Hi All,
What a train trip!!!The claim is that it is supposed to be the worlds most beautiful train trip. It started of a bit slow but got more and more dramatic as we rose into the mountains with the lovely autumn colours and then the snow. Down the other side into the wet valleys before meeting the water and ultimately to Bergen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_Line
We were lucky when we arrived as it was not raining. It didn´t stop raining for the rest of our stay until the evening when we were to sail on the ship.
The hostel was quite nice but the staff were a bit cold. Think they were Russians.The best part was that the hostel was full of really interesting people.
Our original plan was to explore around Bergen for a couple of days before taking the voyage but that really didn´t eventuate as it just rained and rained and rained.
On the first night we went out for a free Jazz concert with a couple of fellow travellers. One was an Indian who had just got his American citizenship and was travelling the world. Here is his guilty secret.
He told us that when he moved from India to the USA his father had told him that he could do just about anything but there was one thing that he could not. He could not eat beef. Well he discovered hamburgers and thought that they were made with pork and found them particularly tasty like nothing he had ever eaten before. Eventually he found out that this was because hamburgers unlike the name suggested are made with beef, cow, holy cow not ham. That was a while ago. Now he consumes beef on a regular basis and likes bigs steak as well...and enjoys it. He hasn´t told his father yet but when he returns to India will it be harder to look his father or the local holy cows in the eye? He has no intention of telling his parents his guilty or not so guilty secret in the near future. That is never.
So the jazz. Yes. well. Someone forgot to say the word experimental. We stayed for as long as it took before we reached Vanessa´s laugh out loud threshold which was about 3 LONG songs but in end the mosquitos buzzing back and forth across instruments cracked her composure.
So it rained and rained and rained and rained and ... bugger... we had a daily lockout from the hostel from 11am to 1pm.
Guess we shouldn´t be surprised. The stats say that it rains 275 days a year in Bergen. We just didn´t expect that it would rain continuously! Beware of any place that has designer rubber boots as fashion items in the front windows of their shoe shops and department stores.
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I really HATE this blog. We were almost friends again until it ate the rest of my entry. While it is not totally to blame as the cause was a change in internet password a few minutes ago breaking the link it was still heavily involved. What a heap of crap. Now I will try to write it again or maybe not.
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So we escaped to Voss on the train. It was an expensive journey at AUD$30 each for a one hour trip each way. It was still raining but not so heavily and then it cleared up a little more. We were looking for a bit of adventure and maybe a walk. We found a Saturday market and free pieces of tasty reindeer and then we found a tiny but spectacular gorge which got us asking ´it that really it?´ before heading back into town via the lake. The area was nice but we were a little shocked at the cost so it looked like we were going to be cooped up in Bergen for the rest of the time.
There were four lads from London who were staying at the hostel. They were rapidly running out of money which presumably is normal when in Scandinavia. They had decided to go walking from Voss but it had rained heavily for the whole time and one of them had fallen off a glacier onto his pack so they decided it was too dangerous and found the hostel. They were quite amusing and kept us entertained. One night we pulled out a plastic bottle of rocket fuel (romanian alcohol) and share it with them. Well actually only two of them as the others were out fishing in the rain. They returned later with a big story and a big pollock.
The next day they went out and caught four fish early...
I am finding Norway really frustrating. The cost food, transport and accomodation is twice the price of mainland europe. The price of any tourism trips is also inflated so while we are in Norway we are really not doing much. I keep on having to remind myself that the primary reason for being in Norway is for the Bergen-Kirkenes boat trip.
The hostel filled with lots of Uni students on the weekend. Germans and Dutch students who were studying Norway for 3 months. There also were a team of underwater rugby players from Norway and Sweden there for a tournament. Underwater rubgy? Underwater rugby in Bergen - that makes sense.
We checked out in the rain and walked over to the Hurtigruten terminal and waited. We were able to check in our baggage at 1pm and then went to get supplies for 8 days travel on the ship. Then later in the afternoon it stopped raining. Grrrrrrr. Why bother. I was really annoyed and was cursing quite a bit.
We checked in onto the ship, RICHARD WITH, and had a look then went out and walked around Bergen. So that it was it was supposed to look like. It was quite nice.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
