Sumit was supposed arrive on the 2nd day of the conference and I wanted to attend some really interesting presentations. So I gave him detailed instructions (much to his amusement) on how to get to the hotel. I wrote notes and left in the room, repeating myself. Anyhow, it was good to have him there, I was beyond excited.
Trondheim used to be the capital city of Norway like ages ago. But it would be more apt to say that it is a quintessential town, or just bigger than a village. We just ended up aimlessly walking around the city. We found a lovely spot in the middle of the city to have some beer before heading off for a lovely Thai dinner.
I had planned the Cathedral for the next morning, determined to show Sumit at least part of what I experienced. Even I got a chance to see the intricate details a little closely while he was doing his whole photography thingie.
Funny side story: Seems like that day there was some sorta marathon going on. The weather was around 8 degrees and I was wearing at least 3 layers. I understand that people get over that kind of weather and are able to walk around in t-shirt and jeans, I get it. But I dont get how people can run a marathon in that weather wearing nothing but little paper, covering their essentials!
So Sumit goes to get our rented car while I head to the conference. Now he had gone thru great pains (and spent quite a bit) in getting his International License done in India and sent to Abu Dhabi, etc. He was disappointed when the lady at the car rental did not even ask for it. Plus our friend is used to driving manual cars with right side steering. We had booked an automatic and Norway was left hand drive. I can only imagine what he must have gone thru getting the car to the city. God know how many rules he violated.
In all the excitement of the car, Sumit forgot to have lunch. For someone who has a delicate stomach, he has very poor eating habits. So in my attempt to make it up, I suggest we look for an Indian restaurant and have simple daal-rice. I am really thankful that so many Indians migrated to Europe for exactly this reason, there are Indian restaurants everywhere!! Norwegian portions are huge plus rice and salad are free with the daal. Even though I ate quite a bit, more than half the food remained. So we decided to request it to be packed, hoping that Sumit would feel up to eating later.
The next morning was the first day of our drive. We had a 6 hour drive to Geirangefjord. I was expecting that with delays and stuff it will easily be like 9 hours. So we decided to have a good breakfast and carry the daal-rice from the previous day, just in case we were hungry along the way. One good thing was since it was summer time, daylight was there from 5am to 9pm.
As soon as started driving out of Trondheim, we saw mountains, some snow covered, glaciers. Everything was beautiful around us. We kept stopping to take pictures. Road signs were very easy to follow, high ways were well marked and even though we had GPS, we never really used it much. It was a little crazy at times because I had never driven on mountains before, and there were many blind turns. We stopped half way, very proud of how much distance we had covered, to have lunch in the town of Oppdal. A good 7 hours after we had left Trondheim, we reached Geirangerfjord. Until about an hour before that I was very confidently driving. As soon as we hit the hairpin bends, I gave up. Plus the roads were getting very narrow and scary for me.
We checked into our cute log cabin, which I fell in love with. I was so glad that we din decide to take a hotel room. It was so much more comfy. There was a living room with a dining table and a kitchenette, a bedroom and a lovely balcony where you could sit (if you could stand the cold) and watch the view. Since it was still bright, we decided to rent a motor boat and go explore the fjord. Don't know if it was a good idea or not. We certainly werent dressed for the cold. As soon as we hit the water, I was nervous because you suddenly realise how tiny you are in midst of huge majestic mountains which seem to be so tall, all around. Within few minutes, we had left civilisation. It was kinda surreal to be there, there was so much nature and beauty all around us. It was also kinda scary that if anything was to happen, no one would even know (except maybe the guy we rented the boat from). By the time we came back my teeth were chattering and I couldnt feel my fingers.
So what better way to end the day then to have hot hot soup and pasta, all courtesy of chef Sumit. I was too cold to move. We sat there watching Harry Potter on my chotu, with view of the fjords outside.
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