We docked in Oslo at 9:30 and started our walking tour. It was kind of boring, so we just walked around looking for interesting things. I spent $5 on a small hot dog for breakfast. Myra was lucky in that she wasn't all that hungry at any time during the day, so food wasn't much of a concern for her. It was interesting to wander the city, but two days of carrying around a heavy backpack was taking it's toll on each of us. Still, we walked the city for over four hours, seeing some parks, a palace, and walking the roof of the opera house, before making our way to the train station where we discovered Internet access, both at the station and on the train! Finally.
We borded the train around 4 and departed soon after.
Oslo
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Random Info on Oslo
The city was founded around 900 AD and became an important trade center by 1300. It's name probably comes from the 'os' referring to a long and narrow hill, and 'lo' meaning field. So Oslo means 'the field below the hill'. The current population is about 1 million. It has lots of old buildings and cobblestone streets.
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We arrived in the tiny, tiny village of Myrdal around 8 and boarded the Flåmsbana, which departed soon after. The next hour was filled with awesome views of waterfalls and valleys and a million tunnels. At the end of the ride we were in the village of Flåm. After a few wrong turns we arrived at the youth hostel where we spent the night.
Myrdal, about half of the entire town
A view from the Flåmsbanna
The inside of the Flåmsbanna
The youth hostel in Flåm
We aren't far enough north to enjoy the midnight sun, but there was very little true darkness in Norway. When we went to bed around 10:30 it was still light out. While we were on the ferry to Oslo, we left our room for a bit around 4 and it was light out, but before sunrise. So there is probably only 4 or 5 hours of darkness here. And it isn't even summer yet!
-Mia
From Myra:
City hall, where people were dressed up for some event:
Art display at the City Hall, scenes from Norse mythology. This one is the Eagle in Yggdrasil.
The last thing we did in Oslo was climb the roof of the opera house:
Mia left it out, but the train ride from Oslo to Myrdal was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The landscape really was beautiful (and after all the trains we've ridden, that means something!). Near the end especially, when we reached the higher altitudes, and were going past lakes, rivers, and mountains, covered in ice and snow.
I wanted to capture it all... so I took a lot of movies. See those later :)
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