Hello Bergen

Oh hey, two blog posts in one month! That's a change. I don't have school this week because of all day tests (I'm not sure if they are exams or not.. thats just a direct translation of what I was told was happening.) So that means I can stay up late and write a post! This past weekend I completed another task on my "to do" list and took a trip to Bergen. I don't really know if I have completed any others. My computer crashed in December, and along with it went my "to do" list. I haven't forgotten about my dinner with the king. My letter is now in progress. My Aussie pal Miki has joined in on the quest to meet the king!

Trip to Bergen

On Friday night at 11, after seeing a group of teens dressed like babies, and a very large drag queen in the train station, I hopped on the night train to bergen! As soon as the train started going, everyone started blowing up their pillows, unfolding their blankets, and putting on their eye masks to try and get some sleep. That was until the train stopped in Drammen and my fellow exchangers, Noellen and Lauren, got on. As soon as they stepped through the doors, the cabin was filled with laughter, loud english, and angry sighs and grunts (from the other passengers). After catching up a bit, and setteling down in our seats, we started watching seperate movies on our laptops and passing back and fourth different snacks we had brought with us.

(Me stoked about the free sleeping gear!)

(Noellen blowing up her pillow, and Lauren)

Because the grumpy lady in front of us would freak out everytime a sound was made, we resorted to the classic "draw one part and pass it on" game and created these lovely masterpeices: We eventually decided to sleep a bit. I woke up to this view:

(I love Norway!!)

At 6:30 we stepped of the train looking REALLY attractive, and was greated by Lauren's first host dad, Tord. This was the start of many misscommunications due to the Bergen dialect. (Thank you Kjersti, my second host mom, for the 3 months of training!) Most were made by Noellen. The best happened one night durring dinner when Tord asked for the grape salad (In norwegian "grape" is "drue" and sounds like "drew") Noellen responded with "What's Jew Salad??" and later "I was thinking 'what salad looks the most Jewish' " Anyways, back to chronological order. We were taken to Lauren's home, slept a bit, ate breakfast and then we were drove into Bergen. Our first stop was Fløyen, a mountain overview of Bergen. We took the train type thing up the mountain. The view from the top was incredible!

We walked down the mountain, and then continued into the city. We spent the rest of the day walking around Bergen. Here are some photos from the city.

That night we decided to make a lemon meringune pie (we wanted to make a pumpkin pie, but after searching 3 different sketchy foreign food stores, we still didn't have pumpkin) We spent the night in the kitchen baking. Lauren's host parents were suprised when they walked in the kitchen only to see that all three of us had our laptops out, we were playing music, skyping with Miki, AND baking a pie. We're just really good at multitasking.

Sunday we slept pretty much all day. Then at 10:00 we decided to go on an adventure and walk down to the beach and go for a swim. It wasn't the nicest beach. Not only was the water FREEZING (yes we expected it to be exactly that) but the ground was also stones and shells, so it made running into the water very painful!

(getting ready to swim)

On monday we went into Bergen again and went to a cafè for coffee and ice cream. While walking though a park, we came across a huge flok of pigeons! I took this oppourtunity to accomplish one of my goals of getting a photo of me scattering a flock of city birds. On my first attempt I ran through a group of adult pidgons. They were not scared of me. They just stood there. Then I spotted a group of smaller birds chowing down on some bird feed. I gave it another shot, and my plan worked perfectly. The birds scattered everywhere, and my two photographers captured the moment perfectly! Here is the result:

More Bergen photos:

We spent the night relaxing and eating....a lot. Lauren's host grandma was ever so nice and agreed to make us waffles. Waffles are, hands down, my favorite food here. I would eat them for every meal if I could. I mean, how can you not like them when they are heart-shaped? After waffles and coffee. Following waffles and coffee, we "cozied ourselfs" down stairs and feasted on the most delishious easter candy (and candy in general) ever made.... Påske Egg! This blows both Cadburry eggs and peeps out of the water. Påske eggs are chocolate egg shells filled with a fluffy vanilla filling. They are INCREDIBLE..

The next day we woke up early and Noellen and I packed up our things and then headed to the train station. When we got on the train we realised we were put in the family cabin. 7 hour car ride with screaming babies... what more could one ask for?? The view on the train ride was incredible. Many times Noellen and I found ourselves with our jaw on the floor thinking "I LOVE NORWAYY!!"'

(We passed the time by watching the best movie EVER: Hot Rod!)

And that was my Bergen trip. We all had a really great time. Many memories were made, that's for sure!