I've been getting some whining that I haven't completed this yet (you know who you are, sweet!), so here it is: Bergen, Day II:
Really, though, it could also be called "Rosendal, Day I" since that's where we spent a large portion of our day. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. This is only the second time I've stayed at a hostel, and it was the first time I had opportunity to share a room with people I didn't know. The three of us were in a six-bed dorm. Two of the beds were filled by different people each night, but the third was occupied by the same man both nights of our stay.
Now, I know that I'm new to the whole hostel thing, but generally one would assume that if others are sleeping, you would err on the side of common courtesy and be quiet if you come home or get up while others in the room are still sleeping. Well, this many did not seem too concerned about that. He came back very late, spent a good deal of time, energy, and noise getting to bed, and, when he woke up in the morning before the rest of us, proceeded to moan an groan in bed, muttering curses in a foreign language. I was very glad that we were waking up early, as well.
We hurried out, grabbed a quick breakfast (All Bran......), and head to the dock where we would catch our boat for the two-hour ride to Rosendal. We stepped into the boat, paid our fair, and Lo!, who was sitting on port side? Loud roommate!
We chose seats on the opposite side of the boat. Oh, and we were inside, just to be clear. And, yes, it was raining steadily outside. The boat definitely moved through the sea with a purpose. I'm used to the ferry boats we used early this fall to get from mainland Oslo to the small islands dotting its harbor, and they just pud along. Not so with this one. She meant business. She also kept to schedule quite well. I was astonished at how short each stop was. There was only one time either way that we docked for more than 30 seconds besides the final stop, of course : )
On the way back, I did go up to the deck to check out the beautiful view, but en route to Rosendal, I left that to the boys (it was raining! which is considerably more annoying when you're on a high speed boat!), who proceeded to bond a little bit with our roommate who was also enjoying the view.
Finally! We're to Rosendal! We had no idea where we were going before we got here. This was the cheapest boat ride by far, so we just decided to take it. And, having no computers of our own, we had no desire to pay to use the hostel internet just to google our destination.
Oh, Little Rosendal. Wikipedia says it has a population of 944.
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| Rosendal, Norway: I spy a waterfall! |
It's main attraction appears to be the beautiful waterfall within (relatively) short walking distance. So, we quickly bought some food, grabbed our bearings, and trekked up the left side of the river.......
In the shadow of a beautiful mountain....., and through the Barony Rosendal, part of which looked like a mystical fairy tale......
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| Doesn't this look like it was pulled right out of a fairy tale? |
......and smack into a sign that said:
Private. If you wish to hike to the waterfall you're on the wrong side of the river. Turn around and go back and cross the first bridge on your left.
So much for the fairy tale. But, we did as we were told and ended up trudging through a sheep fold. A very soggy, poo-ridden sheep fold. I only complain this little bit because I had to focus so much on planting my feet that I often forgot to appreciate the view:
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| I was lagging behind.....trying to dodge sheep poo :S |
Finally, finally, we reached the "prime spot" for picture-taking.
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| Rasmus and the Waterfall |
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| Ahh, the rain looks like sparklies!! Fairy tale! |
Then we kept moving up and around the mountain for some time more. It was pretty difficult going, mostly because we had to dodge a great deal of water. *sigh*
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| Not really me climbing, but it could have been, huh? |
Luckily, as we turned back around, we encountered our fairy godmother while she was walking her ferocious beast. She led us to a bridge across the river and pointed us down the right road back to town. It was such easy going, we could actually look up from our feet! And it was wonderful (sorry, you'll just have to take my word for it, my battery camera died).
When we got back to Bergen, we met up with the other DILL students who had just come for the day, made tacos(!) - which, by the way, is apparently incredibly popular here in Norway, you can buy an off-brand taco kit with 12 shells, taco seasoning, and a salsa pack for less than $1.50 - and relaxed the night away.
The train ride home the next morning was absolutely beautiful, but, I'm afraid will just have to live on in my memory until I steal the pictures Hugo took. Oh, and I leave you with this picture, since momma seemed to like it so much:
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| Me and my Fairy-Tale Troll |
The End
After the Rijks, we headed just down the street to the Van Gogh museum, which was very, very interesting. He has so many beautiful and different paintings, and the museum also houses works by those who influenced Van Gogh. As someone who knows basically nil about art, it was still really fascinating to see the paintings side by side. Here are some of Van Gogh's paintings:
