We did a LOT of bouncing around yesterday, but every step was worth it. We took a train to a bus to a ship to a train to another train. And we never got lost!!! Miraculous, I know. The cruise was supposed to be the amazing part so I had no expectations for the train or bus on the way there. I was blown away by both. Once we got to the mountains there was snow everywhere, but you could wear shorts and a t-shirt outside it was so warm. That meant there was a lot of melting ice, which translated to innumerable waterfalls everywhere you turned. Some were small and modest, others were grand and thundering. We were really taken by surprise when the massive tourist bus we were on perched itself at the top of a very high precipice. The bus driver asked if everyone was ready, and in response to their cheers started coasting down the hairpin turns on the mountain. Brittany and I have been on some pretty crazy roads, but this one might top the list. It was about as steep and narrow as in the mountains of Morocco (doable) but we were in a giant bus (not-so doable, we thought). Brittany cringed at every turn, but hey, we're not dead. Our Norway in a Nutshell itinerary said we would have to wait by the ship dock for about four hours before our cruise started, which seemed like a real bummer because there was nothing there but a crummy gift shop. Talk about time standing still. I saw that another boat was leaving in less than an hour, and we hopped on without more than a glance from the officers. It took a little over two hours to get through the fjords and into the tiny town of Flam, and I had to force myself to put the camera away about half way through. The sun was high and the sky was a piercing blue. Every few feet the view of the fjords changed, and every ten feet I'd take a picture. Now I've got to go back and delete 90% of them because they all look the same :) The boat was packed with tourists just like us, and I've discovered that Asian people are in love with seagulls. Some Norwegian guy had a little piece of bread and, seeing a seagull trailing the boat, held it out with his hand. Eventually the gull took it right from his fingers. Sometimes he would throw bread out and it would turn into a tiny Mustang fighter plane, pulling all kinds of aerobatic maneuvers to catch the bread in mid-air. It was fun to watch for about two minutes, but then the Asian group caught on. Eventually there were 7 or 8 people shoving there way over everyone else to get where the man had been, all waving gobs of bread in the air. Every single person in that tour group felt the need to fulfill an undying desire to have a picture of themselves swarmed with seagulls. Within minutes there were a dozen birds flapping all over the place. It wouldn't have been quite so infuriating if it weren't for the fact that there were so many birds the rest of us couldn't take pictures of the fjords without the dirty rats blocking the view. I'm here to see fjords not these bleepity-bleep birds thank you very much! Seriously, do they not have these things over there? Ugh. After twenty minutes of dirty looks and scolding from fed-up tourists (me and Brittany included) most of them finally stopped and we could get back to enjoying the trip. When we landed in Flam we sat with the throngs for a cheap lunch, and then very happily left them behind to look for our cottage. The vast majority of people just pass right through Flam because it's tiny and not particularly interesting, but we had the time so I booked us a night in the countryside in a private cottage. It may have been the best decision of the trip! After a pretty long walk while surrounded by mountains and waterfalls we found what we thought was the cottage. Nope! A very friendly Norwegian man came out and talked to us for a while (he'd been to Florida) and explained that we were ALMOST half way there. Ahhh! And so we walked some more, about three miles with our loaded packs. Fortunately it was easy going on a flat road. As we stumbled along I couldn't help but look around and oddly break out into laughter. Everything was so beautiful and it made me so happy that a burning smile just wasn't enough. When we finally arrived Brittany commented that it felt like being in a postcard, and I couldn't agree more. The cottage is on a little sheep farm, and there are lambs everywhere, chewing the grass with their tiny eyes half closed. The lady that owns the property was very friendly and was even so nice as to drive me and Brittany back into town to pick up groceries (a very good thing because there were no restaurants, and otherwise we would've been eating hopes and dreams). We settled into our primo digs and had a fantastic meal overlooking the valley, made all the better because we'd cooked it ourselves and spent so little on it. The cottage was absolutely perfect for us and we relished the feeling of closing a door and having our very own room. A simple comfort, but you miss it after a couple of weeks in dorms with the dipsticks of the world. The difference between sun and shade is a little startling. When that sun is up we wear a shirt and sweat, but as soon as it sets over the mountains we're bundled in jackets, wishing we hadn't forgotten to buy hot chocolate mix at the grocery store. I tried to stay up late after dinner because I thought the starry sky would be really spectacular in such a rural and isolated place. Unfortunately I discovered hours later that, while the sun does eventually go down, the light never goes away. Slight miscalculation on my part; I could've used that sleep for today. I wish we could have stayed another night there, but we had to boogy out by 11am to make way for new guests. Brittany whipped up some eggs and we gathered our still-wet socks from the clothesline outside. You should've seen the black goo that came off them in the sink last night; I refuse to dwell on what that actually is. We dumped our bags at the Owner's house and just started walking. Our train didn't leave until this evening so we had several hours to kill. The first thing we did was walk into Flam church, which is very small and very, very old. Unfortunately it's also pretty dull and uninteresting (at least it was free!) but I enjoyed walking through its little graveyard. There were some very old tombstones, and for some innate reason I love to sit in front of the stone and imagine what that person's life was like, and the things they'd seen. We followed a little road from the church through winding valleys and past dozens of waterfalls. Only occasionally would a car or bike rider pass by, and for long stretches we were all alone with nothing but the mountains in sight. After about an hour we finally reached the biggest waterfall we could find, visible from everywhere in the valley, and had a simple picnic lunch down by the bank of the river it fed. The water here is crystal clear and delicious. How often can you use that adjective on water? We refilled our bottles from streams on the side of the road, and after savoring every minute we could in the grass by the falls, walked back to pick up our packs. The lady that owned the place (I really wish I knew her name) dropped what she was doing and drove us up to the train station, even taking us the scenic route for a sweeping view of the fjord. She was so outrageously nice and accommodating that I will make it a point to stay with her if I'm ever in Norway again. We still had an hour to kill before our train left, so Chelsea and I walked into a little museum while Brittany read with the bags. The museum was small but they did have an original railway car and some really neat motorcycles that were modified to run on the tracks. I'm still not sure how that worked: what happened when an actual train came along? We were waiting to get on the Flamsbana, which is a one hour ride through the fjord and mountains. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful train rides in Europe, and while it definitely lived up to the hype, I am sooooo glad we stayed in Flam and experienced it the way we did. We had time to really admire and absorb the beauty of what the train riders could only glance at for a fleeting instant. If you ever sign up for the NIN thing, give it at least two days, you won't regret it! When the Flamsbana ended in Myrdal we got onto a larger train to Oslo. Hours passed, but it never got dark. We wound through a lot of snow-covered mountains, which made it hard to read because my eyes kept bouncing from my kindle to the view outside. I still don't really understand how there's so much snow out there when it's 70 degrees during the day, but then again we don't know all that much about snow in Florida :) When we finally got into Oslo it was almost 11pm, but the sky was still bright. I wonder if their crime rate plummets in the summer and skyrockets in the winter? I have no idea but I'm guessing that kind of thing is tied to daylight hours. Anyways, I am very happy to report that we did NOT get lost in a major city at midnight (or robbed). We miraculously left the massive train station at the correct exit, walked onto the exact street we needed, and quite literally stumbled in through the hostel doors. I don't think we have ever found a place that easily, but man am I glad it worked out that way! There are a couple of museums we want to check out tomorrow, and then we're back on a train to Stockholm. I'm getting a little sick of trains, but hey, it beats the airport strip search.