Summer trip no. 1 – Norway!

Helloooo blog readers! Loooong time no see! Sites like Twitter and Tumblr have almost completely taken over my life, I’ve been a bit down and totally obsessed with Takarazuka, but what else is new? I’m getting off (or on? lol) my lazy ass and bring you this shiny blog post because I’ve spent the last five days in Norway and what’s more fun than writing a trip review?

I was actually feeling angsty about this trip just a day before leaving, mostly because I didn’t get a summer job again this year and mum had promised that dad would pay for my trip. And I had just received two packages from Japan, which meant my parents were aware of excactly why I wasn’t able to pay for anything. Quilt, quilt, quilt.

Regardless, me and P were off to the airport early on Wednesday morning, me without breakfast because I’m an idiot. We flew with Norwegian and had to change planes in Oslo, where we were in a bit of a hurry due to some unexpected difficulties with our boarding passes and confusing connecting flight signs. In the end we found our way to the correct gate without too much difficulty and were in Trondheim by afternoon.

The first thing we did (after taking our things to the hostel) was to take a boat to a small island called Munkholmen, which had originally been a prison. We didn’t get to go inside the building itself but the view to Trondheim, the sea and the surrounding mountains was great and we took lots of photos and chilled around on the grass.

Hi I’m a runway model. Or not.

We walked around the town a bit and then tried to find a place to eat dinner. This turned out to be tougher than expected, since most places were for 20+ people only. We didn’t approve of Norway’s alcohol laws at all.

Jumping to Thursday. My amazing photographing skills. Nidaros Cathedral, Norway’s Notre Dame. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. It wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the church and it would’ve been too dark anyway. But it was gorgeous. We also went to see Norway’s Royal Regalia. And did a bit of shopping. We also found a museum that was showing old wedding dresses from Victorian times to this day. I think I died a little when I realized we could have taken photos only after we had already left the museum. ;^;

We took the Rauma railway line to Åndalsnes. It was amazing and impossible to take any decent photos of, but basically the railway serpented in the most beautiful valley, on both sides of the Rauma river. The weather was cloudy so we couldn’t see the mountaintops, but the view was breathtaking anyways.

We spent the night in Åndalsnes, which is a really small town with breathtakingly gorgeous surroundings. We took the first train of the morning towards Oslo. The trip took about 6 hours in total and I slept through most of it. Sleeping in moving vehicles is my special talent.

We found our hostel and spent the rest of the evening walking around and trying to find a place to eat. We went to see the Royal Palace from the outside.

Ta-dah.

We shared a room at the hostel with a cute Aussie guy who had been in Europe for four months and a super cute Californian girl who had spent 2 years in France and Norway!

Saturday was an amazing day overall. We started our day by taking a boat from the new opera house to the city hall, eating lunch at a small cafe and then taking the tram to the wonderful Vigeland park. After that we took the tube to Holmenkollen to see rhe ski jump tower. The view was so amazing we decided to see if the tube could take us even higher up the mountain and it did. The last stop was in the middle of a forest, some 469 metres above sea level! Here’s some photo spam from Saturday! (I took over 270 photos during the whole trip, so you’ll see only a selected few.)

And that was Vigeland park for you. Next, Holmenkollen!

See the two people down there? That thing is huge! I would never jump from there, never.

Bonus photo! I had to buy a can of Häagen-Dazs ice cream and take a photo because Mizu loves it. XD I have this article where she talks about it in her Memorial Book and it has been translated by the lovely ekusudei in LJ, but the post seems to be friends only. Anyway, I really liked the ice cream!

We didn’t do much else than take a nap at the hostel and eat in the evening. I had a bit of a trouble trying to sleep that night because it was too hot in the room.

We came back home on Sunday. Everything went smoothly with the flight this time. (And we ate some sushi at the airport omnomnom!)

I’ll have to post again soon about the things I’ve bought and stuff… Let’s see if that’ll be before or after my next trip. I’m going to Pärnu with my family next Sunday.

So, until next time darlings! ♥