The Visitors

What a summer!!! I moved here at the end of October 2011 so my first 6-7 months, I had only known cold, dark, and colorless Norway…and I thought I couldn’t have loved it more. People repeatedly told me, “Bergen is the best place to be in summer,” and “There’s no place like Norway in the summer.” They were not kidding, this place is incredible. What’s even more incredible is experiencing the beauties of this country with great people. Some of the highlights of my time spent in Norway this past summer were shared with visitors from far and wide.

One of the most epic experiences of my life was shared with dear friends old and new – Trolltunga. Robb Wills, a hometown friend since the beginning of time, had the opportunity to attend a scholarly conference in the mountains of Norway as part of his CalTech PhD studies. He took advantage of the travel opportunity and was able to plan a couple extra weeks to bike from Oslo to Bergen (where he spent a few days with me) and then up north to the conference location. Not going to lie, Robb and I had mostly lost touch since the end of high school, but holy smokes am I so glad we were able to spend some serious time together this summer – he is one of the most wonderful and intelligent people I have ever encountered and I love knowing that despite time and distance, we will be friends forever.

Very soon after his arrival, Mariann and her friend from back home in Arizona, Christian, joined us in Bergen. What a motley crew to have on Bjorøy! My room was so packed and cozy (and messy) with all of us. Our first day together, Cato took us out on a boat ride around the island and the nearby areas. We decided to drive into the Navy dock (totally legal here) to check out all of the fancy boats. Normally, this would be 100% fine but we looked a little sketchy…I was wearing a scarf around my head (to keep the wind from attacking my hair) and Robb and Christian both had fancy cameras with which they were snapping pictures of the Naval fleet. Sooo, we were abruptly “pulled over” by the most interesting of Navy boats and Cato had to vouch for us (didn’t even have to show ID or anything though) that we were all just American tourists. Hilarious, in my opinion…I mean, we were thought to be terrorists and “pulled over” on the water by the Norwegian Navy. All they did was delete the pictures from the cameras and let us go on our way again, into the naval docking area. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner on our front deck and then headed into Bergen to show Robb and Christian the Bryggen part of the city, as well as to visit our friends Eric and Johnny at the Anti office where they were laboring away on Eric’s entry for a Sigur Ros video contest.

Bright and early the following morning, we departed to hike Trolltunga, near Odda, Norway. The hike is approximately 13km each way with over 1,000 meter elevation gain. Because Norway is pretty and we are easily distracted, our drive took much longer than expected and we did not get to the trailhead until 2pm. And so began our ascent. The hike begins with a tough decision – either take the poorly maintained trail that zig zags up the first major elevation gain or take the emergency stairway along an old, closed-down tramway. Most people choose the stairs because it’s one straight shot, despite the rickety and narrow state of them. Each “stair” is more so a hip-width board nailed approximately the distance of each small step up alongside a rail track. The stairs are for people hiking both up and down and there is only one skinny cable to hold onto on the outer side of them. It’s a hell of a start to a long hike - 900 meters straight up. From the bottom, you can’t see the top. From the top, you can’t see the bottom. And there was one particularly steep section where you can easily grab the next few steps with your hand because you’re nearly climbing vertical. And all this was done while carrying a backpacking backpack. Not to mention if someone were to take a wrong step, they could easily fall off the stairway to the side of the mountain, which varied from one meter to a few meters down below. Passing other hikers was terrifying. I hated my life kind of. If it weren’t for Christian being my moral support, I’m pretty sure I would have lost my cool entirely.

After many necessary pauses, we completed the first ascent in under and hour. While taking a much-needed break at the top, it was a little disheartening to see another significant ascent just about a 15 minute hike away. So we strolled through the nice glacial-carved valley and began the next ascent up along a delicious creek (you can absolutely drink from creeks in Norway, especially this high up, SO PURE) and up over the rocky face of the mountain. The view from the top was worth it all – looking back, there was a light, illuminated mist hanging over where our hike began far down below with the sky reflected in a small pond in the foreground…and in the other direction, a glacier! Also at the top was a killer perfect snowmelt lake, which will definitely be mentioned again later in the story. Not a bad place to be.

The hike continued on for many more hours, crossing streams, slipping through mud, inching along cliff edges, and scrambling over rocks. By the time the sun was setting (in the summer, sunsets last a longgg time and darkness does not come for even a while longer after that), we were beginning to wonder if we were going to make it to Trolltunga that night. Near where we thought was the end, we crossed paths with a scraggly old man headed in the opposite direction who spoke NorwEnglish to us. When we asked him how much farther to the rock…he responded something something something mumble mumble mumble in half English half Norwegian and then what sounded like “six eggos.” Great, six more waffles to the rock, you guys! Looking back on it now, I’m realizing he probably said, “Six eg går,” which is terrible NorwEnglish for basically he has been walking for six hours. But don’t quote me because whooo knowsss what that man said.

So since we thought he said it was six more waffles to hike until the rock, we opted to call it a day and scout out a place to camp. Mariann and I were completely content with posting up on a perfect, empty, out-jutting peninsula with a killer view of the cliffs and lake below. The boys wandered off in case they could find better and within minutes, Mariann and I heard some yelling. Christian had slipped and injured his arm. Å nei. At first, it looked like it may have been broken and a bit cut up but talks of heading back down – hours and hours back down – that night was quickly hushed. No way, Jose! Hiking that trail and those stairs at night would have been the worst idea ever. It was decided that we would stay on the peninsula, clean out the cuts, elevate and ice his arm with bags of snow, and wait it out til the morning. It would have been tragic to travel, drive, and hike so far to get within six waffles of Trolltunga but not get to see it.

Our campsite ended being spectacular. We were all alone in the Norwegian backcountry, a perfect view of sunset with clouds below us and clouds above us. B-E-A-UTIFUL ughh take me baaack. Marz and I set up camp, fetched some snow for Christian’s arm, and got everything sorted as Robb cooked us all a super good dinner of curry noodles and veggies. After dinner, spirits were much higher so we had a bit of a dance party/light show/long exposure photo shoot and then called it an early night.

Pretty rough night for little old me! So, rather than packing a proper sleeping pad like a smart person, I packed an inflatable pool mattress (and an inflatable shark) for post-Tunga swimming in the lakes. Such a terrible sleeping pad!!! Because we were at such a high elevation, despite it being August, it got COLD and the air in the mattress made me even COLDER. Didn’t sleep much because I was shaking violently most of the night. Once the sun came up, I slept maybe an hour…but the show must go on!

Marz and I went out to fetch water and watched the sunrays beaming over the edge of the cliffs onto the water below. It was a beautiful. Our day began with discovering Nugatti (like Nutella, but better) oatmeal is the most delicious breakfast in the world and that Christian’s arm would live to see another unbroken day, so we knew nothing bad could happen after starting with such amazingness. After breakfast, Mariann and I left the guys for a bit, telling them not to leave the campsite, because were off to partake in a growing Norwegian fjellkjerringer (mountain women) trend…We scouted the most epic location on the peninsula and took turns standing near the edge (but not the actual edge Mom, just a spot that looked like the edge), facing out to the open scenery, and taking our tops off. Not that we are nudists to any degree (I’d say Mariann and I are quite the opposite entirely), it was so liberating to do such a thing!! So we now have pictures of us from behind flashing the Norwegian wilderness that neither of us plan to show anybody. You can only see our backs, but still. Quite a memory!

After that, we scrambled over rocks for one more hour until we reached Trolltunga. It’s the Norwegian version of Pride Rock and it is heaven! There were quite a few people hanging out around the rock but everyone cooperated and took turns on the rock so anyone that wanted to go alone could easily get that experience. Watching other people on the edge nearly gave me a heart attack. They seemed so careless, balancing on the edge, casually sitting with their legs dangling over, crawling around the edge….euugh makes me sick to think back on that. I SWEAR I WAS CAREFUL. The riskiest thing I did was sit with my back towards the edge and leeean back just to get my fingers over the edge. No danger in it, I swear. Also, this rock was much less scary than Preikestolen. PreikPreik was angled much more dangerously and the drop much more direct, therefore more nauseating. Trolltunga was slanted in such a way that gravity was constantly doing it’s best to pull you back to safety. You really had to pursue the edge – which I did not. Anyway, it was such a rush being on that rock. The sense of accomplishment was through the roof. I had seen pictures since before moving here and I always wanted to go, I just never knew if it would happen – I knew the stars would have to align to find friends wanting to go and being able to go at the same time, to have a window of great weather, to be physically able to make the trek, and such and such. I’m so lucky to have experienced it, especially with such great friends.

Our hike back was long, seeing as we had already done one hour from where we camped, then we had to hike that hour back, and then all the way to the trailhead. We did not stop much at all, except at that one perfect lake at the highest point.

I carried two inflatable swim toys in the backpack all the way up and I WAS going to put them to use. Robb and I plunged in and nearly froze. Not really, but it was soo very cold and my floaty was not entirely floating properly so I was pretty quick to paddle across the lake. It was such a fun little addition to top off the Trolltunga experience. To bring the whole hike to the end, we had the (surprisingly) hardest part of the hike last. The downhill of the stairs was absolute torture. We were so tired, and then the descent required total focus on the stairs to avoid taking a bad step and falling…our brakes were burning. We had to take more time-outs going down than up. It was rough. But the feeling when reaching the bottom was just spectacular; aside from the fact our legs took a while to remember how to function on flat ground. We rocked Trolltunga! And then we headed back to Bergen, where all three visitors departed the following morning….they were a great group of visitors!

My next few days included helping Eric making his Sigur Ros video – it was the best of times, it was the worst of times….videos are hard work! And Emil had his first day of elementary school. Oh bless him, he was adorable dressed in blue head to toe….even had blue dye in his hair. So cuuute.

And then some more visitors of a whole different kind came along – Couch Surfers! Couch Surfing is an organization that brings together a community of people who encourage travel at a low cost and who offer up their couches for people to sleep on. While I do not participate in such a way, from time to time (pretty rarely) I offer to meet up with some people and show them around the city, and this was such a time. I had a Saturday entirely free and there was a young German guy, Ingmar, driving around Scandinavia in a VW bus he fixed up. He was looking for someone to walk around the city or check out some museums with, and I agreed to show him Bergen’s few sights. He brought another CSer (CouchSurfer) with him, Richard from Oxford, and within about 15 minutes of meeting, after making sure these guys were not creepy or lame, it was determined that we would all go up to a cabin in Voss with a large group of my friends for the night. Best idea ever, these guys are wonderful humans! We walked around the city just a little bit, mainly to help them get some gear for their impromptu Trolltunga hike two days from then (these guys had just met the night before and had already planned out a week of exploring Norway together…they were adorable). After gathering our things, they hopped into the VW, Lydia and I hopped into my car and we were Voss-bound.

The cabin belongs to the company Aker, which our friend Ian works for. It sleeps 18(?), has a sauna, and an impeccable view. We were told the cabin was in Voss, but upon arrival in Voss, the directions kept going and going….all the way up into the mountains on dirt roads. We FINALLY arrived and it was WAY COOL. Everyone else had arrived much earlier so they were already settled in and in the relaxing mode. We were quick to join in, cook some dinner, and the CSers busted out a guitar and performed for us all the way until about 7am with only one break for a big group sauna session. It was such a great, chill night. We really could have been anywhere and had a good time but waking up the following morning to look out the window at remote wilderness was most excellent. As the rest of the group began to wake up, Lydia and I enjoyed tea and breakfast on the porch, overlooking Voss. Once everyone was up, we did lunch and a short hike around the cabin to pick blueberries. And then it was time to pack up and go home. Such a short trip, but so much fun! I still keep in contact with both CSers and even plan to meet up with Ingmar again in February while some friends and I are in Berlin….friends I actually met through CouchSurfing – Mariann, Eric, and Eric’s cousin Andreas. Such a great organization, I’m tellin’ ya!

The last visitors of summer were Ian and Klara, as well as Eric Zellhart and Derek Clay, my cousin Matt’s friends. It’s always great to meet up with people I know, but even better when these people have familial connections. Ian had just recently broken his foot, so to spot him in the big crowd at Bryggen, wobbling around on his Norwegian crutches, yelling for me louder than any Norwegian has ever heard….priceless. Soon to follow were Eric and Derek, with reindeer burgers in hand, and then finally Klara who had the feat of parking the car on such a crazy weekend day. We spent the next hour or so trying to navigate the food festival and beer festival going on at Bryggen but it was a bit hard for our little cripple, Ian. He kept yelling out, “HOT DOGS, GIT YER HOT DOGS HERE!” I’m not entirely sure of his phrase selection but it was meant to clear out the crowd for him to be able to get through. It worked! He was actually faster than the rest of us. Highlight of our Bryggen time was when we were taking a break in one of the emptier walkways through the old buildings when a parade of terrifying Medieval gypsy jesters came marching past being creepy as heck (there was a Medieval festival going on at the nearby fortress, too) and we didn’t know how to react except with awkward straight faces as they passed, followed by a collective “whattttt theee………?!”

After our time in the city, Eric, Derek and I went grocery shopping and later met up with Klara and Ian and Klara’s older brother’s house where Eric and I whipped up some mean Norwegian tacos for everyone. It was so great having so many people from home sitting around the table, talking loudly and Americanly, having a grand ole time. Although the time together was short, it was wonderful. And Ian and Klara are engaged now!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!

Thanks for visiting, visitors! I loved seeing you all!

Since summer, I have had some amazing experiences – including a day adventure in the fjords, a surfing trip in southern Norway, a sailing trip in Croatia, a weekend in the mountains, Halloween, a surprise birthday party, and a weekend in Oslo! As well as little events and occasions along the way. So hopefully I can get that all written within the next month or so. But now, I’m heading back to America. In 12 hours exactly, I will be walking out the doors and heading home. I’ve been in Europe 424 days; it’s time for a bit of America…time to get gone.

Reflections on May

Part 2 of my mom's visit...

The second half of my mom’s visit was spent checking out some of Norway. Between the time we left France and the following morning back in Bergen, La Momma had become very ill. Our first day back in Norway was actually the 17^th of May, the equivalent of the US’s 4^th of July and is similar in many ways…except Norwegians dress up in the traditional national attire called bunad or in very nice clothes if they don’t own a bunad($$$$). But because my ma was so sick, she stayed at home, alone, in bed, without eating anything all day. I felt terrible for leaving her but she insisted I go because she had known how long I had been looking forward to this holiday.

So off to the city I went, where I met up with my most wonderful friends, Mariann and Eric, along with a homefriend of Eric’s who I recognized from our flight back to Bergen the previous day. That was so random but pretty awesome. Throughout the day, I ran into a few other friends of mine and felt, in some small ways, as though I had finally become really incorporated into the Bergen society. But at the same time I definitely did not blend in because I (obviously) do not have the traditional attire and my language skills are still pretty pathetic. Loved the holiday though, loved the patriotism, loved the clothes, loved it all.

The day was spent enjoying the parade in the rain and checking out all of the beautiful bunads around town. After the parade, I brought my friend Maria-Elena back to the island to show her very elaborate bunad to my mom so she could get some feel for the Norwegian culture. I then took Maria-Elena up to her aunt and uncle’s house, where I checked out their bunads and sampled a bit of traditional 17^th of May cuisine – some dried salted meat leg and a porridge made of the Norwegian equivalent of sour cream. Interesting stuff – the porridge was amazing but the meat was not to my liking. Then the rest of the day was spent back at the Zachrisen household, eating hot dogs (very popular in this country and very different than American ones), and watching Big Bang Theory. My mom had not eaten ALL day, when out of nowhere she asks if she could have one of the PopTarts that she had brought for me from ‘Merica. Of ALL things that lady could want to eat that day, she wants a PopTart. Of ALL things…

She felt much better the next morning so I forced her to get up and walk around Bergen with me, mainly so she could meet Mariann. We rounded off our time in Bergen with a dinner with the Zachrisens and Mariann at a very traditional Norwegian restaurant along the harbor…where neither of us actually ordered Norwegian food. Hah, soo American of us. Then we were off to the airport for part two of her visit….

We spent that night in the northern city of Ålesund, a picturesque town that often makes it onto lists of Places to See Before You Die. It’s pretty but we were there at an off time of the year, so much of our experience was empty streets and closed businesses. At this point in our trip, we only actually slept there (we returned once more later on), as we boarded a Hurtigruten ship into the dramatic Geiranger fjord the following morning.

The ride in into the fjord was a handful of hours and the scenery was fantastic! This was an early-season trip for the area so the sights weren’t even up to the normal par. The trip itself attracts a lot of visitors wanting to see the Seven Sisters waterfall…that seems to be the name of a billion land features around the world. But for Norway, it’s famous. Alas, it was barely a trickle of 5 or so sisters at the time that we drifted past. I’m not too worried about it though, it was still very beautiful.

Geiranger turned out to be the world’s tiniest town. Ever. Probably. So, so small but quaint and empty (again, off-season = not much happening). Oh-so-conveniently, our hotel was basically the highest point of the town and there were no taxis in sight. Luggage in tow, we trekked up the one road in town, winding up the slope at the very end of the fjord. It wasn’t suuuper far but the luggage made it really quite annoying.

Our hotel was pretty nice from what I remember – really all that mattered was the view, and it was fantastisk (‘fantastic’ in English for those who need translation). More specifically, the sunset was out of this world! As the sun lowered behind the mountains of one side of the fjord, we watched the last slanted rays of light glow upon the snow-covered mountains lining the opposite side of the fjord. All peachy and rosy and all those good sunset colors. We also watched what was possibly (maybe mayyybe?) a rescue from one of the mountains closest in our view. It was a bit too far for the naked eye to see, but with the utilization of camera zoom technology we were able figure out that we were watching a person being towed along a long line underneath a helicopter. Who knows though, Norwegians love extreme sports so it may as well have been someone out for a joy ride.

Seeing as the town was so very small, our day had been relatively uneventful. The most notable occurrence was our visit to a little chocolatier along the water called Chocolate With a View. Tiny little old building with plants growing all over the roof – really idyllic – owned and run by a young Swedish guy who just really, really loves chocolate. So then we strolled the rest of the town in approximately 0.4 seconds, give or take a few milliseconds, and walked back up to our hotel for a super fancy, high-class buffet which we were certainly underdressed for. Who knew such an elaborate meal would take place in such a remote hotel?!

Because Geiranger really is super teeny and the lingering winter (it was May at the time but there’s still tons of snow) prevented the most famous attraction of Geiranger (some crazy fancy road named something to do with an eagle) from being accessible, we only stayed just the one night. Post-breakfast and pre-departure, we ventured out on a short hike along the creek that cascades down the entire mountainside to the fjord below. It was short-lived but very pretty. The Geiranger goods within the tourist shops occupied the rest of our time up until we boarded another Hurtigruten ship that took us out of the fjord and back to Ålesund.

Aboard this ship, we were able to better enjoy our time lounging outdoors (the weather was nasty cold the previous day) and we befriended a young-ish lone Canadian woman who had also been on the ship with us the day before and would be on the same route the next day, as well. When we arrived in Ålesund, the three of us perused the picturesque, empty town, climbed the steep hill overlook (excellent view, where all the pictures of the little city are taken from), then settled in a restaurant for some dinner…we had a lot of time to kill.

I reckon Ålesund would have much more appeal at a different time of year. We were there on a Sunday, during the spring, just three days after the biggest national holiday. People were few and far between. Since we had walked nearly all of the town worth walking (said our Canadian friend who had spent multiple days there before Geiranger) and our next ship would not be departing until QUARTER til ONE AM (!!!), we spent quite a bit of time hanging out in hotel lobbies with other folks waiting for the ship. In the meantime, at 11pm we watched the most raspberry sunset you can imagine. Norway has some of the most impressive sunsets when the weather is good.

We survived the wait and we boarded our final ship to Bergen. Our room was insanely tiny (about 2/3 the size of the room I had to myself on my Hurtigruten excursion in the Arctic Circle) but whatevah it was just for one night. The next morning we woke up, packed, and left our room to spend the day lounging around on the top deck with our Canadian friend, an old Austrian diplomat and his chatty wife, and the most outgoing old Californian man with Norwegian heritage and his formerly-Broadway wife. What a crew!! But first, we all snagged a free buffet breakfast, which should have actually cost 330kr per person….I’ve spent way too much time on those ships that I know how to harmlessly work the system. ;)

Once back in Bergen, we opted to hang out around the island and go for a walk across the bridge to visit my “beach” on the neighboring island, Tyssøy. Simple day with great weather. And then my mom was headed back to CA the next morning. I even watched her plane take off while I was sitting in my front yard…what a weird feeling knowing my mom was in that tiny metal tube in the sky, flying back to a home I haven’t seen in so long (over a year now)…but it was a good trip and it was nice to see that old lady!

One last little sidenote – I would like to share the story of my mother’s first and only cooking attempt in Norway. HAH. That woman can cook pretty decently, as you probably all know…but it’s a whole different ballpark here. Thinking back to my first few months in Norway, I remember my struggle to re-learn how to cook familiar foods with different ingredients that I was never quite sure of. So, seeing as I had not had my mom’s cooking in such a long time, I asked/forced her to cook risotto her first night here. Let’s just say it was a good effort followed by an epic fail. Not saying she sucks at cooking or anything! It was just so entertaining witnessing the master experience the same thing I experienced when I was new here. Sometimes it can be tough living abroad.