Back From my Trip – Scandinavia Part Two – Bergen

Copenhagen was a blast, but it was time to move onto my next adventure. Early in the morning, I woke up to get to the airport. Being the nice person that I am, I packed up all my stuff the night before so I didn’t wake up the others in my hostel room. I checked out, and walked out in the cool morning air to the Metro station.

Norwegian Airlines leaves from Terminal 2 from Kastrup Airport. Checking in and getting through security was a lesson in civility. In U.S. airports, you feel like a criminal. In Kastrup, you feel like you are being protected. The flight from Copenhagen to Bergen, Norway is quick, just about an hour. The flight was only a third full so I got to jump into an exit row window seat to sightsee.

There were lots of clouds but there were breaks where I could see the landscape unfolding under me. While Denmark is flat, Norway is mountainous. The sea encroaches into every inlet. It was literally breath-taking. Landing in Bergen was an experience that is implanted in my mind forever.

The airport in Bergen is about 20 minute bus ride from town. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a bus ticket online the night before; so all I had to do was flash my QR code at the door of the bus and bypass the long queue to purchase tickets. The bus stops at the main bus stop in town, which was the closest stop to my next hostel. After wandering in the right direction, I found the street where my hostel was located and managed to get my way there, without the usual walking in the wrong direction and backtracking that sometimes happens when I travel.

The Marken Gjesthaus is located along a main street in Bergen, but felt like an oasis. The young woman who checked me let me know that I was too early to get into the room; but offered to store my bag while I went sightseeing. She confided that rain was on the way in the afternoon and that I should enjoy the good weather while it was around. (Later, I was super grateful for that advice.)

I wandered down to the waterfront, walking along the main drag – gawking at the large ocean-going ships on one side and Bryggen, the UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, located on the other. I walked all the way down to where the cruise ships were docked before turning around to head back towards town. I stopped off at Haakon’s Hall, a 750 year old stone building that looked suspiciously like a church but was actually a royal residence and banquet hall. Sadly, it was not open for exploring; but the outside of the building was impressive. It is part of the Bergenhaus Fortress complex, which includes Rosenkrantz Tower (which was open to climb to the top but I was more fascinated with the view at ground level). If I can ever get my camera and computer to sync, I’ll upload photos.

I continued to Bryggen, a collection of buildings that were built during the days of the Hanseatic League in the 1400s. At first glance, the gently leaning buildings looked cool, but not particularly interesting – until I realized that you can go into the extremely tiny alleyways that are in between each building. Suddenly, I was able to escape the commercialism of the stores that now line the waterfront and explore the twisty passageways. It gave me a visceral sense of what it must have been like back 700 years ago when it was a bustling center for the merchants and apprentices of the League.

I sat on a park bench for a moment, enjoying the sunshine and drinking in the atmosphere. And yes, I had SPF on all exposed skin. I ended up chatting with an Indian-American couple who had been on a fancy cruise. It was nice to hear how the other half can experience Norway (even though it is unlikely that I’ll ever be able to afford it). Eventually, I walked to the fish market to browse the options for lunch that eventually ended up being too pricey for me. I went into the Visitor Center, which was located in a super modern building right next to the fish market. I badgered the girl behind the counter about my options for a fjord tour the next day, settling on the Sognefjord cruise to Flam and a train ride back to Bergen from there.

Going back to the hostel, I was able to check into my room, a 4 bed female-only room. The only other person in the room at that point was a 30-something teacher from Seattle who had been traveling around Norway for a few weeks. I snagged the bottom bunk across from her so we could sit on our bunks and chat. And chat we did. Thankfully I had gotten in a bunch of sightseeing at that point, because the heavens opened up and the deluge began. It actually thunderstormed for awhile. Ensconced in my cozy bunk, I decided to skip dinner and just snack on the random things I had thrown into my pack back in Austin.

The next day, I got up early to make my way to the dock to catch the sightseeing boat for my tour. I stopped to grab a soda and a water (in hindsight, I wish I would have grabbed some chips). By the time I rolled up to the dock at 7:35am, the line was crazy long to board. While standing in line, it began to rain. It was time to try out my new rain jacket. Finally, they let us on board and the frantic rush to find a seat near the window began. I lucked out and found an open spot in the very front row by the windows next to a wonderful German couple. We cast off and made our way through the waterways near Bergen on the way to the Sognefjord.

It was gorgeous (although stretches reminded me of areas around San Francisco). The boat is a double-hulled catamaran type and in the enclosed cabin area, I was warm and dry while viewing the scenery scrolling past the window. I was irritated by the idiots that ran up in front of me to take pictures through the windows with their flash on. Why people think they’re going to get a good photo that way is beyond me. And the woman taking pictures of pretty much everything was just wasting the memory card in her camera. None of her friends were going to be interested in sitting through 2546 images to see the one good one she managed to capture…

I digress… The Sognefjord was impressive. I felt like my head was on a swivel, trying to take everything in. I was surprised to see so many of the passengers asleep as we entered the fjord. We paid a pretty decent amount for the tour, and I was thinking that if you really wanted to sleep, a fjord tour might not be the cheapest option for a nap. Finally, we entered the fjord where Flam awaited at the end. I didn’t go on the tour that went through the narrowest UNESCO fjord, but after seeing all the cold and wet masses huddled on the exposed top deck, I was grateful that I opted for the boat tour that basically kept me warm and dry. And later, I discovered that a fire in the tunnel that the bus tours use for the Nutshell Tour meant that part of the tour was cut off and they had to take an alternative route that wasn’t as scenic.

Flam is a cute little town that in drier weather would have been lots of fun to explore. As it was, I took off on the path that climbed its way up in the hills behind the town. I huffed and puffed my way up the path to a vantage point that let me pretend that I had climbed at least halfway up the hill (I didn’t really, those mountains are huge)…

So, the German couple told me that I needed to be on the left side of the cog-wheel train for the best sightseeing, so I wriggled my way to the front of the line to be able to pick a choice spot. The train, a cute vintage style number, has red velvet cushions and large windows to gaze out of. A mother and tween daughter sat opposite from me; and it was fun to watch their interactions; the tween not yet at the point where her mother was the most embarrassing person on the planet. (I was coveting their Pringles by the end of the trip.) The first half of the trip, all the scenery was on the opposite side of the train. Curses! But then, my side of the train began to get more and more sceney. The highlight was the massive waterfall, where the train stopped for 10 minutes for everyone to run out and take photos. I had been prepared, and knew that the spray drenches everyone, including the cameras.

Eventually, we got to Myrdal, where I had to transfer to a regular Norway Rail train back to Bergen. Somehow, I ended up on the wrong side of the train for the most spectacular views. I craned my neck to gaze across the train to see, but even the small glimpses I saw were amazing. Norway had some of the most beautiful nature I’ve seen…

After about two hours, we rolled back into Bergen. It had stopped raining, but it still looked threatening. I stopped at a grocery store to stock up on snacks and made my way back to the hostel. I made it back just in time, as it started raining and raining hard again. I snuggled back into my bunk, played on my phone (thank God for free wifi), and then fell asleep to the sound of the rain beating on the window.

I didn’t have to wake up early to catch a flight, so I slept in until the late morning. I grabbed a leisurely shower, got ready, and then camped out in the common room chatting with an older American couple who were about to embark on a 10-day cruise up the western side of Norway. Finally, the rain stopped enough that I could dash to the bus station to grab the bus back to the airport to catch my flight to my next destination…

The best thing about all the rain? I didn’t have to worry about lots of UV exposure 😉