We are Kara and Nate and we're currently traveling through our 95th country of Norway.
This morning we woke up in an incredible tree house in the Norwegian wilderness.
And after savoring every last moment in our elevated paradise, we eventually made our way back to Oslo.
It is currently 9 30 p.m.
We have just arrived at the train station, and our overnight train for Stavanger leaves in just under an hour.
Let's go!
This whole journey should take about nine hours, and tomorrow we'll wake up on the west coast of Norway.
We have traveled on a lot of overnight trains over the last few years.
I'm not showered yet and I'm wearing all the same clothes.
Well, we're in there for five hours.
He said, this is for romance.
Do you agree with that, Arminio?
And I said, no.
And he said, why?
And I said, I don't know.
This is our home for the night.
I guess this is home for the next 16 hours.
We now have five people in the room, and I'm questioning the cleanliness of everything.
If the price of this ticket is any indication, this should be one of the nicest trains we've ever ridden.
It was expensive.
So they don't call the tickets that we've booked first class here in Norway, they just call it a compartment.
But it's what you consider first class on most trains.
I think this is the easiest time we've ever had finding a train.
I feel like normally we're running up to it at the last minute trying to figure out which track we're on, and now we have less than 10 minutes till our train leaves and we have no clue where we're going.
We're here full 20 minutes early.
What do we do with ourselves?
These things are quick.
So we met the train attendant in the dining room car and he checked us in and gave us a key.
First key on the train.
What number are we?
131.
85, 21, 25, 11, 15.
Do you think we keep going?
So this says 131, 135, and this says 35 and 31.
I just feel like this is ours.
I think someone's found our room.
Yeah, that says 135.
Oh, yeah, we did walk right past it, didn't we?
Thank you.
Hopefully it didn't break us.
Wow.
I know.
One, three, one.
One, three, five.
Oh, thank you.
It opens up.
Oh, sweet home.
It's very... stand up in here with my bag on.
Oh wow, we have a sink with soap and there's chocolate on the bed.
I wonder where the slider goes.
Oh, it is toasty.
This seems to be a theme on our train journeys.
You want the top or the bottom though, and we're off.
We somehow managed to find a room right before the train left, as usual, so this is a feature that i've never seen on the train before that i really liked.
They have these seats that just flip down the hallway, so if you don't feel like hanging out in your compartment, you can come sit in the hallway check out the views.
There's not much of one right now, but We'll be nice as soon as they come.
Here, let me show you around our room.
We each got a bottle of water in addition to our chocolates.
And we have clean towels this time.
Maybe it's clean, it's just stained.
Pillows are decent.
And the beds. are actually really comfortable.
I think this is the most comfortable bed that we've ever had.
We have a nice thick blanket, a nice thick mattress, and clean this white sheet.
And we both have an outlet right next to our bed, with There's also an outlet in the bathroom, which is nice.
And lots of buttons over here.
So we each have our own set of buttons.
The top one is assistance.
Glad I read that before I pressed it.
A reading light.
This one.
There it is.
And the ceiling light.
And we have temperature control in our room.
We've never had this before.
I'm going to crank this down a little bit.
Some speakers, some hooks. hanger.
So it's really small, but I feel like it's done really well.
Like it's very well organized for such a tiny space.
Like a tiny home.
I just love that it's clean.
It smells nice.
I can just relax, like take my stuff out and not feel like getting contaminated.
It's a great home for the next nine hours.
Time for a bathroom tour.
The smell is not the best, but it's not the worst I've ever experienced.
Nice big bottle of soap, running water, paper towels, toilet paper, toilet flush button.
This in front of me forgot to flush.
It's really not bad.
Everything is dry, which I like.
How was it?
Pretty uneventful, which is a good thing for the bathroom drawer.
No, and I didn't buy wool pots.
I don't know what this is.
You're able to turn the water on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It flushes.
It's not a hole in the ground.
No.
It doesn't go straight onto the tracks.
Correct.
The most uneventful train ride we've ever had.
You don't have to cross a border.
They can see the police station.
We're stopped.
Temperature's been like pretty normal.
AC.
Thankfully our new friends travel lightly.
Take the key.
Hotel medical.
I feel like we're at a hotel.
Can't remember how I opened this.
We're in the food court.
Smells like a hot dog.
Huge meat, meatballs with mushy peas, chicken curry noodles.
So this train is different than any other overnight train we've ever booked before, because you really only have two options.
You either sit in a chair all night or you have a compartment all to yourself.
There's no in between.
Normally on a train there's like compartments where you can like share with three other people, or even if you were to book first class, like this, you can book the top bunk and a stranger could book the bottom bunk.
But here, if you book a compartment, you have it all to yourself for the entire night.
I don't know.
It's just interesting.
I feel like that's kind of like part of the weird quirkiness of train travel a lot of times is sleeping with strangers.
But in Norway they don't give you that option.
So nice having a sink in our room.
Mm-hmm.
Quick tip for train travel.
Pack your toothbrush in your backpack or your small bag, not your big suitcase, because it's a pain in the butt if you have to try to open your big suitcase to get your toothbrush, like I just did.
I'm not really good at remembering to do that.
Oh, I was supposed to use that water.
Oh, I did.
Okay, Nate.
Time to buckle up.
Perfect.
Reminds me so much of being a child.
Our train arrives in six hours and 20 minutes.
Time to go to sleep.
Morning.
Morning.
Okay.
Let's see if I can find coffee.
Good luck.
How'd you sleep?
I didn't wake up a single time.
Guess what else?
Coffee's free.
What?
I think I heard someone.
Thank you.
I would say that is the easiest overnight train we have ever taken.
Made it to Stavanger.
No problem.
My accent was that.
That's what I said on the announcement.
You sounded French.
Stavanger.
Heh heh heh.
It's official.
Stavanger is the best.
We just walked by this grocery store.
So we thought we'd stop and get some breakfast before we head to our Airbnb.
And they have free coffee too.
Just at these little tables outside.
We were standing here trying to decide if we should get breakfast now or go drop our stuff off.
And the guy was setting it up and he was like, please sit.
It's free.
Breakfast.
It was quite the experience.
All three employees in the store were on the hunt to help me find cereal.
I tried to buy milk.
Normally I don't ask.
Normally I'm just like, surely this is milk.
But thankfully I did.
I almost bought strawberry milk.
That would have been interesting over my Cheerios.
It's like the little things that you take for granted when you travel that are actually hard.
I cannot tell you how many times I've bought yogurt instead of milk.
And it's always some kind of like weird sour yogurt and a milk looking card.
It's so cute.
Oh, this is really nice.
Our cute little Norwegian home.
Wow, look at our kitchen.
A little bit more space than our tiny home and our overnight drink combined.
I will say I've been pleasantly surprised about the prices in Norway.
Same.
I'd heard this is one of the most expensive countries in the world and to be able to get this place in like a pretty touristy city for less than a hundred dollars a night.
And I think like five people can sleep here.
There's another bedroom over there, a couch.
I am very impressed.
Yeah, i mean, i don't, maybe it's because we went to switzerland and that just like got me prepared, but this is great.
This is really nice, good place to work for a few days.
Oh wow okay, i know these are twin beds, but i think i'm gonna sleep here.
This is the squishiest mattress and pillow and blanket.
Look at this cute little fireplace.
And we even have a balcony.
This place is perfect.
I love all of these old houses.
I just feel like I've gone back in time to like a Norwegian fishing village.
Let's extend our time.
Goodbye.
These houses are so cute.
I just said the same thing.
I was like, ow, my ears.
Are we in a tunnel?
Why does that keep happening?
I can't watch my teeth and not shake the camera.
I missed you though.
That was awkward.
You bet the people on the first floor are happy too
