London to the Norwegian Coast & Everything Exciting in Between

What a day!! I left Amy’s and Amelia’s in London at 6:05AM, aiming to catch the 6:23AM bus to St Pancras Station. Today started the three day journey to Sunndalsora, in Norway where my friend Anna lives. I got to the bus stop only to see Google Maps telling me it would be five minutes delayed. That’s fine! Ten minutes delayed. Oh. Half an hour delayed. Crap.

For the first time in my short life I ordered myself an Uber, and managed to get to the station in time to give dad a quick call. The train was 4 hours roughly to Amsterdam, stopping in Brussels and Rotterdam. 

Amsterdam. Is. Busy. Like busier than any city I’ve been to. You’re shoulder to shoulder with sooo many people. The smell of weed coats your throat immediately. I checked into my hostel after doing a bit of work online for Mum, pleasantly surprised to hear them playing one of Dads songs from home. Que Sera. After walking around a bit through the canals, I can definitely say it would be one of those cities that’s prettier without the people. There’s a lot of rubbish but the rivers and tree are very beautiful. 

There were some really cool vintage and record shops along the riverside, a lot underground. 

I also made the mistake of walking TOO FAR. Clueless me had no idea that there were parts of town where there were little rooms with a big window facing into the street. Gave myself a fright in my peripheral vision to see a half naked lady standing there waiting as I walked past. Then there was another window, and another. I almost laughed out loud by how off guard it caught me. Lots of people here for lots of different reasons! 

I had a burger and a cider at the bar underneath my hostel, intending to stay up for the formula one, but they will be broadcasting it without the sound 🙁 how useless is that. Hence, for my incredibly early start tomorrow to get to the airport I am retiring at the ripe old time of 7:03pm. 

Adios.

UPDATE: THE BELLS, THE FREAKING BELLS. THE MOST DISJOINTED, LOUD, ANNOYING NOISE EVERY HALF AN HOUR OR SO!!!!!!! I WANT SLEEP!!!!!!!!

Amsterdam to Copenhagen

It was a 4:30AM start today. I’d forgotten that I’d booked a flight to Copenhagen from Amsterdam, instead of taking the train. It saved me 11 hours of train travel, but it did set me back a bit, and somehow I forgot about it??? Anyway, the flight was at 7am and I wasn’t staying anywhere near the airport. Luckily they had a really easy train line straight there and I was very close to that station. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend walking alone at 4:30am around Amsterdam though. Definitely not the safest feeling place I’ve been.

I’m going to be so honest, Amsterdam felt like one of those places that would be prettier if people didn’t live there. The canals and architecture are beautiful, but it was such a tourist hotspot for all the “fun” things to do. 

I arrived in Copenhagen at 8am, and essentially walked straight into a cafe that had the BEST cardamom scrolls. I got a whole bunch of stuff done and headed over to the hostel afterwards. Because it was on the other side of town I did get to go for a bit of a walk through the downtown area which was cool. I wish it was a bit nicer of a day, because I’m sure it would be a lot more pretty with a bit of sun!

So the hostel I’m staying at is hands down the best I’ve ever stayed at. Next House Copenhagen has a gym, indoor court, cinema, three bars as well as countless events like pilates and hostel dinners. They have a rooftop bar, eating area and huuuge kitchen with glass windows and greenery. It’s awesome. I used the gym in the evening and met two girls from Rotorua back home. Turns out one of them knew one of my old schoolmates too. 

I cooked some dinner and then met back up with Silvie and Sonya from Rotorua for drinks afterwards. We quickly met two Danish guys, Magnus and Theo. They challenged us to a game of locals vs foreigners beer pong – of which we won, and I single handedly carried. 

It wasn’t an early night like I intended. We all stayed up chatting until around 3am, and I’d signed myself up for pilates at the next day. Woo!

Copenhagen Day Two

I woke up this morning with a lil bit of heaviness after all the beer. luckily the pilates class shook me out of it pretty quick. I had no idea how intensive pilates is!! It sure was a struggle haha. Hats off to you, Mum.

I checked out of the hostel at around 10 and then slowly made my way across Copenhagen to the ferry port. I stopped to grab a few things from various stores – including a kardemummabullar. Best pastry EVER. I will miss them.

On the way out of the hostel, I’d run into one of my roommates and gotten chatting. we’d both checked out but super randomly, on the other side of the city we bumped into each other again walking opposite directions on the sidewalk. 

The ferry is huge. Like, biggest boat I’ve ever been on. It has four restaurants, three bars, a swimming pool, sauna, hot tub, full shopping area and five levels of rooms. 

I think because it’s such shoulder season I lucked out and had a room to myself. I booked an interior room with 2 people but it turned into my own private! yay!! I am glad I bought some stuff from the bakery for dinner though. The prices were crazy. had such a spectacular sunset from the roof of the boat as we left Copenhagen behind. Onto Norway tomorrow!

Arriving in Norway

I purposefully set an alarm to wake up for the sunrise this morning. Boy am I glad I did. I was greeted by a crisp breeze and the most stunning sunrise of golds, pinks and purples on the banks of Norway. We got into Oslo at 10AM, which gave me a bit of time to explore before my train up to Oppdal at 2PM. I found a little bakery to refresh at, in the form of the most incredible bacon chicken sandwich, and a huge oreo scroll. 

Oslo is a cool city. It’s by no means the most jaw dropping in terms of architecture, but it was clean, and very walkable. I found a couple of cool vintage stores, and had to peel myself away from this awesome pair of vans. I kid you not I forced myself to leave the store and then stood outside for 10 minutes going back and forth in my brain whether to buy them. The minimal space in my bag won. 

I jumped on the train after that, and had a five hour journey up to Oppdal. There was a bit of a heart attack moment when the conductor announced something that I couldn’t quite hear, but I heard connection, Oppdal and platform 8 in one sentence. I decided to stay on the train, just to see the blue dot on the map taking us the opposite way when we got going again. Thankfully, it was a weird loop in the track and we did eventually end up in Oppdal. Annalena picked me up at 7PM in the rain, which was lovely to see her again. 

I got to meet her parents that night and we spent the evening catching up over dinner (baked camembert cheese and cranberry jam omg) and step up 2. 

Sunndalsora Day Two

The next day was hiking day! We drove around the fjord to the other side of the mountain range to a place called innerdalstårnet, which is the home of the ‘nisse’ who are the Norwegian elves in shelves essentially. This place is incredible. It blew my mind that Norway didn’t have more people visiting. It looked like something straight out of a fantasy movie. The little mountain homes had grass on them, the waterfalls were full, there was snow on the peaks. It doesn’t get much better. We hiked 12km into these two lakes and hiked halfway up to a waterfall. I got to try traditional Norwegian hiking chocolate too! 

On the way home, we stopped at a few other places, Flåo, which had a brilliant view of the fjord back towards Sunnalsøra. We visited Ålvundfjorden, which was their local swimming beach and Litldal, the road up to a mountain pass that had just closed for the winter. 

We watched the New Zealand ski film, Highway 73 and also had a clear night, so on a whim decided to head out to stargaze by one of their radio towers. Purely by chance, the northern lights were out. Not as spectacular as I’d seen in the past, and I didn’t have my camera with me but it sure was special to share that with Anna. 

Sunndalsora Day Three

The next morning we ventured back towards Oppdal. We stopped at Europe’s 5th biggest waterfall, which had an awesome view of the valley. There were some really cute sheep there too, who each had a bell around their neck. Nothing screams mountain town like houses with grass roofs and animals with bells. 

Anna took me to a little cafe in Oppdal with some killer cardamom scrolls, where I challenged and beat her to a game of chess. 

It was here that I also found Torje, my own little nisse to take home. He came with us to the climbing gym, where I absolutely wrecked my arms. It was a reminder that I did indeed have a fear of falling. 

Once we got home we watched a local ski film called Supervention 2, and I can confidently say I will be back for some backcountry skiing. 

Sunndalsora Day Four

The next day was road trip day. We drove about two hours through the fjords to the Atlantic coast, stopping in a little town called Bud (Bood) on the way through. We walked a little ways through the rolling tussocks hills along sharp coastline before continuing on. One of the coolest parts of the trip was a place full of islands connected by huge bridges.

Anna and I stopped at a little cafe on one of them, and this is where we swapped drivers for a little bit. About ten minutes down the road it took a turn upwards. I heard a rattle before the gas pedal went slack. There was no power. I luckily managed to pull off the road so the poor guy tailing me could get past and we could stop. However, once we had, the car didn’t start again. Shit. We were two and a half hours from home with no car. AND it was getting dark.

Luckily Anna had a family friend about 45 minutes away who came to rescue us and get us a tow truck under the Norwegian AA system. Peter took us back to his place, fed us dinner and then very kindly drove us the 1 1/2 hours home to Sunndalsøra. Dazed and tired, we went straight to bed after that. Just kidding, we didn’t. We went looking for Aurora again, and walked for about an hour into the bush to have a look. We did get to see a little bit, but not like the first time.

I had to rebook my trains, as I was meant to leave at 9 the next morning, but there were no buses leaving on a Sunday to get me to Oppdal, an hour away! 

Sunndalsora BONUS DAY

The bonus day in Norway was spent chilling out. We slept in a little more before I introduced Anna to drive to survive, as it was the weekend of the Mexican GP. After lunch we took her two longboards down to her school to skate around a bit under the snowy peaked mountains. We got back. watched Point Break, a bit more of drive to survive, baked a batch of cookies, brownies and lasagna and then watched an exciting race in Mexico!

Sunndalsora to Stockholm

BIG travel day today. We got up earlier for breakfast, and jumped on the bus from Sunndalsøra to Oppdal at 8.30. It was so cold that it snowed here overnight! Anna and I didn’t have long in Oslo before I left for Stockholm, but just enough to explore some stores. We found some Moomin merch in a store, and the most PERFECT hat I’ve ever seen. So that was a win. Hat and a pair of Moomin socks acquired. I’ve just jumped on the train to Stockholm (it’s 5PM) and will get there at 10PM to meet Jessica!!

Catch up soon!!