Advertisement
Published: July 20th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Pulpit Rock
MC: nervous because of the height.
X: nervous because he's five minutes from asking MC to be his wife. I decided at the start of the year that I was ready to ask the ultimate question of my beloved, Maria Chiara. It's not simply a matter of popping the question of course. A ring needs to be found and bought (which I duly achieved) and finding an anecdote-worthy (and blog-worthy) location to go down on one knee.
Enter Norway. We already had the trip planned, but I had to wait six weeks with an engagement ring hidden away before our trip, but I felt Norway would be worth waiting for. I didn't have a specific location in mind for the proposal to take place other than three mandatory requirements: there had to be a fjord, a shaft of late evening sunlight, and we had to be alone. A normal day in Norway, in other words.
Our first day was in Stavanger, a cute little harbour town in South West Norway, made rich by the bounty of the North Sea: originally sardines and latterly by oil. We wandered the streets of gaily painted shop fronts with affluent, liberal locals drinking coffee al fresco (it was warm). The old town was little streets of white wooden houses filled with little
Kjossfossen Waterfall
Spot the lady dancing. Weird but cool - welcome to Norway my friends. parks and late Spring flowers. The town's population doubled (and the skyline was dwarfed) by a gigantic cruise ship that belched out a load of Brits for the afternoon. After a pleasant few hours we were happy to leave, journeying by ferry and by bus an hour and a half away to a hostel next to a lake in the forested wilderness. We had anticipated doing a big hike to Pulpit Rock the next morning, one of Norway's most famous beauty spots.
All was not well with the weather forecast however. The lady at the reception of the hostel said that the next day it would rain all day. We had no choice but to start our walk to pulpit rock straight away. It was after 6pm, but that didn't matter: in Skandinavia in late May it doesn't get dark until about midnight. We would miss dinner and the general shop had just closed, so I had to beg for scraps of bread, and off we went!
As we started walking, a comment the receptionist made was echoing in my mind: "At this time Pulpit Rock will be much quieter..." So: there would definitely be a fjord, probably
a shaft of late evening sun and we might even be alone... my three mandatory requirements, offered up on a veritable smorgas board less than 24 hours into our holiday! All great news, but I didn't have the ring. So I said to MC that I needed to go to the toilet, ran back to our room and picked it up. On the two hour hike upwards I had the box snuggly in my pocket hoping for the perfect moment to present itself.
Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) is an incredible natural phenomenon: a large, flat, almost perfectly square platform at the top of a dead-straight cliff towering 900 metres above a gigantic fjord. It truly is an epic place, with a jaw-dropping, vertigo enducing, quintessentially Norwegian view. Trouble was when we arrived there was no sun and even worse: we were by no means alone. Anyone who knows me knows my deep respect for Australians, but Australian tourists most certainly do not factor in my vision of a perfect place to propose. There was also a guy with curly hair dressed in a matching track suit shouting a lot, so all in all, a suitable romantic atmosphere had not been
achieved. As a tourist I may have been satisfied, as a would-be fiancé looking for the perfect moment, most unfortunately not.
I was not discouraged. I privately reflected: "Don't worry Xavier - there will be another fjord!" and I was right. Having started to walk back downwards, after five minutes or so we rounded a corner, the path opened up, the sun suddenly peaked out behind a cloud, there was a glorious view of a forested mountain with a high lake and a waterfall. We were alone. Taking in the view Maria Chiara said "we do go to some wonderful places, don't we!" She turned back to look at me, I wasn't there, she looked downwards and there I was, on one knee with a ring in my hand! I imaginatively blurted out: "Maria Chiara, will you marry me?" She looked pretty stunned, but after a reassuringly short time she said "yes". In fact: she screamed "YES!!!" It was a glorious, romantic, and unique experience. We gazed around to take in the moment, did a couple of selfies, and escaped before the curly track suit guy caught up with us and killed the vibe.
When we got back
to our hostel, a building with a grass roof looking onto verdant forest and a lake, we were hungry. It was here, on this special day of both our lives, that MC introduced me to something amazing: using the scraps of bread I had begged from the kitchen we ate a
chocolate sandwich! How had I never before discovered the powerful synergy between bread and chocolate?! I had brought a special bottle of wine to Norway in the hope of celebrating Maria Chiara having accepted my proposal. Regretfully in the heat of the moment earlier I had lacked the foresight of putting the (white) wine in the fridge. So for the first dinner together as a newly-betrothed couple, we had a glorious view of the lake from a picnic table, with a chocolate sandwich and a large can of Carlsberg lager each. Unforgettable!
The next day was indeed raining. We took a bus northwards to Bergen. The coastline is riven with ponds, lakes, rivers and fjords and we needed to take two ferries.
We were staying in with a local in the old part of Bergen, in a neighbourhood of wooden houses and cobbled streets a short walk
Red and pink - it can work!
How could I not marry this woman?! from the centre of town, which is centred around a harbour at the head of a fjord. It really is a beautiful town. Rome has seven hills, Bergen has seven mountains - and not pretend ones either. We took a funicular up one hill to take in the spectacular view and have a hike in the exceptionally green forests.
If my major plan of the trip had been to propose to Maria Chiara, her major plan had to do "Norway in a Nutshell", which is a spectacular trip across Norway from Bergen to Oslo, done on a variety of forms of public transport. First a bus Eastwards through rainy green Bergen hinterland including the steepest road I've ever experienced (going downwards), a ferry around two fingers of a breathtaking fjord, a train ride up to snowy mountains and along a plateau some weeks away from seeing a thaw (if it ever does). Lastly we had a gradual descent by train through Norway's continental heartland, filled with forests, farms and many many lakes all the way to Oslo. Unbelievably this can all be done in one day - we did it in two, staying the night in an old farm
building in soporific Fläm.
You've heard the rumours, and they're true: Norway is very expensive. For everyday basics such as supermarket food of any type, public transport or beer expect to pay dearly. It was fine for a short stay, but for an extended time it wouldn't take long before one would realise that if you have to pay more to get less, then you may as well get a job paying kroner and make the experience more bearable.
The weather generally formed a pattern of being fabulous one day and wet and miserable the next. Considering Norway's reputation, I was more than happy with one good day out of every two, and in Oslo it ended up being 28 degrees celsius! We stayed with an old friend of Maria Chiara's, a Spaniard who studied in Norway with Erasmus (as she did) and ten years later he has no intention of leaving. Oslo has the inevitable elements of Skandi cool one would expect: statement architecture, trendy bars and a blond, happy-looking bicycle-riding populace.
It was a shock to fly south to discover we'd left sunbathing weather in Skandinavia for parka and pullover wearing London, but considering we
were basking in the bliss of being newly betrothed, it would take more than the English weather to spoil our happiness.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 14; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0542s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
taracloud
Tara Cloud
Romance!
What a memorable, romantic proposal in a such a gorgeous, unique place! I'm sure this means you will have romance and travel all your lives. Congratulations and may you have many more adventures together!