I am back from my travels with lots of fabulous memories and tales…

I honestly can't believe that I've been home for almost three weeks already, that’s hugely heart-breaking. I found it just as heart-breaking to write this piece, but I did smile and giggle at all of the silly moments I remembered along the way. My aim was to get a blog post out the Friday I got home, but unfortunately fate had other ideas. We’ll get to that later.

The entire trip was just amazing, from start to finish, even though I was in writhing pain (no joke, on the floor, attractive) for almost half of it. The ‘Scenic Scandi’ tour run by Topdeck really was scenic, the sights were stunningly beautiful. From fjords that went on forever to wild reindeer within reaching distance. It was the most amazing trip I’ve taken, and I’m so beyond glad that I took the plunge and booked it. I learnt a lot along the way, that I am so much stronger than I imagined, that you always meet the most amazing people when you least expect it, and that I can still laugh all night long.

I really did try so hard to keep a travel diary, but I was having so much fun that I didn’t have the time to spare. I finally tried to catch up on day 3 but the boys were on their way to tear me away from my pen because I wasn’t living it up with them. Oops! But I guess that’s the sign of an amazing trip, when you don’t have the spare time to take notes. So let me tell you all about it… and the Londoner, the Kiwi, the Ozzie, and the American. My brilliant Topdeck family.

DAY 1 & DAY 2

Day one and day two blend together a little too well. I think the exhaustion of the travelling to reach the first campsite along with the excitement (maybe the endless rum and cokes) had something to do with it.

After a gruelling over-night bus ride from Cornwall to Bristol to London I finally made it to the airport for a very early morning flight to Oslo, Norway. One of the guys from my Topdeck tour was due to land just 25 minutes after I did, so we agreed to meet up at the airport and head to the first campsite together. The fun definitely began from the moment we met. Que the Londoner. I won’t bore you with the details of our ridiculous task of trying to find our first camp site, but one train ride and one painfully expensive taxi ride later we finally made it. Bags dropped off, back in another painfully expensive taxi, and hunger pangs were sated right in the middle of Oslo's port. We had perfect views of the bustling port, enormous fjord, large ferries, and mountainous terrain whilst we cheersed our first very expensive holiday beers.

First meal done and we met up with another two Topdeckers (que the Kiwi) who had spent the previous day wandering around Oslo. Old Norway met new Norway in so many areas, with lovely little old buildings tucked away between huge modern works and museums, along with a very randomly placed pebbly beach right in the city. It felt like Switzerland had gotten a very modern upgrade, but it definitely felt like Europe. The port itself was incredibly vibrant, with lots of food trucks, and live street music. We stopped to have a look at a surprisingly positioned yet very popular pebble beach, situated between two very modern museums. The water was cool, though the pebbles were a challenge.

A few hours of wandering and we stopped to wait for another Topdecker to catch up with us before we all made our way back to the campsite to meet the rest of our two-week Topdeck family. We spent the evening getting to know each other, but mostly sitting with the guys on the decking of the fabulous wooden chalets that would be our home for the next two nights. Que the American. 

After our first Topdeck dinner and a quick introduction around the camp, we learnt that there was a fairly large lake a mere 10 minute walk from our campsite. We all sauntered over to take in the scenery, and it was perfect. A picturesque landscape with only a few other people around, and lots of little ducklings. Being our first night everyone headed to bed at a reasonable time.

Day two brought our first group breakfast, que the Ozzie, and also our first day on the Topdeck coach. The itinerary for today was a self-led wander around Oslo’s centre, but on the way we stopped at a very strange sculpture museum (Gustav Vigeland's life long works), and a handful of quick optional visits to three museums. Out of the three museums we decided to visit the Viking museum, which housed some of Norway's best-kept Viking vessels. There sadly wasn't an overwhelming amount to see in the museum, but not to worry as we happily made our own entertainment by 'exhibiting' the exhibits. A game of Cards Against Humanity and some hot drinks salvaged the museum woes, and my mini Topdeck family began to form.

Finally reaching Oslo’s city we explored it together, an incredible 23,000 steps of exploring to be exact. We started by having lunch in the very green Palace grounds before watching the change of the Royal Guard, we wandered around a local fortress and climbed onto cannons for hilarious photos (choosing to ignore the ‘do not climb onto the cannons’ signs), we walked even further to see the incredibly modern opera house, stopped for some fresh gelato, clambered onto some randomly positioned lion statues for more photos, and eventually headed back to the campsite for the largest pizzas I’ve ever seen.

My little group of 5 made our way back to the beautiful lake with some of our other Topdeck friends. A few of the group dared to swim as the rest of us sat on the jetty taking in the scenery. Card games were a great staple for the first week of our trip, though this evening it did attract some unwanted attention from the strangest Norwegian man we’ve ever met. After his drunken and somewhat offensive behaviour became a little too hilarious for the boys we headed back to the campsite where everyone was already in bed. We had curfews at the campsites, but my little crew completely ignored those at every site. Everyone else was in bed by 10pm whilst we were still going strong until somewhere between 1am-3am each night. Cards Against Humanity, Ring of Fire, and any other ridiculous games we could come up with really did take over. Our laughter together had just begun. 

DAY 3 & DAY 4

Day three took us on our journey to Lillehammer, where we stopped at the winter Olympic bobsledding track. As frightening as it was we did get to race on the Olympic track. The Ozzie and I, along with our Topdeck leader and chef, were gifted with the blessing of going first. The boys made sure we had a hefty push down the track. Thanks boys. It was the craziest and strangest experience, incredible G-force at 164 miles per hour. Trying to sit upright was a hardship, and we were so thankful for the helmets, but what an experience - to be able to say you've bobsled along a Winter Olympic course.

The views on the drive from stop to stop were just incredible. Think mountains, think waterfalls, it was all just as beautiful as I had expected. The entire first week provided us with beautiful picturesque views. The mountains were incredibly high and their waterfalls met beautifully blue rushing rivers and lakes. 

Excitement of bobsledding over and we headed to Åndalsnes and my favourite campsite of the trip. We stayed here for two nights, and the jealously of the boys' rooms began. Somehow they always managed to best us with far larger and more accommodating rooms.  The breath-taking snow-topped mountains that landscaped our chalets and the enormous flowing river we were bunked next to made up for it, and so did our hilarious curfew-breaking antics.

Day four’s very early start led us to Trollstigen and Troll Pass. Troll Pass consists of eleven scarily tight turns along and up the side of a mountain. The group assured me that the views were lovely, as I closed my eyes and snapped away with my phone. Fears of peering over a sharp edge aside, it was magical to see an enormous waterfall run the whole way down the mountain we were ever-climbing.

We began to see a little more snow on the mountain tops from here onward, and after a quick mini-ferry ride we reached Geiranger-fjord, We had a very quick wander around a pretty little town, revitalising with hot drinks and pastries, before heading onto our fjord cruise. Simply amazing.

This has to be one of my favourite days from the fifteen day trip. An hour’s ride along the fjords showed us beautiful mountain ranges topped with snow and dripping with waterfall after waterfall. The tour really was living up to its scenic promises. We stopped at a beautiful spot for lunch, right at the bottom of a stream that flowed out into the fjord we had just travelled along, with a waterfall crashing away above it. We stopped for a few photos with the waterfall before clambering back onto the coach.

A quick stop at Trollstigen on the way back to test how cold the waters were and we began to descend down Trolls Pass, much to my excitement. More closed eyes from me.

Back at the campsite for one of the most brilliant nights filled with laughter. Me and my little crew were still gathered together, with a whole lot of Finlandian Vodka. Curfew tonight was 11pm, and even after being told off by a very upset woman I think we made it to roughly 3am before sneaking back into our own chalets.

DAY 5 & DAY 6

Day five we sadly had to leave the Åndalsnes campsite behind us and head to Trondheim and its beautiful Old Town. We briefly wandered around the Nidaros church gardens before stopping on a floating bar for some pretty darn expensive draft beers. The Old Town was small but lovely, so tidy, so vibrant, and so colourful. If you've visited Copenhagen, think individually coloured buildings along the rivers. This is exactly how Trondheim's Old Town was. 

Back onto the coach and we headed for Hell. Oh yes, there really is a place called Hell in Norway, with it's very own Hollywood mimicking sign. We stopped there for some candid shots and even sent ourselves postcards, stamped from Hell. The boys by now (the Londoner, the Kiwi, and the American) had grown accustomed to ‘boy band’ shots, and so naturally we had to make sure they got the perfect Hell shot for their soon-to-drop album. I'm sure they ended up with a full photo-shoot by the end of the trip.

After a few stops at supermarkets, and the finding of some very questionable ice cream flavours, we finally arrived at our next temporary home, Koa Camping. The scenery was wonderful. The campsite was on the edge of a large fjord, and facing the perfect direction to watch the sun travel the whole stretch of the sky.

A few competitive games done and dinner out of the way, a few of us gathered to spend the evening playing Viking chess. It made for such a great ice breaker around the group, we were getting violent (though he says it was an accident… tactics…), dancing ridiculously to put each other off, and just laughing all evening long. Curfew dawned and all of our Topdeck friends vanished into their rooms, leaving our little group of five to get back to what we clearly did best on this trip – laugh all night long. By this point we’d reached 24 hour daylight territory, which made it very dangerous to gage what time of day or evening or night it really was. We thought 3am was actually 7pm, and at that point we decided to call it a night and sneak back to our chalets.

Day six was a fairly relaxing day, and I honestly struggled to recall much of it. At our new temporary home the boys were again just two or three doors down from us. A lake ran around the site and so we all took advantage of the warm weather and headed over for a sunbathe and a swim. Sadly as soon as we got there the sun vanished behind never-ending cloud and so sunbathing was out of the question. I never did get to make use of my band new bikini. Heading back to our chalets we did see that Viking chess was back on the cards and so we watched that for a little while whilst sitting around our chalets having a few more beers and evening chit chats. A quick walk around the campsite and we all turned in for the night.

DAY 7 & DAY 8

Day seven took us on a 6km trek to and from Svartisen glacier. The terrain was a bit up and down, lots of jumping, a little climbing, but eventually we made it to the glacier. The pink hiking boots really came in handy today. The glacier itself really was something to see, but sadly the rain began and we couldn’t make it all the way over to touch it. It was an incredible collection of pure blue ice. The views to and from the glacier were just as amazing, with a hidden waterfall appearing from within the rocks. Brave enough to get close I did manage to have a taste, and as well as being fairly chilly it was beautifully fresh.

On from the glacier we visited the Arctic Polar Circle. I was pretty excited for this little stop, but did expect  more snow than we found. The main thing is that we did indeed find some. Que a dodgy message from the Kiwi who was trying to lure us outside to an ambush in the form of a snow-ball attack. Thankfully the Ozzie and I managed to avoid it by walking in the wrong direction. We still found our snow though, after trekking through a little foliage, and snapped our own ‘girl band’ shot for a change - sorry boys. 

When made it to camp and pure excitement made its way around the group. We had personal showers and toilets inside our chalets. So far spent the week walking to and from communal showers and toilets, which is fine, it was doable, we all managed it, but oh it was pure bliss to have personal showers. Each chalet even had cute little attic rooms for a third and fourth roomie.

Unfortunately here’s where my bad news comes in.  Mere hours after reaching this luxurious location, alongside another beautiful lake, I was rolling around on the bathroom floor in sheer agony with constant vomiting. At around 1am I found myself climbing into a taxi with my amazing Ozzie roomie and our Topdeck tour leader. I don’t remember the taxi ride to or from the clinic, I was out cold. I think I was at the clinic for around an hour, but within minutes had had a blood test, an anti-sickness injection, and was on a drip for severe dehydration. Hello kidney stones. That dealt with, we were back in our room before I knew it - because I again couldn't remember the entire taxi journey. Wonderful roomie no.3 was just fabulous and she was already up and waiting to make sure I was ok. At this point I must say an incredibly enormous thank you to all of those girls who stood around me trying to help and make me feel better whilst I very attractively rolled around in my pjs on the wet bathroom floor - vet and all.

Day eight was a very hazy coach ride for me, and I slept through most of it curled up along the back seats. Eventually we reached our next next chalet stop where on today's itinerary was the very cold polar-plunge challenge. I must admit, after a quick peek at the rushing rapids I am fairly glad I couldn't dive in. After shimmying to our beautiful chalets and crawling onto the sofa, I did get to hear everyone else jumping in. If you do ever attempt the polar-plunge challenge, do take care where you jump in and in which direction you intend to swim to sure. Luckily our American was a fully trained lifeguard and saved the day. 

After being tucked in on the sofa I did unfortunately miss a marsh-mallow roasting this night, it was a little too far for me to wander to with my kidney pain levels changing constantly. I do love a good marshmallow, but I also love a double bed - and as this was the only one we saw for the entire trip I made the most of it. 

DAY 9 & DAY 10

Day nine saw a lot of pain killers and a lot of trying to get comfortable at the front of the coach. Barely being able to walk I missed out on the polar zoo, which was a little disappointing, but as it was raining everyone insisted that they saw hardly any animals emerge. My crew of four even video called me from the zoo so that I could see the reindeer. What better travel buddies could a girl wish for?!

We did make it to our next campsite in style though as we got to watch the whole Dirty Dancing movie on the coach. Up until now the coach had been a great experience, we’d gotten to see so much amazing scenery, we'd watched a few movies together, we all caught up on much needed sleep, we had a lot of laughs, and we played the odd card game. I did try my best to stay with my group, but unfortunately for me the back of the coach was constantly causing me great pain, so I reluctantly had to abandon ship and move to the front, all alone. Sob sob. 

We reached our next two-night home, and important things first - we all jumped at the chance to do some laundry. After a week of delving deep into rucksacks it was perfect timing for some clean clothes. One downside was that we were all scattered so far away from each other at this site. A handful of the girls, my Ozzie roomie and I were all in a large block together with just one shower and one toilet between us. All of the fellas were a road-crossing away on the other side of the campsite. 

Day ten was exciting as it brought our expedition to see the midnight sun, though I wasn’t quite sure if I’d make the two hour coach ride to Nordkapp to see it. But I persevered; I did not come all this way to miss out now. Thermals on and we headed off to view the sun that doesn’t set. On the way we had our first glimpses of wild reindeer and it was just fabulous! They were scattered along the landscape. I was really looking forward to seeing wild reindeer, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to on more than one occasion. 

Nordkapp was the highest point to see the sun that never sets, and so many people gather a this point in readiness for midnight where you get to watch the barely-sunset as the sun kisses the horizon and rises again. Thankfully the weather stayed somewhat clear and we took some amazing silhouette photos with the midnight sun as our backdrop before all jumping back onto the coach and making our way back to our beds for the night.

DAY 11 & DAY 12

Day eleven we said goodbye to Norway but hello to Finland, and hello to so many more wild reindeer. Being at the front of the coach (and yay, with company) I got to see reindeer running and crossing in front of us.

When you think of reindeer you of course think of Santa, and Santa’s village was our next stop. Thankfully after a good rest on the bus I was feeling a little better and was able to walk around - that’s a big bonus. Sadly we didn’t get much time to explore the village but we did make it there just in time to meet Santa himself. I can imagine that the village is simply magical at Christmas, and there are chalets you can stay in overnight. If I'm visiting Lapland in their winter months I would love to revisit Santa and his Christmas village whilst the snow is falling. 

We reached tonight’s rooms and after a little lay down I felt so much better. Though we had now given up the beauty of chalets and traded that for hostels, we were living in luxury with showers and toilets in our rooms. A quick costume change and we made our way out to a little riverside park for a few drinks and to take in the scenery, with a few unsuspecting members of our Topdeck family joining us. Viking chess, I’m telling you, it brings people together.

The weather was a little cooler in Finland and so we didn't sit around the lakeside for long. Heading back to the hostel some of our group retired to their rooms whilst the rest of us regular troopers carried on chatting away. Most of our evenings were spent sat around chatting and laughing, and these kinds of nights made for some fabulous memories. The giant mosquitos however weren't much fun.

Day twelve was another long travel day, and I really had to do some soul searching to remember this evening and night. Sadly I was in a fair amount of pain by the time we reached today’s hostel and ended up laying in the sun on the grass to ease my kidneys whilst everyone had the welcome speech - presumably why I can't remember arriving at this hostel.

Tonight was the first night we’d noticed the darkness had crept back in. All of a sudden it was black outside and we were all miffed as to how it had finally gone dark for the first time in days without any of us noticing. We'd missed dusk entirely. There wasn't much to see around the hostel and so none of us really ventured out this evening. Still in a fair bit of pain one of my long-standing roomies and I boycotted the over-indulgent alcohol activities and chatted away for hours in our room whilst attempting to watch a little Harry Potter on the iPad - with a few drunken intruders, all in good humour of course.

DAY 13 & DAY 14 & DAY 15

Day thirteen brought us to Helsinki where we stopped at the Sibelius Monument for some very random snaps before a quick peek around a church carved directly into a rock. Other than a staff member 'shhhhhing' us a lot over the tannoy (we hadn’t even said anything yet) it was a fairly interesting sight to see. There was even a small trickle of water running down one of the internal walls, which pooled at the bottom and drained away.

Our hostel tonight was a little ‘hospital’ themed. The corridors looked like the interior of a ship, and the beds were very clinical. Creepy. I wouldn't say it was my favourite accommodation, but being the penultimate night of our trip it was one of our best evenings. Me and my four nearest and dearest were together for the whole evening wandering around Helsinki together, laughing over dinner, and working out how on earth to get to some of the most random bars we could find. We jumped on two trams, followed a whole lot of Google mapping, and eventually made it to our first Finnish bar. 

Our second Finnish bar was a little more notable, with a bear skin plastered along the wall. It was such a manly bar that they didn’t even serve oj here and so I was out of the game entirely, but it was definitely worth the walk as it was an experience in itself. A few drinks later and we all caught trams back to the centre of Helsinki where there were a lot more bars and clubs, so naturally we bi-passed all of these and headed to a very randomly placed Boston Sports bar. As you do. We loved it so much that we spent the rest of the night there. The guys played poker, my Ozzie girl and I had a bit of a dance, and the laughs kept going. The vibes were great all evening long, with so many jokes that are still on-going between our group. It was a perfect end to our penultimate night.

Day fourteen was very sadly our last main day and night together. Our two hour ferry ride to Tallin, Estonia was of course laden with opportunities for entertainment. The ferry itself was enormous, and draped in mirrors from top to bottom. After a quick lunch and a brief sighting of the decks, the duty-free section was next. The sea was fairly choppy and so to save us from falling around the boat we conga’d our way around, a brilliant solution... we were certainly entertained.

Our last night was spent in a hotel, woo hoo, but of course being the last hotel the boys had to best us yet again and were given a roomy apartment for five. We did have our very own showers and toilets though, hello luxury. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Tallin, our trip leader did take us on a short walk around the old medieval town, but an extra day would've been a great opportunity to explore it fully. Our entire Topdeck crew headed into the old town of Tallin for a very questionable meal and an equally questionable mid-meal show before beginning our very organised bar crawl.

After long night of dancing, and me dragging our trip leader onto the DJ stage in the club, everyone started dwindling back to the hotel. As the boys were being sick at 3.30am I felt that was enough for me and so I also snuck back to the hotel and headed for bed. My Ozzie roomie had already long headed back to the room as she was due up at 6.30am to catch her flight home. It was our very last night rooming together. I made sure to wake up bright and early to say goodbye to her, truly sad times! It was so very strange to come home and not have her and our third roomie with me all the time. I now wake up with no-one to shout good morning at.

Day fifteen was our time to wake up, say goodbye, and head to the airport. The saddest of days. I was already awake from waving off my Ozzie girl and so met my Londoner, my Kiwi, and my American in the hotel's reception. We all piled into a taxi together before heading off to the airport. We said huge goodbyes to the Londoner and the Kiwi first before the American finally left me too. It’s incredibly sad and lonely when you’re the last one standing, waiting hours for your (very questionable) flight home, after days and days of spending almost 24 hours with the group of people you've just waved off. Eventually my time came and my flight was ready for me. Scenic Scandi tour, it was time to say goodbye. 

I spent the two weeks with the most incredible group of people, people who I hope will continue be a part of my life in any which way. In fact, they can’t get rid of me now, we’re family for life. It’s definitely the people who make the trip. The laughs, moments, and memories I had and made with them are so much more valuable than the trip itself and I am beyond grateful. I honestly couldn't explain half of the entertaining moments we all had together, but they are moments I'll certainly treasure forever. What a perfect Topdeck family!

Claudia xo