Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The Oslo-Bergen Train Ride

The reason for the train ride being the highlight of this trip is cos u get to see the fjords (pronounced as fee-ords)! well... what are fjords anyway?

A fjord is a landform created during a period of glaciation.

Typical characteristics of a fjord include: a narrow inlet, a bottom that is eroded significantly below sea level, steep-sided walls which continue to descend below the sea surface, greater depths in the upper and middle reaches than on the seaward side, and communication with the open sea.

A lot of info.. but lets juz focus on a single "criteria" -- Narrow, Steep-sided walls which descend below the sea surface. (we'll get back to this..)

Anyway, Zer pangseh us for this trip cos she has too many reports to rush... but since today is her birthday (Happy Birthday Zer!).. i think i'll stop here.. =P

27th April ~ Oslo

the sights of the capital of norway

The Parliament Building

Oslo City Hall

Nice flowers.. but dunno wat name.. heh..


Nice little harbour

Akershus Fortress



View of the sea from the fortress


National Theater

Oslo University


Royal Palace

Guard (duh...)

VigelandsParken
(Vigeland Sculpture Park)

Statues!

they're quite life-like.. and each seem to say a story
about human r/s and human emotions...
(i'm trying to be chim here.. so bear with it!)

The angry baby... its the icon of this place..

My fav statue... hahaha..
dun hv too many kids.. u might end up like him..

More statues!



This is the most erm... "attention-catching" thing in the park...
i dunno the real name.. but i can think of a few names for it myself.. ;)





End of 1st day in Oslo. Everything here is SUPER EXPENSIVE!
almost 3 times more ex den Singapore i think. (A 500ml bottle of coke costs 20 NOK = S$5)
We adopted our most cost effective method of survival... grocery shopping...
bought 1 loaf of white bread and managed to survive on 3 loaves of high-fibre (super-hard-to-eat-but-v-ez-full) bread for 3 days!
bought tt bread cos the white one no more liaoz... -_-"

THE OSLO BERGEN TRAIN RIDE

A good breakfast! (like tt for S$5...)

From this point on.. all the scenery pics were taken on the train..
(try to spot the fjords! after all they are the HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP!)



fjord? hmmm... narrow enough.. but not very steep-sided..

but still.. its quite nice la..

twin peaks!

this is when u hv nothing better to do on a 7-hr train ride..

Credits to my Nugati! The sai squeezer!

top left: cheewei enjoying his thousand-island minced tuna

The train climbed into the highlands...
the snow regions of the mountains..


The Flam Railway train... to see real fjords!
but.. too little too late..




the real mineral water... its so clear its blue!


going back down to greener scenery


fjords? nah... fjords dun hv roads beside them..

or some mini beach..

this one looks quite real hor? maybe can consider as 1/2 a fjord?


and before u know it... we've reached Bergen!




sibei zuay yachts by the harbour!
Norwegians really know now how to enjoy life sia..

Thanks Cheewei! =)


Sitting the Floibanen Funicular up Mt. Florien!

Fantastic View of Bergen at the top!



cheewei is so cooooool.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yip oso v cool la... but still lose to cheewei..

but the coolest of them all is...
*insert Beethoven Symphony 9 here*

no words...

more cool pics!

This is the sunset.. at 2130hrs...
we waited like 2hrs++ for this..

Bergen Church.. its 300 years old!

The next morning..

Had a little bit of time to see more of Bergen
b4 sitting the same train back to Oslo..




Bergen's quite a nice place actually..

On the train, another good breakfast to start of the morning.. =)

more fjord-like photos...




to be honest.. i took a lot more.. but i think this is enough.. =P

Some photos i took on the flight back to Copenhagen..


its Sweden below...


This is (finally!!) the last trip b4 we embark on the 1 month long trip to the rest of europe.

For now, its time to rest and start mugging for our exams which start in 2 weeks... anyway here's a little map of where we've been (red) & where we'll be going in June (blue)... not everywhere is covered though (cos not on the map)...

not bad eh?

=)