pirates' norway in a nutshell

there's an ambitious eponymous tour that charges a premium for convenience. was adamant that we wouldn't be taken for a ride (literally) and figured i'd organise an identical adventure sans agency fees. can hardly claim credit for this unoriginal idea but it sure was stressful working out the train / bus / boat timetables and working out the connections. i believe i'd more than one sleepless night 'planning norway for my parents' and after many emails to the mothership we finally agreed on a plan and i was responsible for getting everything done, right down to detailed instructions on how to move from arlanda terminal 5 to terminal 2 in 30mins.

we flew from stockholm to oslo then oslo to bergen. from the bergen airport, we took the airport bus to the old harbour where our hotel was sitting pretty beside. walked around the town, had a scrumptious dinner at the unicorn, checked out the closing stores in the fish market and sampled some norwegian caviar, easily convinced to return the next day for some heavy-duty stockpiling :)

by the time our second day in bergen rolled by, the parentals were restless and itching to get out of the small town. we therefore took a 4h bus ride (one way) to see a glacier whose long name escapes me.

stared up at the glacier from the banks of a lake for 15minutes then hopped back onto the very same bus, albeit washed and dried, for the 4h return journey. pointless? perhaps. good thing i like scenic rides. ridiculous as it might sound, it was a beautiful journey and i stared out the window watching the rugged scenery whizz by. extremely therapeutic and psychologically reassuring to know that there was nothing to be done during the commute.

our epic adventure began bright and early on our third day as we made our way from bergen to oslo by various means of transport. took the first train out of bergen to voss at 0759h before taking the 1000h bus from voss to gudvangen. followed by the 1130h boat from gudvangen to flam and the 1605h flam railway train to myrdal. from myrdal, it was still a 5h jaunt to oslo by train and we only rolled into oslo at 2300h that night. was so scared that we'd miss one connection and the trip would be an epic failure instead. thankfully, i'd booked ahead for what i could and we didn't miss anything and made it to oslo in one piece.

spent half a day in oslo because we've already been there in summer '06 but still enjoyed the vigeland park with it's 'fornicating statues' as my nan put it and a stroll along the harbour with ice cream in hand.

left for stockholm in the evening and made it back just in time for dinner at P&N's that was more than worth the rush.