While living in the UK in 2015, the dream of traveling solo to Europe was more achievable, something I knew a dear friend had done and something I had loved seeing in the movie Queen (Bollywood). So as I sat planning for my first-ever solo trip, I thought of Norway because I have an aunt who lives there and I figured getting a Schengen visa would be easier if one is visiting relatives. It may sound oxymoronic to go on a solo trip to visit your relatives, but I guess I wanted enough cushion on my first trip ever. That and also, I was able to book a return ticket for £24.98 for flying from London Stansted Airport to Oslo Rygge and back, the cheapest I have traveled by air ever, can you believe that? In Indian rupees, it translates to 2500 rupees, although to be fair the airports were not your mainstream airports, both of these were pretty far from the main cities, it must have cost me more than the airfare to get to and from the airports, but still International travel for 2500 rupees, mindblowing.
In the meantime, I informed my aunt of the document requirements from her side. She and my uncle were sweet enough to make a trip to the police station on a weekday to get my entry letter into Norway authorized. She scanned it and sent it to me on time. I read all the details on the letter which included taking ownership of me and taking my responsibility, which made me feel indebted but what I didn't read was the small print which clearly stated that the document must be produced in original at the visa office and I found out about it, no points for guessing, at the visa office. I thought I was fully prepared for this, doing it all on my own, so proud of myself, only to be told in the first 5 minutes that the documents wouldn't do and I can't apply. I was so taken aback, this was it, I can't go anymore, what will happen to my tickets, I couldn't forgo the cheapest tickets ever. I plucked up the courage to ask if I had another option, to which she directed me to an internet cafe and suggested I book a hotel. Phew, what a sigh of relief, I quickly used booking.com to make a temporary booking, I didn't have to pay anything for it, as one can select pay at the hotel option and you have an easy cancellation window. So I submitted my crossed-out and re-marked application for Norway and I made it to the finish line. I got my visa and I was all set. Lesson learned when applying for a Schengen visa go for a tourist visa, visiting relatives does not help with your visa application.
I visited Norway on the Labour Day weekend in May and was there for four days. The only thing solo I had planned for on this trip was the "Norway in Nutshell" tour, which was a short 34 hours tour out to the fjords and back. The saying -"It's the journey that matters and not the destination", had never rung truer than it did for me on this trip. Below is my account of the journey through the people I met.
1. Fitore- I sat on the train pretty bummed to find out that I didn’t have the window seat. But the window seat was vacant and I was praying nobody would come so that I could hijack it. But there came a girl, college-going, long hair in a bun, check shirt, looked cool! We started off with a hi and a hello, where are you going, etc. I was intrigued by her name, I had not known someone with this kind of a name before. Found out she was from Macedonia and her family lived somewhere a little off Oslo. She was studying nursing in Oslo and visited her family over the weekends.
It fascinated her to know that I am traveling on my own and living in the UK, she told me she had been there once and loved the clothes, I remember having flaunted my £5 boots from a store she remembered ( I guess by now you are judging my frugality but I have to say genes are hard to give in to, I am from a community in India known for its frugality). It was a happy one hour of the 5 odd hours ahead to Voss. She was very sweet, added me on Facebook and I enjoy seeing her life go ahead. She was just beginning to spread her wings and being the older person there, it made me hopeful for her, and I wished for her to one-day travel solo on a train in a foreign land and be the older person full of experiences.
2. Grandma – An old lady came in next and upon my request let me take the window seat. She was going to visit a friend. She told me of her plans to go for a trek in the woods and just have a good relaxed time with her friend. It amazed me to hear of her friend, although I was in two minds about assigning a gender to the friend I didn't impose to enquire and just trusted this to be a true friendship one which inspired me to make the trip to visit my friends as I get older wherever that may be (would be nice if it were in a mountain as exotic as this somewhere).
She got settled in and started knitting thick woolies for her grandkids. She was such a warm person, didn’t know much English yet conversed with me a little. She was the kind of person who would give the best bear hugs, so warm and wholly. She had a ham and cheese sandwich which she had carefully packed, I had mine too which my aunt had carefully packed for me. We both snacked and then we both napped, ah kidding, I napped while she was at her knitting. It was not long before she got off the train to continue her journey.
3. Drunk Uncle- It was getting to be a long train journey, maybe because we passed through such varying landscapes. One minute it was farms and clouds and sun peaking out of them, next it was gorgeous lakes and hills overlooking them and now suddenly we were amidst fields of snow. Pure white snow till my eyes could reach and it was untouched, shining in the sun, so white. No wonder the Oslo to Bergen train route is among the most beautiful train routes in Europe. I couldn't help but jump from one side of the train to another to take it all in. The train stopped at Finse 1222 which is the highest train station in Norway and is at 1222 meters above sea level. I had been seeing so much snow all around me from the train that when the train stopped I jumped right out to feel it and devour it maybe. It was gorgeous. As I got back on the train, I saw I had a curious observer in all this, as I later found out to be a drunk uncle going to Bergen for the christening of his nephew. So, I observed him too and diminished my jumping around. What I saw next was this guy asking if he can sit next to me. Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa!! Hmm, alright!! So, I had only had female co-passengers till now. I thought to myself well you live in a world of both sexes and should not treat anybody differently just because he was, well a “he”. But this guy didn’t seem right, smelled a bit drunk, and didn’t have the right intentions. So, he sat chatting and I was thinking of how to get rid of him because I was also missing out on some amazing scenery. Then I saw a chance, there were some wonderful snow fields approaching on the other side of the train and I asked him if we could move to his seat. I sat there for a while taking pics and after a while, I quietly said I was moving back as I want to sleep! Good riddance! He didn’t trouble me after that.
4. Joao- I got off the train at Voss and found the place to be desolate, because of the long weekend I presumed, I just saw another backpacker looking around for some place where he could find information just like me. I had booked a hostel near the station, but I wasn’t sure which direction it was and had nobody around to ask for directions as well. Finally, I saw an old man on a cycle and asked him the direction to the youth hostel and set off in that direction. Just about 100 meters ahead of me was the lost bag packer I had seen on the platform, I had an inkling he was at the same hostel as me, so I just followed him then. Voss was so beautiful from the minute I stepped foot on it. It was around 5 PM when I reached there, yet the sun was warm enough for it to feel like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I reached the hostel just behind the backpacker and I noticed while he was filling out a form that his passport was from Brazil. We exchanged smiles and he headed off to his room. I checked in next.
The youth hostel was very nice. I liked the view and ambiance of it. I dumped my bag grabbed some food and headed downstairs to sit in the common area in the hope of meeting some people. But as I sat there for 10 mins, I realized most people knew each other and didn’t really have it on their minds to look for lost travelers like me. So, I headed to the reception and asked about things to do around Voss. There was an hour-long walk to a gorge. I asked whether 6 in the evening was a good time to go out alone. The girl at the reception said it was perfectly okay as the sun was up till 10 PM. Well by the looks of it, it did seem that way. I was feeling insecure about where to go and whether to go alone or not. I had thought of asking at the reception about the Brazilian and finding out if he would want to join, but I thought he might take it otherwise, so I walked out on my own.
I had met another companion - Thomas, halfway on my Voss exploration, he was a photographer and offered to take a few pictures for me and I was just beginning to tell him about how I got caught up in my ego and didn’t ask the Brazilian if he would like to accompany me when I saw him walking towards us. Such joy!! The feeling that you get a second chance, to correct something you were regretting. I finally waved him down, introduced myself, and asked him where he was going, it turned out he was returning from the gorge I was headed towards. Joao was nice enough to make another trip with me and Thomas and I would like to think it was the best thing that happened. Because upon reaching the gorge I saw the gorge from the bridge and turned to go back but Joao said there is a trail to go further into the gorge and there are multiple such. Now I, on my own would have never endeavored there alone (I didn't even know there were trails), because I didn't want to be stuck like in the movie 127 hours and it looked a lot like that, but there was something very trustworthy about Joao and it was the most adventurous feeling taking that trail. It had a railing to stop you from falling 20ft into the gorge and on the other side, a black rocky mountain cut apart over the ages by the bustling river below. The ground below was slippery but me being a mountain girl knew where to set my foot only to get afraid when Joao said there might be snakes around eeks!! I felt so happy and peaceful on the way back with these two guys and the view of big mountains covered in clouds in front of me, it reminded me instantly of the song “Yeh hasein Vaidya” and it literally felt like that song. All around me was calm peaceful serenity. We all sang songs that we liked and walked our way back. Thomas had joined us post his dinner so it was only Joao and me for dinner, we went to a steakhouse.
I knew he was shy so I was being a chatterbox, asked him all about him, got to know he was from Brazil and working in Sweden, and had recently broken up with his girl. Then to change the topic I told him about an article I had recently read on 36 questions to fall in love. How dumb can I be!? I don't know what I was looking for, did I want to test the claim of the article that these 36 questions will make any strangers fall in love, or was I flirting, I did not know and it did not help that I was a little tipsy on the best beer ever (Aegir). But as soon as I realised where this could possibly lead to I immediately did mission abort. Is flirting healthy, when you are in a relationship already, you might ask? I once received a response that made me less guilty, that yes it is healthy as long as we know the boundaries. As I walked back to the hostel with Joao, I was feeling all things at once - being alone, being drunk, being with a stranger, a guy at 11:30 at night, and thinking of Vardan (my fiancé) and knowing he wouldn't like this but knowing somewhere it would be only out of concern for me and this made me more sure of holding my boundaries. While in these thoughts I saw a beautiful sight in front of me - the clear night sky, the full moon reflecting on the lake, and the snow-capped hills behind the lake. Picture perfect. To distract myself, from all these thoughts, I started telling Joao about superstitions around black cats in India, when we spotted one on our way. Voss was full of cats, I just realized that.
The next day post breakfast I checked out and walked to the bus/train station where I saw some locals dressed in traditional clothes, I was respectful of not prying their privacy and only clicked a picture on request and asked about what was special and they told me it was the confirmation ceremony for their children. A confirmation ceremony is an important event, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood, so it was a solemn and cheerful day to be celebrating that. As part of the tour, this day was the cruise tour of the Fjords. We were supposed to take a bus from Voss to Gundavalen and from there onto a boat to see the fjords. I got to the bus stop to see that the busses had arrived. I saw Joao waiting there as well, we both sat chit-chatting not boarding the bus just yet, when all of a sudden the place where there were not more than 10 people was swarmed with 100’s and 100’s of people coming out of the trains, all in a mad rush to board the bus. We got jolted out of our seats because if we missed the bus we could miss the cruise, and I would also miss the train I had to take from there back to Oslo. So, I started making my way through the crowds to the bus but one after another buses started filling and leaving. Finally, I made it into a bus and saved a seat for Joao, thinking he was right behind me but he was nowhere, the bus took off without him. I for some reason felt very dramatic, you know like oh my god, I didn’t get to say goodbye, I didn’t get to exchange contact, etc. But then I said to myself to stop being so melodramatic and enjoy what I came here to do. The bus ride was great, I love the mountains and this crisp morning being in the mountains reminded me of my school days in Mussoorie. I remember seeing one water body that had the thinnest sheet of ice on it and it was looking frosty and there was some mist on it and the mountains surrounding it. I was at peace.
As we curved through the mountains which the fjords cut, we reached the cruise port. But here again, I didn’t board it just upon reaching, I waited till the end. I ended up reaching the viewing deck as one of the last people to see all the chairs were taken and in one of them was sitting Joao. Ha-ha!! I felt a relief to have found him again. He was very sweet to offer me his chair, I politely refused and went to stand up on the railing, minutes later I see, he too had left the chair and was standing next to me. I got a bit awkward at this because I was no longer drunk and no more in the mood to flirt, the solo bus ride had knocked some sense into me I guess, but then I realized we knew nobody; it was good to be able to talk to somebody. So, I chilled a bit, chit chatted again. As the cruise took off, it was the most amazing feeling, I felt like I was aboard the Titanic. Albatrosses or whatever is the name of the bird that flies in the fjords were flying with us, the cruise was cutting through the water so silky, it was a moment to behold.
I was very curious about the fjords because in all my research I wasn't able to discern how they would be different from lakes in mountains. Upon viewing fjords from the cruise I was still trying to find something very interesting about them but was not finding it. It was not until typing this note, I read an article on what are fjords which made so much sense to me. A fjord is formed when a glacier retreats, after carving its typical U-shaped valley, and the sea fills the resulting valley floor. The cruise covered Geirangerfjord & Trollstigen fjords and I want to visit them again to truly appreciate them. It was only when we reached Flåm and I was able to get a little distance from the fjords and see the water body from the mountains that I felt some wonder about seeing the fjords. I most definitely want to visit the fjords again but more than a cruise I would love to stay in a village on the shores of a fjord as I had seen some towns/villages when on our cruise.
After three-four hours on the fjords, the cruise reached Flåm at around lunchtime. I had my train from Flåm to Myrdal at about 4 and I had my train from Myrdal to Oslo at 6 in the evening, which gave me 2 hours in Flåm to discover a little bit of this place. So while Joao grabbed a bite, I collected all the maps and pamphlets from the stalls to read about this gorgeous place. What caught my eye was the pamphlet mentioning numerous cycle trails and it mentioned the difficulty of each and the time it would take to make a roundtrip, it felt like the most exciting thing for me to do in the short time that there was. But I had not ridden a cycle for almost two decades and I really wanted to go but I wasn't so sure if I could manage on my own. As I was telling Joao of my impulsive desire to cycle, he casually mentioned he likes cycling too and had cycled around Italy for 18 days. I went ballistic thinking I'd be able to go cycling and also be safe. So, we rented a bike each for 100 Kronos and headed out on a decent trail. While most of the trail was plain level, there came these inclines where I was huffing and panting but the scenery all around was exhilarating. We made it back just in time for my next train. I bid Joao goodbye and best of luck for his journey ahead. It was a bit of an anti-climax when I had expected Joao to show or express some feelings while saying bye, but he didn’t which I was glad for. We exchanged email ids but I soon lost it and now I have no contact with him, so it was a beautiful once-in-a-lifetime, never to meet again kind of friendship. I cherish it to this day and look for the humility he showed me in every person I meet, but I am yet to meet someone more humble.
5. School Gril from New Zealand: While aboard the Flåmsbana, from Flåm to Myrdal, one is supposed to witness the best waterfalls and it is said there are some angels who come out and dance too! However, my aunt had told me most waterfalls wouldn't be operating because it was still very cold and the glaciers hadn't fully melted. So I had hopped on expecting this to be a pretty uneventful train ride. Moreover, it was only an hour-long journey. As soon as I boarded, a bunch of students boarded too and we were all scrambling for seats. So I sat on the left-hand side window seat and this girl in front of me kept switching between right and left. I didn't even have to ask, she shared her dilemma herself - " I always miss the best views by picking to sit on the wrong side of the train." She added, "I want to make sure I don't miss the views on this one." Her saying this gave me such insight. Because thus far, I had not bothered about the seats and views but what she said made sense. In fact, her predicament is also a popular tip online and something she must have researched. So I encouraged her to remember where the best views were from on this specific train ride. I don't remember which side we picked because the waterfall was not working so it was all the same, but for anyone reading this and curious to know, it is the right-hand side you want to pick if you are traveling from Flåm to Myrdal. I don't bother about the best views or running for the best seats. I am happy where I am, I am in my own flow, if I get lucky to be on the seat with the best view well and good and if not I make the best with what I have and save the best view for the next time.
6. Viraj - I reached Myrdal and was suddenly taken in by the strong smell of coffee and cake making its way out of the train station. There was sometime before the next train and the final journey to Oslo. I grabbed a coffee and some goodies and I hear some familiar sounds. There were a couple of guys chatting in Hindi. So I went and said hi and got chatting about how we each landed up here so far away from our motherland. Turns out they were working for a software company in Pune and were there in Oslo for an onsite project role, similar to what I was in the UK for. We had just gotten comfortable talking when Viraj, one of the guys there, gave me some unsolicited advice on my backpack, saying I should not carry my company bag on trips. I didn't get offended and I took his advice because his tone was out of goodwill and not in a demeaning way. The train to Oslo arrived shortly thereafter and we all boarded.
I was seated on the window seat this time finally. Next to me sat a girl who didn't look quite interested in chatting so we both sat quietly. Then after a few minutes, I see Viraj in our carriage, if he was looking for me or just passing through I don't know but we acknowledged each other. Then he came again in some time and asked if I would like to grab some drinks in the food coach. I was just excited to see the food coach, so I went along with him. The view from this coach was so scenic because the seats were not aligned like in the travel coaches, the windows in this coach gave a panoramic view of the scenery outside. I am glad I took him up on his offer. We had some drinks and just chatted away. He told me of his trip to Tromso in Norway to see the northern lights. Some people can just transport you with their descriptions and details. That was what happened when I sat listening to his story/experience. He even got his DSLR camera to show me all the pictures he had taken and what happened at each moment. I felt like I had visited the northern lights myself. After what seemed like forever we decided to get back to our seats. I was glad to have met him and made his acquaintance.
7. Lizzie - Once I got back to my seat, my seat neighbor seemed more open to conversation. Sometimes people need their space before they are ready to open up. In the case of Lizzie, she needed some time to journal. So when I got back she was just wrapping up her diary. We got talking and I learned that she is from USA and had been backpacking for the last three months and she was fresh off the boat from a month-long stay in Iceland. The wheels of the train provided the apt background music for another teleportation through storytelling, this time to Iceland. She told of many trials and tribulations she faced while living there. She was volunteering for a cause so she was provided accommodation and was earning her living by doing chores on the glacier she was living on. In all my interactions before her, no one really asked me about my story the way she did, although I didn't have many daring adventures to tell her of, the conversation kept flowing and the best part was that it was a genuine two-way affair. We got off the train still chatting until we reached outside and I spotted my aunt waiting for me.
So that was how my first solo trip went. I stayed in Oslo for another day and explored more of the city before I got back to London. I am not in touch with any person above but the moments we shared are with me forever. Below are some pictures from my trip.
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