Bergen, Norway’s second city, is often overlooked.
If you travel to Scandinavia, Oslo, as well as being Norways capital city, also has the major advantage of being close to the border with Sweden.
Bergen on the other hand is situated in a bay surrounded by fjords on Norways west coast. 225 miles (362 km) from the northern-most point of Scotland and 189 miles (305km) – or eight hours – west of Oslo.
I arrived in Bergen at 7AM, after spending the previous eight hours trying to sleep on one of the largest trains I’d ever stepped foot on.
Opting for the cheapest ticket available, I sat near vertical for the entire journey, trying to sleep while the stunning Norweigen landscape passed by outside my window.
I woke several times during the night, and despite being well aware I needed to sleep, I couldn’t help but stare out the window at the mountains of snow and the raging rivers.
I stepped out of Bergen station onto the partially lit streets. It was the beginning of November, and the street lights were slowly flickering off. I made my way forward.
I walked for about an hour, making my way in a straight line until I reached the sea. Bergen was slowly becoming alive with people.
People, who I noted, all carried umbrellas.
By 11AM I was soaked through. It turns out that the mix of mountains surrounding Bergen and it’s position amongst the west coast fjords create the perfect environment for short sudden downpours.
Every 15 minutes it would pour with rain for 5 minutes. It ran as if by clockwork. I sheltered in a small cafe back in Bergen station, where the waitress kindly offered me my pick from their ‘left umbrellas’ box.
After talking to the waitress for a short time (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Scandinavians have better English than most English people) I headed west out of the station, up one of the hills and around the small cobbled paths towards the University campus. During another five minutes downpour I hopped under some shelter outside a lecture building. Playing a local for a few minutes is a must for any city visit. ;)
Spur of the moment I decided to climb Mount Ulriken - one of the larger mountains surrounding Bergen. It has houses half the way up it, but don’t let that fool you. To this day I still cannot explain how some of those vehicles made it up there.
The views from this mountain, once you found a clearing, were spectacular.
Shortly after stepping foot up the mountain a couple of Chinese girls (the only other tourests I’d seen all day) asked me to take their picture. After chatting for a while we discovered we had been on the same overnight train from Oslo and were taking the same train back. We continued up the mountain together.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you know that Geordies speak the way they do, because of a Norweigan invasion? FACT! How cold was it, in degrees?
Were you invaded by Norwegian women? Nothing could make me say “Why aye man” quicker. ;) Can’t remember an exact temperature, but I wore five layers to be on the safe side. It was cold but not freezing, I was colder back in the UK a few weeks later!