A trip to Scandinavia is something that really happens once in a lifetime, especially if it’s organized by school. We were lucky enough to take part and spend nine extraordinary days among fjords and trolls.
On Monday June 17 early morning we gathered in front of our school and loaded our suitcases (half full of conserved food) on board preparing ourselves for a never-ending journey. Accompanied by three of our teachers and a tour guide Markéta, our two skilled bus drivers arrived after 12 hours to Rostock to board the deck of ‘Tom Sawyer’ ferry to Sweden. For many of us, it was the first time spending the night on the sea and seeing the sun not set was also a brand new and a slightly creepy experience, which haunted us for the rest of our journey. We made it to Trelleborg at four o’clock in the morning and half asleep changed our means of transport to the bus to get to the capital of Norway - Oslo.
A stop necessary to be made was the Holmenkollen ski jumping hill, closely related to Winter Olympic Games in Oslo 1952. Afterwards, we proceeded to the city, where we were wandering around for a couple of hours in Forgner Park - the perfect spot for relaxation, picnics and outdoor activities. We spent the evening in the streets of Oslo searching for a much needed cup of coffee. The prices, though, weren’t at all fortunate which applies to all Norwegian goods we would’ve wanted to purchase.
The next day starting in another Olympic village of Lillehammer gave us the opportunity to see the astonishing view from the ski jump hill for the price of climbing around 950 stairs. Another place worth our visit was the Lillehammer open air museum of a traditional Norwegian life. The cherry on top of this already successful day was the accommodation in the mountains. Disturbed by sheep bleating and effects of polar day, we didn’t mind not sleeping very well that night, as we lived a real life IKEA magazine.
Norway is known for its astounding nature as well as troll culture apparent almost everywhere. We took the famously steep Trollveggen trail with many serpentines to the top of Innfjorden Mountain with a very modern-looking visitor centre. We stopped along the way back down to take photos of the Geiranger fjord which we later got close to during our boat ride and passed the famous Seven Sisters waterfalls.
On Friday, after waking up next to a beautiful lake of Stryn we headed out for our next stop - Briksdalbreen, in a national park Jostedalsbreen. Briksdalsbreen is a 1200 meters high glacier, one of the most famous and beautiful natural sights one can visit in Norway. After hiking to the top, a beautiful scenery of the glacier and the glacial lake unveiled to us. We after found out that the lake was created by melting of the glacier and therefore got a different vibe from the place. The lake was of a pure turquoise color and it was breath-taking. When we photographed everything we climbed down the mountain and went to the glacial museum, where we were informed about the glacier melting and the impact of global warming. Stopping at that museum wasn’t really met with approval from us at first, since we were really tired, but we soon changed our minds.
Programme for the next day was the capital again. Most of us was looking forward to it, since we didn´t get the chance to explore Oslo yet. As our first stop, we went to see the Kon Tiki museum, dedicated to a Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdal. It was an amazing experience, the museum was built like a one big interactive experience, and don’t even get me started on the second museum we’ve seen. The ships museum Fram. I expected many things from the visit, but not that I would be walking in a life sized ship, seeing the interiors and learning so much at the same time. This was an amazing day so far and we haven´t even seen Oslo centre yet. In the Oslo centre, there was a Oslo pride going on at the moment we arrived. Noone really knew about it, and it was a little bit shocking, but at the same time a really pleasant experience. Our tour guide tried to show us the city even though Oslo became a Homoslo for the day (official terminology, don’t hate me).
It was also our last day in Norway. What followed afterwards was just a long journey back home with a few stops in Sweden, where we were finally provided actual food during the breakfast in a hotel after days of canned tuna fish. For a couple of hours, we even had the chance to explore the most important parts of Copenhagen which the most of us immediately fell in love with. It was a bait and we got caught - the beauty of the city couldn’t be unveiled in such a short time.
I guess we have another reason to travel back north someday.
Kristýna Bednářová, Valentýna Fuchsová, Viktorie Sýkorová (all three Septima A)
