Rain, hiking, rain, clubbing, rain, fjords and rain (Bergen)

Hello :) So it seems my attempts to be all realistic, and to try and talk about the bad lonely times just as much as the good amazing times has meant people think I'm lonely and sad all the time and are worried..... which is unbelievably lovely and I love you all so much! But I think I might have gone too far in my attempts for equality of experience. So it's been like 95% amazing and 5% lonely, maybe a little more than 5% for the first few days and then definitely alot less after that! In fact, there were alot of times a few cities further on that I had so many people around and friends and things to do with people that I started to crave my own company and to be alone..... Sod's law I guess. Anyway, the essence of this little paragraph is that I'M FINE and happy so don't worry!! :D Although, of course, that is no excuse not to send me messages and love. In fact, I have a permanent address now!! So send me a letter pretty please :)

Clare McEnally c/o Satu Natunen
99870 Inari
Finland

(Tiny address as this is a tiny tiny village, so the post goes to the post office and you either pick it up from there, or the postman (who is your friend, because you know EVERYBODY here) simply drops it round for you....or just gives it to you at the pub.....) But it's beautiful- here is the view from my window...... :)

 

 

Anyway! Early early train to Bergen from Oslo. Felt very sad about slipping away and leaving such wonderful lovely people behind, and my accommodation in Bergen was a little uncertain. Basically a guy on couchsurfing had offered to let me use his apartment for the weekend whilst he was out of town. AMAZING, thought I. What a wonderful, generous person!! And perhaps he is. But then again, maybe not. I looked at a few of his references on couchsurfing and got a little freaked by some of them, which were basically from girls who had said he'd just tried to sleep with them the whole time they were there. Hmmm. But then again, he had some nice references as well. Tricky. But regardless, apartment sitting by myself sounded a little lonely- so I thought I'd see if anybody were able to come to Bergen for the weekend to hang out and also, then, if the guy was creepy it wouldn't matter as I wasn't by myself. Esp if I was with a guy- and I had a guy friend really eager and a ready to come out. Woohoo! So I asked him if it were okay if a friend came as well (his CS profile said he had room for 3 surfers). And then he replied that he'd prefer if I not stay there with a friend, and that he'd prefer if it were just me. Then we could "have a nice dinner together" when he got back on Sunday evening as "just the two of us." And oh yes, I was "free to just sleep in his bed whilst he was away. Wink." Right.

So, not overally keen to stay at this guy's place, but all other requests for couches had been declined as the people were unable to host. The hostels were about 35€ a night which was not money I really wanted to spend, and I was running out of options. And then- everything just worked out. Before I set out travelling I contacted the woman I was going to work for in Inari (Satu) and chatted to her about my travelling plans, and she said if I needed any help along the way just to let her know, and that she had some friends in Bergen, a sister in Stockholm...... And so, on the train, I contacted her and explained my situation, and asked if by any chance her friends in Bergen might possibly have a couch for me to sleep on for a few nights. She said she'd ask straight away, and within an hour she emailed again to say yes! I was very welcome! He would pick me up from the train station!
I am still slightly in awe that despite everything we hear about what a terrible world we live in, it is also a place where a woman I have never met before in my life can ask her friend to let a stranger stay with him, and he says yes, sure, she is welcome! I absolutely love it.

The man, Hans Olaf, was incredible. He's about 60 or 70, and lives by himself in a small apartment about a 10 minute walk outside of Bergen. Despite the short notice he'd made up a bed for me in my own little room, and was there waiting for me when I got off the train (which, incidentally, is one of the most beautiful train rides ever. Mountains mountains lakes trees FUCKING GLACIER...!!!! fjords, mountains... amazing). Anyway, Bergen is a place where it rains 280 days a year. And it was raining when I arrived. But it was lovely, it's a beautiful place, and after a brief unpacking sesh I was off to have a dinner. A girl who I had sent a couch request to was really really sad that she had to say no (there was simply no room), and really wanted to meet me so invited me to her place for dinner and drinks. She was studying at the university and I had an incredible evening with her and her friends, making an awesome stir fry, drinking norwegian cider, chatting about the language the culture and her travelling experience. It was so so lovely hanging out with students again, and they were amazing people. One was travelling to England in a few weeks time and passing through Durham!! so I gave her lots of recommendations of stuff to do there :D They then walked me all the way back to where I was staying which turned into an EPIC trek in which we all got totally lost, but they refused to leave me until I was through the door, and was quite a warm evening (and not raining!! shock shock) so was all lovely.

Me at the top of Fløyen!

The next day I met up with another CSer who had contacted me as she was also going to stay at the creepy guy's apartment, but had found another host. Anyway we all agreed to meet up, and I found our that her host was a guy who had offered me a place to sleep in Bergen, but who I had immediatly branded as a weirdo and had ignored. Anyway this girl was a bit freaked as the guy had been acting really weird and creepy the night before, forcing her to let him give her a massage, trying to kiss her..... Yeah. So we all hung out which was pretty awkward, and I kept asking her why she was bothering staying with him and she said it was better than a hostel.... Nevetheless we had a pretty pleasant day exploring the centre of Bergen, laughing at the lazy tourists who paid a stupid amount of money to get the vernacular up the mountain Fløyen (we hiked up) and seeing some beautiful views over Bergen. Later, I got a panicked fb message from the girl saying that she´s left her host´s house as he started being creepy again, and she was desperately looking for places to stay. Moral to the tale, if someone looks creepy, acts creepy, has bad references, don´t stay in their house by yourself.... Gut instincts ftw. (Also, the guy has now been deleted from CS which is good!)

The sign outside the nightclub.....brilliant.

In the I met up with another girl who had wanted to host me but couldn´t as she was now living with her parents. We met for some drinks and met up with some other CSers, including the girl from earlier, two scottish guys and an australian guy called Chris who was soon to become my stockholm travelling buddy (we discovered we had both randomly booked onto the same flight), Pretty good night although the price of beer made me want to cry and loads of places were 22 or above which made me feel really young..!

The next day dawned rainy and misty and I went off to go hiking with (yet another) guy who had wanted to offer me a couch but already had too many surfers, but asked if I wanted to go hiking. We climbed the highest peak in Bergen which was a ridiculous climb up, I say it was a path but it was actually a stream, we climbed the biggest mountain via a stream strewen with giant boulders and rocks- for most of it we had to use our hands. And oh yes, it was so misty and windy that they´d closed the railway going up to it (not that we would have used it, but as an example of the conditions....). Nevertheless it was really really nice to do something active and we had some really good chats (in between gasps!) The plan was to climb to the top and then start a long hike round to another peak, however it was so misty it would have been too dangerous as we wouldn´t be able to see the path. So, we started climbing down and near to the bottom Luco looks back up and says, ah! I think the clouds are clearing, we could climb back up?! In hindsight he was probably joking.... but I was pretty sad to finish hiking so said yeah, ok, let's do it! So we climbed this big ass mountain twice. And as soon as we got to the top it had clouded over again and was too misty..... Ah well. Good hike :P

Swimming in cloud at the top of the peak!

The next day I paid a stupid amount of money to go on a trip to see the fjords, but I figured I couldn´t come to Norway without seeing them, and I´d saved alot of money on accomodation so what the hell! It was beautiful! Pictures speak louder here. There was also a lovely English couple who kind of adopted me throughout the tip, making sure that I was on the right bus and buying me cups of tea.... :)

And that was my Bergen adventure, more or less!! Felt ridiculously grumpy the next day to be leaving to go on to Stockholm as the sun was starting to shine for the first time in a while, and my hiking friend was going again that day, and I was leaving.... :( But I met the Astralian chris on the airport bus and the next adventure begun!

Stay tuned for stories of a hostel that has a sauna and gives you free pasta, a street dancing demonstration through Stockholm, and Clare on a Swedish TV reality show.........