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Published: February 24th 2012
Worth travelling halfway around the world for
With Erika and Nina at the top of Fløyen in BergenAfter saying goodbye to my parents at Brisbane Airport (tuesday 27th May), I hopped onboard for my first international flight in almost twenty-four years (thankfully with none of the tears that had accompanied my previous overseas flight - a return journey from New Zealand when I was just five-years-old!), which would take me firstly to Singapore and then onto London - a twenty-four hour journey in all. Thankfully, despite having very little leg room and being unable to sleep for longer than twenty or thirty minutes at a time, I had no ill effects other than a slight bout of tiredness by the time we arrived in London - which naturally was blanketed in clouds so thick that I could barely see beyond the confines of Heathrow Airport as we came in to land!
After a hearty English breakfast, two cappucino's, two Scotch and coke's, and half-an-hour on the internet, I was back on board for the two-hour flight to Oslo; which thankfully had perfect weather almost all of the way, meaning I could see all the way to the northern-most tip of Denmark (which I'm hoping to visit in about a month's time), as well as being able to
Silhouettes
Fountain in Vigeland Park see snow-capped mountains in the distance as we were making our approach to Oslo airport - which may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but was probably the first time I had seen snow in maybe fifteen years; and was most certainly an improvement on the view coming in to land at Heathrow a few hours earlier!
From Oslo airport I caught a train into the city, but as I had to wait until three o'clock in the afternoon to check into my dorm at the hostel I decided to go for a walk around - since I was feeling surprisingly energetic for someone who had maybe slept for two hours in the last day-and-a-half! So I ended up wandering around the streets of Oslo for the rest of the afternoon (well, until about half-past-eight anyway - the long daylight hours of a Scandinavian summer would take some getting used to!) and saw, amongst other things, the parliament building (Stortinget); the royal palace (Det Kongelige Slott) and changing of the guard ceremony; the old castle and fortress (Akershus Slott and Festning) overlooking the harbour; and a place called Vigeland Park on the outskirts of Oslo -
A taste of things to come
View from the Oslo-Bergen train which is a large recreational area featuring numerous fountains and over two hundred life-size sculptures of the human form by Gustav Vigeland.
The following day I jumped on a train for the incredibly scenic seven-hour journey from Oslo to Bergen, half of which was spent travelling through snow-covered mountains. And waiting for me on the platform in Bergen were the two girls who had inspired me to go to Europe in the first place, Erika and Nina - whom I had met and spent Christmas with in Airlie Beach back in 2006; and whom I had then flown to Sydney to visit just before they flew back to Norway a few weeks later. There surely could be no better sight for a weary traveller - or reward for flying halfway around the world - than those two beautiful girls' smiling faces!
After making our way through the centre of town so I could check into my hostel - which was perfetly located only a block away from the bustling harbour, and run by a friendly young woman from Cleveland named Kristen - we then went straight back to the girls' apartment (via the supermarket for beers, of course!)
Long way from home
Soaking up the senery in Voss to do some catching up. Before long we were on our way to another house where a small group of Erika and Nina's friends had gathered to enjoy drinks on a lovely little rooftop terrace, from where we could enjoy the lingering daylight whilst looking out over the roofs of the rest of the neighbourhood. And as the hours slowly passed, we eventually made our way to a cosy little local bar nearby for more drinks sometime around midnight - at which time it was still twilight outside!
The next day I had to wait for an hour-and-a-half at the police station to get my working holiday visa stamped into my passport, only to be told I would have to leave my passport there and come back to collect it in a weeks' time! And in a further setback it was overcast and raining lightly the whole day - thus limiting the amount of sightseeing I was able to do with the girls.
Thankfully though it only lasted one day, as the next day I went on my first sightseeing tour - which consisted of a train from Bergen to Myrdal, the scenic Flåmsbana railway journey down from
Fjord cruise
Plying the waters of Naerøyfjorden the snow-covered Hardangervidda plateau to Flåm at the head of the Aurlandsfjorden, a ferry cruise along the Aurlandsfjorden and Naerøyfjorden (a Unesco world heritage-listed site) to Gudvangen, an equally steep and scenic bus ride back up from the valley floor to Voss, and finally another train back to Bergen! All in all it was a pretty impressive introduction to the fjords of Norway, which no less an authority than National Geographic had rated the number one natural tourist attraction anywhere in the world!
My fourth day in Bergen the girls and I caught the Fløibanen funicular up to the top of Mount Fløyen for an awesome view of Bergen - which really is a beautiful city set around a natural harbour. From there we walked back down into town and along the old harbourside Bryggen - which is a row of centuries-old, brightly-painted wooden buildings once used by merchants of the Hanseatic maritime trading league. On the way back to the girls' place we stopped at the supermarket to pick up a mini-grill - which is basically a miniature barbecue that you use once and then throw away, and which only costs about three dollars! So we met a
Mirror image
Waiting for the ferry in Hardangerfjord couple of the girls' friends at a little park overlooking the water and had an instant cook-up; and wouldn't you know it - everyone in the park had their own mini-grill!
Day six in Norway brought another sightseeing tour - this time to the Hardangerfjord, south-east of Bergen. Again this consisted of train rides through snowfields, bus rides past roaring waterfalls, and not one but two ferry rides along the fjord itself. The Norwegians certainly do a great job of inter-connecting their various public transport networks; as each of the tours I have done have been un-guided, do-it-yourself trips where all you have to do is follow your timetable. Of course, the fact that Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world (and easily the most expensive in Europe) means that do you have to be prepared to spend a lot of money in order to see the best of it, but the scenery truly is so spectacular as to justify the expense - even if it might only be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of us!
Having by now well and truly earnt a rest day, I spent most of the following day washing
Cruise views
Tonje, Erika and Nina onboard the Statsraad Lemkuehl my clothes, booking accommodation and uploading photos, until the weather started to clear late in the afternoon - at which point Erika, Nina, Tonje (their flatmate) and I ended up going on a five-hour cruise around the waterways and islands near Bergen on a massive old sailing ship! Again the quality of the natural scenery was complimented by the various impressive feats of engineering and construction that allow all manner of otherwise unreachable islands and peninsulas to be inter-connected by bridges, tunnels and the like (spend any amount of time in Scandinavia and you will surely come to admire and appreciate these people's resourcefulness), whilst the entire spectacle was only enhanced by the magnificent late-afternoon sunlight that seemed to bathe everything in a terrific, golden glow.
Not a bad way to end my first week in Europe at all!
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