my picture-full norway in a nutshell

and so another chapter of my exchange experiences starts and finishes!

this time it was exploring "norway in a nutshell".

it's also the name of the tour we signed up for on tuesday. 

the plan was to fly to oslo on sat 2nd march  for a few days, 

and on tuesday hop board a train, tram, ferry, bus and train until we got to bergen.

then. on wednesday till friday, explore bergen. 

 :

(please excuse the dodgy iphone picture. i just lost a 45 minute battle with paint.) 

so, with coffee in hand and a long sprawl in the aarhus departure lounge, we waited.

then takeoff! next stop, oslo

it was a pretty casual flight.


apparently.














but we were excited and ready for our adventure! ok, a tad sleepy. but excited.

 

 my friend had facebooked me this in the perth departure lounge just after i'd said goodbye to my family:

i can't tell you how many times i've opened this screen shot and felt the peace wash over me. 

and it sure came in handy again for our landing into oslo. 

the pilot had told us that it'd be a bumpy descent into oslo, but i was so unprepared for what that actually meant. 

the last time i'd experienced a descent like this one was 4 years ago in chicago, and the landing was 'aborted' (we quickly lifted up in the air again right before touchdown).

that was frightening enough and i don't think i've really ever gotten over it.

but this time, the pilot had decided on landing the plane.

palms sweaty, blood pulsating through my veins, i had to focus completely on bridget and tell her to tell me any story she could think of. 

i now know all about how her parents met, who asked who out, what the proposal was like . . . you name it i'll tell you ;)

even once we'd landed we were still bumping up and down, side to side as we went down the runway.

i began to laugh at the relief that it was all over, then i began to cry.

i'm not sure bridget knew how to react to my mixed emotions....

i reassured her i'm good at self regulation - just give me a few minutes and i'd be fine.
!!

so anyway! we had booked air bnb, which is kind of like couch surfing but a bit more secure and you pay.

we stayed with a young family near downtown oslo, 

and these were our very scandanavian beds. 1 bed, two doonas.

this was the lookout from our bedroom window:

and it was here that i payed $6 for a bottle of water!! norwegians are rich because of their oil. which is great for them but tough on the student.

on our first day in oslo, we decided to go reindeer sledding.

the lady who ran the company told me to catch a bus into a ski-town called 'rinkollen' by midday.

there was no shuttle to pick us up for it, and she never replied again on how to actually find her.

so feeling adventurous, we made our way to the bus stop. 

we missed our bus, so we had to wait for an hour in the shadows. sunday buses.

 it's kinda cold when you have to wait in the shadows in -3C.

once the bus came, we met a guy who told us that the government pays him about $1000 per month to study at university, but that barely covers the rent. 

so everybody has to have jobs on the side.

$1000 per month to study..

once we got to rinkollen, lost and quite confused, we stumbled into a nearby 7/11. The lady behind the counter told us to take a bus departing just outside in 3 minutes to a hotel that could help us.

huh? how? what then?

she didn't know and we didn't ask any more questions.

we caught the bus to a hotel and wandered inside.

by this stage bridget and i had been aimlessly trying to reach this reindeer sledding lady for 3 hours.

i was tired, confused and a bit exhausted.  

the hotel reception lady greeted us with a warm smile and listened to our story.

she then told us to sit down and relax while she fixed us some coffee and phoned this reindeer lady for us. 

this picture says alot about how i felt at this point.

the hotel lady then came over to us to explain:

the reindeer lady had just now asked somebody eating up on the ski mountain to drive down to the bottom of the mountain to come pick us up, so we could relax for a few minutes.

whoohoo!!

sure enough, pretty soon a father and daughter wandered into the hotel and we realised they were here for us.

we also realised that they didn't speak english so we didn't ask any more questions.

wide smiles and "tak" was our universal language.

eventually,

we FINALLY got to the reindeer lady and her reindeers, and went reindeer sledding!

it was the coolest moment ever.
surreal. a few months ago i was just in perth getting ready for my summer holidays, having coffee with friends and going to the beach, doing life as per normal.
somehow i've wound up in norway riding in a reindeer sleigh.
God and his plans really are mysterious.

i then got a diploma in reindeer sledding.
and HERE is the reindeer lady.

 
so then we just explored the ski mountain, and got terribly itchy feet as we watched everybody ski around us.

hahahahahhahahahhhahaha

so to treat our nostalgic hearts, we went inside and had some goodies.

looking at all the special desserts, i couldn't decide what i wanted. surpise surprise.

 the norwegian lady saw me staring at everything so

asked me if i would like her to make me a traditional norwegian sweet.

whaaaaht?!

OF COURSE!

it was sourmilk crepes with brown goats cheese, maple syrup and cream. and, of course, with a creammmmy hot chocolate on the side.
now i don't like crepes, cheese, maple syrup or cream for that matter, but this was treat was AMAZING.
the cheese is apparently this norwegian specialty - i think it tastes like a combination of blue vein cheese and caramel.

we then headed back to downown oslo toward the nobel peace prize musuem

where i got all inspired to go make an imprint in the world

the museum raved alot about the EU.

they think that the Eu has made them 'foolproof' against war with eachother.

this quote nicely put it: "a fragmented europe leads to warm oppression, misery and a united europe leads to peace, freedom and prosperity."

 i remembered that alot of my social work friends here in denmark don't like the EU, so when i got home i asked our airbnb hosts about it.

 they didn't like it either, because they saw it as a way of conforming to one way of doing things. 

it does good things for the countries (like romania and poland) who need the leg up, 

but norway  doesn't need to join the euro, share power amongst the other countries, to join the largest trade economy...

norwegians, in their opinion, don't need it.

(i found out from a tutor later on that danes typically think similar thoughts).

also, countries within the EU must give alot of money to the EU for foreign aid. 

but nobody can say where exactly all the money goes to. 

interesting. 

but still. i found alot of people, organisations and quotes that i found considerably inspiring.

my sister tells me i have too many ideas.

so i took this photo for her.

 

and i walked into a room full of nobel peace prize winners

throughout my social work training, 

i am taught to leave behind my personal values and beliefs and help from a social constructivist perspective.

so to work within the clients sense of reality.

i totally understand the reasons behind this.

but i couldn't help but notice that many nobel peace prizes were awarded to christian people or organisations 

who openly spoke about their values, morals and beliefs and used them to guide their practices. 

without basing their work upon their christian stand-point, they wouldn't have achieved the things which ended up earning them a nobel peace prize.

...

 again, just interesting.

but back to sightseeing downtown oslo!

we spent a few days just exploring the city.
check out these electric cars!

the king and queens palace were here too:

this guy made us laugh

but he definately caught me taking  a sneaky shot of him.

we also tried fresh figs...

and went to the weirdest garden of statues.

we also went taboggening on plastic bags outside our apartment!

every meal we found downtown was at least $50. for just a standard buger or wrap. gah!
so when we found this beach shack american diner which sold burgers for $30 and we were SO HAPPY!

i was looking a little haggard again in my dinner picture, so you just get to see the diner :)

it was reallllllllly chilly this night, but downtown oslo is so pretty at night!

the night before we left,

bridget and i went out to say goodnight to our airbnb host family. 

their little norwegian darling made my heart so glad. 

she is only 17 months, but is very smart. she can choose applications on the ipad, and already is beginning to speak three languages. english, norwegian and russian.

i want to bring my children up bilingual!!

seeing my iphone in my lap, she wandered over to me, sat on my lap and started pulling faces for me to take pictures of us. she was hillarious.

she's also learning ballet. her mum is a ballet teacher.

coolest family ever.

i've also bought myself some brown goats cheese and i've now been having it with banana on toast, with salmon on crackers, or just by itself.
creamy, caramelly, cheese.
i told my sister all this, and she plainly said: "you've been in denmark too long".

:)

moving on!

tuesday rolled around, so did bergen.

this was the famous "flams banner" train ride, except i'd never heard about it before tuesday .

but there were so many amazing sights to see. i just sat for hours carefully selecting music to be my norwegian soundrack and gazing out the window.

constantly ...

with all the treats and sweets i'm eating, i'm trying to eat healthy snacks.

hence grazing on broccoli all day like it's an icecream.

we even met this aussie! he was doing his retirement trip with his wife. i think the next time i come to norway i'd probably be on a retirement trip too. if i even believe in being retired. ha!

then onto the ferry..

the ferry operators said to us: "spot the cat in the rock!"

straining hard, i could make out a cat in the lighter patch of the rock.

he then said that if you look hard enough, you can see many creatures and animals in these rocks and mountains. 

i think he may have done this ferry ride a few too many times.

we went on the ice, like titanic!

then it was time for the coach ride...

then the last train ride which took us into bergen.

where we met our new air bnb hosts!
they met us at the train station and helped us trek up the hills to their tiny apartment.

they were this really cool spanish couple who couldn't do enough for us.

they sat at the table with a large map and a laptop and researched with us everything we were interested in doing. they fed us cake, noodles, tea and good conversation.

bergen reminded me alot of san francisco. very hilly and really arty.

i loved bergen.

we hiked up to the mountain on the first day...

kids LOVED their school's hiking trip! no complaining all the way up there!

and the leaders never once yelled at the kids to be careful, not even when they were swinging on the rail ledge or throwing large chunks of ice down the hill ...

!!

there were cool photo shots all the way up . . .

and i thought of millie when i saw this!!! aw millie. she would have liked this day.

once we got to the top of the lookout, we took another 10,000 photos... 

before this guy jumped in.

you can tell by the faces both our interpretations of the situation.

!!!

!! 

walking uphill for almost 3.5 hours, our legs were sore so we decided to catch the tram down the mountain.

 the tram broke and got stuck on a steep angle ... we had to wait for 30 minutes for the tech to make his way up to us.

i was like "um, are we in danger?" 

but in situations like that, you don't ask such silly questions.

so we turned around and chatted to the kiwi girls behind us.

they'd just finished working 2 years as doctors back home and decided they needed a break!

i told them all about my sister and her having to start night shift. 

cool how situation like that allow for the opportunities to meet interesting people.

gah, another posed photo. but just for the sake of it! and you can kinnnd of tell how steep we are.

and so for the rest of the afternoon, we explored bergen.

the fish market, the waters edge, the shops, the cafes, 

....

another guy who wanted to jump into my photo!

this was a bunch of shoes glued onto the building wall. 

picture worthy.

we decided to find a cute cafe for treats...

our air bnb hosts recommended this quant one.
my heart leapt when i saw the entrance! cute cafes are one of my favourite things in the world.

can you tell how happy i was?

and you really do see funny and cute things around the streets. norway is freezing in winter, so how else are the children and elderly meant to get around?

ok so i'm not sure why the ski poles are so necessary.

















and so the exploring continued until thursday. so. many. photos. so. many poses.
but i just have to remind myself that one day i can look back on them and appreciate it all!
i do enjoy taking photos, it just gets repeptitive. sometimes.

this is our post-photo moment. every time.
it goes like this:
"1, 2, 3" snap.
"have a look at that. is that ok?"
"hmm, perhaps get more of that in it, and less of this."
"Ok, well maybe stand there so the suns more on you".
"how's this?"
"perfect. 1, 2, 3."
snap.

:)

and i thought this was quite humorous!

i don't really do it anymore, but i used to do this ALLLLL the time while travelling.

order hot water from a cafe,

and stick my own tea bag in it, before making some crackers with vegemite!!

i don't usually do it anymore, i'd rather pay and have a nice experience.
but since norway kind of broke my budget, i did it on the very last day.
heehee.


and then again, later that afternoon. ha!!

i did some pretty extreme thrill-seeking stuff too, like walk on ice.

until finallllyyyy...

5pm came round and it was time for our last meal in norway.

we went to a locally recommended bar/restaurant for a cheap norwegian meal.

i got the most norwegian dish on menu:
fish, potatoe and carrots.

with a norwegian beer on the side!















we then packed our bags and headed back to the airport shuttle downtown.
howeverrrrr, i kind of got us a tad lost, and so we almost missed it! we ended up RUNNNING through downtown bergen with our suitcases and caught it just as it was leaving!

we got to the airport and our plane was delayed for 2 hours. i then lost my vegemite in security :(
* * hint hint * * family! i like care packages with vegemite !!

but so we settled into the airport, and i read my new favourite biography. i just finished amy carmichael's last week and now i'm sinking my teeth into joni earikson-tada's story. she's very inspiring to me too.




 

midnight, we fianlly boarded our flight for copenhagen.. 

and lucky bridget got to fall asleep! i never fall asleep on planes.
i dunno, perhaps im too excited that we are on a plane and i just want to stare out the window.

that's another thing, bridget doesn't mind me always having the window seat.
perfect travel companion
;) 

i just spend the whole time looking and feeling haggard.

then we arrived into copnehagen and had to wait till 2am for our train to leave!


so tired.

but alas! we finnnally arrived into aarhus at 6am on friday morning, caught a bus back to our dorms, had a 20 minute power nap, before catching the bus to our 9am class!

frazzled but alive and well in aarhus.

and that's norway in a nutshell!

this weekend we have spent re-couperating, hybernating, sleeping and skyping.

i skyped with my family for the first time in a very long time 

i don't usually like skype, but

it was SO so SO refreshing.

i realised again how much i love and appreciate them :-)

this weekend in a few snaps?

i am becoming more danish with open crackers, 

more norwegian with my brown cheese and new cheese slicer 

and more and more passionate about life as a future social worker.

psalm 51.8
"i am like an olive tree, flourisiing in the house of God"