August 27-31, 2018
After our first wedding in Vegas, Zosia and I were lucky to be able to spend several days with our friends who traveled from Europe at the Grand Canyon and in Seattle. Our Friendmoon was so much fun that after Wedding part II in Poland, we decided to have a Familymoon with my dad, bro, his amazing now-wife Thea, and Aunty Sara. Just a couple days after the big party, we were still flying high; from seeing friends and family from all over the world, the weather that held up, our somewhat complicated first dance, not messing up my Polish wedding vows too badly, the food, fireworks, campfire s’mores, and all those who helped make everything go smoothly. Sadly, we didn’t have a chance to hang out with everyone enough...so maybe we should have had an Everyonemoon.
Once in Gundvagen, we had to visit the Viking village. It's set up to look like a village from 1000 years ago, and although it's a tourist attraction, supposedly the employees are not "actors", but people who actually live this lifestyle. I mean, they all looked like vikings, so I believe it. It was fun to throw axes, shoot some arrows, and see little huts where they lived. The "locals" were very friendly and funny. If you haven't watched the TV series Vikings, I highly recommend it, at least the early seasons. There were seasons and episodes that I looked forward to more than Game of Thrones (and also Norsemen, which is a parody of these types of shows, a little like Monty Python).
Familymoon time
Brilliant Husky jerseys from the Brimmers
We wanted to pick a place where none of us had been before, and since I had always wanted to travel through the fjords in Norway, we thought why not. Especially if dad was paying! Just kidding, but not really...
Norway is an expensive place, and since I now have a Polish family, we prepared in the Polish way. That is, we packed several days of food and took it with us. I don’t mean packages of uncooked food from the grocery store. I mean we cut up the bread from the wedding ceremony and made 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The ceremonial bread is what the parents present to the couple before they enter the party, along with a shot of vodka. The bread has a hole filled with salt to add some taste. Not sure who needs the salt during the ceremony but I guess you don’t argue with tradition. I forgot about this literal salt mine, and bit into it when eating breakfast one day. I don't know if you've ever bitten into a large amount of salt, but it actually made my head hurt. It felt like a small electrocution. I can still taste the salt overdose just thinking about it. The day after the wedding we had a pizza party in Warsaw and had a few slices leftover. Those were lunch on Day 2 in Norway. Aunty Sara also cooked several times after grocery shopping which also helped keep (dad’s) costs down.
This...
...turned into this
The sandwiches were better than this whale sausage
Wizzair has cheap flights from Warsaw to Bergen, and since we weren't really interested in Oslo, Bergen was the winner. Luckily everyone was super easy going and flexible. Bergen has a nice waterfront and good seafood, but the beauty of the city is up in the hills with a wide view of the natural landscape. We went up the mountain with a gorgeous city view and did a short hike, then went to the visitors’ center to plan our journey to the fjords. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to do the iconic places you see when you Google “Norway fjord” but we did see some incredible stuff.
On the first night I did something with dad and Sara that I don’t think we had ever done before; we went to a bar. Granted, it was an ice bar where everything was an artistic ice sculpture, but it was a bar nonetheless. We had several laughs when posing for photos and goofing around. And most of that was from dad and Sara. I’m also constantly reminded how Zosia is so good at creating a happy environment for everyone, because everyone seems to be smiling when she's around.
Zosia goofing around, as usual
Inside the ice bar
Bergen was founded in the 11th century, and has a fortress that dates to the 13th century. We only needed a couple hours to walk around the city and visit the Rosencrantz tower. We couldn't help but imagine all the vikings that passed through. Of course Bergen is a city centered on fishing and sea activities (and sea food). We had a delicious giant platter of seafood under the waterfront tents in the pouring rain, which was probably the best meal of the trip.
Yes, please
Our cruise through the fjords started with a train ride to Flam. We booked it at the tourist center and it turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. There was a "normal" train ride to Myrdal, then the famous Flam railway up the mountains, through valleys and past waterfalls. It was a beautiful route, and apparently one of the most visited attractions in Norway. We stayed in Flam for the night, after a walk around the village and overlooking another fjord. Dinner at the Ægir brewpub was great. I just wanted to write Ægir, because that's a crazy word (I had to copy and paste from the internet because I have no idea how to make that letter on my keyboard).
In the morning before the cruise, we made sandwiches at the buffet breakfast to eat for lunch and literally saved $100. The boat ride to Gundvagen went through a very narrow fjord. The sky was blue and it was a bit cold (even in August) but beautiful. There were small villages and random houses along the coast and we all wondered how they got there. At the time I wanted to retire in a place like this. Now, I would accept retirement anywhere. The water looked like glass it was so still. I was mesmerized as the boat cut through it, and could have stared at it all day.
On the train to Flam
Just a regular, everyday, normal fjord
Stealing a few quiet moments on the ferry
Once in Gundvagen, we had to visit the Viking village. It's set up to look like a village from 1000 years ago, and although it's a tourist attraction, supposedly the employees are not "actors", but people who actually live this lifestyle. I mean, they all looked like vikings, so I believe it. It was fun to throw axes, shoot some arrows, and see little huts where they lived. The "locals" were very friendly and funny. If you haven't watched the TV series Vikings, I highly recommend it, at least the early seasons. There were seasons and episodes that I looked forward to more than Game of Thrones (and also Norsemen, which is a parody of these types of shows, a little like Monty Python).
Waterfalls from afar
A scary Viking and a guy with long hair
Z showing her skills
After that it was back to Bergen for one last night before Z and I flew back to Warsaw and dad and company flew to Iceland for an even bigger adventure. We joked that after we brought food from Poland to Norway in order to save money, they should bring food from Norway to Iceland to save money as well. Turned out we were right as Iceland is even more expensive! We shoulda gone with them while dad was paying!
