HEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOO my people! I meant to post this earlier but I actually had school work this week. But here I am! Just finished up my Psych of Human Sexuality midterm, watched some Hannibal, and now I’m sitting in my awful Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia class (seriously DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS, well at least not with my prof or anything from my prof really) typing out this blog. Update I’m so sorry it’s been forever. I’m here now. Prepare for a mass posting. I have left and came back to this post 700 times. I’m sorry.

NORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAYNORWAY

I seem to do the same thing every morning… I hear my alarm go off at an ungodly time (aka 5.00) but then I tell myself I will just count to 60 and then get up for real. You may say, “Emily that is the dumbest idea you have ever had.” You may be right. Basically what I am getting at is that I fell back asleep and didn’t have a backup alarm. TGOD for my host-mom who said she would drive me to the train station this fine morning, and I made it on time to my flight.

DAY ONE: I hopped off the plane at Bergen Airport! That’s right, NORWAY! You guessed it, this is the story of my DIScovery trip to the beautiful country of Norway. After an emergency run into 7-11 for two chocolate croissants and a carton of milk (I DIDN’T FORGET IT THIS TIME NATASHA), I was off.  *Insert the time on the bus where the whole group was asleep**pit-stop in Voss**back to sleep* Team… I just ate Flan in Flåm. Okay actually, this food was so good I’m going to make it have its own post. Thus no more food will be mentioned until next time.

We decided that we needed to wake up from our exhausting journey. Luckily our hostel was ON A FJORD because it was time for a FJORD SAFARI. Pretty sure I was wearing 20 different items of clothing (one of which being an obnoxious yellow snow suit). As I went to put on this “Big Bird”-like contraption I managed to get my zipper stuck. Multiple members of my group struggled and failed to fix me up. Finally I caved in, and called in professional reinforcement. The next few hours were spent on the fjord. I have to say, it was stunning.If you ever have the slightest chance to go PLEASE DO. Words cannot live up to the sights I was blessed with. I may never find the right way to explain how stunning my surrounding were this week. Maybe I will let the photos speak for me. Note: dolphins and seals were seen on this trip but are surprisingly super-fast.

DAY TWO: Woke up bright and early for a very active day. After breakfast, we embarked for the Flåm Train Station. This train ride was supposed to be the most beautiful train ride in the world. FUN FACT: IT IS! ( I have nothing to compare it to, but I doubt anything could beat it.) After this beautiful journey, we grabbed a handful of gummy candy (very common in Denmark) and began our decent down the Rallavegen Trek trail. Prepare yourself for a bunch of photos right about…. NOW. Okay this was literally a 20 km hike. I am not a hiker. Or in shape. Near the end of this 5ish hour journey I was completely out of it. Don’t get me wrong I would 100% do it again. This hike was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever been a part of (and I travel across the states quite a bit, so I do have comparisons this time). Also I filled my water-bottle up from a cute waterfall, and it was SO DELICIOUS. LIKE WOW. I feel like one of those people that think they are cool because they drink VOSS water, but mine is straight from the source so SUCK IT. At the end of the day, a nap was most definitely needed.

DAY THREE: Another beautiful day in Flåm… Scratch that… Just looked it up and I went to Voss. While there we went on a ropes course. Ya know, that thing where you are hooked into a harness and climb in the air. Let me tell you, we were all SORE AND EXHAUSTED. I couldn’t walk. So needless to say, Climbing a ropes course wasn’t my ideal. BUT I DID IT. I got up there, scared shitless, and made it through two courses without dying. Afterwards, we went into down and just explored for a bit. DON’T TELL ME GRANDMA, but I bought really nice Norwegian wool to knit her a scarf for Christmas. I haven’t knitted in forever, so I had to teach myself. Hopefully this turns out.

DAY FOUR: TODAY IS THE DAY; THE REASON I WORKED MY ASS OFF THIS SUMMER AND SPENT AN OBSCENE ABOUT OF MONEY TO GO TO NORWAY.  Today is the day for kayaking the fjords. Wow. Absolutely wow. Just wow. I cried. I was amazed. Shout-out to Whitman for closing all of the scrambles I wanted my first year, and putting my in whitewater-kayaking. Without that experience , and the times I have kayaked on OP trips after that, I wouldn’t have chosen to take part in this experience. It was amazing to already feel comfortable in the water because I was able to take a single kayak out alone and enjoy the water at my own pace. I think I may chase excitement now though. Though the fjords were incredible, a part of me missed the speed of white-water (I ended up chasing all of the waves on nearby boats). I think our journey was around 25 km, but we did stop midway through for a “BBQ lunch”. I know I said I wouldn’t talk about food, but I must mention that DIS’ idea of a BBQ is not what you are thinking unless your average BBQ includes bone-in pork chops, salmon, pasta, garlic bread, etc. OK DIS, OK.

DAY FIVE: Twas a sad day. Away we went, leaving the beauty of Norway. I think we were all saddened. No longer would we have our game nights, meatball breakfasts, and our extreme daily workouts.  We finished off our lovely week by going up another trailhead in Bergen (THANKFULLY NOT AS LONG AS THE LAST ONE).

Again I am extremely sorry for this disappearance. The way that the DIS schedule works had me traveling to Norway for a week, being back for a week with intense work, traveling to Amsterdam for a week, and then back again with a hella amount out work and this fucking shit-show of an election. After this post goes live, I will be making another one for the food I’m sure you are wondering about, one about Amsterdam, and finally the experience of being in another country when your country is falling apart. 

Stay Safe,

Love your fellow feminist.