Y’all. I can’t even. We roll into town (literally—train/bus/train) and then roll our rolling duffels over every cobblestone street in every town. I tried to convince Andy we should all carry backpacks instead, but no. I’m secretly glad because my shoulders would be killing me. But I am embarrassed all the same. We sound like a tank brigade entering the city. 🤦🏻‍♀️

And we eat early. Truly. 12:30 is actually latish for us for lunch. Yesterday, we ended up with hotpockets (European ones) at the Esso station across from the train station in Voss because not a single restaurant opened before 2:00 (14:00) for lunch. And as we have not yet mastered grocery stores in Norway, we hit up every snack bar on every form of transport we come across. If I eat one more ham and cheese panini— 🤷🏻‍♀️ Dinner should be around 8:00 (20:00), but hello heartburn and early train departures, so we eat between 5-6 (17-18:00). Oh so American.

And speaking of American, when all four of us try to get on the elevator in a hotel, it’s comical, or sad, depending on your opinion. Tiny elevators in Europe are not new to me, but I’m still always surprised.

Say what you want about our ridiculousness, but all the radio stations play American music in Norway. As I wrote this post, three songs in this bar included songs by Montell Jordan, Nortorious BIG and OutKast. So there. 🤣

Norway is a very chill place. While people aren’t particularly outgoing with strangers, they are polite and helpful and very punctual. Chill they may be, but everything runs exactly on time here. Everything.

More on Bergen…

Today we went to a museum that was basically a display of the local waterfront/port city as an archaeological dig. So very informative! It was truly amazing to see the layers of Bergen, Norway from 1100 AD to now. We literally have no historical frame of reference. It’s mind boggling. 🤯

We also explored Rosenkrantz Tower. It reminded Andy and I both of our visits to Ghent, Brussels and Obidos, Portugal, and Castelnaud La Chapelle, France. We learned quite a bit about the famous witchcraft trial of Anna Petersdotter as well.

And, ofcourse no day of sightseeing in Europe would be complete without visiting a St. Mary’s church. It was lovely.

Now it is naptime. Per our American time table, we had a huge lunch of pizza complete with loud debate over the Trump Presidency and are back to the hotel because we are cold and tired and full! Lucky us.

Tomorrow we leave for Kirkenes (which I have mispronounced about 500 times). Excited for a visit to the Artic Circle!

🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇳🇴

Love Y’all, Marla