Life in the Land of the Vikings

Well I have to say that my time in Norway has been absolutely 100% incredible. The country is beautiful and Anne has done a great job of playing host. So, in honor of my newfound love for the country....

I have become a Viking. Minus the raping and pillaging. But a Viking nonetheless.

As ridiculous as this picture is, I really can say that Norway is great. I'm glad that I got to stay here for an entire week, because every day has brought something new and interesting and exciting. You can also notice that in this picture I'm wearing both a sweatshirt and a jacket. Even though it's the middle of summer, for me, it's pretty chilly here. Woo hoo for returning to 110 degree weather in just a couple of days! haha

But another thing that Anne has done a great job of is introducing me to all of her friends and really making me feel welcome among them all. I definitely like all of them and, as far as I know, they seem to like me too.


This picture is from one of my first nights in Norway where a big group of us hung out together for the evening. From the left to right it's me, Anne, Marit, Sigren, and Astrid (very Norwegian names, no?). But they're a really fun group and I've had a blast hanging out with them. And it's been awesome to FINALLY meet all these friends of Anne's who I've heard about for all these years.

Here is just another quick shot of me, Anne, and Astrid in Anne's family's apartment.

Another thing that Anne and her friends have done is try to show me what life is like for a typical Bergen local. So I've been able to see and go to places that I otherwise might have never known about. This place was called "Cave" and it lived up to it's name. It was basically a concert venue and bar that was in a cave. And it was really cool.

And here are Marit, Anne, and Sigren while we were at Cave.

I had already mentioned the tall ship races that were in Bergen for the weekend, but I didn't mention how beautiful they were all lit up at night. And since they left yesterday morning, I had to snap a few last pictures so that I would remember it all, and this is one of those.

And then Anne and I decided to hit up some nature so that I could see some of Norway's natural beauty. So yesterday we did this tour of the countryside called "Norway in a Nutshell" that was so named because I really got to see a little of everything. The mountains, the valleys, the fjords. It was all incredible.


The first part of the trip was a train ride from Bergen to Voss, a really small city just a couple of hours east of Bergen. The great thing about the train ride is that it is one of the most scenic routes in the world and it winds through a lot of different mountain passes. The end result is that you get some great scenic shots like this one.

The next round of the trip was a bus ride down to the foot of the fjords, but as you can see, the bus ride was kind of a scary one. It goes through this winding, zig-zagging road down the face of this mountain. Once again a great opportunity for some great scenery, but a very scary ride! haha

And then we got to my personal favorite part of the journey, the fjords. Basically they are these huge lake areas in huge valleys surrounded by high mountains. They were carved out from travelling glaciers over millions of years, and they are beautiful. We took a two hour boat ride through the fjords, so I was able to take a ton of pictures, but I'm exercising some restraint in not putting up a ton of pictures. Because I know it's more of one of those things that you just have to be there for. But trust me, the fjords are incredible.

The last leg of the journey was a couple more sets of trains to get back to Bergen, which once again provided some incredible scenery. One of my favorite pictures was of this HUGE waterfall, which may not seem that big. But if you look on the bottom rock at the bast of the waterfall, there is a little tiny person standing on there. Which makes the picture have a bit more perspective.

One last thing to mention about Norway that I sadly do not have any pictures of is the food. Incredibly delicious. Anne's mom is a master chef. One of the first dinners I had was reindeer cooked in a cream sauce and it was incredible. Easily one of my favorite meals I've had the entire time I've been in Europe. And of course, the food has flowed since then and they have all been equally good. It has definitely been extremely welcome after living on sandwiches and water all through Denmark and Sweden. haha

But that's it for now! Tonight we are going to end my Scandinavian Adventure in true European style by going to a football match (soccer for you non-euro folks) between Bergen's team and a French team from Marsailles. It's supposed to be a great match, and I'm excited because it's a great way to end my time in Norway, Scandinavia, and Europe in general.

Sadly, this will probably be my last post from Europe because tomorrow I start the looooooooonnnnnnnggg journey home, which includes an 8 hour train ride from Bergen to Oslo, a 4 hour plane ride from Oslo to Madrid, a 12 hour layover in Spain, a 9 hour plane ride from Madrid to Newark, a 4 hour plane ride from Newark to Dallas, and the last 1 hour plane ride into OKC. What a fun trip, huh? So I doubt I'll have any time to give any last updates from the European front, but no worries. Expect a final report on the experience from me when I return to the states.

But for now I'm going to enjoy my last Norwegian day and my last days in Europe. And I'm getting crazy excited because I'll be home in a little over 2 days! Woo Hoo!