Flashback: Fjords and Glaciers and Slugs, Oh My (in Norway, July 2010)

Every time I see a giant slug or a giant snail I have to stop and get up really close and simply look at it.  Such weird creatures.  So cool and so "eeewwww" at the same time.  I've gotten to see many different slugs and snails in many different places: banana slugs in northern California, giant snails in Switzerland, huge snails and nightcrawlers (double "eeewwww") here in Sofia, and this summer, giant black slugs in Norway (as seen below, this one is about 4 inches long).  We saw about 30 of these guys on our hike above Bakka.

That's it for my slug report, now on to Fjords and Glaciers...

For our 2nd Anniversary we had a choice of going to a giant 4th of July party on our campus hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (around 2000 people were expected to show up) OR go to Norway.  It was a tough choice since celebrating not only our nation's independence but also our anniversary in Bulgaria with thousands of expats and Bulgarians would be hard to beat in future years.  But we decided that that one extra day of vacation in Norway was worth missing a huge party for.  So early on July 4th we caught our flight to Bergen, Norway.

We spent two nights in Bergen - our first and last nights in Norway.  Bergen is a UNESCO World Heritage site with these wonderfully askew and very colorful wooden buildings along the bay.  There was also a lovely park at the top of the mountain in town (we got to ride another Funicular!) where we watched the sun set for our last night in Norway amidst the sounds of the distant Simple Minds concert. 

We spent three nights in Gudvangen at the end of the Naerofjord (I probably spelled all of that wrong, but I've given up on trying to understand the Norwegian alphabet).  We enjoyed some biking and hiking while staying there, along with taking some rides on the ferries.  We visited Flam (that's /fluhm/ to you) where a giant cruise ship had disgorged it's passengers and the town was a madhouse for most of the day, but it became a ghost town after the last incredibly loud burst of the ship's horn faded away.  We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls outside of Flam on one day, then took the Flamsbana (railway) 20 km up to Myrdal on another day - watching a cheesy light and song show part way up and riding on a train that turned 180 degrees in a tunnel.  From Myrdal we hiked back to town and during the last 5 km we actually ran in order to attempt some semblance of training for our upcoming half-marathon in September outside of Vienna (more on that later).

The next two nights were spent in Jostedal near Jostedal National Park.  We were warmly welcomed by Astrid Jostedal to her family's campground where we stayed in a lovely little cabin next to a glacial river (Jeff was crazy enough to jump in this river - brrrrr - but I only soaked my feet).  We spent one day on a "sea"-kayak tour on a glacial lake to a glacier that we got to climb around for an afternoon.  The water was so cold, but so beautiful.  And it was exciting to stand next to huge fissures in the glacier (we were roped up, of course).

Norway definitely is the most expensive place we have traveled to so far - I hope nothing else is that expensive!  But so worth it.  I wish we could have stayed longer.

If you have some time, feel free to browse Jeff's Norway photo album on Flickr (I don't yet know how to embed the slideshow - I'll try to figure it out and fix it later).

UPDATE: The Flickr slideshow is now embedded below. Click on the picture by the big play button to view the photos. To view them full screen, click on the little square in the lower right of the Flickr box that looks like four arrows pointing to the corners.  You can toggle the descriptions/titles on/off by clicking the "X" by the title in the upper right or by hitting the "show info" link in the upper right.