How are you doing? I’m fantastic! Jonathon and I just got back from a wonderful trip in Norway. Let me tell you, it was SO beautiful. The whole trip our view out of the window was as beautiful as the picture perfect postcard, all ranging from green hills and fjords to snow-covered mountains and glaciers.
The trip started with a bus ride to Oslo, the country’s capital. It was a bustling town with many cafes and sites to see, so we started with a tour around town. We got to see the opera house (where you can walk all the way up to the roof), the official palace for the royal family, a wonderfully architected Van Gogh Museum, and more.
The Opera House
Van Gogh Museum
Royal Palace
One thing we learned here was how expensive Norway is! Apparently, it is the most expensive country in the world. :O Whoa. One of the times Jonathon and I bought a fast-food gas station burger and fries each with one water and a bag of chips and it cost us about $35 USD.
More Oslo pictures
After Oslo we ventured Northwest to Jostedal, which was covered in deep snow, even during the start of May. We stayed at these cute little cabins alongside a river, and we all cooked our meals together. We went on this trip with VIS, or the Vaxjo International Students, with a group of fifty people. We got to meet new people and they helped make our time in Norway so great!
Jostedal cabin
Our big adventure was a hike up one “arm”, which was called the 9 farms glacier. Our guide explained to us that the glacier is built like an octopus with one large head and 27 arms. This glacier, Jostedalsbreen, is the largest in continental Europe, and the small section that we saw of it was stunning. It was a beautiful blue, and crawled down the valley just like an octopus.
To get to this amazing hunk of ice, though, we had to hike through knee-deep snow for a long ways. If you left the guide’s path by even one foot you sometimes fell through to snow as deep as your waist! Once on the glacier we all put on cramp-ons, which are spikes for your shoes, as well as harnesses. We hooked together and climbed up to a high point with a view of the valley that was amazing.
Then, we rappelled into a cave within the glacier for lunch! We got to sip on hot chocolate in the drippy ice cave on continental Europe’s largest glacier – wow.
Finally it was time to go back, but not without a few ambush snowball attacks on the other groups. Then, we made our way to a lake below created from glacial runoff. We then kayaked back (as far as we could) and hiked to the vans! My jacket pocket with my phone in it was hanging out of the kayak for a good five minutes before I realized, but luckily I have a handy fiancé and it now works. We may have gotten ourselves stuck in the snowy lake a few times. Then, the hike back was much more difficult, because we were all so tired, but we made it!
Sadly, our trip was about over. The next day we spent in the bus, from 7 am to 12 am! Finally, Monday we went to class and then packed for an early morning on Tuesday – GERMANY! Yes, there will be a blog post on that trip too ;) It’s extra special because we will be visiting our wonderful friend, Marion, in her hometown!
See you then,
-Laura.
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