Northern Trip Days 1 and 2!

Hey everyone! Lots of exciting stuff happening over here in Norway! My class left school at 2:45 on Monday and now we are in Ballstad watching the northern lights way up in Northern Norway. It feels like we’ve been gone for ages despite only being away from home for 4 days! Let’s talk through it. PS, my aunt and grandma from the US ordered a cake for me at a Norwegian bakery! So before we left Tuva and I went into Tangvall and picked it up. I’ve got an amazing family 🥰.

It was delicious. 

We packed the mini bus full on Monday and began the journey a little before 3. First we boarded a train to Oslo, then in Oslo we got on an overnight train to Trondheim. This was our first night away and we had to sleep on the train. Not comfortable, but we made it work. I would say no one slept for more than 4 hours. 6 am Trondheim was lovely, but we were all a little sleep deprived. We walked about 5 minutes to The Comfort Hotel, where we were able to have a lovely, full hotel breakfast. It must’ve looked strange to all the hotel guests. 15 sweaty, tired young people with huge backpacks making a lot of noise and napping in their lobby. We took full advantage of the good food and couches. They also had an old Nintendo for some reason so I played some of my dads favorite games in honor of him! After that we walked to Norway’s biggest church, Nidarosdomen. We got a short tour from a really weird man. So that was fun. Then we went across the street to the Jewish museum. That was super interesting, but at that point most of us were crashing so it was a little hard to pay attention. 

Rochelle, Patricia, Yewon, and Xoan in the Jewish museum. 

Inside the largest church in Norway. 

Outside of the church. 

Here is all of our stuff in the train station in Kristiansand. We brought a lot 😵‍💫. And we have to carry everything on our backs! 

Here’s a little detail I forgot to mention. Marianne’s daughter got Covid a few days before we left, so Marianne had to stay behind to complete her quarantine as a close contact. So for the first few days, Sondre the stipp was with us! He did a fabulous job, and it was actually really fun to all solve problems together. Marianne met up with us last night in Svolvær (It is Thursday evening as I am writing this), and Sondre is flying back tomorrow. 

Anyways. Back to scheduled programming. After the Jewish museum we stopped at a grocery store to grab some bread, jam, and cheese. A solid lunch. And then went Kayaking  down a river that cuts through Trondheim. It was freezing but we had dry suits so it was totally fine. Well I guess everyone was fine except for Noah who decided not to wear any gloves😂. After the long paddle, we walked to a cute little restaurant and ate some food we had ordered days earlier. It felt good to have a hot meal. AND THEN, yes. There’s more. Let me remind you all this happened in one day. After 4 hours of sleep, we were so tired. Anyways. After that we tracked through the arty and craft beer part of Trondheim to a sauna place. We had reserved a sauna for the whole group and all the little building were on a wooden platform on the ocean so you could jump into the freezing water and then right back into the sauna. It was so fun and everyone went into the water. That wrapped up around 10ish, and then we went back to the train station and hopped on another night train to Bodø. As you can probably imagine, everyone slept a little better because we had been awake for so long and had packed so much into one day. I actually layer my sleeping bag on the floor and made everyone step over me. But let me tell you, it was better than the fetal position in a straight backed chair. 

Kayaking! 

Chance’s questionable breakfast at the hotel. He forgot a plate so it was just a tray with beans. Yum. 

Dinner at the restaurant! 

Dry suits with Marlene and Merete. Both German! These suits were so difficult to get on because the rubber on the neck and sleeves sticks to your skin. 

Lots of graffiti in the art district in Trondheim. 

Sauna! 

Walking through Trondheim at night.  

 

Okay this post was also going to be about days 3 and 4, but I am so tired I’ve gotta go to bed. So hopefully I will put out another update tomorrow morning. Goodnight!