Travel Diary: Train Ride From Oslo to Bergen

Monday, September 21, 11:45 am:

Today marks the official halfway point through my Scandinavian vacation. Oslo was great and I got a really good feeling about it, however I feel like it was totally doable in a day. If I had stayed longer, am not sure what else I would have done, really.

I am currently on the train to Bergen, a city on the western coast of Norway. It's nicknamed "The Gateway to the Fjords" - so basically, I'm expecting a lot of natural beauty. I didn't get a window seat like I would have preferred, but I can still see outside of the windows. We're not too far into the train ride, but I can already see the beauty that is Norway. We just passed by a small town, Drammen, and it looked like a lovely place to live ... houses high on hilltops, people walking around the lake for an afternoon stroll. How nice, to stroll.

Around 1:00 pm:

The freshly naked sheep wander the fields that are colored with multi-shaded greens below the hills carved of granite. Red farmhouses, life-sized yet remarkably similar to a child's toy, dot the scenery like they would in a caricature painting of country life. A one lane street, with visibly old pavement but still fresh like nobody's ever driven on it, cuts through the hills at convenient points, but still looks like an outline for a roller coaster of a drive.

The sun shines down on the trees - I've never known green like this before. Lakes, too many to count, rest as peaceful as puddles. The beauty goes by too fast on this speeding train - so fast, I'd almost rather not look at it at all. Then it vanishes to darkness without warning as the train pushes through a tunnel. It's like clockwork - nature:darkness:nature:darkness:nature:darkness ... tick:tock:tick:tock:tick:tock. It's an overdose of impossible landscapes. It almost makes me want to cry.

There are no water banks - the lake and the land just blend together seamlessly. The water's so close and inviting, I just want to jump in from here. The trees are as long and skinny as pencils, but grouped together they're a formidable herd. As the train speeds by, seeing the villages behind these trees is like observing them through prison bars. We slow down. We've reached a town called Nesbeyen. A brief pause, immobility. Then the conductor blows his whistle and the ride starts again.

Around 2:30 pm:

Finse - where you can "bike the famous glacial road" according to signs. Looking out the window at the chill that has overcome this town, I have a feeling the season for this is over. I've overheard a train employee saying that this is the highest we'll get on our trip - 1,222 meters. I don't have to know what that is in feet to realize that it's high. But the waters here still rush like we're at the ocean - it's weird.

2:45 pm:

I feel like I'm on the train to Hogwarts.

3:30 pm:

Still on the train. The sun has abandoned his shine as we've made our ascent above 1,000 meters. The wind and the mist reign in these parts, but it only adds to the beauty. A consistent, mysterious gloom hovers over everything. I have a peek into the world very few have the privilige to live in - rather, the very few who have the courage to live in. Glaciers are visible on jagged mountain tops in the not so far distance. Thousands of tiny running streams flow with gentle fervor at their bases. Waterfalls spurt out of mountain facades like leaking pipes. Have arrived to Hallingskeid.

10:05 pm:

Have arrived in Bergen. Just spent about 2 hours online reserving plans for the rest of my trip. Walked around Bergen just for a bit, but it got dark pretty quickly. This town is adorable.