We don't hike, we vike

So on Day 2, we took a 7 hour train ride to Bergen. Kathleen was all about the fjords, and of course the best ones are in Bergen. Bergen of course is on the other side of the country. I was willing though to go, as was Jenna, so we took this wonderful train ride, getting up way too early to get to the train station in time. But since we went to bed really early, it wasn't much of a problem to get up early.

The train ride was amazing. Kathleen slept basically the whole way, but I wrote in my journal, read a little, and just watched the scenes. So beautiful. It was April Fool's Day when we traveled, so I took a picture at the train station of the wall, and put it up on Webshots saying that this was all we saw. Yeah it was funny at the time. I got some really nice shots though. It was cool we went from warm and green, to cold and snowy, and back to warm and green. Jenna and Kathleen were very amused, I would be sleeping, and all a sudden I would wake up, turn on my camera that was in my right hand, hold it up, take a picture, turn it off, and go back to sleep. LOL! I just had the feeling that there was something beautiful outside at that second, and I should do something about it. Jenna had the best views for awhile, so some of my shots aren't as good, I had to zoom in around Jenna and the guy sitting next to her. The shots aren't bad though.

Some of the sights we saw though are just amazing, huge mountains, rivers, and then the snowy mountains... just amazing. It was a really a beautiful train ride, I was awake for most of it, and I am really glad that I was awake. We crossed the country of Norway in 7 hours. Amazing.

It was great because we all sat together, and of course there was many jokes made, and we had a good time. It didn't feel like 7 hours either. We got off the train around 2ish, and it didn't feel like it.

So Bergen. Great place, a lot like ohhh Minas Tirith. There are windy roads that go up the mountain. The majority of the houses are on the way up to the top of the mountain. Our hostel was up there, we stayed at the Montana Youth Hostel just for Kathleen. She's from Montana, and is very proud of the state that has more cows than people. So after we checked in, we went in search of the cable car we saw on the way up to our hostel that leads to the top of the mountain. Our journey to find this cable car took us down a really steep, steep hill, I would love to go down this hill on a sled during the winter. It's sooo steep, so we went down, and couldn't find anything. We thought that maybe we missed a little path, so we walked back up it, almost dying on the way. At the top, we couldn't find anything, so I asked a guy who walked past us. He told us to go back down the hill, and follow the road. Er. So we went back down the hill, followed the road and found it. The guy did tell me that there is a path going right past our hostel, so we could climb down the mountain and be at our hostel. It was kind of obvious we were staying there, we only saw one other hostel and it was in the centre of town.

So we went up to the top of the mountain. The cable car ride was fun. Short, but we got our first views of Bergen from high up. Amazing place. At the top of the mountain, the view is just unbelievable. This mountain is the highest one in Bergen, so we saw it all. Of course there was a cafe at the top of the mountain, so we got some ice cream. It was the vacation of ice cream, good times. We sat outside at one of the tables and ate, and I was really surprised at the other people. A lot of them had their dogs with them. We saw 3 or 4 dogs at least. No black labs, and all in all the dogs were not that cute. Oh well.

After our snack, we walked around, and had fun talking some pictures with the big flag of Norway. Kathleen and Jenna looked like they had just conquered Norway. I pondered the country of Norway, and then Jenna dared me to do a Marlyn Monroe pose. Of course I did.

It amazed me that on top of the highest mountain in Bergen, there was no boundaries. We could walk wherever we wanted. We didn't go that far, I would have walked every inch of the mountains, it was so beautiful, and up that high you see sights that are just amazing. It's quite an experience, one that I have mentioned before. I just free so free up there, you can do anything, see anything... I do treasure all the times I've been up that high. But we walked around for a while, I kept going farther and farther. Oh well.

The walk down was amazing, and not in a good way. We followed the signs for Montana, thinking it was our hostel, and it could have been, but who knows. The signs led us down these fake steps, that were just big rocks, and there was a rail. We held onto the rail, and walked down. For awhile, it seemed like we made no progress at all. Some way down, we got passed by an older couple, and they kicked our butts. I bet they were in a cafe, having a nice cup of tea by the time we got down the mountain. It was kinda sad. Kathleen had the worst shoes on for walking down mountains, she had on flats. Her ankles got soooo big, her ankles looked bigger than my left one did went I took the puck to it, and it barely fit in my skate that one time in high school. Jenna and I got a few good laughs over it, wait I'm still laughing at her for it.

But the walk down, we ended up on an old dried up creek as a path, I never have walked on so many rocks in my life. We walked for probably an hour. We were all sooo tired by the end. You would think after a while I would get smart and stop climbing mountains, or get use to it. Oh well.

When we finally made it back to the hostel, we cleaned up, and went down to the city centre, and of course got lost. We thought we were taking a short cut, yeah right. It was a fun walk, because all we did was laugh, and make jokes, but yeah we got a little lost. But we did find our way, no big deal. It's part of the experience of being in a new city. The problem was none of us understood Bergen, we started at the wrong part of it, and assumed we were closer to the city centre than we were. Oh well. Everything is an experience.

We finally ate dinner at a pizza place in the city centre. We devoured the pizza in 2 seconds. Jenna and I ordered garlic bread, and it came on one plate, so our waitress went to get another plate, but when she returned a few seconds later, the garlic bread was gone. It was very amusing.

After eating, we got a bus and went back to the hostel. There was no way we were walking back up the hill to our hostel, it was just too long of a walk.

Our first day in Bergen was fun though, a lot of walking, but seeing some amazing sights. We would pay for it though, oh would we pay.

P.S. Almost forgot to explain the title: We don't hike, we vike. Um well if you knew Kathleen you would read that, and think yep that's a Kathleen line. She said that a few times on the way down. She kept saying that we were vikings exploring new lands (LOL), so yeah we don't hike, we vike. It rhymes, and it's funny.