Bergen & Oslo - June 22 & 23

On the 22nd after the fjord excursion, we took the train 1.5 hours to Bergen, on the West Coast, which was rainy and cold but still nice. Apparentely they get 6 ft of rain per year! Our hostel was pretty nice and really close to the train station, which is always a win. The staff was so nice - they are all students from Wheaton College so that's cool! We tried to find something semi-affordable to eat, but had no luck, so we ended up splitting fish and chips for dinner - at least it was hot! Luckily the hostel had free hot tea, so we had several cups of that to warm up!

Saturday night at the hostel turned out to be quite an experience - first of all, it was the longest day of the year, so it never even really got dark in Bergen (cool!). There was also an incident in the middle of the night... and lady was sleeping on the bottom bunk with no one above here, and then top bed fell through on her! Luckily she was okay, but then of course I am laying there on the top bunk picturing Kasey freaking out below me... so I just tried to lay very still haha. When I mentioned it in the morning it turns out Kasey had slept through the whole ordeal... lights on, people running in, lady screaming... so that was good for her. After we looked at the beds we determined there was really no way for that to happen, so it was a total freak accident - but an event to remember nonetheless! Ohh, hostel life haha.

The next day in Bergen we walked around to a few shops, and had fish and chips and the same place again haha. We did, however, splurge and buy a whale burger to split, and it was actually pretty good! It's always fun to try to sample the local cuisine! We also went to a leprosy museum, which sounds gross I know, but it was very interesting and informative about the policital rights of people with diseases and all the medical research that occured in Norway, good stuff!

trying to stay warm in Bergen!

After our cold day in Bergen we got a train back to Oslo - 8 hours! Since we didn't take the night train, it was basically just a longgggg train, although we did get to go back through the Antartica place again, so that was a plus! We also played a lot of cards, which is the best train entertainment we've found, and is always more fun than making yourself journal - I am constantly behind! We finally arrived in Oslo around midnight and tried really hard not to wake up the other girls in the room when we came in, we always hate it when other people are loud, and we try so hard to be a quiet as possible, but it can be hard! This is also when it's good to have a flashlight!!!

In Oslo the next day, we went to a cool old graveyard where Ibsen and Munch are buried, and then bought a bit of food in a grocery store. Then we went to the changing of the guard at the royal palace, which was not a impressive as in England, but still really fun!

Oslo's palace & the guard!

We also went to this awesome Vikingship museum with all these one of a kind Viking artifacts and full ships that were found in burial mounds, it was awesome! I've always figured I'm part Viking... its like Leif Ericson was the son of Eric... I'm like Rachel, son of Bab!

beautiful Oslo harbor - I can see why my ancestors came here haha :)