Standing on the shores of the fjord, I feel overwhelmed by the beauty of the world. Every landscape view I have seen before pales in comparison to the views I saw all around me in Flåm. Norway is jaw-droppingly beautiful, every time I turned my head, I was smacked in the face with another awe-inspiring spectacle. And though I can show you photo after gorgeous photo from my trip the beauty of the Norwegian fjords can not be encapsulated into such a 1 dimensional matter. It's not just the view, which is stunning in the photos yet still falls short of the real thing. It is an entire experience: the sights, the sounds of the water and sheep baa-ing softly from a far, the sun peeking over mountains, the crisp chill that makes you hug your scarf around you a little tighter, the rewarding tightness in your muscles as you push yourself to explore further on your hike, the taste of salt on your lips as the water sprays you in your kayak, and breathing in air so fresh it feels as if it is actively cleansing your lungs. It was a rejuvenating experience being engulfed in nature and it also renewed my faith: what a magnificent earth God has given us for a home.
Maybe you're wondering about the title of this blog post now, so let me explain. Norwegian is part of my heritage. Though we have no direct relatives in Norway at this time, my family,going back generations, came from Norway. My brother and mother have put loads of time into tracking our ancestry back and we have learned about our family's lineage coming from Germany and Whales and Norway.. and some other places? I don't know I'm not the one who did the research. But I am definitely a good part Norwegian as proven by my surname "Jacobsen" highly Scandinavian in origin as I have been told numerous times here in Denmark. So this is why I call Norway "The motherland" and getting to visit here was a dream come true, and the only thing that would have made it better would have been to share the experience with he rest of my crazy viking obsessed family.
Now you probably want to hear about what I did on this trip besides just stare with my mouth open like an idiot. So I would describe this trip as an adventure trip, and by that I mean we did a lot of physical outdoorsy exploring kind of things including tons of hiking (ranging in difficulty), kayaking, biking, cheese making... you know the usual. It was arranged through DIS so my itinerary was set which I loved because I think it would have been hard for me to plan out seeing all these great places on my own. We flew to Bergen and then took a bus to a very small town called Flåm (pronounced like foam with an L in there ). Flåm, is a remote town with one restaurant, one store and a handful of houses. It was a really beautiful area and I felt like I was in the middle of no where, which was actually a delightful change of pace from Copenhagen. The weather wasn't great in the beginning but it cleared up towards the end of our stay.
One of our first activities was a tour with a company called Fjord Safari. This tour was on a speed boat and it raced around through the fjord stopping to point out landmarks and porpoises in the water. It was a really beautiful tour but unfortunately for us it was rainy and cold, though we stayed pretty dry and warm thanks to the ridiculous gear they had us wear. We headed out from Aurlandsfjord and went further into the stunning Nærøyfjord,our turning point was Gudvangen, the end of the fjord. We were actually in an area were apparently they filmed the landscape shots for the TV series "Vikings" which of course my family watches. Though the weather was bad and was a little miserable by the end, it made everything look really cool. There was like a misty fog thing going on that made everything look awesome and bad ass. I'm not really sure how a fjord can be a bad-ass but like those mountains were looking ominous and the water was so still you just think " aw man I don't wanna mess with that fjord." therefore I stick by my description of the fjord as bad-ass. So too sum that weird explanation up, the fjord looked really cool in the fog.
The next day was the main hiking day. We hiked the Rallarvegen trail which was first created and used by the railroad workers who erected the Bergensbana and Flåmsbana railway lines at the turn of the 20th C. Long in disuse, it has since been reborn as a recreational trial which winds through the hills and dales overlooking Aurlandsfjord. We took the Flåmsbana train up to Myrdal, the top the mountain. This train ride is said to be one of the most beautiful in the world, and I would certainly agree. Once at the top we slowly hiked our way down and back to Flåm, 21 kilometers. The hike was more physically demanding at the top, with a more sharp decline, but otherwise it was a mild hike, by the end it turned into paved roads. But it did call for some major endurance, 4 hours of hiking and the fatigue starts to set in, in your muscles.
The next day we went kayaking. I love being in the water so this was a part of the trip I was super psyched about. We suited up in wet suits, jackets, and grabbed a partner and a paddle and hopped in the kayaks. It was a beautiful day compared to the previous days of rain. We kayaked through Aurlandsfjord and paddled to Fronneset which
had viking burial mounds and a waterfall we climbed up to. I loved being out on the water, with the splash of salt water in my face and the smell of the sea. Even though it was so different it felt just a little like home, which was nice after missing my beaches and the somehow comforting smell of low tide. Back to the viking burials mounds, way cool; the more important vikings were given a ceremonial funeral where they would send them on their boat with their things. The boat was set on fire and pushed away to sea, but the fjord is not that wide and so people were sent to catch the boat on the other side of the fjord and then they would bury the burnt ship under loads of rocks. Some of those mounds of rocks are still there today. The guide said it was important to the vikings that they were buried always looking back to where they came from and I thought that was a really nice idea. The guide also recognized by tattoo which just made me super happy, I have a viking/norse/icelandic protection symbol on my arm that is all about never losing one's way or being lost in the world. Anyway back to kayaking, lots of fun, go water sports!Later that day we biked through town to a point were we hiked up to another waterfall and got some sweet pictures from a great viewpoint.
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The next day we biked to Otternes Farm, one of the oldest farms in Norway, a collection of 27 farm houses perched high above the water. It was a major struggle getting up there, we were all feeling a bit sore from the previous days of activity and now we were faced with a steep incline all the way up to the farm with our bikes. Though each step I thought I couldn't go any further I made it to the top; and it was worth it, it was the cutest thing ever. On the farm we got to wander around first taking in the sights, taking a ton of photos and giving Mary-Ann the little lamb LOTS of attention. She was the cutest thing and a total attention seeker, what a diva. when we got close to her pen she would run right up to us and stick her head through the fence slats to get as close as possible.
Next comes the awesome part, or just the next part if you don't get as excited about cheese as I do. WE MADE BROWN CHEESE or "brunost". Now there are multiple reasons why this was an awesome experience.1. it's cheese and who doesn't love cheese?!
2. we got to be part of a process that Norwegian people have been doing for years and years
3. my family has a tradition of eating this brown goat cheese which we call "geitost", especially around the holidays and so it's really significant to me
[and] 4. it smelled AMAZING in that little room as we stirred the hot cheese
So, basically to make brunost they take goat milk and caramelize it, and so we sat in the little room where it is done and each got to take a turn stirring it and we learned about the cheese making process and sang songs - I whipped out some of dad's repeat after me camp songs when we didn't know what to sing. The white milk slowly but surely turned more brown and thickened and reduced into a more brown paste. The cheese was finished by the farmers and then we got to take a little of our homemade cheese with us :)
After our hard work watching cheese simmer, we ate a huge lunch in a barn. There was soup and meats and potato salad and smoked fish; there was Norwegian flat bread and brown cheese and other cheeses; there was organic fresh bread with fresh farm butter that was damn good. And after all that wonderful food we had traditional norwegian pancakes,"lapper", with jam and creme fraiche on top. It was heavenly!!! I asked one of the ladies from the farm if they make Krumkake, a Norwegian dessert I have learned to make at home, and yes they do actually make that and she brought over another woman who makes them especially well and she talked to me about it for a bit. I felt so in touch with my heritage and it was so great experiencing the farm culture because even though we think of vikings as only pillaging brutal peoples they were actually farmers most of the time. All in all the farm was just wonderful, the people were so very nice and it was a great cultural experience.. and tasty!
After the farm we rode our bikes to the next town over, Aurland. Some of the group rode over to a special look out spot, but it was a difficult path and would require more strength to get up some steep climbs... so, some of us stayed behind and hung out in the town. We found a lovely spot by the water and I had the lovely idea to roll up my pants and get in the water, because I just HAD to be able to say that I was actually IN the fjord. So I stood calf deep in the FREEZING water and that was as close to swimming in the fjords as I was gonna get.That night we also went to this cool viking themed brewery that had a lounge area with a fire place and fur pelts to sit upon. Drinking beer like the vikings... dad and Tim eat your hearts out (though it'd be more accurate it we were drinking mead I guess)
The last day of our trip, we said good by to our Flåm sweet Flåm, and headed back to Bergen. We spent the day in Bergen, where we road to the top of Mount Floein and then had sometime to wander around the city. 
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