When I arrived, I realized Flam was more of a tourist village that accommodated a lot of Chinese tourists and older people, aside from the hostel that had no more space. So I’m very glad to have booked a room in a ship in the neighboring town. When I arrived to Aurlandsvagen, it took very little time to find this ship. But it was much more amazing than I expected. I still can’t believe I was the inhabitant of this max-100 person cruise ship. They usually take it to the north on 2-3 month adventures. The owner, Mads is a quirky Norwegian man who has seen much of this world, I found out later. He even has been part of a reality show that follows extreme and professional athletes when they jump out of airplanes and off of ski jumps, fly parachutes and squirrel suits.
So I was assigned to the room called “The Post Office”, probably the size of a small walk-in closet. But it was exactly what I needed – little bed, sink, mini table and enough space to change. I even had a small porthole to view the Fjords! So worth the $90/night 🙂
In the end of the day, I took a hike which kind of turned into me getting lost, then un-lost, finding some random sheep (they always seem to come in threes), a cascading waterfall and incredible views. My original plan was to try to hike to the top, but I hadn’t really checked the topography and I ended up on a slope that was around 35-40 degrees, full of rocks and impassable areas. I had to turn around, but I did manage to get about halfway up. On the way back, I could feel myself just turn into a sort of marshmallow, barely able to put one foot in front of the other.
Hanging out with some of the other inhabitants of the ship – similarly booking this lodging on Airbnb – I was once again able to practice speaking French since both families on board were from France. Thursday we go on a cruise to Sogndal and back in the same day. I offered to help, and I was put in charge of making soup and pasta for the tourists coming over from Sogndal to Flam – approx 16 Spaniards. Should be fun!!