Review

Wednesday 23 – arrived Oslo Torp at 9.30. Bus into centre 90mins (220NOK, 21.50), stayed at Anker Hostel, dorm (17pounds).
Thursday Oslo-Bergen Train. Amazing scenery at Finse 1220m, highest station in Norway. Thick snow, temp -1C. Arrive Bergen (Belson?!) 5.30pm, pouring rain, hunt out Montana hostel 5km from centre, marked wrongly on all maps. After much cursing and having to ask locals, eventually find it 7pm. Dorm of 20, mainly Norwegians, two French, one Scottish guy, only Brit I meet, mid50s, annoying at first then turns out to be quite interesting. Spending 6weeks in Nor. Earns (7.5k?!). Lives off peanut butter sandwiches. Montana hostel – Owned Norwegian YHA, no alcohol sold or allowed on premises. Bit like YHA and SYHA. Bit puritanical. Few independent hostels in Nor. Exact opposite of Friendly Franks, Riga, Latvia.
Friday – up 8am – weather better, Ulriksbahn hill (642m) before ‘Lunch’ – supermarket = bread and cheese.Wander round old town/fish market pm.
Saturday – early train, Myrdal, down to Flam and then back to Myr again. Arrive Oslo 9.30pm. Hotekilen YHA 13km outside centre. Totally dead.
Sunday explore Oslo, warm day, Sunday night back in Anker Hostel. Heavy rain late evening.
Monday – wet all day – get T-Bahn to Frognaseterin ski centre, altitude 582m, walk around a bit, inclement weather. Return on Ryaniar flight 1900.

So Norway. Second time I’ve been there though first time I’ve really visited cities, though if your going for cities and nightlife you’re going to the wrong place. Overall remarks not bad, but I didn’t really think Oslo was anything particularly special. Some quite nice buildings and very modern, but think I preferred Helsinki. Norway did look slightly run-down (for the richest or second richest country in Europe) on some of the back streets (particularly Grunerlokka – though I had one of the best kebabs I’ve had had from a Turkish takeaway) and maybe they are experiencing the usual problems of others European countries. I’d definitely go back, but go for the wilderness areas though (but then I didn’t expect it any other way). Overall the trip met my expectations but didn’t exceed them, mainly due to extremely high costs and poor weather (again no surprises). Having your own transport would be an enormous advantage. Costs are ridiculous in Norway. Oslo-Bergen train (120quid return, even with student card). Beer in supermarket 1.60. Managed to cut total spend back to 260quid, though this did mean not a single meal out or alcoholic drink the whole time. Interesting as a stop-gap trip, but I’m expecting greece and spain to be much better.

Scores
Ryanair 10/10
Lonely Planet 6/10
Norway 5/10.

Norway

1p there and 1p back with Ryanair was just too tempting. Even with the £10 baggage fee I still saw change out of 50quid. A surprise as I'm probably one of G. Browns 'enemy of the people'.

Now I just need to find something to do over there. One idea was Oslo and Stockholm but I've decided to stick with Norway. Saw a bit of the Sognafjord and Jutonheimun National Park on a geog fieldtrip in 2001 so the mountains do again look tempting. I'll try and follow the taylor diet (tapwater, bananas and yoghurt) to keep costs down. But I won't be sleeping rough in graveyards. I hope.