Day 3 in Norway - 7th September

Hmm what do I say…another pretty awesome day……Am starting to get quite repetitive now, I think…

Anyway, woke up around 7am and quickly showered etc. Now Bergen, as I said, is a city which receives A LOT of rainfall. So I was expecting pretty much the same kind of weather today as well. But surprise, surprise – as I woke up, it actually seemed like the sun might be coming out!! And in a little bit, the weather actually cleared completely, and it was bright and sunny!! Some clouds in the sky, but otherwise it could have been California! That was pretty awesome – quite nice to see the sun!

So I left the hostel pretty early, about 8.30ish, and then first went to take the funicular train up Mt.Floyen. This is pretty much like a cable car that goes up one of the mountains surrounding Bergen – I think there are 6-7 of them. It’s a pretty short ride up to the top – about 10min or so. The ride was fun – it was filled with a bunch of school-kids making quite a racket – I guess they don’t get good weather here often, and when they do, people party…..

From the top, you get some absolutely spectacular views of the city and the sea. And with such a clear day, it was perfect. I took my tripod with me – yes, I’ve been traveling with it, and have already used it a few times :) – and with that got some pretty cool photos which I put together later to get a panoramic view of the city and surrounding areas. Its really beautiful – in the distance you can see more mountains shrouded in clouds, then below you is the city, with some of the highways leading up to it. On your right there’s the harbor, and then the sea. The sea coming in here is basically a fjord – so there are mountains stretching out there as well. Absolutely splendid.

From this point on Mt. Floyen, there are a bunch of hiking trails that take off, which are all pretty popular. Unfortunately I didn’t have too much time as I had to take the train that afternoon – but I walked around a little bit. Some pretty nicely forested areas – wooded trails. After walking around for about half an hour, I decided to get back down. Instead of taking the cable car down, however, I just hiked down. There’s a pretty well defined path – its actually more of a gravel road – and lots of people do that. Takes about 45min – 1 hour. That was pretty cool, as at varying points you get nice views of the city. The sun was still out as well, and the sunlight streaming through the trees made the scenery picture perfect at times.

The last section of the hike down is actually a lot of steps through the upper reaches of the town. The town actually stretches part of the way up Mt. Floyen, and from the bottom looks very nice, as you see the hillside jotted with houses. As you come down, you kinda walk around all these houses.

Finally after I got back down into the city center, I went to the hostel and checked out. Left my bag there, though, and then set out to explore more of the town. First went to this church near the hostel – was quite nice. Kind of sparse, but had some nice stained glass stuff. Anyway, churches are always nice, I guess – I always enjoy visiting them in all these towns.

Bergen is a real tourist’s town – I don’t know what else happens there. Its not too big, but is quite packed with tourists. It also has a fair amount of history – it was originally the medieval capital of the Norwegian kingdom, and a major port of trade. Today there are a couple of things that draw people to it. The first is a famous fish market – supposedly one gets really good fish here for good prices, and you also get to sample a lot of interesting stuff for free, such as caviar and all. I walked through it for a little bit – pretty smelly, but I guess that works for some people!!

After that I got a sandwich and coffee for lunch at this nice bakery, and then walked around the harbor. Went into the premises of what was originally some royal hall or something, and is now maintained by the military. The main royal hall was unfortunately closed – opens only at 3pm or something. But the premises themselves are beautiful – a really nice garden, lush green grass….On one side is the harbor, so you can just look out to sea from there. So just walked around there for a bit. I also ran into this girl who recognized me from the Norway in a nutshell route yesterday – she’d also been on it, and overheard me saying I was from Stanford – and surprise, she was from SF….its strange, I’m suddenly running into a whole lot of people from the bay area……chatted with her briefly…

From there I went into the Bryggen museum. Now Bryggen (which literally means “Wharf”), was the main wharf in the original town of Bergen in the 11th century, and has been the site of supposedly highly informative archaeological discoveries. The museum is basically dedicated to displaying those discoveries. A couple of the exhibits are actually archaeological sites as they were discovered – so you see the wooden remains of houses and all in the sand itself. There’s also a partly reconstructed ship. In some of the other sections, there’re other things they excavated, common household items and so on. Basically a lot of information about the day to day life in those times. Was reasonably interesting, if not mind blowing.

From there I walked around the Bryggen area, which is one of the most popular things to do in Bergen. The main houses look out over the harbor, but behind them, there’s a whole small reconstructed “city”. Its pretty amazing – like being transported back into the ages. Except of course now the whole area is filled with souvenir shops and all! But the architecture is quite medieval. The paths are all very narrow, and the houses form a natural cover over them. A lot of these paths are actually made of wood – apparently all construction was out of wood in those days, except in the royal part of town where things are made of stone. Wood was the commoner’s material….

The entire area is constructed in a similar vein. Tourists flock to see this part of town, and there’re quite a few people around. Of course the souvenir shops have a heyday. Strangely though, I found that everything here was actually more expensive than a souvenir shop I checked out on top of Mt. Floyen. Everything was consistently at least 10-20% more expensive – I really wonder why! One would think the extra cost of getting it up onto the mountain would make that more expensive! But apparently not….

Oh, another thing I’ve realized about Norway that I didn’t know before – they have a thing about trolls! Apparently trolls are a pretty popular element in Norwegian folk tales – or so a shop-girl told me. The whole thing about trolls living in woods, being sort of mean but essentially stupid creatures, that turn into stone when they get in the sun seems to be a key element in Norwegian folklore. And so all souvenir shops are INUNDATED with troll figures, troll magnets, troll pictures, troll t-shirts and so on. Its pretty amazing – I never had any clue about this. Norway’s always been famous for the Vikings of course, and there are enough Viking souvenirs around. But I’m almost sure they’re outnumbered by troll souvenirs. I guess for tourists too they form a sort of cute element of Norwegian memories, and are thus probably pretty popular. So outside many of these shops you’ll see these little troll figures in various poses, looking quite ridiculously funny.

Anyway, wandering around town was great – its so bustling, and with the weather I think everyone just wanted to be out. Walked around some more, and then it was pretty much time to get to the station. So went to the hostel, got my backpack, and headed to the train station. From there I caught the train to oslo, and am currently sitting on it. There was one part of this train ride which I didn’t see yesterday – from Voss to Myrdal – as that was the section where, as part of the Norway in a nutshell route, I was doing fjord cruise and all. That part is just as beautiful as the rest. See a few more rocky, snowy mountains, and some more eye-catching views. There was also a mountain river flowing by us for quite a while – we were going upstream – and at times one got some cool views of the river, its rapids, small waterfalls and so on.

On the train I met this American dude who, by the strangest coincidence, is ALSO from SF. Its like I cant walk 2 steps without running into a Californian now. Very very strange indeed…..

Anyway, there’s another 3 hours or so to go before we get into oslo. Maybe I’ll sleep for a bit. Am staying tonight – and tomorrow night – in the same hostel I stayed in when I first got into oslo. So should be pretty convenient. Tomorrow will basically walk all over the city.