there’s no place like Flåm: falling in love with Norway

I’ve wanted to go to Norway for a very, very long time. My grandmother is Norwegian, and I developed an obsession with the country at an early age that has only grown over the years. Norway has it all: mountains, ocean, fjords, glaciers, snow, tons of cross-country skiing, Northern lights, beautiful winter clothing – so basically, other than beaches, pretty much everything I love! I was so excited to finally get to go this first travel break, and my trip definitely did not disappoint.

First of all, the scenery was absolutely spectacular. Norway is a simply stunning country, and the fjords were as beautiful as I had imagined. We spent most of our time around Flåm,  a small town at the end of Aurlandsfjord, one of the fjords stemming off of Sondresfjord, the longest fjord in Norway. Our first full day there, we took the famous Flåm railway up to Myrdal and hiked from Myrdal back down to Flåm. It was a long but gorgeous hike on a beautiful day, through rivers, waterfalls, fields and pastures, and finally through the adorable old town of Flåm. The colors were simply amazing, as the burnt orange, yellow and reds of the changing trees mixed with the greenery and white waterfalls. All along the route were lots of beautiful old farmhouses that fit in perfectly with the scenery of the area. I couldn’t help but think about how badly I’d love to move in to one of those beautiful old houses!

Along with hiking, we also spent a good portion of the trip biking. My time in Denmark has definitely made me a bit obsessed with biking! In Norway I biked along the edge of the fjord, up towards Myrdal briefly, and even braved the long ascent up to Stegastein, a beautiful overlook above the fjord. Biking up to Stegastein definitely reminded me just how hard biking can be (it included 7.5 kilometers basically straight uphill) but the view was more than worth it. The four of us who dared to go all the way up on our first day of biking were treated to bright blue clear skies and some truly fantastic views. And the bike ride down, 20 minutes or so zooming through beautiful woods and past traditional farms, all while enjoying fantastic views of the fjords was an unforgettable experience.

We also took two boat rights through Aurlandsfjord and Naerøyfjord. On our very first day there, we took a ferry from Flåm to Gudhjem. It was beautiful to have our first glimpses of the fjords be from the water, but we all definitely learned quickly how cold it gets in Norway. Two days later, we took a ‘Fjord Safari’, where we rode in fast, small boats along the edges of the fjords, looking for wildlife and getting amazing close-ups of the sides of the fjord. We wore full-body warm suits provided by our tour guides, and yet even with all of my layers plus the suit I was still a little cold! The views right from the surface of the water were mesmerizing (I stopped taking pictures and decided to just try to enjoy the views in the moment), and we even saw some seals and porpoises. Fjords are incredibly unique natural feature, and it was admittedly surreal to be completely surrounded by large beautiful mountains while also seeing seals and porpoises!

After four days in Flåm, we spent our final day on trains back to Bergen and then had just a few hours in the city of Bergen itself. The train ride from Flåm to Bergen was naturally gorgeous; it began with another trip up the Flåm railway, followed by a beautiful mountain train ride from Myrdal all the way the Bergen. The scenery on the mountain plateau around Myrdal was incredible – yellow birch trees, snow-covered mountains, broad flat valleys filled with beautiful little houses – basically it looked like heaven. I think if were to go back to Norway (and I definitely am going to go back!) I would spend more time hiking in that area. Once we got to Bergen we took the funicular up to a beautiful park above the city, giving us 360° views of the city and surrounding mountains and fjords. After I walked around the park for a while, I spent about an hour exploring the city and then headed back to the airport. Bergen is a beautiful city, with tons of natural places to hike, walk and ski super close, and I definitely could spend more time there in the future as well.

As amazing as the scenery was, I think the real highlight of my trip was combining the natural beauty of Norway with learning about its history and culture. On our final full day in Flåm, we headed to Otternes Farm for a tour of a Norwegian traditional farm as well as a delicious local Norwegian lunch. It was really fascinating to not only learn about the history of the region but also to see how people like our tour guide are trying to keep Norway’s farming history alive today, and the food we ate there was honestly one of the best meals of my entire life. Lila, the wonderful lady who gave us the tour, was so incredibly passionate about the farm and about preserving local traditions, and it was really inspiring to hear her talk about her pride for the region. Later that day, a few of us went to the beautiful little yarn store in Flåm where we met Wenda, an older Norwegian lady who spoke perfect English. We started talking to her about how much we loved Flåm and she proceeded to tell us about growing up in the area. She was raised in Myrdal, the tiny mountain town that basically consists of a train station and a few houses, and proceeded to travel all over Norway and the world when she was a young adult before realizing that she really belonged in Flåm. She, like most of the Norwegians I talked to on the trip, was so sweet and helpful and eager to tell us why she loves living in this beautiful country.

The pride everyone we met had in their home was very evident, and throughout the trip we heard so many cool stories about life in that region. I loved hearing about the houses up on top of cliffs on the edge of the fjords, including one house that has been continuously occupied for hundreds of years that is only accessible by hiking and climbing ladders. Even though it takes an hour to get from the dock on the water to the house, a family still lives there, and in the summers locals hold concerts up on the cliffs, taking their boats to the dock and then all hiking up together. I’ve recently come to believe strongly in the value of feeling connected to the land, and seeing the way the Norwegians from that area appreciate and utilize the land around them perfectly embodied this concept. I’ve never seen anywhere quite like Norway, where the buildings and man-made impacts actually feel like a part of the surroundings and maybe even increase the beauty of the region.

Overall, I absolutely loved Norway. I would go back in a heartbeat and am now even more determined to live there at some point in my life. It’s a beautiful, peaceful and interesting country that is 100% worth the visit. I’m now even more proud to be at least a little bit Norwegian!

the world is beautiful

More glaciers!

Just me and the Eiger Nordwand

Beautiful Otternes Farm

So many glaciers!

So in love with Norway

I love mountains and glaciers and life

Around the town of Myrdal

The north face of the Eiger from above Kleine Scheidigg

Celebrating a brief break in the rain and clouds!

Hiking around Kleine Scheidigg

Aurlandsfjord!

Above the old village of Flåm

Such a perfect reflection

So many beautiful waterfalls!

Beautiful light in Naerøyfjord

The view from Jungfraujoch

The view from above Grindelwald

So so so happy!

Flåm Valley

I’ll admit to having a slight problem with overusing superlative statements. It seems like it’s way too often that I use phrases like ‘the best experience I’ve ever had’ or ‘the most amazing view I’ve ever seen’. However, this past week truly was an unforgettable, extraordinarily beautiful and positively wondrous experience.

I have dreamt about going to Norway and hiking in the Swiss Alps for years now, and last week I finally had the opportunity to make these dreams of mine come true. Going in, I expected my 9-day excursion through Norway and Switzerland to be perhaps one of the most beautiful trips of my life, but even still, both trips easily beat my own super high expectations. I began with five days of hiking, biking and exploring in the Norwegian Fjords on DIS’s Explore the Norway Fjords trip. Doing a trip through DIS was so wonderful; every meal, every activity, all of the transportation was entirely organized for us. And the activities themselves were amazing; we took two boat rides through the fjord (including one on a tiny boat where we could right up close to the cliffs), rode the incredible Flåm Railway to Myrdal then hiked back down through the gorgeous Flåm Valley, biked up a quite difficult mountain road to the Stegastein overlook, took a tour of a traditional Norwegian farm, ate one of the very best meals of my life consisting entirely of local Norwegian food and even enjoyed a beer and aquavit tasting at the local brewery! We had just the most perfect weather the entire trip, and I was amazed at how quickly I fell completely in love with Norway. I already feel the need to go back!

My trip to Switzerland really could not have been more different than my time in Norway, but it was perhaps an even more incredible experience (if that’s even possible?). I decided a while back that I wanted Switzerland to be my first experience traveling alone, and so I headed there for four days completely solo. I arrived with almost no plans other than the fact that I knew I wanted to see Geneva and the Jungfrau Region, and the freedom that my flexibility provided me was fantastic. I absolutely loved traveling alone; there’s something so empowering and freeing about being able to spend time just with yourself, with no distractions and no one else you know even remotely nearby. Unfortunately I had terrible weather during my time in Switzerland meaning limited views of the Alps. However, I did have one partially cloud-free day where in a last minute decision I decided to go ahead and take the train all the way up to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe at over 11,000 ft! And boy, was it worth it. The views from Jungfraujoch were indescribable, and those of you who know how obsessed I am with mountains and glaciers can imagine how much I was freaking out the entire time! One random man, passing me as I hiked on the surface of the glacier, commented to me, ‘you just look so happy and energized!’. ‘You have no idea’, I told him in response! It was honestly perhaps the most incredible day of my life.

After spending the past 9 days in the fjords of Norway and the Alps of Switzerland, two dramatically different but equally amazing places, I am left with just an overwhelming appreciation for how beautiful the world is. I know this sounds cheesy, but I am so fortunate to have been able to see a whole lot of beautiful, incredible places in the past two years (the Peruvian Andes, the Juneau Icefield, Yosemite National Park, the Rockies, the Alaska Range, the Sierras and the Amazon to name a few), and each time I get to go to explore a new beautiful area, I think I appreciate our wonderful planet even more. I have a tendency to freak out whenever I find myself in the mountains or another beautiful place, but I think it all just come down to the fact that at the root of it all, there’s little I love more than being outdoors in a beautiful place, and there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

I’m going to write a longer, more detailed post about each of my trips when I have time in the coming week. Overall, though, I feel just so blessed and grateful to be having these opportunities. And, as the icing on the cake that is my life right now, in just two weeks I’ll be heading off to Greenland! Life is so so so good.

With my pack on my back

I love my backpack. It’s my favorite color (blue), the perfect size, amazingly durable and comfortable, full of all sorts of conveniently located pockets, and it even has an accessible water bottle holder. I could go on and on about all of the reasons why I think it’s the perfect backpack, but, in some ways, that’s beside the point. See, the real reason I love my backpack is because of what I’m doing when I’m using it. When my pack is on my back, I know I must be on some sort of adventure, whether it’s hiking or traversing an icefield or just traveling from city to city. There’s something so empowering about having everything you need in one bag that you can (easily) carry with you wherever you go. The notion that you can pack up your stuff and move somewhere else without hassle, without feeling tied down, that’s what I love. And despite how much of a bummer carrying a heavy pack can be, finishing a long hike or a ski with your pack on your back is really that much more satisfying. I’ve always loved traveling (and recently become even more obsessed), but there’s something extra special about backpacking, whether it’s through the mountains or through Europe. Maybe this all stems from the fact the past three months where I’ve been living out of my pack have been perhaps the best three months of my life, but I really think I’m happiest when I’m adventuring somewhere with my pack on my back. And I hope to be able to regularly go on these sort of adventures for the rest of my life!

Tomorrow I’ll be putting my pack on my back again and heading off to Norway and Switzerland for the first of our three travel breaks. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months now, and it’s hard to believe it’s this week! Norway and Switzerland have been at the top of my travel list for years now, and I couldn’t be more excited to return to the mountains and get to see glaciers again after my incredible experiences in Alaska and Peru. There will be a brief blog hiatus for the next 10 days or so, but I’ll be sure to update with lots of pictures and stories when I return. To the mountains here I come!

Silly picture from Alaska this summer. looks like it could be Norway, right?