Contiki Scandinavia - Norway

Our Norwegian adventure started in the capital, Oslo. After a long coach journey up the coast from Copenhagen, we arrived in time for tea at the hostel. The first thing we noticed was how huge the hostel room was compared to the one in Denmark. We each had a bunk bed to ourselves so we all opted to throw our heavy suitcases on the bottom bunk and have the top bunk to ourselves. Hostels are great for saving money when travelling, but they don’t compare to the comfort of a hotel room. We didn’t have long to admire the spacious room (and laugh at the tiny shower) as we headed off to Frogner Park to see the Vigeland Installation which consisted of tons of sculptures, fountians and bridges!

The sculptures were all created by Gustav Vigeland between 1924 and 1943 which makes Frogner Park the largest sculpture park in the world created by a single sculptor. There are a total of 212 bronze and granite sculptures dotted around the park which are all lifelike people doing different poses. We even made it a competition to see who could do the most difficult poses! The biggest sculpture is the Monolith which has 121 individual figures struggling to reach the top of the sculpture. Vigeland’s most famous sculpture was one of a toddler having a tantrum, which is known as Sinnataggen. We really bonded as a group as we held each other up in place in order to re-enact the quirky sculptures.

As it was still fairly early, we decided instead of going back to the hostel, we would go bowling instead at a local bar. Alcohol and bowling can’t be a good match, right? Surprisingly it was a good mix, I even won one of the rounds! It was all located in a cool underground bar which was surprisingly quiet, maybe because it was a Sunday night… We spent hours bowling and socialising before heading back to the hostel just before midnight. After all, we had a full day of exploring and bike riding the next day and a hangover wouldn’t aid us!

We woke up early the next morning in preparation for our bike tour of Oslo. Breakfast was served at a little café next door to our hotel, so we naturally indulged on as many waffles as we could before heading into the centre of Oslo to get our bearings, prior to the bike ride.

The architecture of Oslo was very minimalist and with the colours being mostly grey, white or black. This is a very typical feature of Scandinavian buildings, which strongly contrasted to the bold and colourful city of Copenhagen only two days previously. We strode through the streets until we came to the Oslo City Hall. The building certainly stood out from the rest, being a dark maroon brick building towering above the rest of the city. Personally, I think it looked a bit too much like a British school built in the 1960s, oddly enough the building was finished a decade before this, so maybe our schools were based on the Oslo City Hall. The City Hall was built during the second world war which held up construction for a significant amount of time, this meant that by the time it opened in 1950, the style of architecture was no longer ‘in fashion’. The dark bricks are a stark contrast to the steel and glass which architects use more commonly nowadays.

Our bike tour started at the harbour where plenty of large fishing boats were docked. At least they looked large, until we completed our first mile of the ride where we came across a cruise ship, dwarfing the previous boats. Norway has thrived on the culture of cruise ships due to its geology. The fjords are not only beautiful and somewhere that tourists want to visit, but the lakes and rivers that they form are deep enough for cruise ships to sail through between the towns. In most areas, they are able to dock very close to the town centres, as in towns such as Geiranger and Hellesylt.

Surprisingly, our bike tour spent very little time in the city centre, instead we biked a 14-mile round trip through the suburbs to a neighbourhood called Bygdoy. Here, we found ourselves at the Viking Ship Museum, home to the Osberg Viking ship, the Gokstad Viking ship and the Tune Viking ship. Each of them were nearly fully restored using original artifacts. We wandered around gazing at the large ships, trying to picture ourselves as mighty Vikings setting out on a voyage into the unknown. Being from Yorkshire, it was oddly familiar, as York is famous for being a Viking city. The Vikings conquered Northern England in 866 where they decided that York would become the capital of their new Viking kingdom. The Vikings divided Yorkshire into three divisions, the East Riding, North Riding and West Riding. The term riding comes from the old Norse term ‘trithing’ which translates to ‘third part’.  (Yes, I knew I’d get some Yorkshire knowledge in here somehow).

After I stopped daydreaming about my hopefulness of Viking heritage, it was time to head to our next stop on the bike tour. At this point, it began to rain rather heavily as we quickly pedalled to the beach. A few of us had bought waterproof ponchos which we quickly put on. Although they did keep us dry, they acted more as a parachute, dragging along behind us, making us look like strange jellyfish cyclists. Either way, I think they were worth it, even if we did get some strange looks from the locals, and a lot of pointing and laughing from the nearby schoolchildren.

Despite the rain, we managed to skid back to the centre of Oslo in time for lunch, where we went to a little pizza place to replenish the calories that we had lost on the long bike ride. We decided to do a final bit of sightseeing by heading to the iconic Oslo Opera House. The Opera House was beautiful and had quite unique architecture. We were able to walk all the way onto the roof via the slopes of the building. The buildings design is described as having a similar shape to an iceberg with its inclined white lines and sloping edges. Views from the top of the Opera House are fantastic, you are able to get a panoramic view of both the old parts of the city, and the newer more modern areas.

We spent the next few hours exploring the city, as well as hopping in and out of shops to avoid the non-stop rain. For tea, we all decided to indulge in the best place for street food in the city, Torggata Bad. The building was once the largest public bath of all time when it first opened in 1925. In early 2019 it was transformed into Oslo Street Food, with various different bars and over fifteen food stands. It is considered the best place in the city to experience food from all over the world, as well as the drinks to accompany it. Upon walking in, we were hit with the delicious smells from various cuisines, from Greek to Caribbean, Hungarian to Scandinavian, Indian to Mexican and Hawaiian to Filipino. As you can imagine, the choice was endless and it was very difficult to pick just one dish to try. I opted for Indian! The building even has free water taps so we could drink without having to pay, which was especially useful for us young travellers in one of the most expensive regions of the world.

After a good night’s sleep from eating so much, we got ready for the journey to our next destination, Voss. It was a few hours’ drive to the charming city of Voss, most of us decided to make the most of the peaceful journey and have a nap, some watched films, but others just watched out of the windows as we drove through the breath-taking fjords. We stopped in a random layby to stretch our legs. However, once we noticed a large patch of snow down in a valley, we immediately all climbed down the slope and began a giant snowball fight. Most of the Contiki travellers on the trip were Australian, meaning that they hadn’t seen snow much, or at all in some cases. For us Brits, snow is pretty when it’s falling but turns into a skiddy mess once it has settled.

We continued on our journey until our next pit stop at Voringsfossen, which is a beautiful 182m high waterfall in the Hardangervidda region. Upon arrival, the waterfall was mostly hidden by a thick layer of fog, with only the sound of crashing water giving away it’s location. Disappointed was an understatement! But we headed up to the gift shop to find a postcard that showed what it looked like on a clearer day. After purchasing various souvenirs, we walked out of the little giftshop, only to be greeted by the shouts of our fellow travellers. We ran down back to the viewing ledge to discover that the fog had lifted slightly to reveal the true size of the enormous waterfall below. Having a fear of heights, I certainly wasn’t prepared to see a 200m drop right below my feet! However, the view was worth the fear and gripping onto the railings for dear life.

Our final leg of the day brought us right into the town of Voss. The town is situated on the side of the fjords, surrounded by high mountains, woodland valleys and an abundance of rivers and waterfalls nearby. Voss is also known for its extreme sports community which offer a range of activities to try, from parachuting, paragliding, white-water rafting and kayaking. Luckily, we arrived on the perfect day in Voss as it was the annual extreme sports festival, and the only sport we were interested in partaking in was the heavy drinking that occurred at the afterparty. But before our drunken adventures began, we all decided to do a polar plunge as a ‘warm-up’ for the night ahead. The polar plunge involved all of us sprinting and diving into the freezing glacial waters of the fjord, before inevitably sprinting out even faster whilst screaming! We headed to the festival afterparty later on in the evening where we were greeted with possibly the most expensive drink prices I’ve ever come across. Needless to say, that didn’t stop us, we damaged our bank accounts and our livers during that party. But as the Contiki slogan goes; No Regrets!

The heavy night of drinking certainly hit us the next morning as we piled onto the coach, groaning. Today was another long bus journey, and we couldn’t have been more relived! Our first stop wasn’t too far from Voss, so after a quick 10-minute busy journey, we found ourselves at the bottom of the Tvindefossen waterfall. It is 110m high and the water comes directly from the fjords and glaciers, which means that it is as pure as it can be. So, we risked our lives drinking ‘wild’ water by filling up our water bottles straight from the waterfall itself. None of us suffered with any form of poisoning in the following day, so I can confirm that it was definitely safe to drink! The water may have had healing properties as our hangovers seemed to disappear as the day continued…

Due to the fjord landscape being very dramatic with high mountains and deep valleys, it isn’t uncommon for the road to suddenly disappear into a tunnel which could go on for several minutes before popping out of the other side in a completely different place. During our journey to Hellesylt, we went through the Laerdal tunnel, which is officially the longest road tunnel in the world at 15.23 miles long! However, that isn’t even the most interesting part… The unique design of the long tunnel takes into consideration the mental strain that it has on the drivers, so the tunnel is divided into four sections, separated by three large mountain caves at 6km intervals. These ‘rave-caves’ have bright blue and yellow lights which give the impression of a sunrise. This both breaks the routine and allows the drivers to take a short rest, but it also gave us the opportunity to turn on some rave music and dance around in the caves to ‘wake us up’.

Needless to say, the ‘waking’ didn’t last long as by the time we exited the tunnel, most of us were fast asleep. It was a pretty uneventful journey until we reached the end of the road, literally. So, we had to embark on a ferry, with the coach, for a short cruise across the fjord where the road continued. Most of us were extremely tired, still, but that didn’t stop us from having a quick photoshoot with the incredible fjord backdrop behind us.

Our next stop was possibly my favourite stop of the entire trip; Boyabreen Glacier! Boyabreen is part of the larger Jostedalsbreen Glacier, which is the largest glacier on the European continent. The lake below is entirely made from the meltwater from the glacier above, which slides down the mountain at a rate of 2 meters per day! Despite being one of the most magnificent landscapes in the area, it virtually has no tourists, a true hidden gem. One of the strangest facts about Boyabreen, is that there is an abandoned plane submerged somewhere within the glacier! The plane crashed there a long time ago but the force of the glacial movement has been carrying the plane with it for decades. It is estimated that the place will emerge at the top of the glacier in a few years, before inevitably tumbling into the peaceful lake below. I couldn’t even find any information about this on Google, but our trip manager assured us that it was a real story…

Leaving the tranquil glacier and lake behind, we headed to our hostel in Hellesylt, on the edge of the famous Geiranger fjord. Our hostel was located up one of the hills, which meant that we all had amazing views of the town and fjords backdrop from our balconies. We all went down to the waters edge at the bottom of the hill where a few brave individuals jumped off the jetty into the freezing fjord. I was certainly not one of those brave individuals. After we all wandered back up the hill, our trip manager suggested that we do a pub quiz and a talent show! The pub quiz was certainly entertaining, and I’m sure that our trip manager did make up some of the answers, I thought that a Glock was just a gun?! As for the talent show, we certainly had a unique performance with our dance routine to ‘under the sea’ from Finding Nemo… so unique in fact that we won!

The next morning feeling refreshed after a night away from the alcohol, luckily too as our first step of the journey to Gjovik was a fjord cruise. It would have been a somewhat painful experience if we had been hungover, but we were all certainly sober enough to enjoy the spectacular views of the fjords and various waterfalls that we passed on our journey to Geiranger. We passed the iconic Seven Sisters Waterfall which is the 39th tallest waterfall in Norway at 250m high. The ferry finally pulled into the pretty city, and world heritage site, of Geiranger. We had a couple of hours to explore the town, so we headed straight for the gift shops and chocolatiers before wandering around. The town’s population is only about 250, which means that the tourist population often exceeds the town’s population! With cruise ships stopping daily, the tourists provide the town with its main source of income, and because of that, they are extremely welcoming!

We got back onto the coach before manoeuvring the steep hairpin bends which took us to the main vantage point over the town, hundreds of meters above! This gave us the perfect photo opportunity, along with the hundreds of other tourists which had stopped here too. Fortunately, it wasn’t as busy as it would have been a few hours later, so we did manage to get some amazing photos without being too crowded!

The coach took us further through the fjords on route to Lillehammer, a small town which is known all over the world for being the home of the 1994 Winter Olympics! Lillehammer is home Scandinavia’s only bobsled course. The track construction was completed in 1992 and has been the home of many major international competitions ever since. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to experience the bobsled first-hand as we got to ride in one with a qualified bob-sledder. The experience was incredible and breath-taking, literally, it was difficult to breathe. Bobsleighs are incredibly fast and can reach speeds of 93mph! It involves being strapped into the bobsled with three of our Contiki friends and on of the bob-sledders. The bobsled is basically a metal cage on wheels. Each corner threw us against the side of the cage, covering us in bruises and giving us all headaches! But no pain no gain, right?!

We dragged our battered and bruised selves onto the coach for the final leg of our Norwegian part of the trip. Most of us slept on the journey until we reached the quiet town of Gjovik. Our accommodation was quite unique here as it was twin shares, as opposed to the quad shares which we had been used to since the beginning of the trip. I was sharing with my fellow Brit, Anna. The room was small but even had a little kitchen in it, the bathroom however barely had any room to stand up, never mind shower! We quickly got changed before running up to meet the rest of the group on one of the decks, overlooking the lake. They were already on with the BBQ, so we didn’t have to wait long before our food was served. After being in Norway for several days, we had learnt our way around getting cheap alcohol. Spoiler; there isn’t much CHEAP alcohol in Norway! The only spirit which wasn’t extremely expensive was Jägermeister, so that’s we drank… Bottle after bottle of Jägermeister! After our BBQ, we went down to the lake where a few of us went for a quick swim, and even a jump off the jetty into the cold waters, I was one of the brave ones this time!

One of the most notable things about Norway, and Scandinavia in general, is that during the summer months, the sun never sets, known as the Midnight Sun phenomenon. It occurs close to the Arctic Circle around the time of the Summer Solstice. So, we never really understand the concept of night-time at Gjovik, as we ended up staying awake talking and chattering until 3am without even realising it. We jumped back in the lake one last time, we headed back to our rooms… eventually!