Sprains, Trains, and Planes

Day 10: 

We spent the day exploring the town of Bergen Norway. The most important lesson of the day is that in Bergen, when it rains it pours. We experienced some of the rain the night before, but a LOT of the rain today. We quickly discovered it's a different type of rain than the drizzle that constantly happens in Seattle. We purchased umbrellas early in our day and stopped multiple times at cafes when it was pouring so we could get a break from the rain. The first cafe of the day was my favorite so far during the trip. It was called Baker Brun and was located in the row of the colorful wooden buildings on the waterfront. Here I had delicious coffee and a coconut biscotti type of cookie. As we munched on our snack and dried off, we met an older couple from Victoria Canada that we instantly bonded with as we heard them talking about the Rick Steves trip recommendations. We got to talking and they told us they had just been in Oslo, our next destination. They gave us recommendations on what to see and we exchanged stories of our trips thus far. We discovered that they would be taking a train from Bergen to Oslo just like us, and they they have the same upcoming flight plans of Oslo to London to Seattle, just one day difference. When we finished our snack we said farewell to the couple and got out our umbrellas again. We stopped at the fortress nearby and walked around the grounds that still to this day are staffed with military personnel. We took a ride up the Floibanen Funicular Railway to the top of a mountain. Here we had a foggy but beautiful view of the whole city. We continued to get hit with rain as we were at the top of the mountain so we did the touristy thing to do and went to the gift shop. One of the strange things that is incredibly popular in Iceland and Norway is the presence of Troll figurines. They are a popular souvenir item and there are many stores with large troll figures out front. The trolls have something to do with the old folklore and are still widely present in today's society, being the subject matter of many children's books in both countries. I eventually decided I needed a picture with a troll to commemorate the trip since I did not have the urge to buy anything troll related. After riding the floibanen back down the mountain we stopped at another cute little cafe for a bathroom/hot chocolate break. We then set off to the Kode museum of art to see some of the works of Edward Munch. We discovered there are 4 buildings that are part of the Kode museums and we walked around multiple of the buildings viewing the art pieces. It was very interesting to see the styles of work change over the years. Before heading back to our Airbnb, we stopped at Anne Madam for dinner. We decided to get a reindeer burger and a whale burger and split them each to share. They were both unique and very different from a typical hamburger. Whale meet is very chewy, and a little difficult to eat as a burger. The reindeer meet was actually quite tasty, but don't tell Rudolph. With dinner I got a Pear Cider that may be the best cider I've ever had. It was perfectly sweet but not overly powerful and it was very refreshing to drink. We walked back to our Airbnb after dinner and packed up some of our stuff to get ready for our train ride to Oslo the following day.

Day 11: 

We woke up, showered, got ready, and planned the route for our 20 minute walk to the train station. Our train was set to leave at noon from Bergen train station and arrive in Oslo around 7:15pm at the central station in the city. At this point in the trip we were pretty much out of clean clothes so we had put in a load of laundry at our Airbnb when we woke up in the morning. The dyer was taking longer than expected, so we eventually decided we would have to just toss our semi-wet clothes in our suitcase and get on our way because we were already running late. As we descended the spiral staircase, we got towards the very last couple stairs when I lost my footing and rolled my ankle. I thought surely it must be broken as I felt a snap and shooting pains through my foot and ankle. There was no way I was going to be able to walk 20 minutes to the station on this ankle. We started panicking as we were running out of time and we weren't able to get through to the taxi companies. Eventually we finally got ahold of one of the companies and they sent a car. Tim was insisting I go to the hospital to get my foot checked out but all I could think of was "if we don't make it to the train we can't make it to Oslo, and if we don't make it to Oslo we can't catch our flight home. We tossed all our suitcases into the taxi and rushed to the train station. When we arrived, Tim ran with the suitcases to the train platform as I hobbled along after him. One of us had to get to the train to ask it to wait a minute. We made it on with about one minute to spare before it pulled out of the station. The ticket taker was kind enough to get me an ice pack for my ankle, and we settled in for our 7 hour journey to Oslo. The train ride was the most beautiful train ride I've been on with scenery changing constantly. We saw waterfalls and villages, rain and snow. The countryside was gorgeous and we happily sat back and relaxed now that we finally had some time to figure out our next plan. When we arrived in Oslo we got a taxi from the station to our next Airbnb. We (well actually just Tim) took our suitcases up to the fourth floor of the Airbnb and dropped them off. I waited in the taxi, still not sure at this point whether I broke any bones, until Tim got back, then we continued on to the hospital that the woman on the train recommended. Here we were met with friendly faces and helpful nurses. They asked what happened and had us sit down in the lobby to wait to be seen. If we had been in America, I'm pretty sure with the injury I had I would have waited at least two hours in the waiting room before even being seen by anyone. We were delighted by the promptness in the Legevakt Hospital in Oslo. The doctor met with me, an X-ray was taken of my foot/ankle, the doctor came back to inform me it was sprained rather than broken, and a nurse wrapped my ankle up and gave me a brace for it with instructions for the upcoming weeks of healing. The entire visit took less than two hours. I was shocked at how smoothly everything went and how quickly we were in and out. They even called a taxi for us as we were about to leave. It was a very pleasant experience all things considered, and I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful healthcare system Norway has, and the kind workers that assisted me. From the hospital we went back to the Airbnb for the remainder of the evening so I could elevate and ice my ankle. 

Day 12:

A severely sprained ankle wasn't going to stop me from enjoying my last day of our trip. I was determined to see at least a few things in Oslo before leaving. I didn't really think when I left the Airbnb that I would end up walking 8 miles around the city though. We walked at a MUCH slower pace than we had been the rest of the trip, and luckily the city didn't have too many hills. We took things slow but managed to still see the National Museum Galley where paintings by Edward Munch and other artists were featured. We got to see the famous painting "The Scream" and of course posed with pictures next to it. We walked around the park and made a stop at the beautiful palace. We walked down by the waterfront and took a detour through the Nobel Peace Center. We learned about various winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, and saw the latest exhibition called Shifting Boundaries, which featured photography work from around Europe. We of course made many stops along the way, and I luckily had a cane/crutch to help me if my foot started hurting. Toward the end of the day we made our way to the Oslo Opera House where we walked to the top to see a view of the city, and watched the sun set over the water. We trekked back to our Airbnb after sunset, knowing we had an early morning planned for the following day. We stopped to have a tasty burger dinner at Illegal Burger on our way back. Once we got back to the Airbnb we set our alarms for early in the morning, figured out a plan for getting to the airport, and said goodnight as we ended our last day of vacation.  

Day 13: 

The final journey. We took a bus to the Oslo airport, arriving at about 5:30am to catch our 7:20 flight. We checked in and eventually boarded the flight. We had a slight delay on our first flight, which caused quite a bit of stress when we landed at London Gatwick Airport for our hour layover. We rushed off the plane, hobbled through the airport, made our way through security and customs once again, then sped down the terminals as quick as our feet could carry us (mine not as quick as Tims), as we heard "last call for boarding flight DY7131 to Seattle. All passengers make your way to gate F17for boarding." I thought we were going to miss the flight and see it taking off right as we got to the terminal, but alas we made it. Once we got onto the plane, we sat their waiting for a half hour before it even began moving. We may have had more time than we thought, but hearing the "last call" announcement was more stress than I wanted for the day. We made it though. 9 hours and 20 minutes later, give or take a few, we landed at SeaTac International Airport. Home at last!