This time last week, KD, NC, Lau and I were still enjoying our roadtrip around Norway. We'd caught the world-renowned train ride from Oslo to Bergen early in the morning, passing by misty creeks, snow-capped mountains, extraordinary glaciers and glistening rivers. It was a beautiful journey lasting approximately 7 hours, and we entertained ourselves with lots of eating.
Upon arriving in Bergen, we stayed at a hostel with a stunning view of the city behind it. Our photo-shoot (pictured) behind the hostel was definitely one of my highlights of Bergen. There, we visited the old quayside, Bryggen, which lasted about 10 minutes. I don't know why UNESCO have added it to its list of World Heritage Sites; it's as interesting as watching paint dry.
It was here in Bergen that we rented a car. We had great difficulty in organising where to go as most hostels around the country had been closed due to it being low-season for tourists. Fortunately, we found a hostel in the middle of nowhere, about 4 hours from Bergen in a town called Borlaug. The trip there was enjoyable, with roadside stops at majestic waterfalls and large rocky hill-sides with marvelous views of nearby sites reflected in the pellucid waters below (pictured). The hostel in Borlaug was warm, wooden, cosy and in mint condition...and it was all ours! No other tourists were there so it was like we had rented a luscious holiday home in the woods to ourselves. To our delight, a generous buffet breakfast awaited the four of us on both mornings we stayed.
Contrary to our original plans, we decided not to drive to the most popular fjords and national parks because of time constraints and our reluctance to pay ferry fees. So instead we visited the Jotunheim National Park. It was a little over an hour away from Borlaug and we stopped over numerous stunning sites on the way, including a lake that had started to freeze up and a mountain that was lightly sprinkled with snow (pictured).
Unfortunately, when we arrived at the outskirts of Jotunheim we couldn't find the walking path that would lead us to the best parts of the national park, possibly because they were completely covered in snow. We braved the freezing climate and climbed as far up a mountainside as we could for some breathtaking views of the fjords (pictured).
When we returned to Bergen for our flight to Copenhagen, we were surprised to see it was snowing heavily. NC taught me how to make a snowman. We made and positioned our snowman on the side of a road at the airport (pictured) so that it was greeting all the passengers who'd recently arrived in Bergen. They would honk at us and wave back and it was a beautiful way to end my mid-semester break.
End. and Off to Bed I Go.
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