The Flaggruten, Fjords, and Bygstad

Remember in my last post about how the walk from Rasa's apartment into downtown Bergen was about a 30 minute walk? Well, once you put on a backpack, duffle bag, and are pulling a rolling duffle, a 30 minute walk turns into 45. All I have to say is I have GREAT legs now.

We dragged our luggage back into the city from Rasa's apartment to the train station so we could put them into a luggage locker then head on out on our Fjord tour onboard the Flaggruten. The Flaggruten is a fleet of high speed catamarans and lemme tell you, they can REALLY move.

We were looking forward to a relaxing day trip seeing the Fjords. We learned from the guides that several thousand years ago, Norway was COMPLETELY iced over. As the ice melted, they created incredibly deep chasms that then filled with water. These are the famous Fjords of Norway. There are hundreds of them all over the coastline of Norway. Some short and as wide as a sea, some long and narrow. All of them are several hundred feet deep. We decided to take a day trip which was still scheduled for basically 12 hours. 8am to 8pm. It really turned out to be 13 since we docked at 9:05pm. But it worked out perfectly since our overnight train back to Oslo departed at 10:58pm. We could take our all day trip, eat dinner in Bergen, then sleep on the train back to Oslo.

Our tour consisted of 3 boat and a bus leg. The longest boat trip lasted 3 hours and the bus trip lasted 2. In a previous post, I suggested taking the Oslo to Bergen train because of the amazing scenery. I also have to suggest taking a Fjord tour. They are spectacular. I've never seen scenery like it. We also were blessed with amazing weather. Bergen was supposed to rain the entire time we were here. It rained once. While we were walking back to the train station to leave town. The weather on the tour was really nice. Sometimes warm, sunny, other times overcast and hints of clouds. But no rain. Even the ship captain commented that the weather was "special" on our trip. After the first boat leg, the groups started dispersing since people were signed up for different tours. Erika and I were paired with only 1 other traveller for most of the trip. A woman named Sarah from the UK who has the most beautiful and mezmorizing accent and voice. She joined us on the 2nd boat leg and bus leg. It was a lot of fun meeting her and talking to her. That's what I've found I like about travelling. Meeting new people from all over the world and getting to know them. But I'll let the pictures of the Fjords speak for themselves but sadly, they don't even do the Fjords justice.


We also stopped for about an hour in a town called Bygstad. It's a very small town along the Fjord that has a bed and breakfast, general store, 3 goats, and one of the most spectacular views in the world. If you take a Fjord tour, make sure it takes you to Bygstad, head into the B&B and chat up the owner. You will NOT be disappointed. And be sure he shows you the viking ship out back. :-)

Just Bergen!

Bergen is my Bruges

If you haven't seen the movie In Bruges, you MUST go rent it. It's a dark comedy starring Colin Farrell that really tiptoes the line of hilarious, disgusting, and offensive. It's brilliant but not for the politically correct. I won't spoil the movie, but Bergen is my Bruges. Here's a line from the movie that sums up my feelings towards Bergen.

Ken: “I thought you didn’t like Bruges.”
Ray: “I don’t. It’s still a s***hole.”

But let's rewind the story a little shall we?

We finally arrived in Bergen around 10:30pm and headed outside to find a taxi to take us to our next couchsurfing host’s place. It had been a long train ride and we were ready to get some rest. We arrived and met Rasa, our new host for the next 2 nights. We were super tired so we just exchanged pleasantries and hit the sack. We had a busy day ahead of us.

We woke up later than usual, 8am, ready to see this city that we were told was really beautiful. We took off for the approximately 3km walk back into the center of the city. Now, here lies the rub when it comes to couchsurfing. You are at the mercy of the location of the host. You can do your best to find a host that is centrally located, sometimes it can be difficult. Erika did an amazing job finding great, TRULY GREAT, people to stay with, but in Rasa's case, she lived a 30 minute walk from the city. But it's a great way to see a city. We walked through the University of Bergen, past the National Museum, through the Galleri (Gallery here means a section of cobblestone streets that are pedestrian only filled with restaurants and specialty stores), and down towards the waterfront and the Fish Market.

Ok, don’t get me wrong, Bergen really is a beautiful city, but it’s very touristy, expensive, filled with buses and the Flaggruten (Fjord tour boats). The ENTIRE city smells like diesel fuel and bus exhaust. It gave me a headache within 3 minutes of being downtown. What I really do not understand is the city is RIGHT on the water. It’s constantly windy… why doesn’t the smell dissipate? It’s also VERY dirty with a lot of garbage in the streets. Add rain and you get a pretty ugly sight. The other thing is Coldplay was playing that night so the town was PACKED. Every store we walked into was playing Coldplay. Though we did get to see the stage and hear their sound check which I do admit was pretty cool. You could hear it throughout the entire city. We could have seen the show, but it was $100US and while I like Coldplay, I don't listen to them enough to pay that much to see them live. Bergen is also a really small city so we really saw 90% of it walking.

We first hit up the Fish Market to get some lunch and see the fresh fish for sale. It’s a small market, maybe half a block long, but it’s AMAZING. The selection of seafood they have is impressive. Crab, lobster, all kinds of fresh fish, shrimp, crawfish, elk, reindeer, moose, whale, shark, caviar, smoked salmon… You can buy a plate of fresh crab meat, lobster, smoked salmon, maybe a few grilled shrimp, and a few generous spoonfills of caviar on a baguette for about $20US. Sounds expensive, until you see how big these plates are and how much they give you. Erika and I instead shared a HUGE Po-boy sandwich filled with shrimp, crab (imitation unfortunately), smoked salmon, and lettuce. We didn’t even finish it and we were pretty hungry. We also tried reindeer and moose salami (we bought reindeer). Afterwards, we walked down to the castle. I really wasn’t feeling very well due to all the exhaust smells so after seeing the castle, we headed inland a little to see the aquarium. We should have known better because the aquarium in Bergen is more like an animal shelter. It’s pretty small, like the city. We didn’t feel like paying the 150 kroner to get in so we walked back to town, while listening to Coldplay’s soundcheck. Before heading back to Rasa’s apartment, we grabbed a coke and some fries from the local McDonald’s which was a church back in the late 1880s. I don’t exactly know what kind of karma comes from turning a church into a McDonald’s but I tend to think even God likes their French fries. We started the long walk back with our fries in hand looking forward to learning more about our host.
We met her at her apartment and immediately she offered a cup of fresh herb tea. She was from Latvia and moved to Norway because Latvia is suffering from a terrible economy, the entire country is corrupt and broke, and there are simply no jobs. She first gave us a cup of fresh peppermint tea. Simple. Peppermint leaves and hot water. It was so freshing. Next, she gave us a cup of tea that was from a flower from a tree in Latvia. She tried to translate it for us but we didn’t quite make it out. It tasted like lemon and honey together. It was simply amazing. I had 3 cups. After taking to Rasa for several hours, we turned in knowing that we had a Fjord tour to get up for that left at 8am. That meant we had to bring our bags with us on the 30 minute walk back into the city. Something we weren’t really looking forward to. So while Bergen wasn’t my favorite city so far, a wonderful evening with Rasa made it all worth it. Next up: Off to the Fjords!

The Oslo to Bergen train

If you come to Norway, you HAVE to take the Oslo to Bergen train. It's really amazing. These pictures don't do it justice. It's not a short trip, 6 and a half hours long, but it covers some of the most impressive and beautiful terrain I've ever seen. I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking. The water is literally a few feet from the train

Trains, Trains, and Automobiltrains. And Oslo

Day 12. I have to admit, I was starting to get tired on this trip and was almost regretting signing on for the second week. It all kinda started to seem the same. That is until today.

We woke up at 5am to catch the bus from Janice’s apartment back to Goteborg Central to get on another train to Oslo. Despite feeling so fired yesterday, we both slept well and felt good this morning. We also walked to the bus stop in a chilly, but refreshing, dawn. We jumped on the bus, made our way back to Central Station, grabbed a muffin and a cup of “kofee” from the station, and boarded the train for Oslo at 6:43am. This was our 2nd of 4 long train rides we’ll be taking on this trip but riding the train that early, we basically had the entire car to ourselves. We stretched out over 2 chairs each and enjoyed the 4 hour ride to Oslo napping, reading, or just admiring the impressive view.

We arrived in Oslo around 10:45am and our next train to Bergen didn’t leave until 4:07pm so we had quite a few hours to relax, do some minor sightseeing, and grab a relaxed lunch. We also knew we’d be back to Oslo on Thursday to finish seeing the city so we decided to proceed through this day at quarter speed. The first thing we did was seek out the luggage lockers at the train station and dump our bags. It was nice to get rid of my 35lb backpack for a few hours. That alone made me feel less tired. We walked outside to a magnificent view. Oslo is GORGEOUS. It’s right on the water, the air is pure and clean with a crispness that can send a shiver through you if you aren’t ready for it. It was a glorious day though. Sunny with a few clouds. In the sun, it felt like it was 75 degrees, but once one of those clouds settled over the sun, it dropped to 65. It was a nice change from the warm, sometimes humid weather in Stockholm and Copenhagen. We stood outside, closed our eyes and tilted our heads up at the sky to soak in the sun and fresh air. We were immediately rejuvenated. We walked around for a bit just seeing some of the sights, laughing and hamming it up for pictures a bit. We saw The Parliament building, City Hall, The Royal Palace, the famous Opera House, the theater, the Ackershus castle, and a bunch of other things we didn’t even identify. Once we got hungry, we stopped at a little restaurant called Z Clubs, grabbed an patio table, and relaxed over a Caesar salad, shrimp scampi salad, bread, and the iced tap water I’ve come to love. Z Clubs was a block away from... The Hard Rock Cafe so we ran into the gift shop so I could get another Zippo! After lunch, we did a little more sightseeing then went to a bakery to get a few items for our evening trainride to Bergen. I got a chocolate croissant and Erika got a chocolate scone. We headed back to Oslo Central to get our bags and hop on our next long train to the Fjord city of Bergen. Janice told us last night that Bergen is beautiful so despite the 6 and a half hour trainride that lies ahead of us, we’re excited to get there.