The winter of 2012 was a difficult time: I was itching to leave my no longer satisfying job, looking forward to the adventure of culinary school to come but still months away. Then the opportunity to make a fairly frugal trip to one of the world's priciest places was gifted to me. Great friends, an opera-singing couple, were headed to Oslo. Midwinter. Katie, probably joking, let it be known that visitors were most welcome throughout January and February.
I love
winter, snow, and northern light and shadow. I've long seen ads for Iceland Air's free stopovers,
and thought any foreign airline would be a comfortable ride—and I'd get to see
Iceland! Staying with friends in
Oslo would make the trip fairly affordable. Then it dawned on me: I could stay with friends the entire
trip.
I planned
nine days in Iceland and Norway for $1,000. That's everything—airfare, transportation across Norway,
food, drinks, museums—with the hospitality and generosity of friends old and
new. I planned my first
CouchSurfing experience, getting in touch with hosts to stay two nights in
Reykjavik and one night in Bergen.
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| Reykjavik |
Couch
surfing has a sort of dilettante or hippie-stoner undertone: friends passing
through your city on an aimless road trip, friends of friends needing a place
to crash when a relationship goes awry, acquaintances of acquaintances job
searching… And similarly, there's
an American aversion to hostels, pensions, and the sort of minimum-service ways
of bedding down that the rest of world gets along with just fine. Most people assume that to use
CouchSurfing.org, you have to likewise offer up your own home to anyone that
wants to come; not so. The free
spirits who designed the site had the main goal of connecting people who want a
cultural exchange, to meet friends curious about the world. True, some people treat it as just a
free place to stay, or a dating site, and it's pretty easy to tell who they
are. But for the rest of us, this
is an invaluable way to meet interesting welcoming people.
In addition
to couch surfing, I timed my travels so that one night would be spent on an
overnight train, maximizing dollars and time (and fulfilling a romantic Orient
Express-related notion). I wanted
to see the Norwegian countryside, and of course its famous fjords. The Norway in a Nutshell
site is a bit confusing, but with perseverance you can order ahead tickets for
pretty much any itinerary. They
have done a lot of the work for you as far as determining picturesque destinations
and combining various modes of transportation. The key is to arrange your own lodgings and check out maps
so you know where to make connections.
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| Mountains to the north of Bergen. |
I purchased a bargain "minipris" overnight train ticket from Oslo to Bergen in a sleeper cabin. Such tickets are available in limited numbers up to one day before departure.
Then, I used
the Norway in a Nutshell itinerary from Bergen to Oslo:
- train from
Bergen to Voss
- bus from
Voss to Gudvangen
- ferry
fjord cruise from Gudvangen to Flåm
- train from
Flåm to Myrdal
- train from
Myrdal to Bergen
I arranged
an overnight stay in Flåm at a guesthouse
open year-round (though they were surprised to hear from me in February). I simply continued on my journey a day
and a half later, able to take the train from Flåm to Myrdal any time I liked
on the day I scheduled my ticket.
Norway in a Nutshell tickets may list specific times but do not always
have specific seat reservations; depending on the season, you may not fit on
the bus and will have to wait for the next available spot. This was not an issue in winter.
With a bit
of luck and creativity, I'd see a dollop of Iceland and a chunk of Norway
without much monetary suffering and gain insider perspective from local
residents.
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