In Which, Things Go South and I Meet the Most Expensive, Free Breakfast.

I left early, on a six hour train ride from Oslo to Flåm. Passing lakes, colorful, snow-covered towns and blurring under 300+ tunnels —I googled that, didn’t count them! 

I got a waffle and a cappuccino on the train. The waffle was served with jam and brown cheese, which the clerk told me was a sweet goat cheese. It looked more like a beige piece of laughy taffy. It tasted like a sweet american cheese and somehow was just perfect right between the hot waffle and the berry jam.

Arriving in Flåm, before hopping on the fjord tour boat, I had just enough time to buy a postcard of a naked man standing on the hills looking down on the fjords. 

I tried to make eye contact with the old shop owner as I paid him and he totally stone faced me. This made me crack up inside even more. Flåm is just a handful of buildings tucked in a soup bowl of majestic snowy mountains, with a small train station and harbor. It reminded my so much of my long lost love Whittier, AK. 

 The tour was amazing. It was snowing and bloody cold but some of the most powerful beauty I’ve ever seen. 

The boat dropped me off two hours later in another port town, where I caught a bus, to a train that would take me to Bergen.

...Where the fun began. 

I arrived around 8:30pm. 

Snow was collecting on the cobbled streets.

The plan was to take a bus out to this guy’s house, who was hosting me from Couchsurfer.

He messaged me right before I arrived, “I won’t be home until late, there are other surfers at the house. Take this bus… to this stop… cross the street, walk up a steep hill, turn left and it’s the big white mansion at the end of the road.” 

Ok, so thats how horror movies start… 

But I told myself I’m a brave kiddo and life isn't the way it is in movies!

I stopped by a grocery store before I left. I bought the biggest box of cornflake I’ve ever seen. I don’t even like cornflakes that much but it was only $ 1.00! 

There were a bunch of different types of milk, so I just picked one. It turns out, the one with the pink cow IS strawberry milk.

Looks like strawberry milk and cornflakes will be my breakfast for the foreseeable future! 

Bergen, in the day light. After we 

fell back in love!

I took my person, bag of groceries and backpack to the bus station. 

The bus left at 9:30. 

I wasn’t able to find the address on goole maps, but the directions seemed easy enough. 

I asked the bus driver where this stop I was looking for was… 

He said, I’m not going that far, but I drop you, you walk, maybe 2 km…

Ok…that doesn’t sound great but I’m a brave kiddo, I got this. 

He drove out of the city and over the next hour and a half everyone trickled off the bus. 

Did the bus driver forget to tell me my stop? 

The road turned into a sparsely populated, one lane. It began to snow harder. A few times, cars had to back up to a pull out to let us pass.

By the time he stopped, I was the very last one on the bus. Ok he said, that way, 2 km. And pointed down the dark road… 

I grabbed my pack and got off, with a lump in my stomach that said I was about to become hopelessly lost, in the middle of nowhere, with no working phone, no map, in the middle of the night. I took two steps away from the bus. The driver stood in the doorway smoking a cigarette. 

I looked down the road… It was dark and there was no sidewalk and I couldn’t remember the last time we had passed another person. 

Suddenly I realized: I’m actually not a brave kiddo at all, I don’t like this, please don’t leave me here! 

I ran back to the bus. 

Sir, would you just look at this address again?

He flicked his cigarette butt and held my phone close to his face. 

Ooh, he said. Come, I make this right. 

He turned the bus around and we started heading back to the city center. As soon as we started back I knew I wasn’t going to find this big white mansion. By this point I’d been on three trains, two buses and a boat. I had not stopped moving since 8am and it was then almost midnight. No way, I give up!

I sat in the front and talked to him. His name was Mario, from Romania. I said my name was Gabbi and I was from the US. He said, Gabbi? This is a Romanian name! And America, ahhh I dream, I dream…

Mario dropped me off down town. He said, I would like to drink red wine with you tomorrow morning!

Mario, I’m not really that kind of drinker…but thank you for the ride! 

It was a Saturday night and everyone was dressed up and tipsy. I spent the next hour trying to find a hotel that was still open or had available beds. 

I walked up to a hotel and caught the door as two gentlemen walked out. One of them looked at me and said, Excuse me, I think this is not for you! 

This was when I lost it. Not only was I in a brand new city with no place to stay for the night, it was freezing cold going on 1:30am, but now, now someone thought I was riffraff!?

( I’ve gone back and told him many times in my head. EXCUSE ME! I am a well to do traveler, and this bag is not full of garbage and leftovers, just a lot of cornflakes! And I’ll stay wherever I damn well please! Excuse you! )

I finally went into a hotel, only to have the receptionist tell me they were booked full. I burst into tears as I asked him if there were any other places close by. I felt so completely hopeless. The way he looked at me was like a big warm, sympathetic hug. He grabbed a map and began circling hotels. If you do not find anything come back here. You can not sleep on the street. 

This melted my heart and made me cry even more, cause I had started eyeing corners and Macdonalds…

I thanked him, grabbed my new map and headed back out.

I finally found a room but it was 1,110 krone. Almost $160… 

Ok, yeah, sure. I played it cool.

The receptionist and I both held our breath when she ran my card.

She handed me my key and said At least there’s a free breakfast in the morning…

I held it together until I got into the elevator. Then I broke all the pieces, because I had just spent so much for a damn place to sleep and it was already the morning! But more because I was safe and warm.

I woke up super early in the morning and went to the hotel gym. I figured if I was going to get $160 worth of free breakfast, I needed to be hungry. 

There were six or seven bars filled with breakfast. Four different types of salmon, cold cut assortments, waffles, sunny side eggs with crisp bacon, omelets, pastries, breads, fruit, espresso machines. It was beautiful. I had three cappuccinos, two huge plates and was full for the rest of the day! 

Messy, delicious breakfast.

I got back to my room and thought… What does one do in a fancy hotel room all by yourself? 

Yep, you strip down to your skivvies and jump on the bed!

I turned on music and danced and jumped, laughed and relished how very lucky I am…

Giant owl/Dance partner. Being goofy in

a classy joint.

And suddenly in the morning, it all seems worth it again.