Norway- Day 3, the Fjords

What a day it was!!

We woke up early in the morning had muesli (yuck) and leftover pizza for breakfast and started off to the port. The boat had arrived and we got in.
And we embarked on the most beautiful journey ever. We were on the way to a beautiful place called Fläm through the sognefjord.

Let me say a little about fjords here. This is what wikipedia has to say about fjords. Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. Fjords are formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Many such valleys were formed during the recent ice age. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed.

I don't care for the definition but it was a wonderful experience. The sea runs through the mountains on either sides. There were pretty little houses on the mountains here and there. And they all had electricity even though there were as less as 2 houses per mountain. The Sognefjord is the largest fjord in norway and the second longest in the world and stretches 205 km.

The fjords are said to be really deep and if the water is to be removed the mountains around us would stand double their height. They were already pretty high :). The day was warm and bright when we started. But as we went on , it got colder. At one point it was raining on one side and was bright and sunny on the other.

As Fläm got nearer, We got to see beautiful snowcapped mountains. Ratna was mentioning in one of her pics that she missed her family there. Truly, that was the only thing on my mind at that point. I wished my parents could see what I was seeing. It was beyond words. A humbling experience. Me, maithra and ratna were saying wow at every juncture in oslo. When we begun the fjord cruise we were saying wow quite often. But after a while we simply stopped speaking. Wow was too small a word to describe what we were seeing. I also felt a little sad that we were spoiling and polluting such a beautiful world that god had created for us. No other planet that we know has an abundance of natural baeuty like earth. And we go about ruining everything.

We reached Fläm in the afternoon. After a light lunch we went on a trek to a nearby waterfall. The little town reminded me of switzerland in yash chopra movies. Picture perfect with little farms, sheep and yak and horses, huge mountains in the background. Water melting from the mountain tops and running into little streams. In fact I saw a stream which was running two ways. It was really strange. After walking a while we realised we did not have enough time to reach the waterfall. So, we walked back to the railway station. On the way, there was this little stream we got into. The water was ice cold and it was difficult to stay in for more than a few seconds. We tried drinking the water , it was realy pure and fresh.

After playing there for a while we went to the railway station to catch our train. The Flämsbäana is part of the bergen railway line and is a beautiful route. The single track line is 20.2 km long. The top station Myrdal is 865 metres above sea level, while Flåm is by the fjord at sea level. In order to manage the climb up the mountainside, the line twists and turns and has twenty tunnels to gain altitude; even so, the steepest incline of the railway is 1:18, the third steepest adhesion railway in the World. The line has one horseshoe curve (a full 180 degree turn) in Vatnahalsen tunnel as well as one horseshoe curve in open air at Reinunga to gain altitude. There is a crossing (passing) loop at Berekvam station to allow trains going up and down at the same time.
There were a lot of waterfalls and snowcapped mountains on the way. at a point we could see three different levels of tracks on the mountain. The route was breathtakingy beautiful. Then the train halted at a waterfall. Everybody got down to see the waterfall as it was really close to the train. Then suddenly music started playing and a lady came out of the hills at the top and started singing. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.
We reached our destination myrdal in about an hour. But we were disappointed that the journey ended so soon. There was a train waiting to get us to Voss from where we could catch another train to bergen. The route was beautiful. If your tired of reading that line then I really can't help it. :)

In the train to Voss we met a scottish couple Robert and margaret anderson. We spoke to them about India , they told us about scotland and britain and then we spoke about our work. They were surprised that we were all working as they thought we were kids and were actually looking out for our parents. :P. It was wonderful meeting them.

We all got down at Voss , while they went ahead on their journey, we stayed on in voss as our train was in an hour. We walked around the place and settled down in a lawn by the sea. It was really relaxing and lovely. I had never imagined I would ever be in a place like this.

We had a really silly discussion about flushing systems here and voted the system in korea the best :) . What can I say , technology everywhere!!

Once we boarded the train to Bergen, we just flopped and fell asleep. We got down in bergen and went back to the hostel. Had our food and fell asleep again. Early next morning, we had a train to catch to oslo. And we had no intention of sleeping this time around.