Norway in a Nutshell, Or, All Hail the Fjord Lord

First of all, Sidney’s fine, I know you all were concerned and I’m happy to help you find some peace. Second, Norway in a Nutshell is the name of the most amazing SAS field program I’ve been on so far, that I went on, today. Before getting to the really cool stuff, we had to endure a 2.5 hour bus ride after meeting at 7:45am. I hope you all understand how much transportation is involved to get to fun places and do fun things because then you can also understand why it is so frustrating when public transportation does not bend to your plans and will. In any case, bus rides and I have become great buddies at this point and I would love, more than anything, to dissolve this friendship in lieu of driving myself around. After giving up on napping, I looked out the window and got a great view of all the mountains and waterfalls Norway has to offer. Also, for every roundabout Scotland has, Norway has a tunnel. The road designers recognized that Norway has a ton of mountains and that it would be easier to go through them then to build around them, hence, many tunnels.

After this bus ride we finally arrived at the ferry that was to take us through the fjords (pronounced feeyords)! Fjords are like super narrow rivers that cut through the cliffs and are often traveled by ferry because they never completely freeze over because of some environmental explanation I may have napped through. Our ferry took us along Aurlandsfjorden—which I think is the name of at least part of the fjord way we took, but I’m not positive—to Flåm. We were served lunch on the ferry: lasagna, salad, and bread, and according to our tour guide the Norwegian population eats more Italian food per person than the Italians do.

As for the ferry trip, it is so hard to describe because it was so phenomenal that I feel like I may not have all the right words to talk about it. We were ferried over calm, blue waters and even the sporadic rain couldn’t get me down. It was just so cool seeing the cliffs towering above us covered in green trees with clouds hovering above them. Once again, I will have the task of going through hundreds of photos of Norway, with a large portion of them being from this ferry ride. This trip was actually a last minute addition for me and I could not be any more thankful that everything worked out and I got a ticket because Norway in a Nutshell has almost solely contributed to making Norway my favorite port so far. The fact that I feel like I’m connecting with my Norwegian roots doesn’t hurt either. On the way we saw a boat called Fjord Lord and I just about cracked a rib laughing because for some reason the fact that it rhymes is just about the funniest thing ever. If you remember, I am actually royal because royalty rubbed off on me in Scotland. Plus, until proven otherwise by ancestry.com, I am most definitely maybe descended from actual Vikings and therefore I think I should own Fjord Lord and the boat docked next to it, Fjord Lady (which is also interesting, but doesn’t rhyme). Now I want nothing more than to come back to Bergen with my family and have them do a fjord trip with me and take the Fjord Lord and Fjord Lady out on the water. Also,

This 2.5 hour ferry ride took us into Flåm, this cute little town that boasts souvenir shops and a train station. Here we were to catch a train that goes all the way up to Myrdal: an incline that goes from 2 meters above sea level to 866 meters above sea level. On the way up to the top of this incline, we saw an insane amount of huge waterfalls and more of that classic mountainous, green Norway landscape. We stopped at Kjosfossen at 669m to get out and see the Kjos Waterfall. The water from this waterfall comes from the Reinunga Lake and then after, the falls go to a power station through a water tunnel, something I’ve learned from my Flåm guide. After the falls it was back on the train to Myrdal, which, to be honest, is impressive solely for the reason that it’s 866m above sea level. Then it was time to catch another train from Myrdal to Voss to begin our return journey home.

Emily, Sidney, and I thought we were being smart in our seat choice in a smaller area of the train compartment, but then these preteens, children of faculty members or LLLs, joined by their friends, sat down in the seats in front of me. I thank the Lord that they didn’t sit next to me. Most of us were tired from our day of excitement but as I’m sure you can guess, young children and preteens are not exactly great at picking up on social cues. The girls were playing cards and wouldn’t let the little boy join unless he said he loved someone named Alexander and then swore it to be true on the River Styx as an Unbreakable Vow. While I’m annoyed that they were essentially bullying him (and he wasn’t having it thankfully, he called them out on their weirdness) I’m impressed by the references they made. The Unbreakable Vow is a Harry Potter reference, which means that at least some of them have read the books, which brings me joy because Harry Potter isn’t technically part of their generation. The River Styx is a Greek mythology reference that one of the girls picked up from the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan I saw her reading a couple days ago. I don’t care that the reference came from a (amazing) children’s book series, because using a Greek myth reference correctly as a preteen is worth of note.

After this long day that you’ve had to read about and I actually got to experience, I was more than ready to collapse into bed and mentally prepare myself for getting to Oslo in a day’s time. If only I could have taken the Fjord Lord to get there.