My year of adventures documented in blog format: Norway and Helsinki

A nice cafe in Voss (blogger won't let me put this photo down the page in the Voss section)

Friends at Preikstolen

After all of the drama with Norwegian Airlines in New York I finally made it to Oslo, where I attempted to give myself a wet-wipe shower and change my clothes before re-checking my bag for my new connecting flight to Stavanger.

Strangely, this was actually my third visit to Norway for the year, but it was to be by far the most substantial of the visits (the others were mere stopovers that left a short amount of time for sightseeing in Oslo).

Bryne

My first stop in Norway, minus the company of my sister who was leaving New York after me and arriving in Bergen before me, was the town of Bryne in southwest Norway, near Stavanger. When my sister and I were discussing where we would like to travel during her period of annual leave I had just finished travelling around Ethiopia with 2 delightful Norwegian girls, Lene and Veronica. So, despite the enormous expense of going to Norway (without a doubt the most expensive country for tourists in the whole world) I was happy to go provided I could spend a few days visiting Lene and Veronica in the southwest of the country.

My two reasons to visit Bryne, plus a cute guy, plus two cute elephants

When I arrived in Stavanger I was absolutely exhausted and could barely stay awake, let alone make interesting conversation. Luckily, Lene and Veronica were sympathetic and, after greeting me at the airport and forcing me into a child-sized Viking helmet (see below) had a quick dinner with me and then let me sleep. I stayed with Lene’s family and it was such a nice and relaxing place to be after the hustle and bustle of New York City, especially with the hospitality of her lovely mother who even made a gluten-free cake to welcome me (and then re-made it because she thought that the first version was disappointing!).

My best attempt at a smile after my trans-Atlantic ordeal

Veronica showing how it's really done

On my first full day in Bryne, the three of us decided to do a day-trip to a place called Preikstolen, better known by its English name “pulpit rock”. Now, I live in Sydney, a very expensive place to live, but on this day I started to realise how expensive Norway really is, from car ferries that cost over $50 each way, to parking that also cost a fortune (which we managed to wrangle for free thanks to Lene’s small car!). It was worth it though, as we had a fun little hike up to the rock, which was a truly wondrous place even though the weather was cold and wet. We brought Veronica’s dog, Kira, along with us, which added to the fun of the whole thing. Here are some pictures from the hike:

Kira at Preikstolen

Preikstolen

A fine autumn's day in Norway

That evening, after we’d all had a chance to shower, we went over to the apartment where Veronica lives with her charming boyfriend, Lars, and made tacos and then ate them and drank wine. Perfect day!

The following day I accompanied Veronica and Lars to the christening ceremony of Veronica’s baby cousin, which was to be held in a lovely town called Egersund. I had never attended a christening before, and the whole thing was in Norwegian, so I didn’t have much of a clue what was going on. The ceremony was quite long (multiple babies, 8 I think, were christened in the one ceremony) but pretty pleasant because there were many Alexander Skarsgård and Ryan Gosling doppelgangers in the audience, so I had a lovely time people watching. After the christening we attended a celebration, which was a lovely meal of typical Norwegian food (ie, lots of smoked salmon!) overlooking the ocean.

The church where the christening was held

That evening the girls cooked me a gluten-free version of a Norwegian meal called “Kumla”. It was delicious but stodgy, and gave me a terrible tummy ache and then terrible constipation! I don’t understand how there is so little obesity in Norway when this is one of the national dishes, but I’m guessing it’s because food there is so expensive that nobody can actually afford to overeat so the occasional kumla doesn’t do too much harm. We also went to a local beach just before sunset so that I could see what Norwegian beaches are like. It was lovely, but I was wearing a parka, so it’s probably not a place where I would go to sunbathe.

My final day with the girls was spent mostly in Stavanger with Lene (Veronica had to work). I really liked Stavanger, especially these colourful buildings:

Stavanger

We mostly just wandered around town, but made a visit to my favourite shop (Bik Bok) and got wonderful fruit smoothies for lunch.

That evening they dropped me at the airport and I had to say goodbye, which was sad. I’ve had so many sad goodbyes this year and I’ve reached the point where I can do it without crying, but it’s really hard because I’ve met so many lovely people who I’d love to be able to hang out with regularly but realistically cannot hang out with as we live in different hemispheres.

Bergen

From Stavanger/Bryne I flew up to Bergen to reunite with my sister, Alex. Alex had been there for 2 days and had spent much of that time sick in bed in our $80 a night hostel. I promptly caught her same cold, which is still bothering me.

Bergen is a very charming city, but unfortunately many of the more touristy things to do there were closed when we visited as it was late-September and things were closing for the winter.

We met some lovely people in our hostel, the Mansted family. They are also on an epic journey, the epic-ness intensified by the fact that it’s even longer than my trip (2 years) and with 2 children in tow, which would be quite a challenge (their girls were extremely well behaved though, so probably not too hard). I kind of wished my family had done something like this when I was in primary school, I’m sure that it would have been much more educational than sitting in a grammar school classroom. If you’re interested in their journey here’s their blog: http://hungryheads.org/

Other than wandering around Bergen we spent our time there doing a tour of the nearby Hardangerfjord. We did this via a tour package called “Norway in a Nutshell” which is an initiative from the Norwegian tourism authorities to package together public transport and special scenic transport (fjord ferries and the Flåm Railway) to make the country more accessible to tourists. It’s quite well done, but definitely not cheap, with a one-day tour costing in excess of USD 300. Here are some photos of the incredible Handangerfjord (and surrounds):

Bergen to Oslo via Voss and Flåm

The following 2 days were spent travelling to Oslo, with a stop over in the small town of Voss (famous for its mineral water). During these 2 days I became quite unwell and the whole thing was a bit of a struggle for me, not aided by the fact that the weather was pretty miserable (like the height of Melbourne winter). Again, it was very pretty, so here are some photos:

Voss

Sognefjord

Oslo

Our final day in Norway was spent in Oslo before an evening flight to Helsinki via Stockholm. It was actually a beautiful day, and we made the most of it by wandering around the city and catching a ferry across to Bygdøy where we visited the Viking Ship Museum. Here are some photos from that day:

After our sightseeing had concluded I had USD 8 worth of Norwegian Kroners left with which to buy my lunch. That sort of money does not go far in Oslo, so I went to the Burger King at the train station (it was a late rushed lunch before catching the train to the airport) where I was disappointed to learn that a small French fries cost USD 7, so that was all I could afford.

Helsinki

The following evening we were due to start a tour with Intrepid Travel that would take us from Helsinki to Berlin via the Baltic States. This left us with one day to explore the Finnish capital.

First thing on my agenda there was to catch up with my lovely friends Kaisu and her husband Juha. We met them from brunch with their 2 adorable daughters. It’s strange, but awesome, seeing friends after many years and getting to meet the children that they’re had in the intervening period.

Juha took the children home after brunch and Kaisu gave Alex and I a pretty comprehensive tour of Helsinki before catching the ferry with us to Suomenlinna Island where we spent a couple of hours before heading back to the city, where we got lost in the new university library (a great building) before parting ways and heading to our hotel to attend the first meeting of our new tour group.