back from being on the road – Norway aftermath

We’ve been back home now for the past two days. More than 3500km in Norway (and partly in Sweden) are behind us. It was a great time in Norway. It’s a beautiful country. The nature is just stunning and people are really nice and kind! It’s just such a shame that there’s a dark cloud shadowing the past two weeks…

travelling route

In every talk I’ve had with someone, I’ve been asked about our whereabouts during the tragic events in Oslo. We weren’t there, it was our last day of the trip, but we weren’t far away either and during the time the explosion took place we were driving towards Oslo. It feels dishonest to look back at the trip with positive feelings but it was a good trip. It’s just scary to think that something so horrible took place so close-by. You just don’t expect it to happen here, it’s the stuff that you generally see from the news… words seem to be quite inadequate in that entire matter but it did remind me of one quote by Thomas Campbell: To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die…

Back to positive tones. I was a good girl and kept a diary type of a Word-file during our trip and I try to get it all here together with some pictures as soon as I have spare time to deal with it. Have some patience, it’s all coming your way starting with day 1

On the road – day 12, Kappelskär-Paide via Paldiski

Good morning world. I’ve slept about 3,5 hours in the car backseat last night but that was part of the plan all the way long. We’re soon getting on ferry and then we’ll be back at home around midnight.

When we were driving last night towards Kappelskär there was one truck driving right in front of us that all in a sudden lit in fire… luckily the driver was able to put off the fire really fast but there was no way to get past of the truck, so we had to wait for a short while. In a way it was good that there was all in a sudden some action on the road because we were getting sleepy and it shook everyone awake… but then again, I think we’ve had enough action for one day.

We’re still talking about yesterday’s explosions. Hopefully there are some fresh newspapers on the ferry. (EDIT: we learned about the shootings on Utøya after seeing BBC news in ferry while doing our cabin check-in, until then we thought there had only been explosions in Oslo)

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Driving a ferry during a day time is majorly boring. I watched two movies with my little brother because we didn’t feel like sleeping. The food has been good though, both breakfast and dinner. The most bothering thing about it have been the dirty and smelly truck drivers. I thought of having a cup of coffee downstairs (you can get coffee for free here with cookies as a snack! There’s nothing to do on this ferry as it’s mainly a truck-ferry but they do pay a lot of attention to food here!) but I quickly had to take my coffee upstairs because the smelly people just made me feel really disgusted. There are showers (and soap) in every single cabin in that ferry and you don’t have to pay extra to use it. Dirty and smelly people are just disgusting. Especially if I know that there is a chance for them to take a shower. And by the way, opposite of our cabin was the sauna that one can use for free…

I think I’m going to spend the next days locked in my room at home because I just don’t want to see people any more or then I should have stayed in Norway and started to live and work as a troll full-time on top of some mountain. I could have also had some sheep and cows and rule my own kingdom there! Just kidding.

In 30 minutes – home, sweet home!

And if you’re interested in seeing all the photos of the trip, go HERE and browse the albums

On the road – day 11, Voss-Kappelskär

I’ve pretty much lost track of how long we’ve been driving already but it’s been all day. And it has been raining for the entire time I’ve been awake today. Weather wise, it has been the worst day of our trip. But on the other hand, it has given me a good opportunity to go through the photographs we’ve taken and there’s a really huge amount of them. And sitting on the back-seat is a good change.

We just had dinner in Drammen and got to know what has happened a few hours ago in Oslo. We’re right now driving towards Oslo and we try to figure out what this day might be having ahead for us. When we were in Kognsberg I heard one guy talking on the radio about bloody people on the street but since we at first had a plan to eat in Kognsberg then I wasn’t paying too much attention to the radio and concentrated on noticing a restaurant. Also, since the radio interview was in English then I thought there’s some war action going on somewhere in the other part of the world but actually he was talking about the situation in Oslo…

While having dinner in Drammen, we noticed there are some horrible pictures on TV and everyone in the restaurant were quietly staring at the telly. The only thing we understood out of the text written below was Oslo but it felt quite impossible that something like that happened there though everything we saw on the screen did hint that it has happened in Oslo – the bus stops, police and ambulance cars, houses… It all looked like the ones we have seen here during the past days. We quickly went online to check the news and there it was… explosions in Oslo.

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We’re getting closer to Oslo and we just went through a police road block. I admit it doesn’t feel good to have several police officers around, all of them equipped with automatic weapons. The Norwegian cars and foreign cars were divided into two lines; the Norwegian cars went through the check really fast. There was one German wagon-house in front of us and checking that one took quite a bit of time. I’m glad we got to know about the explosions beforehand, though I’d be even happier if those explosions wouldn’t have took place at all. Checking our car went fast. I had to tell the police officer about our whereabouts and we had to show them what we have in the trunk (it’s fully loaded with bags containing food and clothes and some other stuff that tourists generally carry along). I suppose we have to be prepared that it might take some time to cross the border to Sweden later tonight.

**

The border crossing went easy, just like the rest of the drive from Oslo. However, the border was guarded by many police officers carrying automatic weapons again. It still feels unbelievable that there have been explosions in that ministry in Oslo…

We still have a long drive ahead to Kappelskär. To make life easier, we’re starting to switch the drivers and see how far we can drive. If everyone is tired, we’ll just park somewhere and have a nap for a short time. If we can, we’ll drive all the way to Kappelskär and sleep in the port until it’s time to get on the ferry leaving in the morning.

on the road – day 10, Vik & Voss area

I did it, I did it, I did it! Sledging in July! Wohooo!!! We made it to be our goal of the day to go and touch the snow. It’s weird and kind of stupid, considering how much snow I’ve seen in my life, but I have never seen snow in July before

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to go to some of the glaciers, so we had to settle with some smaller snowy areas. We also stopped at one parking lot where the local sheep were blackmailing the tourists the mamma-sheep was quite an arrogant woman and every time she noticed some bread somewhere she just ran there and made it quite clear that she wants it. Like a true femme fatale!

Playing in the snow was obviously the highlight of the day. We did visit Hopperstad stavkyrkje and saw some really awesome mountains but nothing beats the snow! Small things make life happy, or what

Now it’s time to check out some organic Norwegian beer. I’m sure Linda is very proud of me right now

PS: I have never ever heard this song that many times as I have heard it during the entire stay in Norway. They play it about twice a day on the radio. Biggest summer hit in Norway it seems there’s another song actually that they play but it’s definitely Norwegian and I have already learned to sing the chorus for it but I seem to be unable to figure out what song it actually is.

on the road – day 9, Sognefjord cruise & Flåm railway

It took us quite a while to decide which cruise to take. We just knew from the beginning that going on a fjord cruise is an absolute must do. Looking around in internet showed that the Norway in a nutshell cruise is probably the most popular one among the tourists but the time spent on the fjord felt so small for me, so going with the Sognefjord in a nutshell tour seemed much more reasonable.

The forecast predicted rain for today as well, and we did get a bit of it, but luckily it wasn’t raining today as much as it was yesterday. We took off from Bergen at 8am and spent the next 5 hours on the express boat to Flåm. The cruise on the fjord was definitely worth attending. We were also lucky to get the seats in front of the boat, so we had the best view. PS: thanks to this nice guy who’s queue number I got in the morning  to the ticket check-in

In Flåm we had a bit of time to explore around and then it was time to go on the most beautiful train ride in Norway. The train goes from Flåm to Myrdal and for every 18 meters travelled there’s a 1meter of climb (Flåm is 2m above the sea level, while Myrdal is 866m above the sea level). The views from the train are really spectacular. And stopping at Kjosfossen waterfall is a great experience. The waterfall has a free fall of 93 meters and after going a little closer you’re already getting some water drops on you. Due to those water drops, my father broke my camera’s polarization filter that I borrowed him on the condition that he’s not allowed to break it… he wanted to wipe off the drops but while doing that he also released the stopping circle and the filter fell into pieces. The stopping circle went missing, so I hope I’m able to find a new one from somewhere or then I just need to buy a new filter. Damn. But yes, Flåm railway is an absolute must go! I heard from somewhere that the only place you can get a similar railway experience is in Switzerland.

In Myrdal we switched to a train taking us back to Bergen. Somewhy our tickets were to the family carriage, so we spent a few hours with small kids running around which was actually quite fun. This might have something to do with my attempts to talk one small girl into giving her polar bear to me but I think her Estonian skills were not that great because she ignored me completely. Bummer.

We just paid for our stay in the farm and since the family here has been really nice then we gave them a small present consisting of Estonian candies and a small souvenir bottle of Vana Tallinn liquor. After that the landlord told me he has visited Russia, precisely Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) and Kazakhstan, about 20 years ago… I did point out that Estonia is not in Russia, and Tbilisi and Kazakhstan are thousands of kilometres away but apparently for him the entire Eastern Europe is one big country… should have lectured him a little longer about the fact that Estonia and Russia are quite different countries but I think he realized really fast that he said the wrong thing. Ohoh, now the landlord came back to us and gave us some fresh eggs from their own chicken! How cute! But it still doesn’t make up for his lack of geographical & cultural knowledge.

On the road – day 8, Bergen

So, the traditional “Ingrid is sick during the trip”-day was today. We’re staying outside of Bergen and the most convenient way to go there is by taking a train from Arna which is about 15 minutes car drive from our “home-farm”. I felt great in the morning but once we reached the train station to go to Bergen I just started to feel worse. Therefore visiting Bergen Aquarium was not too enjoyable for me. The seal show was really cool though and I liked the penguins as well. Oh, and I think I saw the biggest crocodile I’ve ever seen today. The description sign for the crocodile stated “he moved to Bergen with his two wives” which made me picture how the crocodile decided on one happy day that he wants to go to Norway, took the plane and voila, there he is Oh, and by the way, the shark in Bergen is really a tiny one. The one we saw last year in Berlin was much cooler.

For the lunch we decided to continue with the culinary adventures and went to Torget to see what they offer. We got some fish&chips (oh, what an adventurous pick!) just to have a bigger meal and also ordered a plate of king crab. I think the king crab tasted like ocean once you’ll taste it, I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about. It tastes good but it just has the taste of ocean.

The afternoon started for us with heavy rain. So we quickly checked out the Maritime museum (for our misfortune, it closes at 3pm every day, we arrived there 2.45) and then went to Bergen Kunsthall to see the works of Munch, Picasso, Miro and Klee. Miro stuff is wickedly awesome. And the chocolate cake with chilli at the Art Museum cafeteria tasted really good!! Super yummy! I shall try to prepare it myself one day the cafeteria girl was really cute and revealed me later how to prepare it and I didn’t even have to ask for it!

The rain just didn’t want to stop, so for a while we did consider going back to the farm. But there were still some things to see, so no going back. We took the funicular ride and had an excellent view on Bergen. And one more walk in Bryggen to end the day

Bergen

Now, to sleep early because we have to wake up around 5.30. Fjord cruise coming up!