NSB = No Service from Bergen?

---

Well. That was certainly an adventure. My journey from Bergen to Lillehammer (via Oslo) was supposed to take 11hrs.

Note the “supposed to” haha.

Things started off innocently enough - when I grabbed my bag and left the hostel the girl working there warned me that NSB (the train company) had some electrical problems, so the trains might be slightly delayed. I’m like ok cool, thanks for letting me know. I then laughed - I waited all day for this train, what’s another hour or so?

Silly me, thinking it would only be an hour.

I got to the station and my train was already there - at this point it was 10:15pm and the departure board had us listed at leaving at 10:58pm - right on time. I smiled - there we go, no delays!

I got on the train, and a few min later a nice girl sat down beside me and started speaking a mile a minute in Norwegian. I smiled back at her with a blank look haha. “Oh sorry, you’re not from here?” No, but it’s ok - that’s happened a lot these past few days. “Well, you look Scandinavian... but I’m sure you’ve heard that before” No, not really… “What about your heritage?” Nope, not at all Scandinavian. “Ah, then… where do you live?” Canada. “Oh, I should have known”

Haha, not sure what that was supposed to mean… but ok!

We had a lovely chat while waiting for our (still) scheduled departure. She’s an anthropology student with a flair for theatre - she studied in London which gives her this fantastically different English/Norwegian accent. We chit chatted about our lives for a bit which was nice.

At 10:55pm the conductor comes on the intercom saying (first in Norwegian so at this point I’m like the only person not in the know haha, although I could tell by the reactions - not good) that there was an electrical problem further down the line, so we had to wait in Bergen until they fixed it.

“I do not know how long it will be - when I know I will tell you. Takk.”

Peachy. I joked with the girl that I was in no rush - I mean, really, how long could an electrical problem take to fix? Or worse comes to worse they would surely bus us as they do back home when the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal line is messed up.

Ahhhh, little did I know.

About 20min later the conductor comes back on to announce the problem is between Voss and Mydral. Okkk, so about 2-3hrs away. Still he didn’t know how long we’d be. He then said anyone going to Voss could take a taxi.

HAHAHAHA. I suppose it’s better than nothing, although I’m not sure if anyone took that 2hr offer.

I continued to read and write in my journal - I didn’t want to sleep until we left; I didn’t want to miss anything announcement-wise. Finally, at 11:45pm the conductor does a super long speech in Norwegian and everyone’s grumbling. He then follows with this gem in English:

“There is still a problem between Voss and Mydral… uh… I don’t know how long it will take to fix… uh… but uh… *changes to sarcastic/totally blah voice* it will… probably be awhile….”

Absolutely lovely! I decided it was time to sleep, screw it all haha. My Norwegian buddy had enough too and decided to go home. She told me I could get a refund if I decided to leave - I’m like no, it’s ok… it’s not like I have anywhere else to go lol. She then offered for me to camp out at her place, but I politely declined. I mean, we have to leave at some point… so I’d like to be here for that haha.

I was secretly glad she left - I now had the two seats to myself which meant I could lie down and sleep properly haha! A lot of the locals had given up and went home - the train was quite empty at this point and those of us left were all spread out as much as possible. Some girls were even sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags haha.

Around 12:15pm we received our final update:

“Ladies and gentlemen, they will not fix the problem tonight. We will leave… uh…. probably at 6am in the morning. Hopefully. Thank you for patience. Takk.”

All I could think while I was falling back asleep was ‘I am *SO* happy I do not have a plane to catch tomorrow’ haha.

I slept well enough through the night - the seats were surprisingly comfy, they turned all the main lights off and everyone got a fresh blanket. I was awoken just before 6am by the announcement that we were finally leaving.

You know, only about 7hrs delayed. No biggie.

I slept most of the way to Oslo - I couldn’t be bothered to sit back up once I had gotten so comfortable lol. The ride was a little longer than normal - a lot of the line only has one track, so we had to keep stopping to let other trains pass since we running on a random different schedule. Oh, and they gave us a free sandwich and water bottle too. Yum.

We arrived in Oslo at 1:38pm - just in time for me to watch a Lillehammer train leave the station lol. At this point I didn’t really care - I mean, I was supposed to catch the train at 7:37am haha, what’s another few hours?

They told all the Bergen people who needed to change their tickets to line-up in “special” line which seemed to take 4x as long as the normal ticket line. I got stuck behind this Chinese family (which coincidently I had met at the hostel in Bergen!) and it was honestly one of the most epic travel scenes I have witnessed in a long time!

So, they were supposed to catch a train this morning to Stockholm to fly back out to China tonight. Obviously they missed the train to Stockholm, so NSB offered to fly the guy to Stockholm - but then realized there were 8 of them haha so obv they retracted that offer. They checked the later train, but it was apparently booked. NSB then said they’d pay for them to take the bus.

One of the Chinese dads started to full out YELL at the NSB guy. “You say you fly us, now we take bus?! I no take no bus! I pay for train, not bus. What if bus crash?! What if bus crash and we all die?!? Your company no good to us if we all die!!”

People are funny when they’re upset. So melodramatic!

I’m going to imagine they finally got on a train - I saw them in the restaurant later on and they weren’t spazzing anymore which is a good sign.

Meanwhile, I got a ticket for the 3:37pm train - so arriving at 5:50pm. Guess who isn’t really going to see Lillehammer afterall lol. They did give me a $45 voucher for the restaurant - I was so excited! A real meal in Norway?! I could have only dreamed!

It was actually really, really good! A plate full of veggies, potatoes and reindeer meat. Yes, I ate Rudolph - and he was good! I also got coffee, a pop and some cake. I was determined to use that full $45... it really wasn't that hard.

So, after all that I got on my train for Lillehammer and arrived at 6pm - 8hrs later than planned. My 11hrs turned into 19hrs.

Needless to say, everything was closed once I got here haha. I wandered up to the Olympic Park and looked at their famous ski jump - ah, how lovely it was from afar. I puttered around the main street for a bit, but then it started to pour rain again. Bah.

Now tomorrow I’m off to Trondheim… if NSB cooperates lol.

---

Photos

Rest awhile indeed.
The "comfort" package for overnight trains

Train from Oslo for Lillehammer
Much of the journey was along Mjosa Lake - very lovely.

Clouds were lovely too
It was as if the sky couldn't decide to rain or not... the clouds kept changing every couple minutes.

Storgata Street.
Very cute, wooden structures.

Comments

[Lulu]

!
Dude! Hahaha good moments and bad moments eh? =) Wow. The Chinese family must have been hilarious! In a kind of upsetting way. Glad reindeer was good- put that on my list of meats to eat. =)

[irene]

Rudolph
sniff You ate Rudolph? is that why you want to bring a pony home from iceland?

[jewel89]

Lu: you so would've laughed at them lol. and put it on your list..!! reallyy good. I'm sure you can get it around Ottawa somewhere. Mom: Rudolph was fantastic, but don't you joke about my Icelandic horsie! =(