(no subject)
And now we can continue...
Lana and I got up bright and early to go on a tour called Norway in a Nutshell. It takes you on a full day trip, seeing a fjord and some other very Norwegian stuffs. We had to get on the train at 8:40, so we left home pretty early. It was still dark - but that doesn't really mean much, especially if you're comparing to home!
Anyway, we got in to Bergen, and went shopping for food for the day. And then we got on the train. It took us past a heap of pretty things, but because it was raining outside the train, no photos were taken.
We got off the train at a town called Voss, and immediately on to a bus. Again, it was raining, so there were no photos. There was a pretty Church there, though, so I should've taken a picture of it before I got on. But whatever. We started to drive, and stopped when we arrived at a waterfall. I took pictures of that! And then we drove some more, through a tunnel. The bus driver told us to look out the right hand side of the bus at the end of the tunnel as there was a special view - it was a valley, and veeeeeery pretty. But a new tunnel started pretty darn quickly!
There wasn't anything much else exciting until we got off the bus - we had to wait until a ferry arrived. It was meant to be there within 15 minutes, but it took much longer than that. There was, however, a souvenir shop right next to the port, though - what a happy coincidence for all of us tourists! :p Neither Lana or I bought anything, though I did see one thing I wouldn't have minded purchasing. Unfortunately, there wasn't an English language version there, so I didn't!
Eventually, anyway, the ferry arrived, and we started cruising Sognefjord. There were tons of really gorgeous waterfalls and snow capped mountains and little pretty Churches and hamlets on the side of the fjord - it was pretty cool. Much more cool than this tiny little paragraph can make out *laughs* One of the branches that we went down was Nærøyfjord... the other was Aurlandsfjord.
At the end of the ferry ride, we got off at a place called Flåm. It was going to be a while until the train from there left - it is a fairly historical rail line that one - so guess what we did? More souvenir shopping! We went in to one tiny shop, and it didn't have much. Then we wandered through the museum concerning the railway. And then we walked to another souvenir shop that was HUUUUUUUUGE. We looked around, and found an English translation of what I had seen at the other shop, and bought another couple of bits and pieces, and went out to catch the train.
Unfortunately? It was already heading into the distance. We'd juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust missed it.
Bugger.
So Lana had a conversation in gibberish with the dude at the train station, who gave us new tickets, yay. Buuuuut. We were going to have to wait 2 more hours in Flåm, and then 2 hours before our connecting train in Myrdal.
Thankfully, we both had books.
I had a nap in Flåm. It was unintentional, but apparently, I was tired. Finally, the time for the train to approach neared, and we went out to wait for it. We were there right about the time it was meant to arrive... but it didn't. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, a loudspeaker announcement was made - the train wouldn't be there until about 20 minutes late, and would then leave as soon as possible afterwards. The train was meant to leave 15 minutes after it arrived. And we both commented - why could this not have happened previously?????
Apparently, there was some kind of engine failure.
So, um, we waited some more, and eventually got on the train, and it left pretty quickly after it'd arrived. And we did see a Stave Church and a really pretty waterfall on the way to Myrdal. And then we got off the train, and waited another 2 hours until we could get on the train to get back to Bergen!
Once the train arrived, we got on. Lana napped almost the whole trip. I, on the other hand, read my book... and busily tried to suppress murderous impulses that were directed towards the girls in the seat in front of us. They were giggly and annoying and I wanted to smash their camera under my feet, I did, I did. And I don't just mean slightly giggly - I mean they giggled solidly for the entire 2 hours we were on that train. It was frigging annoying :p And they were continually taking photos with flash - the camera was making beeping noises and the flash was interrupting me from my reading.
Um, when we were waiting for the second 2 hours, Lana called her Dad to let him know that we'd be later than planned. He offered to come and pick us up from the light rail thing, which was awesome! So we got home slightly earlier than we thought we might!
Yesterday, we both slept in. We figured we deserved it :p We then went to see Fantoft Stave Church, which is a replica of a Church built in about 1150. It was burnt down in 1992, apparently by a Death Metal musician, who was later convicted of burning down a number of Churches (though not this one), and of the murder of a bandmate of his. Pleasant, eh?
Then on to Bergen... wandered through a pretty street that had awesome wooden houses... and then went to the Art Museum of Bergen. They have 3 buildings making up the museum, all down the same street. Very convenient. So we started off in the one in the middle, since it was the only one Lana had been to before. There was a lot of Norwegian art in there. Some really gorgeous things, which I would detail slightly more thoroughly if I had the pieces of paper I grabbed there in front of me. Maybe later, before I actually post this!
Then we went in to the one we'd gone past. It quite a bit of Norwegian art. Quite a few by Picasso. And they were doing some weird performance art or something - it was weird. We just kind of attempted to ignore it :p
Last, we went to the third building. We thought we'd have to hurry with this one, because we only had an hour left before it closed. Little did we know that it actually had very little to see :p And it was all contemporary art... none of it was really either of our thing ;p We spent most of our time there in the gift shop - the stuff in there was waaaaay cooler than any of the art in that building :p
So yeah, once we were done messing with the things in the gift shop, we decided to have a movie night of sorts, so got some snacks and then proceeded home, where we watched Finding Nemo, and then some episodes of Buffy :p While snacking on pizza and chocolate and lollies and stuff :D
Today, we slept in. And I repacked my stuff. And that was really about all we did, until I needed to be at the airport. My flight to London was fine, but I'm convinced that London's transport system is completely against me. I'm not sure that I'll EVER get back to Bedford - sigh.
Lana and I got up bright and early to go on a tour called Norway in a Nutshell. It takes you on a full day trip, seeing a fjord and some other very Norwegian stuffs. We had to get on the train at 8:40, so we left home pretty early. It was still dark - but that doesn't really mean much, especially if you're comparing to home!
Anyway, we got in to Bergen, and went shopping for food for the day. And then we got on the train. It took us past a heap of pretty things, but because it was raining outside the train, no photos were taken.
We got off the train at a town called Voss, and immediately on to a bus. Again, it was raining, so there were no photos. There was a pretty Church there, though, so I should've taken a picture of it before I got on. But whatever. We started to drive, and stopped when we arrived at a waterfall. I took pictures of that! And then we drove some more, through a tunnel. The bus driver told us to look out the right hand side of the bus at the end of the tunnel as there was a special view - it was a valley, and veeeeeery pretty. But a new tunnel started pretty darn quickly!
There wasn't anything much else exciting until we got off the bus - we had to wait until a ferry arrived. It was meant to be there within 15 minutes, but it took much longer than that. There was, however, a souvenir shop right next to the port, though - what a happy coincidence for all of us tourists! :p Neither Lana or I bought anything, though I did see one thing I wouldn't have minded purchasing. Unfortunately, there wasn't an English language version there, so I didn't!
Eventually, anyway, the ferry arrived, and we started cruising Sognefjord. There were tons of really gorgeous waterfalls and snow capped mountains and little pretty Churches and hamlets on the side of the fjord - it was pretty cool. Much more cool than this tiny little paragraph can make out *laughs* One of the branches that we went down was Nærøyfjord... the other was Aurlandsfjord.
At the end of the ferry ride, we got off at a place called Flåm. It was going to be a while until the train from there left - it is a fairly historical rail line that one - so guess what we did? More souvenir shopping! We went in to one tiny shop, and it didn't have much. Then we wandered through the museum concerning the railway. And then we walked to another souvenir shop that was HUUUUUUUUGE. We looked around, and found an English translation of what I had seen at the other shop, and bought another couple of bits and pieces, and went out to catch the train.
Unfortunately? It was already heading into the distance. We'd juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust missed it.
Bugger.
So Lana had a conversation in gibberish with the dude at the train station, who gave us new tickets, yay. Buuuuut. We were going to have to wait 2 more hours in Flåm, and then 2 hours before our connecting train in Myrdal.
Thankfully, we both had books.
I had a nap in Flåm. It was unintentional, but apparently, I was tired. Finally, the time for the train to approach neared, and we went out to wait for it. We were there right about the time it was meant to arrive... but it didn't. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, a loudspeaker announcement was made - the train wouldn't be there until about 20 minutes late, and would then leave as soon as possible afterwards. The train was meant to leave 15 minutes after it arrived. And we both commented - why could this not have happened previously?????
Apparently, there was some kind of engine failure.
So, um, we waited some more, and eventually got on the train, and it left pretty quickly after it'd arrived. And we did see a Stave Church and a really pretty waterfall on the way to Myrdal. And then we got off the train, and waited another 2 hours until we could get on the train to get back to Bergen!
Once the train arrived, we got on. Lana napped almost the whole trip. I, on the other hand, read my book... and busily tried to suppress murderous impulses that were directed towards the girls in the seat in front of us. They were giggly and annoying and I wanted to smash their camera under my feet, I did, I did. And I don't just mean slightly giggly - I mean they giggled solidly for the entire 2 hours we were on that train. It was frigging annoying :p And they were continually taking photos with flash - the camera was making beeping noises and the flash was interrupting me from my reading.
Um, when we were waiting for the second 2 hours, Lana called her Dad to let him know that we'd be later than planned. He offered to come and pick us up from the light rail thing, which was awesome! So we got home slightly earlier than we thought we might!
Yesterday, we both slept in. We figured we deserved it :p We then went to see Fantoft Stave Church, which is a replica of a Church built in about 1150. It was burnt down in 1992, apparently by a Death Metal musician, who was later convicted of burning down a number of Churches (though not this one), and of the murder of a bandmate of his. Pleasant, eh?
Then on to Bergen... wandered through a pretty street that had awesome wooden houses... and then went to the Art Museum of Bergen. They have 3 buildings making up the museum, all down the same street. Very convenient. So we started off in the one in the middle, since it was the only one Lana had been to before. There was a lot of Norwegian art in there. Some really gorgeous things, which I would detail slightly more thoroughly if I had the pieces of paper I grabbed there in front of me. Maybe later, before I actually post this!
Then we went in to the one we'd gone past. It quite a bit of Norwegian art. Quite a few by Picasso. And they were doing some weird performance art or something - it was weird. We just kind of attempted to ignore it :p
Last, we went to the third building. We thought we'd have to hurry with this one, because we only had an hour left before it closed. Little did we know that it actually had very little to see :p And it was all contemporary art... none of it was really either of our thing ;p We spent most of our time there in the gift shop - the stuff in there was waaaaay cooler than any of the art in that building :p
So yeah, once we were done messing with the things in the gift shop, we decided to have a movie night of sorts, so got some snacks and then proceeded home, where we watched Finding Nemo, and then some episodes of Buffy :p While snacking on pizza and chocolate and lollies and stuff :D
Today, we slept in. And I repacked my stuff. And that was really about all we did, until I needed to be at the airport. My flight to London was fine, but I'm convinced that London's transport system is completely against me. I'm not sure that I'll EVER get back to Bedford - sigh.