Next stop Oslo, Norway!

In a previous post I mentioned struggling with the Poland itinerary, trying to get up to Sweden via ferry was too difficult, and about our only other option was an 8+ hour train ride to Berlin. We need to end up in Copenhagen since we've already booked our flight from there. This is why I wanted to skip Poland. Then Yanmei came up with the idea of flying past Copenhagen and approaching from the north instead of the south. It turns out there are direct flights between Kraków and Oslo, so we decided to do that, adding another unplanned country to our trip. 🙂 We've both been to Berlin before, so skipping that isn't such a big deal.

It was about a two hour flight to Oslo. Although we had a place to stay, we'd done almost no other planning for Oslo. We quickly realized that Oslo is not the place you want to see in Norway, or at least not what I think of in Norway. I think of fjords and majestic landscapes. We looked into taking a train to Sognefjord, which would include the Flåm Railway which is supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. From Flåm we could catch a ferry through the fjord to Bergen. Unfortunately it was completely sold out. 🙁 We are at peak season right now for Norway.

Yanmei is a bit frustrated because she thinks it's her visa causing the problem. Without the visa forcing our timetable we could extend our stay and probably find a day with tickets available. However I think it is just our travel style. We arrive somewhere then look for things to do, so anything that requires significant advance booking is not an option. We missed out on a number of things due to this, for example the French Open was on while we were in Paris, that would have been cool to go to, but by the time I looked for tickets it was sold out. On the other hand our flexible style gives us the opportunity to change plans. We never planned to visit Norway, and now here we are!