rljlowe: Surprise Trip to Norway!

As you can probably guess from the title, Rob took me on a surprise trip to Norway for my birthday. Last year he surprised me with tickets to Coldplay (amazing) and said that this year he would keep his present low-key but of course, he decided against that. With a little help from Sels and some little white lies told here and there, they managed to keep the trip a complete secret.

Rob made some pretend airline tickets letting me know the dates that we were travelling, but nothing else. I had mentioned to the girls in Bristol that Rob had planned a surprise trip and they were all asking me where I thought I was going, even Sels was joining in, the sly fox. I was under the belief that Sels was flying from Gatwick back to Norway, and Rob and I were flying from Stansted the same day but to another, secret location. When we arrived at Stansted we decided to get some food before checking in, as we were walking to the restaurant section, Sels jumped out at me and just shouted "YOU'RE GOING TO NORWAY" over and over, running around me like a little puppy. I couldn't believe I was finally going to be visiting my bestie's home-turf, excited was a complete understatement. We checked in and had a couple of hours before our flight, so we sat in one of the cafes and finally had our cream tea.

Forward to a couple of hours later, we arrived in Norway and surprised Tom (Sels' boyfriend) who was only expecting to pick up Sels from the airport - I was finally let in on a surprise and it was fantastic. We arrived late in the afternoon so we just spent the rest of the evening shopping for food, catching up and then eating the food, what more could you want?

Day // One

First day of our mini break and we went for a walk in the woods, which was also right next to a beach, and also surrounding a rocky hilltop. We donned our hiking boots, packed a lunch (side note: Rob was very taken aback by mayonnaise in a bag) and off we went! We had a lovely little walk through the woods, stopping at the beach to take some cayoot pictures before continuing on our journey to the lighthouse, a.k.a. the picnic stop. It had been raining so it felt more like a treacherous expedition rather than the light, relaxing walk we had originally been planning. Nevertheless, we carried on over the rocks until we reached our destination - the lighthouse. It was such a beautiful view from up there, you really got an idea of Norway's landscape and it made Rob and I want to come back and explore even more. The walk back seemed to go a bit quicker, we stopped off at a little pier type thing so the boys could have a dip in the water. I had my swimming costume on but quickly decided it was way too cold to get in and from the reaction of the boys as they got in the water, I was right!

Day // Two

We had a lazy start to the day partly because of the weather, and also because we had stayed up quite late the night before watching the election results from England. I've never really been in to politics, but there was something about this election that really fired an interest inside me; so much so that trying to sort out how I was going to vote on holiday was part of the reason why Rob told me we would be going away, instead of keeping it a surprise (hilar). Anyway, we had a late start and agreed that another walk would be lovely, this time into the town to have a look around a Norwegian shopping centre. We stopped off at a little 50s style cafe and sat out in the garden for some coffees and a catch up whilst the weather was still nice. On our way to the bus stop Sels insisted that Rob tried Pølse, a sort of hotdog, because it's kind of a big deal in Norway. Safe to say, he loved it and I imagine I would have to back in the day.

Day // Three

We had such a busy day this day. We decided to ride bikes into the town because there was a "festival" going on. I use the word "festival" lightly because it was more of a family gathering with some food and weird performers thrown in the mix. Not really for us, so instead we tried to find a relatively cheap and quiet cafe to get a drink before heading back but everywhere was just a little bit too expensive, as it is in Norway. On our way back home, we stopped off at the shops to buy some extra bits of food for the BBQ we were planning to have. I really wish I'd bought hundreds of bottles of this sweet, mustard condiment called "Pølsemaker" by Bergbys, I swear I'm still dreaming of the taste. Before we settled down to have the BBQ, we went for another walk albeit a shorter one. We went to a little beach that had a diving board off some of the rocks so the boys could freeze themselves in the water, yet again! I think they were trying to do some impressive backflips but it really didn't work, we were laughing at them rather than gazing in wonderment. Sorry lads.

Day // Four

A mostly uneventful day, Rob and I spent some time packing in the morning so we would be ready to fly back home that afternoon. As with Sels' departure from Bristol, the Norwegian sky was crying for us as we left, a clear sign that we should go back sometime quite soon in the future. Before we could get on the plane, I had to buy some chocolate that Sels had bought me before because again, it was amazing. I think I should just move to Norway because I clearly love their food more than ours. As you can tell from the picture below, I may have gone slightly overboard...