Subject:  Norway--Land of Fjords & Hostel Surprises 

Hi mele,

Well, Here I am in Bergen, Norway.  It has been a while since I wrote to you from Frederikshavn. I went to Gothenburg, Sweden that same night, and finally reached Siv. We talked for a little. But there was a gathering of gymnasts in Gothenburg at the time, staying until the 10th, so I slept in the railway station while waiting for the 6:30 AM train to Oslo.

The transit police here were very polite, and when they were locking the station at 00:30 they sent most of the people away. But three of us had tickets for the 6:30 train, so they allowed us to stay in the inner station. They seemed to be aware of the fully booked rooms...........The train to Oslo provided some much needed sleep. I got lucky and my assigned seat was on the side where there was only one seat and it faced an empty seat.

At Oslo, I made another mistake. I was too quick to book into a hostel because they could give me a bed for two nights. The one in downtown Oslo could only promise me 1 night. Anyway, the one I stayed at was about 10 miles from town, a 1/2 hour bus ride away. It's called Holtekilen. It was a 12 man dorm, with a sink in the room. The WCs were through the lobby, downstairs, through the TV/rec/kitchen, and the showers were down a different set of stairs next to the phone booth in the lobby. Thw bus stop was a steep climb of about 1/2 mile and over a pedestrian footbridge (like the one at Lunalilo Home Road). This hostel is VERY strict about their rules (Baptist church connected) and when they said breakfast is 7:30 to 9:30, they opened the doors at EXACTLY 7:30 and locked them at EXACTLY 9:30 and whoever tried to get in late didn't get fed.

Norwegian hostels do NOT adhere to the standards of the Danish hostels There is no rating system here, nor any way to tell what kind of accommodation is available until you see it. Both the Oslo one and the Bergen YMCA Interrail center (recommended in Rick's book) have been quite a letdown after Denmark.

Another travel tip: Don't spend the extra money for a FIRST CLASS ScanRail pass unless you're willing to make reservations WELL in advance (like a MINIMUM of 3 days). I have not been able to get a first-class seat yet, they're always full. And I can't get on the night train to Stockholm tonight, (it's full) so I have to leave tomorrow morning and waste a whole day on the train.

The fjords are beautiful. Yesterday, I took the train from Oslo to Bergen via the "Norway in a nutshell" route that Rick advocates. I did it his way, and paid cash fares for the supplements, using my rail pass for the main fare. He's right - it's possible. But be cautioned. The train ride from Myrdal to Flam may be scenic, but the passengers were packed into the train like cattle, so the only thing I saw from the train was a woman's back. When I got down to Flam, I was disappointed but not surprised. This "town" is nothing but a train terminal with LOTS of places to remove your money. Nothing else, and the ferry for the tour is conveniently scheduled for 1 hour after the train arrives, to give you plenty of time to rid yourself of the filthy lucre that's been weighing you down. There are gift shops and restaurants and more gift shops, and prices here are really bad. I bought a roll of 36 exposure film in Oslo for 33 NOK, here they wanted 62 NOK for a 24 exposure roll of the same film. I was glad I had one more roll in my pack, so I didn't have to buy it.

The ferry through the fjord is NOT the place to run out of film. It is absolutely breathtaking! Imagine these 2000 foot sheer cliffs on both sides of a 250 Meter wide passage, and water a mile deep. This is Sognefjord. There is a Russian cruise liner at the dock in Flam (the Maxim Gorkiy) and it's full of Japanese tourists. Who has the money?

The boat stopped at one of the remote villages, which are totally dependent on the ferry since there are no roads.

Some Ferry boat tips for Flam:

1. DON'T sit on the after (rear) deck. All of the view is in front, and all of the smoke and noise are in back.
2. DON'T sit anywhere near anyone who is feeding the birds. Get up and move if you must, but what goes in the bird will come out, and their aim is deadly. They never miss, and I have the stains to prove it.

As of Yesterday, the current fare for the 2 hour ferry ride is 135 NOK. From Gudvangen, the end of the ferry line, a bus (62 NOK) takes you to Voss. It climbs through some very steep road to the Stalheim Hotel, where it stops to let you get a view (and spend more money. The film here was even MORE expensive). Then it drops you at the railway station, where you continue to Bergen or return to Oslo. The Bergen train is at 19:00, and ours was sitting there waiting at 18:30.

By the way, Norway seems to be the only place I've been so far that uses the 24 hour clock regularly. Every place else, they'll say 2:00 rather than 14:00.

Other than the disappointment at the commercialization of Flam, the big surprise came when I checked into the YMCA Interrail Hostel. It took me a while to get over my initial disillusionment. Now I haven't got high expectations of a hostel, but this was really a surprise. I'm in a dorm with 40 beds. This is in a room which should fit about half that number. The beds (2 tiered bunk beds) are so close together you cannot get to yours without pushing someone else's to make a passageway. Also, there's an adjoining 12 person dorm which must enter and exit through this dorm. There seemed to be a lot of female traffic, and I thought that the back room must be a women's dorm. There are two showers for women or Men and a shower room for women only. Also 2 WCs. This for 52 people. But I was wrong about the back room. It was, just like the one I was in, COED. So I have my first experience with a coed dorm.

Oh well, Tomorrow I'm off to Stockholm. I still need to call Ole and get an update on Inga.

Keep well, and I hope I'll write again from Europe.

Aloha,              Jim