Fjords

We woke up way to early for me to recall the first hour of my morning. The only thing I knew... I didn't have to worry about prices today cuz our trip down the Fjord was pre-booked and paid for in advanced.

Late, as usual, we half jogged to the train station only to find it didn't leave till half hour past what we thought. We got great seats though, right next to the window. When the train pulled out of the city I knew today would be a much better day than yesterday. It was beautiful! But we could only see glimpses at a time. Like a teaser to a movie. Every time we caught a glimpse, a moment later the train would go through a loud, and dark, tunnel. I guess its a lot better to go through the mountain than up and over it :) So... I fell asleep.

I woke up as my dad told us to hurry onto the bus to get a good seat. I, being the good daughter I am, listened and followed instructions. I got a window seat and was happy to stare out the window for the next hour. We saw two rather large waterfalls as we went down some pretty scary switchbacks on a giant bus.










Next was the Boat!

I sat there thinking to myself, "Its at times like this I wish I were more poetic, so I could captivate even a small portion of the mesmerizing view with words." So here is the best I can do. The hills and mountains were a vivid shade of green. The mountains not overbearing but with definite presence. Waterfalls trickling out of hundreds of nooks and crannies in the sides. Some were smaller and looked like silk strings falling in between the trees. Others were larger and looked like someone blew up the side of the mountain and found they hit the water line. Others were so high up, the mountain so steep and the wind so strong that the waterfall looked like it never hit the ground and just got swept back into the air.











We sat in the back of the boat and watched the seagulls do their own version of surfing on our boats "air" wake. The scene trailing behind, a zig-zagged river that disappeared in between the two mountains.



















Up in the mountains there were these villages that made you wonder how they built a house that high. How they got supplies up there? My mom read a pamphlet that said they need to lower a ladder to let people up, when the tax man came to collect, they simply wouldn't lower the ladder :)



















We also observed how we try to find big flat areas of land to farm, and they were out farming on the side of the mountain. Lush green fields of farmed land. The side of the mountain was so steep, we were amazed their tractors didn't fall over.




















As you can see, it was beautiful! The last waterfall pictured had a Norwegian Dancer come out and do a little show next to the waterfall. They actually stop the old train so you can get out and take a picture with it. The day was great. The only downfall is that the trains aren't labeled super well, and after being kicked outsets four times, we tried to find the ones we were reserved for. Dad almost picked a fight with the lady sitting in our seats but we finally got sat and everything ended up okay.

The day, over all, made me appreciate my roots.










That's me with a troll and my "nisse" hat ;)

- Me (Elisha)

Location:Bergen, Flam, Myrdal Norway

From Bad to Good

We drove out the mouth of the ship along with a few hundred other cars, a handful of campers and some semi trucks. Amazing what they fit on one level of a ship!

I was excited to finally be in Norway! A piece of my past, my heritage. I grew up listening to stories about this country, cooking and eating recipes from here and doing traditions from here. And, we were starting the day with shopping!!! I quickly discovered that my heritage is expensive and freezing cold. Walking through the first few shops I quickly got discouraged. Even my mom got discouraged and walked out with nothing (highly abnormal, if you know my mother). The little trolls that I wanted were $50. A thin sweatshirt you can buy in America for twenty bucks, was $100! A nice sweater, that would actually keep me warm, was $600. I choked every time I looked at a price tag and did the math. The cheapest thing I saw all morning was 49 kroner, which is $10. Most things were in the hundreds of kroner.

We decided to give up and go eat lunch. Bad mistake! We showed up at good old McDonalds thinking about the normal prices. We were wrong. A cheeseburger meal was $17. Ouch! I lost my appetite real quick. we ended up at a pizza buffet. I won't tell you how much but the pizza was not even close to worth it. I miss Pizza Pie Cafe :(

We then added to our disappointment by finding out that it cost to much per person to take a tram up the mountain to see the view. Everything was discouraging! My mom wasn't feeling good, so we took her back and while she was asleep, the four others of us headed out of town to find better priced food at a grocery store.

Have you ever noticed how much you actually read the containers your food comes in. I never did until I was trying to decipher Norwegian on a box. Is this soft or hard butter? Skim or Whole Milk? Ham, Bologna, Sausage, Turkey? The best was trying to figure out which of the many different kinds of cheese was closest to cheddar. And imagine doing that all in another language when you cant taste any of it. Well... Success!!! We'll be eating sandwiches the rest of our journey, but at least we can afford to eat.

To make the day even better we found Krunsekake!!! For those of you who don't know what that is, its Norwegian Wedding cake. It was in the freezer section. I know its weird to have wedding cake when not at a wedding but I told my family it served multiple purposes. One, because I missed out tasting my Aunts awesome homemade version at my cousins wedding just a few weeks ago. Two, because we needed dessert after dinner. Three, because it would make me feel better about my life from this past year (my one year anniversary in particular). Four, because it would make my mom feel better. Also, it's just amazing to find it in a grocery store like that!




So we ended the night much better than the rest of the day. Playing Cards and eating Krunsekake :D Yum!

- Me (Elisha)

Location:Bergen, Norway

Beginnings to a Journey

I know I'm not the best writer, so you'll have to bear with me. This is really part journal and part for entertainment for those of you who know my family and I best.

My family picked me up from South Port, England on Wednesday. We took a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. I was sad to leave the team but excited to see new parts of Europe. I ran into some team girls in the airport and they told me there was a huge problem with my bag that morning and the airport. I had asked about a month before we left if we could send our bag with our tour clothes home and the answer I thought I got was a yes. Apparently I was wrong. As I did not go to the airport with the team and I just sent my bag with them, I guess they had to separate my things into a bunch of different peoples a tuff so they could have an extra bag and weight. Bless my dear friend who kept track of it all. But those of you who know me should know that when I found out Lee was mad that it even happened in the first place, I freaked out the rest of the day. But I know what many of you would say, there was nothing I could do about it anymore. (I still sent him an apologetic text, And to all this who helped take care of my stuff... thanks!)




I got to see my families hotel in Liverpool and needless to say it was nice. They always stay in the nicest places without me. My first night with them I stay in an all white hotel that was a mix between an IKEA do it yourself kit and a cell with padded walls :) the bedding and towels had been vacuum packed and left there for me to make the bed myself. And it had bunk beds three tiers high! But it was an adventure that turned out well.


Thursday morning we loaded the car and pulled up to a ship. Well...we pulled into the mouth of a ship. The front had been lifted up and we drove onto it. It was like a one day, non all inclusive and not as nice cruise ship. The first thing we noticed was that we should have bought food to take on the ship as the cheapest meal cost $20. We wasted time playing good North American Family card games (Wyoming Rummy, Canadian Fruit Salad and Phase Ten). After declining an invite for drinks we went to bed on our fold down bunk beds. The difficulty there, five adults and four twin size beds. Yay!

I'll stop here and do a new post for Bergen :)


- Me (Elisha)

Location:England to Copenhagen