Trondheim Trip
Trondheim Trip in December 2014 :D
From the 3rd til 8th of December I was in Norway for the first time in my life. This is my second trip to Scandinavia and I'd like to share with you guys what I was doing for those really tightly packed 6 days
When you set off for you trip, there are some things that could be useful to know:
It get's dark already around 4pm in December - so keep that in mind when you plan to rent a car and don't know the area so well yet.
I took the Vaernesekspressen from Vaernes Airport into the city which is a 45min drive away (careful the English Version of the site is somehow broken, but Google translate can fully recover all the important information).
This is for students the cheapest way to get from the airport to Trondheim, it costs usually 150NK for adults, students get a special price of 100NK, if you book online it's even cheaper.
1€ = 8,19NK (from the 3rd December 2014)
Although I have packed a lot of activities into my holiday, the most significant would be my first real hiking trip with my friend.
I would like to point out that I am not a seasoned wanderer, but my friend is - he goes into the mountains a lot, and never alone. So if you intend to go hiking, I suggest you always have somebody with your team that know his hiking-shit.
In case you don't want to die out there or something. Basic stuff.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology owns several mountain huts around Trondheim, which you can rent if you are a member of their hiking club (which my friend is :D ) for approx. 4€ per person.
That's cheap you say, but trust me - the real price is paid by the way you get there ;)
In December the weather is still relatively mild in Trondheim, due to the Gulf Stream, so it is only natural that you encounter little to heavy rainfall - in our case that caused our route to flood and the swamps to get ...swampier?
Very important if your route goes through swamps!
Swamps are an early stage in pedogenesis, it begins by water gathering on naked rocks and slowly giving the foundation for small plants to form conglomerations of plant 'islands' which then start to grow together and make it actually possible to walk over them.
It is very important that you know which part of the swamp you can walk on - morass i.e. can be very dangerous because you can get stuck in it!
The color of the moss can give you a glimpse of which plants it is safe to walk on:
From the 3rd til 8th of December I was in Norway for the first time in my life. This is my second trip to Scandinavia and I'd like to share with you guys what I was doing for those really tightly packed 6 days
 |
| Gamle Bybro - Old Town Bridge in Trondheim |
It get's dark already around 4pm in December - so keep that in mind when you plan to rent a car and don't know the area so well yet.
I took the Vaernesekspressen from Vaernes Airport into the city which is a 45min drive away (careful the English Version of the site is somehow broken, but Google translate can fully recover all the important information).
This is for students the cheapest way to get from the airport to Trondheim, it costs usually 150NK for adults, students get a special price of 100NK, if you book online it's even cheaper.
1€ = 8,19NK (from the 3rd December 2014)
Although I have packed a lot of activities into my holiday, the most significant would be my first real hiking trip with my friend.
I would like to point out that I am not a seasoned wanderer, but my friend is - he goes into the mountains a lot, and never alone. So if you intend to go hiking, I suggest you always have somebody with your team that know his hiking-shit.
In case you don't want to die out there or something. Basic stuff.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology owns several mountain huts around Trondheim, which you can rent if you are a member of their hiking club (which my friend is :D ) for approx. 4€ per person.
That's cheap you say, but trust me - the real price is paid by the way you get there ;)
In December the weather is still relatively mild in Trondheim, due to the Gulf Stream, so it is only natural that you encounter little to heavy rainfall - in our case that caused our route to flood and the swamps to get ...swampier?
Very important if your route goes through swamps!
Swamps are an early stage in pedogenesis, it begins by water gathering on naked rocks and slowly giving the foundation for small plants to form conglomerations of plant 'islands' which then start to grow together and make it actually possible to walk over them.
It is very important that you know which part of the swamp you can walk on - morass i.e. can be very dangerous because you can get stuck in it!
The color of the moss can give you a glimpse of which plants it is safe to walk on:
Green moss: 'youngest' generation and very weak to tread on, you sink in the deepest here
 |
| Different Colours of the Shitty Moss |
Red-orangy moss: can easily be mistaken as safe ground, but you still sink in 10-15cm into the water beneath is
Brown-reddish moss: this is the darkest color and the 'oldest' / result of several moss generations in this spot - you sink in 1-2cm but stay relatively dry
All in all the route on the first day took 4h in total, it was rainy and I didn't see any fucking other life form, than some fish under a bridge we passed on the way.
But it was great.
You might not take me for serious, but at some point of the hike I was scared shitless. But my friend seemed like he'd done this a million times, and so I placed my life in his hands^^ I mean, if we actually got into a tight spot and were to die of cold in Norway, I'd wouldn't want my last moments to be filled with crying and whining and all that stuff.
I don't know about you, but hiking can actually bring you to your limits - emotionally and physically. So be warned or take a route that goes along the streets only :)
After the aforementioned 4h we didn't manage to get to our designated spot in the mountains, which was terrifying to me at first - because my friend wanted to swim through a river (which probably still was above 0°C but still too cold for my taste) to get to the place...
Instead we went back half a kilometer or so. Lucky for us there was another hut on the way:
Good to know for for hikers - these huts are usually never locked, in case you should get lost on your way and come across one of these. They are not very luxurious, you got to fetch water from a near water source (we took ours back from a waterfall, 200m away or so) and chop some wood to fire up the oven.
There is also no electricity to be expected in the woods ;)
Please don't leave the hut in a mess, the next wanderer will thank it to you. What you can leave is food which you don't want to carry back again - if it is something that can keep over months, like grains, chocolate or something like that.
To keep things short, I will just post some more pictures of the hike^^
After hiking for more than 25km on the 3rd day all I wanted was a shower and to spend the rest of my holiday in horizontal mode. Lying down.
The funny part is, you are not tired but your legs - they just.hate.you.
But of course I can't waste a day with lying down and sleeping time away...
The following days consisted of wandering around the city of Trondheim, going Ice bathing (that is considered a sport here!) and shopping for souvenirs :)
Don't worry, this is not going to be a haul about Norwegian makeup products or clothes,
in fact I am more of a functional person:
I bought myself a Windbreaker form Haglöff (approx. 250€ - cost me only 80€),
a pair of good hiking shoes from LOWA with GorTex soles (approx. 180€ - cost me only 60€),
and several local specialities which include:
a cheese called Brunost (brown cheese) that has a caramel-like taste and is consumable to high lactose intolerant people, several canned meats with liver sausage - amongst them the acclaimed can of 'kid in a tin' a very common brand in Norway^^, some canned Makrele (fish in tomato sauce), Blackberry Syrup and I'm very proud of this one:
A 30cm Reindeer salami. It is currently in the freezer until I have the right occasion to eat that salami. Maybe I share it. Maybe I won't.
The future is still unwritten^^
I know this post was long overdue, and is probably not that interesting (considering there are over 2mio other articles on the net regarding trips to Norway). But this was my experience and I loved it.
Buy food - not shitty souvenirs that nobody will cherish!
Your friends are gonna love Brunost :)
All in all the route on the first day took 4h in total, it was rainy and I didn't see any fucking other life form, than some fish under a bridge we passed on the way.
But it was great.
You might not take me for serious, but at some point of the hike I was scared shitless. But my friend seemed like he'd done this a million times, and so I placed my life in his hands^^ I mean, if we actually got into a tight spot and were to die of cold in Norway, I'd wouldn't want my last moments to be filled with crying and whining and all that stuff.
I don't know about you, but hiking can actually bring you to your limits - emotionally and physically. So be warned or take a route that goes along the streets only :)
After the aforementioned 4h we didn't manage to get to our designated spot in the mountains, which was terrifying to me at first - because my friend wanted to swim through a river (which probably still was above 0°C but still too cold for my taste) to get to the place...
Instead we went back half a kilometer or so. Lucky for us there was another hut on the way:
 |
| Glorious Mountain Retreat |
There is also no electricity to be expected in the woods ;)
Please don't leave the hut in a mess, the next wanderer will thank it to you. What you can leave is food which you don't want to carry back again - if it is something that can keep over months, like grains, chocolate or something like that.
To keep things short, I will just post some more pictures of the hike^^
After hiking for more than 25km on the 3rd day all I wanted was a shower and to spend the rest of my holiday in horizontal mode. Lying down.
The funny part is, you are not tired but your legs - they just.hate.you.
But of course I can't waste a day with lying down and sleeping time away...
The following days consisted of wandering around the city of Trondheim, going Ice bathing (that is considered a sport here!) and shopping for souvenirs :)
Don't worry, this is not going to be a haul about Norwegian makeup products or clothes,
in fact I am more of a functional person:
I bought myself a Windbreaker form Haglöff (approx. 250€ - cost me only 80€),
a pair of good hiking shoes from LOWA with GorTex soles (approx. 180€ - cost me only 60€),
and several local specialities which include:
a cheese called Brunost (brown cheese) that has a caramel-like taste and is consumable to high lactose intolerant people, several canned meats with liver sausage - amongst them the acclaimed can of 'kid in a tin' a very common brand in Norway^^, some canned Makrele (fish in tomato sauce), Blackberry Syrup and I'm very proud of this one:
A 30cm Reindeer salami. It is currently in the freezer until I have the right occasion to eat that salami. Maybe I share it. Maybe I won't.
The future is still unwritten^^
I know this post was long overdue, and is probably not that interesting (considering there are over 2mio other articles on the net regarding trips to Norway). But this was my experience and I loved it.
Buy food - not shitty souvenirs that nobody will cherish!
Your friends are gonna love Brunost :)
Merry Christmas!
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