Monday, December 9, 2013

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Bergen, Norway!

So we started off our journey to Norway on a Wednesday. Since our flight was at 7 in the morning, we had to spend a lovely night in the Malaga Airport. My friend and I found a lovely place to sleep on the cold tile floor. Oh yes. It was just "lovely." But hey. It was a new experience. 

 As I said earlier, our flight left around 7 in the morning. So my friend and I got up around 5, got our ticket stamped, and went through security. We decided to treat ourselves to Starbucks since we were both exhausted and starving. After some breakfast we got to our gate and headed off to Norway!!!!
Our flight there wasn't too bad. I slept pretty much the entire time. But as we got closer to Norway, the worse the turbulence got. They flight attendants kept saying "Oop. Looks like we're having some slight turbulence." I really want to know what their definition of "slight" is. Personally, I felt like I was on a roller coaster in the air. There was nothing "slight" about it.
Eventually we landed. Our flight from Oslo to Bergen wasn't for another 6 hours. My friend and I were going to take a bus into Oslo, but then we looked outside......yeahhh. We decided to watch Downton Abbey instead. I'm definitely glad I brought more then my phone with because our flight ended up being 40 minutes late due to weather.
Eventually, we got up in the air. And as soon as we got into the air. We were back on the ground. While we were taking off, my friend and I decided that the pilots who fly into/in Norway have to be the best of the best because there is so much turbulence it's unreal.
Once we landed, my friend and I hopped on a bus and went to our hostel. We got off at the stop we were supposed to, I turned to my right and there....right in front of me....was a giant Christmas tree!!!!! So naturally I had to run over and take a picture.

After taking pictures, we walked over to what we thought was the church our hostel told us to look for. It wasn't actual a church. It was a Starbucks!!! Hallelujah!!! Hallelujah!! After finding that little slice of heaven, we walked around a bit more until we found our hostel, which was in a fabulous location!!! We were exhausted after all that traveling, so we crashed.

Friday morning we slept till 9 since that's when the sun comes up. Haha.

So we got up.
Got ready.
Walked outside.
Snow.
There was snow.....everyyyywhhherrrrrrre!!!
HALLELUJAH!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!! Literally. I was in a place beyond heaven!!! It was soooo beautiful!! It exceeded my expectations. And we hadn't even left the hostel door yet.
 
 

After this excitement, we decide to walk over to Starbucks and plan our day. Stop number one was the Gingerbread Village. It was adorable!!! All of the houses there were made by children, families, and organizations in Bergen.
 
 
 
 
 
 

After the gingerbread village we decided to walk around.
 
 

One place that was on our list of things we should see was the fish market in Bergen.  It just so happened it was right by our hostel.  So we decided to stop in.  You could definitely tell all the fish was fresh!  As we were walking around, one of the workers asked if we wanted to try a sample.  Of course we said yes!  So the lady cut us off 3 different types of salmon (two were marinated in stuff).  All of it was delicious!!! It tasted like the fish had jumped straight from the water into the market. After the fish, the lady handed us some meat that was sort of black color.  I had no idea what it was, but I took it anyway.  Before I ate it I asked what it was.  Whale.  It was whale.  I ate whale.  And I hate to say it, but it was delicious!  After the fish market, we decided to walk around some more.  We ended up stopping at a place recommended by our hostel for fish cakes, which are a big thing there, and fish soup.  It was all so yummy!! 

After we continued to walk around the city.  As we were walking around....it starting hailing. So we decided to go back to our hostel as wait it out. 3 episodes of Downton Abbey later, it had finally calmed down enough to go outside. So my friend and I ran to the grocery store to get some dinner and stuff for lunch tomorrow. When we were in the store we found frozen pizza. Best frozen pizza ever!!! Pretty sure it was only because I haven't had it in 3+ months. Minor details. It continued to snow for the rest of the night, so we stayed in, watched some Downton Abbey, and ate pizza.

Saturday we woke up to even more snow!!! Gorgeous!! We decided today to go find the Christmas markets. Well after walking around for about an hour...we found nothing. So we just stopped in the year round Christmas shop. After shopping we walked around a bit more and found a farmers market. There we tried a pancake type thing. It was delicious!! After that, we were freezing cold, so back to the hostel we went for lunch. The night before we got some salmon and tortellini at the store. So there was lunch!!! After lunch we decided to walk around for a bit. Bergen is just beautiful!!! Later we stopped and got some coffee at a local cafe, then went back to the grocery store for dinner. Pizza round 2!!!! It was still really cold outside, so we decided to stay in since we had to get up early the next morning.

So instead of waking up to snow...we woke up to rain. Freezing. Rain. By the time we got to the train station, which was a 10 minute walk, if that, we were soaked through!!! Oh well. I figured, if this is the worst experience I'll have on a trip, this isn't at all that bad. Once it got to the train station, it was time for our 6ish hour train ride from Bergen to Oslo. It may have been a long ride, but it wasn't too bad. The view the entire trip was beyond beautiful!!! All the mountains and trees were covered in snow. I was sad I wasn't able to get any pictures to give it justice. After the train ride, we had to hop on another train to take us to the airport. Once we finally got to the airport, we had about 3 hours until our flight. So we just hung around until it was time to leave. Since our flight was a night flight, I wish I could say I slept the entire flight. Sadly I didn't. Once the plane landed, it was time to settle in for another night in the airport.  This night wasn't too bad because we didn't actually get to sleep still about 2 and had to get up at 6ish.  I ended up getting up at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep.  Oh well! I finished a book during this time so that was a plus!!


When I booked my flight to Norway, it was one of the most spontaneous decisions I have ever made.  I am so glad of this decision because Norway turned out to be one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen!!
 




 
 
 



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