The Snells: Unforgettable Norway

Well, Norway was unforgettable...plain and simple. Ryan and I arrived on Friday afternoon and were greeted at the airport by my 4th cousins, Camilla and Cecilie. They were kind enough to go way out of their way and meet us in Bergen for the weekend. They had been on vacation and came all the way back just to be with us! So nice!!! From the airport we drove into town and walked around for a while. We found a cute sandwhich place to grab a bite to eat and then headed down to the fisherman's wharf area. As we walked through the wharf, we were able to try all sorts of new things. Ryan tried calamari (I didn't have the guts to try it) and said it wasn't too bad. We also tried whale, which surprisingly was pretty tasty. It tasted like beef with a slight fish taste. After whale, we tried reindeer sausage followed by mussels. All new foods to me! After our food tasting, we walked down the Bryggen, which is just a bunch of shops along the water. We wandered in and out of the shops and bought a couple of neat things. We got our Christmas ornament (which we have been collecting from every town we travel to) and we bought some postcards to send to each of our Norwegian Grandmothers! They were even postmarked from Norway! After walking around, we decided to go back to Cecilie's apartment and make some dinner. She cooked us a wonderful dinner! We started off by eating crab (which I had never had directly from the shells before). The main course was salmon, noodles, bread and jams, and cheese. For dessert, we had strawberries with sugar and cream. Everything they made for us was traditional Norwegian food, which we were so excited about. We got to try lots of good food!!! The next morning we got up and headed out for a hike. We hiked to the top of Mount Ulriken, which is just over 600 meters above sea level (roughly 2000 feet). The hike was very rocky towards the end and very rewarding once we got to the top! The views were astonishing! To get back down, we took the cable car to the bottom instead of trying to maneuver the rocks again. After our hike, we headed to a Stave church, which is an old Norwegian village church. The one that we saw originated from the 12th century, but had been through several fires and burnings through the years. The most recent burning was in 1992. Although most of the church was destroyed, there was a stone cross that was original. The church was very small and made of all wood. It smelled so good inside the church! After our visit, we went back to have some lunch. Our next traditional food we had was rommegrot, which is a porridge type of dish. The best thing that Ryan and I could relate it to was grits. It was very good! After lunch, we headed back down towards the wharf to walk around again. We met up with Camilla for dinner at a wonderful restaurant. We had been instructed by my parents to take them out to dinner and Camilla and Cecilie had been instructed in the same manner. And so began the fight for the bill. In the end, Mr. Snell won because he was the guy! :) He also learned where the drive comes from to get the bill...it's simply GENETIC!!! Good ol Norwegian blood. After our great dinner, we got some ice cream and listened to live music on the wharf. We headed home from a great day! Sunday was filled with our tour, Norway in a Nutshell. It was a 13 hour tour that consisted of train rides, bus rides, and a fjord tour on a boat. The trains we took were very scenic, going by huge mountains, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. The country side was so beautiful...something we had never seen before! Our favorite part of the whole tour was our 2 hour fjord tour. We traveled through 2 fjords, both part of the Sognefjord (one of the most famous fjords). To describe the beauty and majesty that we saw is nearly impossible. Even pictures can't come close to justifying what we saw. To see the magnificent mountains rising up out of the water was unreal. Every direction we looked left us in awe. There were several tiny towns, and I mean tiny, along the water. These towns consisted of maybe 10 houses all together. There were even houses built so high on the mountain that the only way up seemed to be by climbing. After our fjord tour, we hopped on a bus that took us by more mountains, rivers, and waterfalls. At the end of the day, we were so in awe and both agreed that we had seen nothing more beautiful than the fjords of Norway. When we got back that night, Cecilie and Camilla had made us yet another traditional meal. This time we had reindeer in some delicious sauce along with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. For dessert, we had strawberries and raspberries with cream and sugar. So delicious! The next morning, they took us to the airport where we headed back to Berlin. It was one of the most amazing weekends we had ever experience because of the wonderful hospitality we received and the majestic beauty that surrounded us. Thank you to Camilla and Cecilie for an amazing weekend!