boredom.

That being said, there were a couple museums that did peak our interest. One of the highlights here was the Resistance Museum, a recounting of how the people of Norway resisted Nazi occupation during World War II. Pretty intense, and very well done. As we travel through Europe, it’s going to be interesting to see the history of this important time from the eyes outside of classrooms in the U.S. We bounced around a few other museums that day, saw a giant polar steam ship, a raft made of balsa wood that sailed from South America

to the Polynesian islands in the name of science to advance a controversial theory (now that’s dedication!), and other some folk history of Norway. Interesting side fact: the Kon-Tiki (the balsa wood raft) inspired the “tiki” craze in the U.S. So, next time you’re at a tiki bar drinking out of a fake coconut with an umbrella, you can thank Norway.

 

 

 

All in all, Oslo is a great city, nice people, with a rich history. But, our visit to Norway will be mainly remembered for the country side and the Fjords… yeah, definitely the Fjords. After Oslo we headed via a six hour train ride to Bergen, the old capitol of Norway and it’s 2^nd largest city. This is where we discovered two things: First, we have too much crap in our packs and need to lighten them up ASAP. Second, google maps in Bergen is wonky. It estimates distance “as the crow flies” so to speak. So, what we were told was 1 mile ended up being a grueling 2.5-mile hike straight up a steep grade carrying the aforementioned packs.

Aside from this lesson learned, Bergen was charming. It has a lot going on around its harbor in an old fisherman’s area known as Bryggen. One of the highlights here was a trip up to the top of highest mountain in Bergen

using the Fløibanen funicular, a tram that uses a pulley system to scale straight up a mountain. At the top are beautiful panoramic views of the city, the North Sea, and some of the closer fjords. 

To meet our love of water, we started our journey through the fjords with a five-hour ferry ride from Bergen to the tiny port town of Flåm. This may have been both of our favorites.  The fjords were mainly made by glaciers, and the results are crazy calm waters (at times like glass) with huge mountain-like rocks jetting straight up out of the water on both sides. Everybody should see the fjords in Norway if they get the chance! They come highly recommended by a man who shall not be named. His name rhymes with Landrew Slee. 

A nice bonus on the trip was meeting an adorable 70-years young lady from Canada who was traveling on her own because she wanted to start seeing the world and a Scottish man (who now lives in China) who used to fish the fjords some twenty years ago and was reminiscing with us about his experiences then as well as sharing some of his knowledge about the area. Waterfall after waterfall, is it possible to become numb to waterfalls? Zzzzzzz

We ended our journey on the same train back to Oslo. Farewell Norway!

As a side note, we’re finding that the pace of our trip so far has been a little too hectic. We are exhausted to be honest. Those close to us know how much we appreciate “down time.” It turns out, hoping on and off trains, and sleeping in a new location every 3 days is more work than play.

Pro tip: if you only stay two or three nights in each location, you spend the entire time planning for the next one rather than enjoying where you are. Lots of learning experiences thus far and many more to come. Granted we have only been out of the country for two weeks, but we’ve been on the road for a month and living out of suitcase for 3 months. We have decided to slow down and lengthen our stay in each new place. Two weeks down, so many more to go!

Favorite Quotes:
— “That little girl just laughed at us.” “Let’s push her down.”
— “Hold on, I just have to get this underwear out of my butt.”
— “Urine is one smell I will not smell for fun.”

Population: 5.2 million
Currency: Krone (NOK)
Time: Denver + 8 hours

(Click images below to enlarge)