Norway continued

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TUESDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2009 - NORWAY

Another drive day today, this time no border crossing as we headed north through Norway towards Andalnses. Breakfast was at 7:15am and by 8am we were waving goodbye to those passengers who were leaving us and who actually got up to have breakfast and say goodbye. Had a few stops throughout the day; the first being in Lillehammer - the city that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics. Nice little town with a great bakery where I bought a piece of cheesecake which was so nice. Slightly expensive but worth every mouthfull!! From there it was another short drive onto the Olympic bobsled run where about ¾ of the group had decided to do the ‘wheelie bob’ which is essentially a modified bobsled on wheels. Four people sit in it with one driver, they reach about 100kmh and the whole track takes around 60-70 seconds.

We had a packed lunch today so most of us ate on the bus after the wheelie bob (pasta with meat and veg and a piece of fruit). Most of the afternoon in the bus it was raining really hard and almost non stop; but the scenery was quite amazing. Massive mountains on either side of the road, lakes and rivers and waterfalls. Our relief driver said he had never seen it this way before - probably mostly because of the sheer amount of rain we were getting was creating new and faster waterfalls. By some miracle it stopped raining just before we got into our campsite so while it was wet the cook tent and bags could be unpacked a bit easier. This time it was cabins of seven and they were like little apartments - two bedrooms, bathroom, with a lounge/dining/kitchen area too and a balcony.

Since we had a bit of time before dinner I went for a walk into town which ended up being much further than it looked and round trip ended up taking just over an hour an a half. Went to the store on the way back and picked up some snacks and a few drinks too.

Dinner tonight was soup followed by sweet and sour chicken and was (as we have come to expect) quite nice. Since dinner was quite late most people headed back to their rooms. However, a few of us decided to play some cards so we commandeered one of the cabins with the least amount of people sleeping; recruited the driver and cook and played a few games before we all headed to bed before 11pm.

I ended up having a very disjointed sleep, waking up very hot at 2am and again at 2:30am. Someone (phone number unknown but who I will kill if I ever work out who it was!!) rang me at 3am and because I was in a room with three other people I had to scramble to find my phone and shut it up. By 3:30am I was awake again even hotter than before; so I moved to the couch in the lounge area where I slept for the remainder of the evening.

WEDNESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2009 - NORWAY

Very early start this morning with breakfast at 6:15am. Today was a day trip to the fjords and the first time the bus was late to leave - with some hung over people not getting onto the bus until about 15 minutes after the time we were supposed to have left. Today was pretty much a photo day and thankfully the weather behaved and while it wasn’t hot and sunny - it wasn’t raining and absolutely freezing.

First stop was at the bottom of what is referred to as Troll’s Pass; a road that weaves up the mountain and has something like 12 hairpin turns. But first, a stop at the bottom for photos; and then a stop mid way as well. At the second stop and well after we had taken off, one of the girls on the bus thought she saw a body in the water. However, it wasn’t really until after we had reached the top of the falls and walked through another walkway to look at the water that she became adamant that she saw something. So while on the bus she ended up making a police report and they sent someone out to have a look and it turned out to be nothing (either an umbrella or a pool floaty thing). We also checked on the way down quite a few hours later and she was insistent that she something under the umbrella or floaty thing just under the water surface. At any rate - nothing we could do about it then!

After the third stop we continued onto the first ferry crossing. We had a bit of time before the ferry arrived so wandered around the town, bought a few souvenirs and looked at the prices of a lot more. Lots of photos (of course) as there were towns scattered around the body of water. First ferry crossing was over in ten minutes then it was a drive through to the next place where we had a bit of time in a small town before getting on a ferry which cruised the Geiranger Fjord - where legend says trolls come from and which had some stunning waterfalls and lovely crystal clear water. The rain stayed away and the day was quite fine so that was good. It is on Unesco’s World Heritage List and has ‘towering, twisting walls which curve inland for 20 narrow kilometres’ (thanks Lonely Planet). The waterfalls were called names like Seven Sisters, the Suitor and the Bridal Veil. The cruise went for a bit over an hour before we got to the other side where we had our picnic lunch (salads with fruit and cheese and biscuits) and kept driving around the fjord region, before another short ferry ride and returning to the camp at Andalsnes.

For dinner tonight we had Swedish meatballs in tomato sauce and spaghetti, along with some salads and bread. After dinner the crew insisted that we had a bit of a Viking Olympics Competition so we had been assigned to teams and got points awarded for what we won/ if all of our team showed up. We all showed up from my team and two of our team did the egg and spoon race (we lost miserably) and the egg putt which we again lost. After that we sat around at the campsite and eventually a large group of us went back to our cabin and played cards for a while. One of our group got rather drunk and I ended up kicking him out when we were all trying to go to bed (kicked him out nicely and got someone to walk him back to his cabin so that he didn’t get lost he was that drunk).

THURSDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2009

Another early start this morning (well, 9am). Packed our lunches again this morning. We stopped in Trondheim (religious capital of Norway) where we had some free time to grab lunch and look around. It was a lovely sunny day so basically wandered through the university town for about an hour and sat outside the cathedral in the sunshine and had our packed lunch.

When we all piled back on the bus two of the guys decided to jump off and spend the night there and catch up with us the following day. So after dropping them at the side of the road we continued on to Hell. This was only a brief stop basically at the train station to get some photos with the sign and then continued onto Steinkjer where we arrived in late afternoon with enough time to go into town and have a look around before walking back for a 7pm BBQ which was very nice.

After dinner most of us sat around chatting at the cook tent until eventually moving inside the cook tent where it was warmer thanks to the burners being switched on and having about 15 people in there. Timmy eventually got out the guitar and after the second warning by the camping security man just after 11pm we all headed to bed.

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