72 hours in Norway & Trolltunga Itinerary
3 Days in Norway – Day 2 Trolltunga
Trolltunga was an accident! We wanted to go to Kjeragbolten
so I messaged and asked my friend Kelly to recommend an accommodation. She recommended this Airbnb to us, raving about the homemade honey cake from the
grandma’s bee hives and fresh hand-picked cherries. We were sold! Except that we didn't mention which mountain it was, we ended up with accommodation right next to Trolltunga and we google mapped that it would take us 3 hours to get to Kjeragbolten.
Was recommended to get a guide but it was quite pricey at
about £100 a person and it didn’t include any lunch. We did a lot of review and
decided that we had previous hiking experience and could do without one. Our
flight was massively delayed so we only reached our Airbnb at around 12
midnight. We didn’t make our start time of 9am. We ended up only reaching the
Trolltunga carpark at 1130am.
Trolltunga literally means troll’s tongue and the hike has a
very steep ascent for the first 2km. Subsequently, it consists of lakes and
rocks and the total return hike is 26km (about 13km each way). The average hike
time is about 12 hours but we managed to do it in under 8 hours with ample
breaks and stops for snacks, picture breaks and rests. If you can, it would be
good to park at the higher carpark albeit at an additional cost. It would save
a lot of time and also the unpleasant steep ascent with not much view.
I’m so thankful to K for suggesting buying a pair of
hiking boots! I don’t really wear any other shoes besides my trusty
Birkenstocks but I don’t know how I would make it through without this pair of
Scarpa Gortex. They had amazing grip for going up and down the rivers and
rocks, and also the waterproof aspect was really a key feature. Highly
recommend.
After the first 2km, we were awed by the views of the fjords
and waterfalls. Trolltunga is really very beautiful!
When we finally reached the peak, I was shivering! I was
wearing a pink Uniqlo (supposedly waterproof) jacket and it was all wet. Please
get a waterproof jacket for your trip, it gets quite windy and rainy when you
reach the peak, and there’s also a massive queue to get your picture on the
signature troll’s tongue.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself and made it down in time
for dinner at 8pm. We were really tired on the way down and I was super hungry
so we hitch-hiked on a lorry. We were so thankful that we bought the drivers
some drinks and they were really happy too!
We stayed at the 2-bedroom apartment near Gunerloka for our
Oslo trip. Driving straight from Trolltunga, we passed by Kinsarvik where we
stopped by this café.
It was quite slow. When we explained that we had to return
our rental car, the waiter told us that it was not fast food. That said, the
menu had BLT sandwich and pizza? The pasta came out stuck together and I think
they didn’t add enough salt? My lamb stew was alright but not very tender. The
bread they served was really good though.
Oslo is called the tiger city and there was a tiger right
outside the main Oslo railway station. There is a lot of debate regarding the
etymology of the word ‘tiger’.
For dinner, K was craving Asian food so we had Thai
curry.
We only had the next day to explore Oslo and I’m a checklist
kind of person so it was really rushed!
We started off by visiting the Munch Museum. I guess most of
you would be familiar with “The Scream”. However, there are other amazing
paintings by Munch where he plays with space and dark themes. I found it
interesting how he likes to place characters at the forefront of the painting,
having a kind of 3D effect. He also did a few paintings with reference to the
French revolution.
We then headed to the Oslo Opera House. It’s in the shape of
an iceberg and the architects did a walking marble slope outside so that the
public has their own ‘stage’ to walk around. Inside, there is a sweet-wrapper
foil motif on the stage curtains as the architect was inspired when he saw an
open sweet wrapper in his friend’s house. I really liked the marble they used
for the opera house.
We went to get seafood at Mathallen. It’s a food hall, I was hoping for more Norwegian food but
it was more an international mix.
The most interesting store was the Norwegian cheesemonger - I'm a hardcore cheese fan and spend about £10 a week on cheese for myself. I got to try the famous Norwegian brown cheese. I had a chat
with the cheesemonger and he said that it’s different from the French cheeses
that we are used to. They don’t separate the whey from the curd and so the
cheese caramelises so it is a cheese that actually tastes sweet. We also tasted
elk sausage!
We took a bus to the Viking Museum where we saw the old
Viking ships. I appreciate the efforts the university puts into 3D printing to
upkeep the structure of the boats. We also stopped by the Kon Tiki Museum to
see the show. Another museum nearby that people do visit is the Fran Museum but we had a tight schedule and wanted to go to the famous park before dinner, so we decided to give it a miss.
Dinner was at Statholdergaarden. It was really good!! When you think of Nordic food, you think about the overused sour drops and heavy alkalinity with freshly foraged flowers generously spread around. Statholdergaarden was a gamechanger as they really incorporated local Nordic ingredients (including the sweet brown cheese that I was raving about). The setting was also extremely grand, and we both enjoyed the meal :)
If you like coffee (we both love coffee!), it would be worth trying out Tim Wendelboe. We got the tasting set and really enjoyed the acidity and aroma of the coffee grounds.
We also fika-ed at another cafe before we caught our flight back to London.
Really enjoyable trip!
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