The Road (Train Tracks) to Oslo

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462km seperate the cities Bergen and Oslo, a train ride that should take roughly 7 hours to complete. Yesterday, I found out the hard way that that is sometimes not the case as a traveller on a budget with no real solid plans!

Let's start in the morning, shall we? Shawn, who has now become my travel companion for the next few days, and I woke up around 6:30 to grab some quick breakfast before catching the bus to the train station. We checked out, grabbed our backpacks and stepped out the door to see the bus driving by.

Happy Easter, everyone by the way!

But the Easter bunny made it hard for us this morning, altering the schedule for the bus so that it comes around again in an hour!

Walking to the station it is, yaaaay!

Having done the route on the bus many times before, we were able to navigate quickly to the station and validate our eurail passes before jumping on the train... Unfortunately for the cliché movies, we made it in time that we weren't runnig after the train, madly waving down the conductor. As per instruction from Madeline, we grab 2 window seats on the right side of the train that is bound for Myrdal, our first stop of the day.

Although a pretty crappy day, I'm in Norway, so the scenery is still unreal, even if everything has a brownish haze attached to it. Winding through snow capped mountains once again, we make our way to Voss where 90% of the passengers leave the train to go skiing for the day (I would've loved to, but the whole money thing, and not having skis decided for me ?). We reach our final destination which will eventually become our home for 7 hours in the night, later on in the day, as aforementioned.

But first, it's a short wait, in comparison, and we jump on the Flåmsbana (The Flåm Railway) that runs the route between the town (hamlet, I'm not sure?) and The Myrdal station. Confirmed by me so far in my travels, this is claimed to be the most beautiful train ride in the world, winding its way through astronomically sized fjords covered in a more than a dusting of snow, from and elevation of 866m down to just 2m. The steepest incline on the track is a 55% grade incline or an incline of 1m down for every 18m across! We stopped at a few places along the way, one of which was a spectacular waterfall that is now frozen over, but still a really cool sight!

I was sitting next to a lovely Bergen-ese family on the way down, and the husband was chatting with me the whole way, telling me little stories about all the things we passed. It was he who told me of all the flooding problems they'd been having in the valley and how I really really need to bring my family back in the summer when it's 100x more beautiful! So mum, dad... Next vacay is to Flåm, ok? ?

We reach the small settlement after about 50mins and disembark to an unbelievable landscape surrounding us. Like I cant even fathom how high these mountains are that surround me, and they're all topped gracefully with clouds and mist, making the scene even more pleasing.

Unfortunately, I had to opt out of the cruise to Gudvangen (as some of you know, the retirement town... If you haven't been shown the photo by me, Google image search Gudvangen, and you'll know why I want to retire here) but we strolled around and checked out the local museum based in the construction of the railway, the souvenir shops, and a small restaurant where we had lunch.

It was at the museum that I learned the Flåmsbana is sometimes called the 20s railway. Here's why, not sure how they did this, aha:

It runs a stretch of 20km
It took 20 years to construct
It has 20 tunnels along its path
And, the cost of of building it is estimated at NOK 20 million!

Coincidence, I think not! They totally threw in abother tunnel and 7million more dollars just for fun ?

So after our short stay in Flåm, I would really like to stay a couple of days in the future and do some of the cool excursions that are available, we took the train back up, this time on the same side so we got the opposite view, if that makes any sense.

This time we were accompanied by a mother son duo from Florida, the mother who is a travel blogger, and the 6 year old son her travel companion. Shawn being Shawn strikes up conversation with them and gets himself into an hour long debate with Gage on which are the best hacks in Minecraft.

We make it back up to Myrdal with an equally incredible ride, and there we will stay for what feels like the rest of my trip!

The way I screwed up, we managed to get the very last sleeping compartment on the night train to Oslo, however that means that we were to wait in the Myrdal station from 6pm-1:07am for the train. Oh ya, and the café was closed and the only other people gone home for easter dinner.

So we ate our minimal food, slept and talked with as many people as possible via FaceTime to pass the time. I ended up chatting with my good friend Kyle from work who brought me into the restaurant to say hey to everyone who was there - what a nice guy!

I venture out on a hike at one point, and it is then that I realize how really in the absolute middle of no where we are! If I stop and listen, I hear absolutely nothing, it's peaceful, but makes you think, why the heck did people choose to settle here. And by people, I mean three houses and a bike rental place. I did, however, catch a glimpse slid someone through a window on my way back to the waiting room, and they waved back to me, but no such luck on the dream in my head of being invited in for Easter dinner.

After the agonizing 7 hours, the train does show up, hallelujah, and we board. Our room is a cozy, tight fit but it will do as we both crash right away in our beds - Well after I ate my little chocolate square in honour of Easter 😉

-NB

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Photos

Steeam
Majestic, I'd say!

Snow
Just a little bit of snow here!

Flåmsbana
The outside view of the legendary train.

Flåmsbana
And the inside view.

Walk
A photo I took on my hike from the station.

CHOCOLATE!
And my one little morsel of chocolate on Easter... Really looking forward to those mini eggs mum!