Folke and Flåm

This morning my inner CEL (Crazy Ethnic Lady) got her fix at the Norsk Folkemuseum. The Norwegian equivalent of the Polynesian Cultural Center, it presents everyday life in Norway throughout its history and geography by showcasing different buildings that were moved there. As we wandered the grounds, we came upon an ancient stave church that was beautifully preserved.

There were many log houses that were hundreds of years old, staffed by interpreters in period dress.

I especially loved the roof.

 A running theme through many of them: huge tables and tiny beds. The table was where you spent most of your indoors time and was how you flaunted your wealth to guests. Beds, on the other hand, weren’t shown off and apparently when it gets that cold in the winter everyone curls into a ball and snuggles together for warmth. I was tempted to ask them to demonstrate what this would’ve looked like, but thought the better of it. In addition to farming areas, they moved an entire apartment building there and used each unit to show a different decade. We finished off our visit with a clothing exhibit, showing the subtle distinctions between regions.

It was a bit of a mad dash to ferry and tram back to the hostel and then the train station, but we made it with time to spare and were able to buy groceries for the train ride and next day’s adventure. Thank goodness I like cheese and cold cuts!

Whether travelling by train or car, I love reading the landscape for the stories it tells. We passed verdant green forests, patches of lupine growing along the tracks as wildflowers, and scattered farm houses in the apparently standard Scandinavian colors: rust red and harvest gold.

The trees and flowers seemed to change slightly as we went further inland and higher up, becoming scrubs and eventually tundra. Our fellow passengers were also pretty interesting to watch: a few soldiers going home for the weekend, and some student musicians probably coming back from some field trip. What they must’ve thought of the American who kept trying to take pictures out the window and got excited at the most mundane things. And then we started to see something I dreaded encountering in June: snow.

For quite some distance, the landscape was a barren expanse of white and the lakes were iced over. Where was Maggie taking me?! Thankfully we’d soon be heading back to sea level.

At the village of Myrdal we switched trains to the Flåmsbana, the train that would take us from 866 meters to 2 meters in about an hour. The scenery was stunning as we hugged the valley walls and twisted through 20 tunnels.

Our car was nearly empty so I was able to run back and forth to both sides of the car, snapping as many pictures as possible with my fellow tourists.

We even stopped at one of the waterfalls for a photo break, which is where we met the friendliest fellow traveler I’ve ever encountered. Scott from Florida was surprised by his wife for his 50th birthday with a trip to visit his Uncle Bjorn in Norway and reconnect with long-lost family. Since his daughter is nearly our age he quickly took us under his wing and was a delight to chat with during the ride.

As we pulled into the village of Flåm on the last train of the day, nearly everything had already closed and we were one of the last to check into our “huts” before the office closed. Still, it wasn’t dark yet so at 11 PM we wandered down to the water’s edge and saw the nice hotel where Scott and Bjorn were staying.

Notice the clock in the lower right corner.  The sky was really this color at 11 PM!!!

Camping Norwegian style really appeared quite posh, with many camper vans and such.

Our hut was actually rather nice with a kitchen, laundry, etc. In a surprising turn of events, the toilets were free (hooray!) but they had pay showers. Intrigued by the novelty and always up for a good shower, today my 10 KR went to a coin slot in the shower that provided me with ample hot water to wash and rinse. Thankfully I hadn’t attempted to wash my hair, because it didn’t tell me how much time I had left. Instead, when your time was up it would abruptly turn cold and then off. I’m hoping this idea doesn’t get back to Papa Koenig.