About a month and a half ago after a night of a few drinks Meg and I sat on the floor of her parents condo in Kauai Facetiming with her sister, Steph. Steph half jokingly said we should meet her in Paris in a few weeks. Without hesitation Meg and I, probably in sync, said “Yeahhhhh!! We’ll be there!” And so the Eurotrip planning began. We couldn’t JUST go to Paris. Not our style. There were discussions of stopping in Iceland or Norway first. Iceland, cause why wouldn’t we? Norway, cause we’re both VERY Norwegian. Ultimately Norway worked out the best. Don’t worry Iceland we’re coming for you, eventually.
I drove up to Meg’s parents house outside of Calgary the night before our trip and she flew in from Kauai. After a good nights sleep (the most we’d get for another 2 weeks) we had some breakfast, tried to pack as much as possible into our bags (including a tripod we would never use, but you know, just in case), climbed in the car and made our way straight to the airport and the bar for a drink before hopping to the otherside of the pond.
We started the journey in Oslo, the capital of Norway. It’s a cute little town with fun little streets all dressed up for Christmas. We had tried our best to stay up as long as possible to get on track with time but only made it til 8:30pm. Which inevitably had us up at 4:30am, wide awake. And hungry. All we had was licorice. So we started the day at 4:30am with licorice 🙂 Classic.
Oslo was beautiful but we were itching to get to the other side of the country, fjord country. So the first morning in Norway we hopped on the train, The Bergen Railway. And went Bergen. The train ride was AMAZING!!! If you go to Norway, it’s so highly recommended. 7 hours of amazing views across the country. And with the sun rising at 9:30 and setting at 3:30 we didn’t miss a sunrise or sunset! Well really we only saw the sun rise as it rained almost our entire Eurotrip. Til Ireland… can’t wait to share that one with you. But watching the sun rise over the snow covered Norwegian countryside…. stunning.
I fell in love with Bergen. All of the tiny little tall houses connected to each other, winding staircases, cobblestone streets, markets and delicious coffee. Such an incredible little town. We rented a little apartment right in the heart of the Bryggen district. Had one of the best meals of our lives. A 7 course meal at a local seafood restaurant. Reservations are required, however in true fashion Meg and I managed to get in and get served, without a reservation. If you go check out Restaurant 1877. BOMB! And so worth $100 each, ha!
Our last full day we rented a car. Not cheap in Norway but exploring for us requires a roadtrip. We just started driving. Through a million tunnels. And found ourself in an area that I think Christmas comes from, haha. Winter wonderland. Our rental car had great snow tires, thank God!! And then onto an overlook of Sognefjord, called Stegastein. So beautiful. And into the smaller towns below. You realize just how big this world is and how small you are when you stand at the bottom of a fjord looking up. But even as small as we are, we have the power to change the world. It’s surreal to just stand there.
I feel like one of the luckiest. To have a good friend on a life journey so similar to mine, at similar times in life, that can pick up and travel the world with me. To dance around the world together. And not kill each other. There are just some people that no matter how much you love them, you can’t travel together haha. We’ve come to realize we’re perfect to travel with each other. We don’t have to talk every second. We’re up for anything, why wouldn’t we? We like the same music. We’re not that interested in touristy sites, we’d rather hit the road and just see what happens. If nothing, we always end with a great story and lots of laughter. After something incredible happens we just want to sit for a second (or an hour) and relive it while editing the photos we took of it, however long that may take. We can somehow get by with no sleep, as long as we have each other and a good playlist. I’m so grateful for her. May we continue to dance through life, even when life takes us down, the other is there with a hand to bring you back up.
This was a whirlwind of a trip and we moved at hyperspeed. Only a few days in each place. And next came France!!!  Wait for it 😉
Check out Meg’s version of Norway over on her blog!
*The photos are a mix of mine and Meg’s from our cameras, GoPro, and iPhones. Ok, mostly from our iPhones.*
See our next stop, France, HERE!
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