Still awake for the midnight sun

The second half of my vacation trip was on the go and it was departing from Turkey onto Norway. From the experience I had trying to enter Istanbul from immigration I encountered, I thought I might have a problem leaving but not at all which was good not to endure. The train ride to the downtown center from the airport was very appealing of the country side, there was so much land I felt I was passing through different parts of Marin County north of San Francisco or the country side of Portland. The region just looks beautiful as a place to retire in or even go on vacation to relax, enjoy the nature and scenery. Had some issues after I arrived at the Oslo central station and it was quite annoying. I purchased a tour package online to travel from Oslo to Bergen via different types of transportation, and I needed to receive my tickets at the train station counter. Though the train station counter was closed at the time of my arrival, I tried to retrieve my tickets through the ticket machines but with no luck. I was frustrated with the situation since I wanted to have my tickets already in hand but I had to get up early the next day to get them from the train station counter before the schedule train leaves in the morning. So I proceeded to the hostel I booked for the 1 night and observed my surroundings of the city and noticed it was mainly alot of young teens hanging around the city and got me wondering why.
Oslo, very much felt like I was in San Francisco due to people from alot of different ethnicity backgrounds, the only difference was that people were speaking Norwegian and the artistic approach of the architecture for many buildings. When the time got to close to 12 midnight, the sun was starting to set beyond the horizons but the sky didn't go into total darkness. This "midnight sun" was something I never experienced before and the odd feeling of people still walking around outside while there is still daylight during that time frame. From what I heard its like this every summer for many weeks and but in the north, I heard the sun doesn't even go down, so I could imagine people would have tough time going to sleep without using window blinds or even sleeping eye patches. It took time to get used to it not just in Oslo but in other places I visited, though this midnight sun sometimes will play tricks on your body clock which I was still adjusting from Turkey recently.

I got up early to proceed to the Oslo central station to speak with a representative to pickup my tour tickets and failed to realize that I didn't adjust my clock to Norway central time and I arrived 1 hour earlier at the station before the ticket counter opened. I spoke to other travelers that were in the same situation I was in and they were just as nervous and irritated as myself of waiting the last minute to get their tickets but eventually the counter opened and we claimed our tickets. The train ride to Mydral took about 3 hours but the scenery was lovely to see and met some Americans from different states so the conversations were pleasant.
Close to Mydral, we came across mountains that were above sea level where there was still snow in several parts of the region and the temperature just dropped dramatically. I wasn't sure if I was able to brace the temperature of Mydral when we arrived but actually it was perfect, there were some snow in some areas of the mountains from the station we were at though it was not that chilly. We boarded another train toward Flam which was a very distinct historical locomotive that carried alot of history over the years. Our travel lead to the downward direction toward several fjords in the region of Flam which the landscape was just incredible to see.
Flam, was very touristy but that had to do with more of people interested in taking ferries to explore the wonderful fjords in the area. I think another great way to observe these fjords is obviously by plane but I'm not sure if that is even offered in the region since I don't recall any landing runways where planes could land. Though I would think para gliding and hang gliding would be awesome to experience the fjords from above as well, maybe something in the future this type of experience for foreigners would be implemented. I took a ferry from Flam to Gudvangen and the spectacle of seeing these fjords was just outstanding and you really appreciate how nature appears before you eyes in different parts of the world.

The travel time took around almost 1.5 hours but it was nice to be outside, breath in the air and just take in the environment. When we arrived at Gudvangen, I'm not sure people were interested in taking a bus to Voss but it was next on the itinerary of the tour. It was a short ride but still witnessed the beauty of the region of what was out there to photograph or video record.










When we arrived at Voss, I took in the view of the small town even though the area was small, this was a wonderful place to enjoy the scenery. I had 1 night stay in the area because I wanted to go para gliding the following day and according to my research, Voss was the region where you can do extreme sports. I stayed at a hostel that was 15 minute walk from the town center but loved the location because it was infront of a large lake and you still had great views of the mountains in the background with homes scattered everywhere. Since it was still bright later in the evening, I decided to go around town to do some photography and realized, the town was completely empty. I walked around the town center area and saw a few people passing through but it was very much quiet and found out later that there was a national holiday they observed the past two days which is why noone was out. Not a bad idea to shoot a scene for a movie of a empty town without being hassled from bystanders.

                                                                                  A small clip of a great view of the lake in Voss