Bergen!

Well, Kim and I are here in Norway! The trip's been fun so far, even if we're still a bit sleep deprived. Oslo was cool, with a city center that's full of things to do and cool little sidewalk cafes. There's also great transportation with a bus, tram, and subway system. The only catch is that it's pretty cold, with highs just above freezing. That, and the fact that prices are a bit higher here. A medium pizza is almost $30 and a beer is over $10. The food is good, but at an average of over $20 per person per meal it's definitely got us taking the thrifty route whenever possible.

People have been really friendly, always willing to explain stuff or give directions. Thankfully everybody speaks English, so that makes just about everything easy. We've had more daylight than I was expecting, with daylight breaking around 8am and lasting until after 4pm. What's different about it is the angle of the sun. We're far enough North that the sun never gets very high in the sky, which makes for hour long sunsets and sunrises. Twilight lasts forever. It's pretty cool. I wish that we had some time outside of the city because I hear that the Northern Lights are a fairly commmon sight here...

Yesterday we caught the train across Norway to Bergen, passing by some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever come across. Dozens of waterfalls, including a big-volume, multi-stage one that was over 300 feet and several smaller flow falls between 100 and 400 feet. The Fjords were beautiful, with walls reaching nearly a mile abover the water and picturesque little towns perched on the shores. There were also tons of riverbeds that looked like they'd be great in the spring! Speaking of seasons, I think we went through about 3 of them on the train. When we left Oslo it felt like late fall, then at high altitude in the mountains we had snow, cold, and lots of wind. On our way back down everything melted and we were down to spring. Pretty cool.

Now we're here in Bergen and getting ready to explore. It seems like a beautiful town and we're really looking forward to it. I'll try to post again soon!