Sisters Take Over Norway

After me and Madie's brief tour of the UK, we decided to take on some of our very own heritage and head to the beautiful land of blonds: Norway.

A friend of mine had told me about the 8-hour train ride from Oslo to Bergen and mentioned that it was supposed to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the world...so Madie and I decided to take on the challenge and add it to our list of adventures. 

Map of the train ride from Oslo to Bergen

We got to Oslo, Norway, on the morning of May 22nd. After making it to our hostel, we decided to grab a map and just see where the wind took us. We walked downtown towards the popular shopping streets and stopped to relax and sit in the sun in the middle of this beautiful square. 

After we rested our feet for a little while, we made our way to the historical fortress.

On our way, we found some very eco-friendly cars; and public plugs! How cool is that?!

Madie and I somehow managed to not take one single picture of the actual fortress (I know, right?), but here's a picture that I pulled off Google, just so you can see what it looks like!

Oslo Fortress from the water

After meandering around the Fortress, Madie and I decided to try and find the castle that the current King and Queen of Norway live in - didn't know they had a King and Queen? Us either.

Current castle and home to the King and Queen of Norway

There were parks rolling away from the castle in all different angles, and they were littered with college-aged students basking in the sun; it reminded me of Madison :)

Then, seeing as it was dinner time, Madie and I headed back down to the port for an all-too-expensive meal (the exchange rate from Norwegian Krone to Dollars is incredibly deceiving; it's about 6 NOK to 1 USD however, an ice cream cone costs around 60 NOK...you do the math...), and then said goodbye to the capitol city.

Sunset in Oslo

The next morning we were up way too early in order to catch our train to Bergen. We had bought a bunch of fruits and snacks the night before so we were all set for our 8-hour train ride through the Norwegian countryside.

It's impossible to put into words how unbelievably breathtaking it was. And I was only looking out of ONE of the windows :) 

We started by going through some very green and hilly farmland. Then the hills became mountains, and the tips of the mountains slowly turned white as we got further and further into the countryside. I can't remember exactly at what point it happened, but somehow along the way, the green disappeared and was replaced with an eye-burning white. There was about 6 feet of snow on the ground! In MAY!!! There were little teeny tiny houses scattered among the hills on either side of the train tracks that were completely covered in snow - you couldn't see but the roofs. 

 Beautiful sunrise over this monstrous lake - made me want to go boating :)

 White Water Rafting, anyone???

Look at how high the snow is!!!

Finally arriving in Bergen at around 3 in the afternoon, Madie and I made it to our hostel, took their advice, and took the tram up the side of the mountain so we could see the beautiful city of Bergen from a different angle.

View from the top of the mountain.

Cheese! :)

Madie and I hiked down the mountain (don't worry - it was all paved), and stumbled upon one of the weirdest trees I've ever seen in my entire life!!!

In these pictures it looks kinda like a pine tree, but trust me. Madie and I freaked out when we saw it - I've never seen another tree like it.

Weird tree.

Then, at the base of the mountain, Madie and I decided to take advantage of the daylight we had left and meandered around the beautiful city of Bergen.

I had to get the postcard shot of the houses on the port :)

Never have I ever seen a longer name for a street. 

Walking around, Madie and I stumbled on a moving art fair. There were wooden structures all over the downtown part of Bergen - you could walk on some of them, you could move others, it was actually really cool to be able to interact with the exhibit instead of just looking at it and trying to figure out what it means. 

One of the pieces in the exhibit.

On our way back to the hostel, Madie and I decided to stop in the park and watch the sunset in front of this beautiful pond.

Note all the other people watching the sunset too :)

Goodbye Bergen :) Time for us to head to the Netherlands!!!

Overall, I loved my trip to Norway. I have never seen so many tall blonds in my entire life - I felt like I was back in Minnesota! And everyone was very very nice and was not at all bitter that we didn't know how to speak Norwegian. If it wasn't so DAMN expensive, I would love to go back and spend more time there! I would definitely go back and visit Bergen. Oslo didn't feel that much different than any other American city, but Bergen took my breath away. With the architectural style, the landscape, and the lifestyle, I could definitely see myself going back and spending some more time there. But for now, Madie and I have other European cities to see :)

À Bientôt!