Our flight yesterday went pretty great (Norwegian Air is aMAzing) and we got some really incredible views from the plane window. At one point we were flying over a massive glacier and could see nothing but jagged snow-capped mountains. When we got closer to the fjords we saw dozens of huge creatures moving in the water, breaking the surface and sinking again. Chelsea and I still can't decide if they were dolphins or whales (they were all spread pretty far apart so I'm going with whales) but either way it was the coolest thing I've ever seen from the sky! Getting into the city was easy but finding the hostel ended up being as frustrating as ever. The directions the hostel gave us made absolutely no sense, so we walked up and down the harbor with our loaded packs for half an hour before going into a Starbucks for desperately needed help. Even the girl that worked there had no idea where it was, but she was nice enough to call them and ask for directions. The handful of Norwegians we've actually gotten to talk to have all been exceedingly nice and helpful. The hostel turned out to be about fifty feet from where we started, in the complete opposite direction that the directions said to go. Uggggghhhhhhhh. It's kind of slummy, but it's in a killer location and was the best deal. The weather is back to perfect, so we dropped our bags and explored the fish market and city center. Shamu, anyone (not joking)? It was hard to get excited by all the awesome seafood with those insane price stickers. EVERYTHING here is ridiculously expensive compared to home, or basically anywhere else come to think of it. A McDonald's combo meal will run you about $16, and that's as cheap as it gets! We got fish cakes in gravy (Norwegian fast food) for dinner and ate it by the boats on the dock. This is a very old fishing town, and the teetering wooden buildings on the water lend it a lot of charm. The sun stays up so long here that we were in bed before it even started to get dark, thinking we'd get plenty of sleep for our hike the next day. Not so much! There is a huge group of college girls on some kind of trip in the dorm next door. The walls are so thin we can hear EVERY word they say and I think they're in a competition with each other to see who has the lowest IQ. It hurts to listen to (but we are 8 inches away and have no choice) and our brains have decreased in size by 28% since they arrived. I measured. This morning I ran over to a grocery store with the smallest aisles known to man for picnic stuff. We took the incredibly steep funicular up the mountain and enjoyed an amazing view of Bergen. It doesn't seem like that big of a place, but I'm pretty sure it's the second largest city in Norway. More room for the trees! From the top of the funicular we started wandering on one of the dozens of trails. The problem was that we had no map or idea of where we were going and the markers were all in Norwegian. Slight oversight on my part :) We stuck to the main path and are so glad we used this day for hiking instead of museums. The weather was perfect and we could see for miles. When we finally stopped for lunch we sat at a boulder and made our PB&J sandwiches with a view of the harbor on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other. I probably should've taken a picture of that, huh? If I can ever afford it again I would LOVE to come back to Norway. There were quite a few long stretches where it was just the three of us and the birds. I was all smiles the entire time (Brittany limited her smiles to when we were going downhill). After a few hours of hiking around different lakes and mountains we walked down the hill that the funicular had carried us up and rested in our bunk beds for a while. Dinner was really special because we went to a restaurant on the main dock. We were extra cheap yesterday and this afternoon, so it wasn't too big of a splurge, but it still wound up costing $93 for two entrees and NOTHING else. It was totally worth it. I can officially say I've had reindeer, and that it's fantastic! If Santa had ever tried one he would've switched to public transportation a long time ago. I was going to get the inexplicably and considerably cheaper moose, but Brittany might've cried. I made a sacrifice to keep the peace haha Tomorrow is a long travel day through the fjords. We'll take a train to a bus to a ship and then stay in a tiny town overnight while the hoards of tourists move on. I've secretly saved my highest expectations of the trip for tomorrow. Don't let me down Norway!