Bergen was amazing. Just look at that picture of Bastian basking in the sunlight. I knew it would be, of course, because no city with that much history could be anything less than amazing, but I wasn't prepared for just how much I wanted to see and do while I was there. I don't have the photos up on facebook yet, but as soon as I've sorted out the good from the bad, I'll upload them and then post a link here.
The weather was traditionally Bergen-esque our first two days in the city, with torrential rainfall and howling winds after we checked into our hostel that gave way to a perpetual drizzle that followed us mostly everywhere on our second day. This, of course, did nothing to discourage Tim, Mike, Bastian and I from venturing outdoors; we wandered through the historic area of Bryggen, where the Hanseatic merchants did business until well into the 1700s when they were absorbed by the Bergan merchants, to the very end of the pier, and let the wind and rain thoroughly chill and soak us, and then retired to Dr. Livingstone, an indoor/outdoor English pub, to watch World Cup Football matches. (This, it turns out, is how we ended most of our evenings, since the US, Germany, and the Netherlands were all playing their first matches while we were in Bergen.)
In Copenhagen we flocked to museums, but in Bergen we spent nearly all of our time wandering around outdoors taking photographs of the most inconsequential things, because it was impossible to take three steps in any given direction without discovering a new and exciting angle to experiment with. Bergen is carved out of the mountains around it, so it is very likely that one street will literally wind up the mountainside a good four meters above the road and houses parallel to it. In a way it felt very Greek, just tucked away next to Bunnefjorden instead of the Aegean. We took Fløibanen up to the top of Fløyen mountain in order to get an amazing panoramic view of the whole city (totally blanketed by gray fog, clouds and rain, of course, but still absolutely worth it), then decided to head back down the mountain by foot. Bastian and I decided that if trolls were to live anywhere in Norway, it would be within the lush woods that somehow manage to thrive while clinging to the rockface of the mountains cradling the city.
The weather cleared up by Sunday just in time for our tour of Bunnefjorden by boat, though the wind kept me wearing my windbreaker and scarf for pretty much the whole tour. I knew logically that Bergen was going to be colder than Oslo, but I wasn't prepared for just how much colder I was near constantly; not to the point where I was uncomfortable, mind you, because temperatures near 10 and 11C (look, I understand Celsius now!) are always preferable for me. I like any opportunity to bundle up in warm clothing and drape myself in scarves. There were so many small communities and cozy farm houses lining the fjord waterway. I know that it must get incredibly lonely living in such relative isolation here, but honestly, with a view of a fjord out my window every morning, it might be worth it for me. Maybe one day I'll be rich enough to own a house here. (Probably not, but a girl can dream.)
There aren't many Things That We Did, specifically, to note down. Sure, we took Fløibanen, went on the boat tour, visited the preserved Bergen Kontor that now serves as the Hanseatic Museum in Bryggen, but most of what we did just involved walking wherever our feet carried us, finding grassy patches of sunshine to lay in for hours at a time just soaking in the summer air, and letting Bergen seep into us.
On my first night in the city, I bumped into a particularly chatty Norwegian woman in Dr. Livingstone--yes! a Norwegian who actually wanted to talk to a complete stranger!--who gave me a saying that I feel, in retrospect, is quite apt for this trip: "Oslo may have the capital, but Bergen has the soul of Norway."
I think she's right.
The weather was traditionally Bergen-esque our first two days in the city, with torrential rainfall and howling winds after we checked into our hostel that gave way to a perpetual drizzle that followed us mostly everywhere on our second day. This, of course, did nothing to discourage Tim, Mike, Bastian and I from venturing outdoors; we wandered through the historic area of Bryggen, where the Hanseatic merchants did business until well into the 1700s when they were absorbed by the Bergan merchants, to the very end of the pier, and let the wind and rain thoroughly chill and soak us, and then retired to Dr. Livingstone, an indoor/outdoor English pub, to watch World Cup Football matches. (This, it turns out, is how we ended most of our evenings, since the US, Germany, and the Netherlands were all playing their first matches while we were in Bergen.)
In Copenhagen we flocked to museums, but in Bergen we spent nearly all of our time wandering around outdoors taking photographs of the most inconsequential things, because it was impossible to take three steps in any given direction without discovering a new and exciting angle to experiment with. Bergen is carved out of the mountains around it, so it is very likely that one street will literally wind up the mountainside a good four meters above the road and houses parallel to it. In a way it felt very Greek, just tucked away next to Bunnefjorden instead of the Aegean. We took Fløibanen up to the top of Fløyen mountain in order to get an amazing panoramic view of the whole city (totally blanketed by gray fog, clouds and rain, of course, but still absolutely worth it), then decided to head back down the mountain by foot. Bastian and I decided that if trolls were to live anywhere in Norway, it would be within the lush woods that somehow manage to thrive while clinging to the rockface of the mountains cradling the city.
The weather cleared up by Sunday just in time for our tour of Bunnefjorden by boat, though the wind kept me wearing my windbreaker and scarf for pretty much the whole tour. I knew logically that Bergen was going to be colder than Oslo, but I wasn't prepared for just how much colder I was near constantly; not to the point where I was uncomfortable, mind you, because temperatures near 10 and 11C (look, I understand Celsius now!) are always preferable for me. I like any opportunity to bundle up in warm clothing and drape myself in scarves. There were so many small communities and cozy farm houses lining the fjord waterway. I know that it must get incredibly lonely living in such relative isolation here, but honestly, with a view of a fjord out my window every morning, it might be worth it for me. Maybe one day I'll be rich enough to own a house here. (Probably not, but a girl can dream.)There aren't many Things That We Did, specifically, to note down. Sure, we took Fløibanen, went on the boat tour, visited the preserved Bergen Kontor that now serves as the Hanseatic Museum in Bryggen, but most of what we did just involved walking wherever our feet carried us, finding grassy patches of sunshine to lay in for hours at a time just soaking in the summer air, and letting Bergen seep into us.
On my first night in the city, I bumped into a particularly chatty Norwegian woman in Dr. Livingstone--yes! a Norwegian who actually wanted to talk to a complete stranger!--who gave me a saying that I feel, in retrospect, is quite apt for this trip: "Oslo may have the capital, but Bergen has the soul of Norway."
I think she's right.
