Trip Overview: “Wait... What’s a fjord?”

I’m back! And thank you to anyone who sent thoughts of sunny weather to Norway because it worked… remarkably, it didn’t rain heavily even once (at least, not while we were outside). In fact, it was sunnier more of the time there than it has been in Copenhagen. There were two or three periods of light rain lasting no more than about 15 minutes, but otherwise (and even sometimes during the rain) the sun was shining.

Regardless, rain or shine, Norway was GORGEOUS! It was unreal, by far the most spectacular scenery I have ever witnessed. I am so grateful to have had this experience. Summer income well spent! We hiked, biked, and kayaked, took ferries, buses, and famous railways, ate and ate and ate, and saw a lifetime’s worth of natural beauty. DIS deserves major props because this trip was planned flawlessly. The only issue that arose was a train delay (which I’ll get to later), but obviously that’s nothing they could help. They had every single aspect of things planned out and the timing of/between activities was impeccable. They included a perfect balance of adventure, relaxation, and free time... There is really no possible way I could have planned something like this.

I have tons of pictures and stories, and I figured that the best way to share would be through a series of shorter posts rather than 5 massive posts about my 5 days. This way, I can include tons of pictures while keeping the information in digestible chunks (that will hopefully remain interesting). I’ve got it all planned out and I think that there will be 9 posts in total, some longer than others, each focusing on a different activity or aspect of the trip. When fitting, I will use a quote from a fellow DIS student (or myself) as the title for the post, giving you a little insight into our reactions.

I’ll finish here with a little bit of technical language. A fjord, for those of you who haven’t come across the term before, is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs (which most of us didn’t know until we were already in the middle of our first activity at the fjords). We stayed in Flam, a tiny, remote town located on the Aurlandsfjord. I'll try to give you some sort of an idea of how beautiful it was, but the photos don't do it justice. 

And with that… my adventures!