Norway in a Nutshell

Yesterday, I came to an important conclusion: this will not be my last visit to Norway. Although the nutshell tour was fantastic, I realized how little of the incredible wilderness I have seen.

But, to return to the beginning of the tour, which had 5 parts:

1. 8:11-12:53 Train from Oslo train station to Myrdal. As far as train rides go, this one was amazing, to say the least. Although the scenery at the beginning was fairly normal for Norway, as we got closer to Myrdal, it got much better. The best views (and most of my pictures) were of picturesqe valleys surrounded by tree-lined mountains. We also passed by a number of Norwegian towns, which was interesting mostly because all the houses were basically variations on a theme! In the larger cities this isn't true, but everywhere else they only need a couple colors of paint since everyone seems to choose the same few. Interestingly, for lunch I brought a barbeque chicken and coleslaw sandwich from the grocery store that was actually quite good. Now that's a combination I've yet to find in the US...

2. 13:27-14:25 Flåmsbana train from Myrdal to Flåm. This ride continued the excellent scenery from the last one, although we often went through tunnels. The best part was this great waterfall that they had built a deck by so they stopped the train so everyone could go out and take pictures. Before we got out though, the conductor mentioned something about a mythical lady that lived in the waterfall. Then, while everyone was out of the train they started playing some mysterious music. So at this point I thought "oh they're just trying to set the mood" and didn't think any more of it. Then a minute later, a woman came out of this little brick shack up high by the waterfall and started dancing around to the music. Clearly they were attempting to play up the mystical lady thing, but it ended up being pretty funny (and tacky at the same time, of course)!

3. 15:10-17:20 Flåm-Gudvangen Fjord Cruise. This was definitely my favorite part of the nutshell tour. Although it was raining and quite windy, the undescribable scenery made it definitely worth standing on the outside deck of the boat. I took many pictures, but they don't even really do the Nærøyfjord justice.
Oddly enough, at this point most of the people on the tour were now Japanese. I wouldn't have imagined Norway being that popular of a place form them to travel to, but I guess I was wrong. The majority of travelers to Norway are actually German (as according to a tour guide) and some museums actually translate descriptions into German along with English. But anyway, back to the tour...

4. 17:45-19:00 Gudvangen to Voss via bus. There was some good scenery on the bus, but it was fairly similar to that from the train trips. The bus did have to make a bunch of u-turns to get down the mountainside, which elicited a gasp from the entire bus as soon as we could see what we would be driving down. All I can say is that I was incredibly glad I wasn't driving.

5. 19:20-20:35 Voss to Bergen via train. The scenery here was also good but nothing compared to the earlier parts of the trip. I ended up taking a nap since I was tired even though I didn't technically do much of anything.

After arriving in Bergen, I found the place where I was staying with a little trouble since Google maps evidently hasn't quite put all of Bergen's streets into their database. But I found some free wireless and got a different map that led me to where I needed to go. Yet again, having an iPod touch was clearly the best investment I could have made to prepare for this trip.

Although the Norway in a Nutshell tour was an excellent way to taste what Norway has to offer, it doesn't offer any chance to get out and actually explore. If I were to do it again, I would probably stop at one of the many towns along the fjord where you could undoubtedly hike into the surrounding mountains. For people whom hiking wouldn't be a good option though, this is the right trip to take from Oslo to Bergen.

I'll detail all about my time in Bergen tomorrow since it's already midnight here...