i’m back home after a wonderful, wonderful time in norway. i cannot tell you how much i needed this vacation (actually, i only realized how much when i was actually there).
my initial thoughts after i landed were
1. this is a really cute country, with the tiny houses here and there and the lakes, and the trees
2. there are many many green trees around
3. there is no rain even though everyone said there would be (could it be that i am bringing my umbrella just for the kicks???)
so i got to the main station and my friend picked me up. i had this weird grin all day, just thinking how cute this all is. yes, i know it’s kind of stupid but i just couldn’t help. we managed to see some of oslo (including my first two cruise ships EVER, the jewel of the seas and the aida cara). and the nobel piece price museum. really interesting. check out the museum shop for some unique gifts such as wallets made from milk carton!
the next morning, we took the train at 6:35 from oslo to bergen. this train ride ranks among the top 10 most beautiful train rides world wide and let me tell you, it indeed was worth it! the nature we drove past, the lush green hills, the rough mountains, the glacier…everything was just stunning. i managed to take some really nice pictures (coming up later). there were times when we couldn’t decide if we should look out to the left or right because it was just so stunningly beautiful.
then we had 2 days to explore bergen, a world heritage city, and home to edvard grieg, a famous norwegian composer. let me tell you, with the view from his house, i would have been able to write music as well! despite claims of bergen being one of the wettest cities in norway we managed quite well. we only had rain the second evening and we were sitting inside having dinner while it was pouring outside.
we then took the ferry to stavanger, a city further south. i have to admit that i was constantly bugging my friend with questions such as “is this a fjord?”, “what is this?” and “why do norwegians do this and that?”. i hereby apologize mightily!
from stavanger, we started out on a hike to a plateau above a fjord. you know, a hike to me involves trails, more or less steady ground…that hike however was really more of a climb-a-rock-and-then-yet-another-rock-kind. i kid you not. while i carefully planned out each step (there was water flowing between the rocks so it was some slippery slope), i wondered about how sore i would be the next day. and how the hike down would be. somehow climbing up a mountain is always easier than going down.
once we were up there it was all forgotten because the view we had and the stunning nature…amazing. this particular place is such an attraction because on three edges, the rock drops straight some 600 meters. i dared to dangle my feet above the edge but that was it. that was already brave enough.
from stavanger we made our way to my friend’s hometown and from there to some smaller towns on the south coast until we returned to oslo on wednesday.
in all, it has been a trip totally worth it! i have seen a part of this world that i had not seen before and being back to nature helped to put things in perspective. go see norway when you have the chance. yes, it is expensive, but so worth it!!!
i’ll post pictures as soon as i have downloaded them onto my computer. i took quite a few and need to reduce them to the best ones. 
tomorrow i’ll be busy doing laundry and enjoying my last days off – don’t really feel like going to work on monday 
take care,
franzi
