Naeroyfjord - now, say that 10x fast

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Internet was a total fail yesterday… so I just posted yesterday’s story from Flam before this one (scroll down on the previous page).

Had a lazy morning again today - it was nice to not have to get up early. I didn’t pull a 13-hr sleep again though haha, thankfully.

Check-out was 11am, so after that I just slowly wandered back towards the docks. A *HUGE* cruise ship had pulled in this morning, and when I saw huge, I mean huge. It’s the largest cruiser I’ve ever seen, so it looks ridiculous in the time dock space haha. The other tour boats and can barely fit in around it. Skills.

Early afternoon I took the fjord boat from Flam to Gudvangen - about a 3-hr cruise. The views were AMAZING. And the photos really do not do it justice at all. Sitting on the boat, you realize just how small you are when you’re going by these mountain cliffs that are well over 800m on each side. I was worried about being cold on the water, but it was sunny enough (for most of the cruise) that I was perfectly fine. Some people were frozen, but the Canadian in me came out I guess haha.

Not only did I take a kajillion shots of the fjord and all its glory, I also have quite a collection of seagulls. I don’t know what it is with me and birds… but I love taking pictures of them in flight. There was a group of 5 gulls that followed us for half the cruise - two of which kept nestling up on one of the boat ledges.

It was also neat to see all the little “towns” along the fjord. I use the term generously as some place really only had about 10 houses and a dock for the boat. It would be so neat to live there… ok well, maybe it would be quite isolated haha, but to have a cottage there or something would be amazing. I can just imagine what the entire area looks like during winter… it must be beautiful, but I wouldn’t want to get stuck driving on their mountain roads!

While on the boat I met a nice girl from Australia - she just got back from the north pole and got to see polar bears. Jealous. She’s been traveling on her own for 4 months now… yeah, I don’t think I could ever do that… I’d go crazy. My status quo seems to be close to my limit.

Once in Gudvangen, I hopped on a bus for Voss. Again the views were great - we drove along a river for awhile before going through a series of tunnels within the mountains. We then did a random detour (can totally tell this bus is for tourists haha). We drove to the top of this mountain, and then took a one-way, hair-pin, super-steep road back down on the other side. It reminded me of a more extreme version of the mountain road I took last year in Germany at the Eagles Nest. Thankfully it’s now one-way, but up until a couple years ago it was two-way… considering the bus barely fits on the road, I have no sweet clue how that worked.

Anyway! After that we looped back around to that same set of tunnels and headed off to Voss, for real this time. My train was coming in an hour, so I puttered around the station. A couple from Australia walked over to me and started chatting with me since I was alone - they were sweet. She told me I was in for a treat (/experience) in the Baltics when it comes to English-skills haha. I’m like great, thanks. Then again, I knew that going in - if I could do Bulgaria, this should be fine.

Train ride to Bergen was, you guessed it, very pretty. We basically stayed tucked into the side of the mountain, so you got a great view of all the waterways on the way in. My hostel is right smack in the middle of town, so it was nice to not have to wander around too far with my backpack. Again, quite the snazzy little hostel they got going here. I had to laugh when I checked-in - the girl told me there were other Canadians here - I’m like oh, ok cool? “Yeah, there’s a huge Oprah group here. You know, singing?” Ahhhh, I love it. It took a second for my mind to click - opera. =)

Another neat thing about the hostel, you have to take one of those old-style lifts to get in and out of the building (the hostel itself is on the 4th floor of another place). Very neat, yet causes slight claustrophobia as with my backpack I take up a solid 75% of the lift. I do love the metal gate thing you have to manually open and shut though, along with the swing-open doors.

And, that’s that. Tomorrow I’m roaming around the city - no set plans yet… there’s a cool looking science & tech museum here, the fish market and harbour, plus all the historical stuff and architecture, along with the mountains all around the city for great views. I have two full days here, so I’ll make the most of them.

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Photos

Naeroyfjord
I took over 300 photos today... so I'll just post a small, small handful.

Token bird
Love this shot.

Naeroyfjord
You can really see the depth of the fjord... huge cliffs on both sides.

Mountain road
This is where we took the detour into the valley. So random, but lovely.

Comments

[Irene]

Beautiful Scenery
Wow, what a beautiful country. I'm glad you're enjoying your trip. And it's nice to know travellers look out for each other. So, have you learned any good opera songs yet? Or Oprah songs? That's too funny.

[dalia]

Lithuania
Did you want me to contact Valdus about putting you up? Not sure what their plans are but I can always see if they are around. Keep in mind they are in their 70's so there won't be any late night parties but he sure has a stock of vodka.

[Oystein]

interesting
Hi, it is very interesting to read about your Norway trip, I must tell you I just came back from vacation to Canada, I was driving around in the Rocky Mountains for 2 weeks with my sons. I was there 2 years ago too, I just love the place. I live in Lillehammer, I read you will be visiting here as well. Bergen is a very nice town too, also one of my favourite places. I am glad you got so nice weather here, not always like that. In Calgary and Banff we had snow in end of may, you can see some pics here http://picasaweb.google.com/oysesp/Canada2010# Wish you a nice trip!