I’m typing this from our hotel in Bergen, completely exhausted. As an experienced traveler, I’m also entirely sure we need to stay up a couple more hours to prevent jet lag. Burning a full day on travel is pretty much a requirement for international adventure, but woof. This part sucks.

Still, it was a memorable day. We saw the Aurora Borealis somewhere between Canada and Greenland. We witnessed a fellow passenger getting into a shouting match with a flight attendant. We had delays in Seattle and in Amsterdam, but it all worked out. We ate “breakfast” (who knows what that meal was to our body clocks) at McDonald’s in Amsterdam and holy smokes—if they start selling the “Liverpool” breakfast in the states, it’s game over for me (croissant with butter & jam, egg mcmuffin that I think substituted hamburger for sausage, and coffee that I’m pretty sure was straight espresso). The first thing we saw when we landed in Bergen was a large sign that read “Bergen?” After almost 24 hours of travel, we sure hope so!

After we checked into our hotel, we walked across the street to the harbor and ordered fish stew and a shrimp platter to share. Being Americans, we assumed the large portion was for sharing, but… Well, see below. The fish stew was AMAZING. Creamy, but not thick, and mouthfuls of salmon and some kind of white fish (cod maybe?). Don’t get me started on European bread.

After that, we came back to the hotel and killed as much time as we could before passing out (read: about how long it took me to write this).

Here were a few snaps from the day.