travel
to & accommodation
The
train ride from Oslo-Bergen had great views, especially from Geilo to
Bergen. It travels past cute little stations like Finse (at
1220masl). Up high it is like a plateau of snowy patches, lakes and
tiny cute alpine cottages. I can't for the life of me work out how
the cottage owners even get to their cottages in winter – there
didn't seem to be any real roads – the houses were just scattered
amongst the rocks. I guess they take the train, travel light and ski
to their huts.
After
Finse (the highest station, i think, in western Europe) you come down
a bit through very green forested countryside with lakes, rivers and
waterfalls everywhere – with a back-drop of still-snowy mountains
until you get into the fjords. The fjords are beautiful – just
like up in Lofoten/Narvik except the mountains are rounder and less
jagged and there is more forest and some hints of civilization.
Dorm.no
– my hostel in Bergen - was just a stones throw from the train
station and very hip and modern. They definitely have the knack of
stuffing in as many backpackers as possible though – there were
about 12 people in my dorm and about 6-7 dorms in a very small space.
It was almost a miracle that i never had to queue for the
toilet/shower.
Touristic
Adventures (11 july)
Bergen
is an extremely picturesque, very user-friendly city with character
in spades. For Norway's 2nd biggest city it really has a
friendly village feel to it. It is definitely one of my favs.
I
spent most of my one day in Bergen just strolling around it's cute
streets - wandering on in to the odd medieval church, heading along
the fjord harbour past ancient wooden houses in the Bryggen district
(a UNESCO world heritage site) and then through the mouth-watering
fish market to the fortress Bergenhus. It was a gorgeous day
(unusual for the usually very wet city) to clamber around the
fortress and i managed to get my quota of stunning Norwegian vistas
from the fortress hill.
The
Bryggen district is amazing. All the houses are made of wood in the
traditional style, consequently the buildings think nothing of
leaning on each other, there are some “interesting” slopes and
angles and almost none of the floors are level. There are tiny wee
shops (somehow managing to ooze character despite selling overpriced
souvenirs) crammed into increasingly narrower alleyways. And then
there are the renovations – any remodeling has to be done the
old-school way (hand-sawing wooden logs and the like) – so they
take a long long time and become an instant tourist attraction.
Sadly
a traditional Bergen rain shower (a torrential downpour of the type
where you no longer hear, see, smell anything except the, sometimes
horizontal, rain), curtailed my touristing and i had to sprint (via
several shops) on back to the hostel.
After
consuming a “traditional Norwegain meal”, yup i bought the heat
and eat meal again (real food is just too expensive in Norway), i
managed to cram in a politico-philosophical discussion with a
Brazilian and Scot (over a glass of extremely expensive Baileys in
the hostel bar) before turning in in preparation for my “Norway in
a Nutshell” trip the next day.
