Oslo and Bergen

This morning I took the train from Stockholm to Oslo, a really nice ride that went by lots of nice scenery. I met two very nice Swedish girls. The first is from Afghanistan actually, and she had a very pretty pearl ring on her finger. I told her it was very pretty and she was like, "have it as a gift!!" But of course I felt bad so I said no, but she kept insisting. So I looked through my backpack for a gift to give to her too, but all my stuff is stuff that I actually need...so I gave her a sample tube of Dior Eye Cream that I had gotten at Sephora. :D The second girl I met is going to Norway to work on a cruise ship that sails all along the Norwegian Coast! She showed me some of her photos and the place was so pretty! I kept taking pictures of the scenery, and she was like, "um...it is just a lake, not a big deal." HAHAHAHA

Oslo was not a very impressive city. So far I think Stockholm was the most beautiful city, Oslo was just okay. I am very glad that I went to Stockholm, I had considered skipping it to spend more time in Oslo. My guide book says one of the best things to do is taking the train to Bergen, which is my destination. It was probably the most beautiful train ride I have ever taken. Norway has many mountains, and the train took us across lakes, mountains, plains, fjords and, my favorite, arctic tundra. What is especially nice is that so much of this wilderness is completely untouched. Many places still have telephone poles, etc. but this landscape just stretched on without anything like that. There was an occasional house, but it looked like you would have to drive super far to get to town! I got a bit nervous around the tundra area because it was snowing and looked really cold...but by the time the train reached Bergen there was no snow and it was not too cold. I took many pictures but the pictures are not as good as the real thing :(

I had some Norwegian food too! At least, I think it is Norwegian food. I had salmon stew that was really creamy, and I also had this chocolate dessert filled with marshmallow cream. I did not like that as much. I also had fish cake, which was too creamy and salty for my taste, but then again I did buy it from seven eleven, my new favorite store.

Here the sun does not actually set. There is a nice sunset at 11 pm, but the sun does not actually drop and the sky remains slightly immluminated throughout the night. The sun rises again at around 3 am. I plan to go to sleep now, and tommorow I am going to explore the fjords!