Rudesheim, Köln, then way up to Norway

The Long Way Up:

From Rüdesheim, we took a river boat up to Koblenz.  The river wound its way around the green hills and past the small villages.  Old castles overlooked the small houses.  It was a really beautiful ride.

Once we got to Koblenz, we took a train up to Köln (Cologne), where we met a friend.  We stayed with her the night, and then went for breakfast with her before going to see the Gothic Cathedral in Köln, which turned out to be partly under construction because apparently bird poop is corrosive.

After that we boarded the first of six trains for our thirty-three hour journey up to Norway.  On our last train, we actually had to take a bus part of the way because the day before a train had burnt while going through a tunnel.  We were heading for Arna (about ten minutes from Bergen) where my friend, Lauren, is doing a rotary exchange.  We spent the next four days with her, laughing and taking in the Norwegian countryside.

Some eating, some hiking, and lots of laughing:

Upon our arrival, we ate a 1:30am dinner with her host family.

The next day we went into town, looked around at some of the shopping centres, and the only thing we ended up buying was a huge bag of candy.

The next morning we hiked a mountain (had to work off that candy somehow) and ended up taking the bike route.  It was threatening rain, so no bikes came along.  We had to run some of the way back down in order to catch our train and apparently running downhill makes Annalea laugh uncontrollably.  This created decent entertainment for Lauren and me.

That night we ate an amazing meal with Lauren, her host family, her host family's son and his family.  As we all sat around the table, they all began to converse in Norwegian.  I found this very interesting because despite my knowledge of the Norwegian language being nonexistent, I still wasn't entirely lost.  Through the universal language of hand motions, facial expressions, and tones of voice, I could follow the mood of the conversation, even if I didn't know what they were talking about.  When I stopped focusing on the individual words, I almost felt like I was in an English-speaking home.

So, after the delicious feast of two differently seasoned fish, some potatoes, a broccoli/cauliflower dish, a dessert of canned plums and sugared red currants with vanilla cream sauce, we all sat and chatted for awhile.  Soon after we had tea and coffee accompanied by homemade heart-shaped waffles with butter, jam, a sweet cheese, or sugared red currant berries.  Soooo good!

The following day we slept in until noon. This was a splendid novelty after a month and a half of getting up early for either sightseeing or  train connections.  We spent the afternoon back in Bergen, hoping to do some clothing shopping that would be successful, ie. actually buying some clothing items.  However, despite trying on some shirts, which was more progress then the previous shopping attempt, we didn't buy anything.  Well, that's not true.  We did buy a bucket of ice cream and shared it between us, and since it was kind of rainy outside, we ate it inside, huddled on a couch in the corner of the mall courtyard, still decked out in our rain jackets.  But, really, who needs clothes when you can buy chocolate brownie ice cream with caramel swirls instead?

There are strange things done in the midnight sun...and stranger things done under Norwegian street lamps:

Later that night, we all went for a hike at 10:00pm with the sun still up.  By the time we reached the top around 11:00pm, the sun was just setting.  It was pretty cloudy, though, so we didn't see a bright sunset like the one we had witnessed the night before.  Instead, we were engulfed by thin clouds and mist while we looked out to the surrounding mountains, whose tops were also blanketed in cloud.  It was very cool, almost mystical, a little bit eerie, and reminded me of something from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We ate some chocolate at the top (kind of failed there on the healthy part of hiking) then headed back down.  It was pretty dark by that point, but still only looked like dusk despite it being 11:30pm.  Once we reached the road, we stopped under a street light because our sleep-deprived, sugar-pumped minds decided it was a great idea to dance in the quiet street and try to pull off the worst, most ridiculous kind of dancing we could think of...and record it of course.  So, several "music videos" later, after laughing our abs to the point of pain, we continued walking back to Lauren's.

Sun, Sadie, and setting off for Stockholm:

We packed our bags the next morning and also cleaned up the mess we made of Lauren's room.  It still baffles me how Annalea and I manage to completely cover people's floor space with our stuff when we stay two days or longer.  At least we clean it up when we leave, I suppose, which then helps that person appreciate cleanliness to a whole new level, so we are really doing them a favor when we spread out.

Wow, that was just a slight diversion.  Ok, so back to whatever I was talking about before.  Oh, right, that morning.  Ok.  So after cleaning up, we went and laid in the sun!  After three half sunny, half rainy (still beautiful) days, we saw and felt the warm sun.  This called for bathing suits, towels, and laying on the lawn to try to soak up the rays.

Later that day, while on Skype with our mom, we found out some sad news.  Our cat Sadie, who had been sick for the past two months was doing very badly.  Annalea and I sat at the screen while my mom held Sadie in her arms.  Through falling tears we said our goodbyes, and although we couldn't be by her side, we were with her as she breathed her last labored breath.  Death is a strange thing.  In one moment, something that was living was no longer.  I realized as she left, that she wouldn't be there when I get home.  I won't walk in my front door and have her greet me with familiar meows like she always used to do.  I will never hear her purr again, or feel her warmth, or see her beautiful green eyes.  She is just gone. Tears fell down my cheeks as I watched her body heave for breath in her last moments.  Words stopped in my throat.  Something I loved so dear was leaving and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  I knew that day would come eventually, but part of me naïvely wished that she would last forever.  But, even the best things in life must pass.  I was glad that I had spent a lot of time with her before I left.  I was glad her suffering was short.  I was glad I had the privilege of having her in so much of my life.  Still, it was hard to say goodbye.      

A couple hours later, we parted ways with Lauren and then boarded a train to get to Stockholm.