They wanted the backpacking experience and they got it!

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Backpacking has changed now with all the hostel reservation websites. One of the great backpacking experiences is to just rock up to a hostel and find out your intended place to stay is booked out. It is then a dogfight to find any available bed in town. So when my two friends form home Jay and Kirsty asked for the authentic dribbleman backpacking experience I gave them this…

We agreed to meet up in Bergen, Norway written as Europe’s wettest city, only a few years back it recorded 85 days straight rainfall. I had been here before in 2004. Back then I came here twice staying 4 days in total and not once did I see rainfall. It was one of the quick stories I’d tell a Norwegian every time I saw them on my travels.

So on my third visit at 10 past midnight I was greeted with showers. In the dark and trying to find my poorly signaged hostel, it was payback time for Bergen. But that didn’t bother me, as I was about to meet up with my two good friends from home. This may sound sad but take away this moment, I had only spent 5 days in 4 Journeys with friends from home (Kane 4 days in Cuba and Lauren 1 day in London.)

I was excited to say the least but as I checked into reception the guy said, “2 other people haven’t checked in yet.” So it turns out Jay got the dates mixed up so I would have to wait just a bit longer.

The next morning I checked into the YMCA hostel, which has a 32 bed dorm. Perfect for the newly weds to cement their first hostel dorm experience. They had not arrived yet so it gave me a chance to reminisce on what was a great part of my travels - Scandinavia.

Jay and Kirsty arrived close to 8pm and scored themselves Bed 31/32. What I forgot was that the showers at this place were communal so I thought maybe I went a bit too far as a first hit for Jay and Kirsty. Still I did compensate by getting ourselves 2 litres of alcohol duty free, which is a must in Scandinavia.

Scandinavia is a different type of travel destination. It can make you feel like you are 15 again. The hostels don’t allow alcohol drunk on their establishment so you have to sneak it in the gullet with sometimes teenagers around you. Like the rest of the locals the idea is to get smashed before going out and that’s what we did. The calm civilised streets turn into carnage come 1am as stragglers walk around aimlessly. People in drunken bliss walk crocked and vomit clinging onto the minimal ledge offering of a shop front window.

It’s not only alcohol that is expensive its everything else too. The luxuries of getting whatever you want when you want goes out the door here. Scandinavians are so smart they charge huge taxes on their goods; provide a salary to compensate for it. This allows them to be able to travel anywhere in the world and be comfortable whilst hardly anyone from overseas can come because its too expensive. It could come across as anti-social. But what it means is that nothing is spoiled and its traditions stay close to home.

So with a mighty hangover set upon the 3 we went to Flam the next day and did part of the Norway in a Nutshell by going from Myrdal to Flam on the Flam Railway. The scenery is brilliant on a nice day but we were greeted with really crap weather.

At Flam we found out that there is no accommodation in the whole town. Which didn’t matter. See Norway’s towns can be passed by really. You get the idea after about 10 minutes. The scenery is just stunning at times but in a way its what you see is what you get. There’s no real surprises once you are there. It’s just crafted out beauty.

What makes this part of Norway so good is the lush greens, the mass of water from the fjords, the winding roads and its geometric precision of its houses. Jay came over here to help build his cousins house so I asked him. “Do you like the design of the buildings?” “Yeah they’re okay” he replied. It was a chance for me to make a point. “I like them because of the precision… geometry etc… but have you noticed that there is no shelter here. I don’t understand it? For such a rainy place wouldn’t you provide shelter?” And that was when I remembered that Scandinavia shitted me at times. This place really lacks logic.

I was on $200/day after two days and that was starving myself mainly because we incorporated a lot of travel in the one day. From Flam we went to Sogndal. The tourist information guy said there is definitely accommodation there. Once I hear that from a tourist info guy I get very nervous (experience has made me this way).

We arrive late in the afternoon to the hostel and the guy goes we are booked out. Now for me it’s a blow and I can get over it quickly but for Jay and Kirsty there is concern. I ask the reception guy “Now worst case scenario if we can not find anything can we at least leave our bags here so we can have some shelter?”

What I was trying to do is try and gain some sympathy and at the least get a commitment from him that we’ve got shelter for the night. It also allowed me to think straight. He than said, “We may have some cancelations but I won’t be able to tell you until 10pm?”
Jay asked for thedribbleman experience and he was getting it right here! WIFI connection meant we could check out other places and the only place was a house to ourselves but a $100 15 minute taxi ride away. It just didn’t make sense? Where are these people? You see no one in town and the accommodation is full? After numerous phone calls the reception guy said “We just got a cancelation.” The relief and smiles… This is what thedribbleman is about - making life difficult when it doesn’t need to be.

With no shops open for food we had to get ourselves microwave pizzas at the gas station. Whilst chewing down the pizza like a bad beer Jay recalls me saying. “Travelling Scandinavia is totally different to anywhere else in the world.” Everything just hurts the bank balance and it’s just so hard to not convert.

The only thing that didn’t was the Jostedal Glacier Walk at the National Park. It cost about $90aud so that’s reasonable enough. But then we had to pay for the transport both ways. It was at this point converting started to stop.

The glacier is the biggest ice sheet in Europe. Waiting around for our transport with the sound of silence, which Norway seems to be always. (This is mainly because people are working at the oil rigs and limited work in the towns) I decided to break the silence by singing Princes “Diamonds and Pearls” Joined soon after by Jay and Kirsty. What an appropriate song to sing in Norway as the weather drizzles its way through the day.

Because we didn’t know what we were going to be doing in Norway we were dressed inappropriately for glacier walking. All wearing jeans, only one person with jackets. Jay had to buy a $200 jacket in Flam. (haha) We get clamp ons for our shoes Jay and kirsty had to borrow shoes. I had my holey hiking boots.

We get the boat to the glacier and meet our guide some Sherpa from Nepal that comes here for a few months a year. He takes us up down and around the crevasses of the glacier. It was nice but I would have preferred to roam free instead of being tied up to a group. Weather was awful which didn’t help.

That night with nothing to do and the hostel crew boring as (typical Scandinavia tourists once out of the cities) We decided to get pissed in our room and play the card game shithead after some more microwaved pizzas (Sunday everything is closed except the gas station)

My last few days were at Jay’s cousins place in Normheimsund. They were really nice in letting me stay a few days before I headed off via a $110 public transport transfer to my $10 flight from Haugusund.
It is a shame Norway is so expensive because even now I’d like to go back but maybe it is because it’s a struggle to travel. Maybe Scandinavia is Europe’s last old school backpacking experience. The rest of Europe is set up for you now. Maybe that’s why even with the shitty weather I loved it.
Oh yeah Jay and Kirsty - that was an easy week

*** I also pointed out the make up your lunch with your breakfast. They followed my instructions but Kirsty ruined it by dropping them on the bus floor just outside the bus toilet. Norway may be expensive but there is a line that has to be drawn.

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Photos

Fur anyone?
Bergan market

Flam Railway stopover
Notice the lady bottom

Seal skin at market
about $160aud

Comments

[mharleyuk]

Drinking Norwegian Style
Aye; your piece brings back memories Dribbleman. I've done Norway a few times but only on business expenses. And I'd hate to do it for long out of my own pocket. I, too, have wandered around towns trying to find people, then spent 2 hours in an empty bar wondering where everybody is, then when we're no longer in the mood and it's jackets on to leave - they all turn up. Seems they drink at home since it's cheaper, then hit the town 11pm which is when things hot up.