Flam

This post will be about my stay in Flam this past weekend.  Flam is a little village located on the Aurlandsfjord, which is an offshoot of the Sognefjord.  I arrived by boat on Friday afternoon around 1:30 in the afternoon and stayed in a hostel until Saturday around 3pm when I caught a train to Myrdal.  The train pictures will be my next post. 

Here is the hostel where I stayed, which was quite cute.  I didn't book until the last minute, so all of the shared rooms were already booked.  So I ended up with a room to myself with a bunk bed and a bathroom.  Reservations can be made at http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-Fl%C3%A5m-042071.en.htm

Hostel Flam

Of course don't pick the appels, no matter how delicious they look!

It was quite chilly even during the day (in the 30's F), but I was so happy that it wasn't raining that I was happy to wear two layers of pants & my gloves. 

One of the first things I did after my arrival was to locate the local brewery, Aegir, named after the brother of Logi in Norse mythology.  Read all about it here: http://www.flamsbrygga.no/en/brewery/our-story/ Of course it turns out that the brewery was started in 1989 by an American, but it looks cool inside.

Aegir brewery in Flam

Inside the brewery these little wooden men hold up the counter

The porter

I also did a fair amount of hiking and exploring around the area, where I ran across some interesting and beautiful sights.

The wooly madrigal: a cross between a llama and an albino pig

The home of the wooly madrigals

You can see how the wooly madrigals like to feast on bugs and worms.

Some land hippos, or maybe they're rhinos

Here is the elusive jackanape. I had just touched him between his ears before he scurried off to get reinforcements.  I barely escaped with my life.

Jackanape

Pretty!

A troll's home

Is it a train car or a cafe? Or a train car disguised as a cafe?

Sleeping boats

An awake boat

Some simple food tips:

Don't eat the poisonous pink honeysuckle!

This mushroom is ok though

Sognefjord

I took my first fjord trip this weekend.  I left Bergen on a boat at 8am on Friday morning, and arrived around 1:30 deep in the Sognefjord in a little village called Flam (the "a" is supposed to have a little dot on the top, but I can't figure out how to do that).  I stayed in a hostel in Flam until Saturday afternoon around 3pm, when I took one train to Myrdal and then a 2nd train to Bergen, arriving around 6pm.  Since I took about 300 pictures this weekend, I'm sure I'll be posting them in steps over the next few days. Don't worry, I won't post but a small percentage!  For today, I will just post pictures from the boat trip.  Note: you can click on any picture to open up a full-size version.

In case of emergency, don't forget to fasten the strap from your "beaver-tail"!!

Bye-bye Bergen!

Gorgeous day for a boat trip

I love how the water perfectly reflects everything

A random patch of fog

If this photo were upside-down, could you tell?

Are you jealous of how close these people live so close to Sognefjord, the longest, deepest fjord in Norway & 2nd largest in the world?  It's over 128 miles long & at its deepest point, it reaches 1,300+meters.  To learn more about this fjord, click here: http://www.earthfacts.net/places/sognefjord/

Imagine what this will look like when the leaves start to change colors...

It was quite cold (in the 30's Fahrenheit), but we all kept going out to the deck for a few minutes at a time to snap pictures.  Here the boat came up to a waterfall and paused, which made it less cold/windy.

On a final note, here are a few more random pictures from the boat part of my trip.  I even saw a few dolphins, but they were too small to get a good picture.  Stay tuned for future posts on Flam and the railway!

Pretty pictures of Bergen

Most of these I took on Saturday when the sun was out.

The same panoramic shot I took a few days ago (this time with SUN)

 

 

 

Here are some random buildings:

Then I went down to the famous Bryggen Wharf:

Food Festival

Today I was feeling a bit better, and unbelievably the SUN was out! So I went downtown to a food festival, which in Norwegian is called "matfestival".

There was this guy playing a trumpet next to a trash can:

And these guys having some sort of contest I assume...

Many booths were selling fish. I tried some haddock and ate this delicious salmon sandwich:

A lot of things were made from honey, including a honey drink, which I also had and it was delicious. One booth was selling several different kinds of apple juice or cider, like it was wine. This booth has a sign that I think says something like "Taste adventure!"  Ok maybe not exactly, but the food sign translates into "spruce shoot syrup and apple fruit syrup".  I can guess what apple fruit syrup is, but what is spruce shoot syrup?  Now that I know what it means I wish I had tasted it. Maybe the food festival will still be going on tomorrow.

Then there were many booths selling sausages.  This was one that had so many it was amazing!

After I got home, I translated the sign:
Rodvin = red wine
Bacon = everyone loves bacon, even zombies
Chorizo = from the magical animal
Hvitlok = garlic
Kryddersnacks = spicy snacks?
Vilt m/blabaer = wild with blueberries (wild what? whale?)
Elg = moose
Geite = goat
Biff = steak
Polse uten svin = sausage without pork

Hm, I wonder what moose tastes like.  And why does goat cost more than moose or pork? Also, I wonder what's in the sausage without pork.