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Published: September 30th 2009
Day Three had to be my favorite day in Bergen. It didn't start off the greatest though as bad dreams, constant snoring from the Spanish guy, and people whispering and packing up their stuff to leave early in the morning caused mine (and Destinee's sleep) to be a little interrupted. The joys of staying in a hostel though I guess!! However we were surprised to find that two of our 6 roommates were American cousins from Minnesota just enjoying a Norwegian vacation. It was nice to meet some fellow Americans. So even though it had a bit of a rocky start, we got dressed and headed off to the left side of the Vågen (Bay), destination: Akvariet i Bergen (aka the Bergen Aquarium). It wasn't too far of a walk, but a nice little jaunt as we snapped pictures of more of the surroundings, stopped in a Rimi to get a banana for breakfast, saw a couple really ancient churches, played by the waterfront, and I even snapped a picture of a Norwegian scientist at work in their lab (I know...GEEK! I enjoy being a geek).
Once we got to the aquarium, we realized we had arrived just in time
as the seal show was going to start about 15 minutes later. So we looked around a little inside at the touchpool where I got Destinee to touch an anemone and an urchin, then headed back outside where the three Harbor seals entertained us with their splashing, waving, twirling, jumping through a hoop, and hitting a ball. It wasn't a very big show and most of it was in Norwegian, but it was still cute nonetheless. Then the trainers went and fed the penguins some herring and told us a little about each of them. We skipped out on most of that and went inside to explore. The Akvariet had three floors full of crocodiles, alligators, turtles, lots of snakes, monkeys, and a TON of fish. I was mesmerized. And most displays had little computer screens in both Norwegian, English, and several other languages. They not only told us about the animals, but gave us some other little facts about science. Like how Carl Linnaeus came up with binomial nomenclature (aka the Latin naming system for animals, ex. Homo sapiens) and how the hagfish was almost voted Norway's national fish. Why? I do not know. It is kind of a
This reminded me of my friend, Matt!
This pic was snapped for him since we often sang ACDC at work during the summer during the slow times.disgusting fish (primitive and important to science), but kind of disgusting as they have no jaws, forage on mostly dead carcasses that drift to the sea bottom, and are known for their mucus excretion and how they tie themselves into a knot to rip flesh from their preys bodies (since they have no jaws). They are quite disgusting. Anyways, it was quite a nice little tour as we were there for almost 2 hours, just taking our time.
After that, we were getting pretty hungry so we wandered back to the waterfront and to the Fish Market where we were tempted by some fresh fish and chips. Of course, it was pretty expensive (130kroner for the meal and a bottle of water which is about 21USD). But hey...when in Bergen! While at the market, Destinee also bought a knit hat for when winter comes and we enjoyed looking at all of the seafood the locals were selling. It was sprinkling a bit but the weather wasn't too bad until we made our way over to the shops. We did a little souvenir shopping at Bryggen wharf, wandered through this neat wooden walkway, and headed to Old Bergen (or Medieval
Bergen). Our first stop was through the arch leading to Bergenhus, an ancient fortress built circa 1240 and used to be known as Holmen. It has had quite a history, used to contain many churches that were later tore down, was used by the Germans during World War II, and had a lot of reconstruction after it got damaged during WWII. The tower that now remains, Rosenkrantz Tower, was named after the commander of the castle, Erik Rosenkrantz, and King Haakon's Royal Ceremonial Hall (Norwegian: Håkonshallen, named after King Haakon Håkonsson who reigned during the early 13th century) still stands tall. It now serves as headquarters for some soldiers of the Royal Norwegian Navy.
After touring the grounds which were absolutely gorgeous but very wet, we headed over to the Bergenhus Festningsmuseum (Fortress Museum) to learn a little about Norway. The museum was very nice as many displays had some English, but Destinee and I just found Norwegian words we recognized and tried to learn the history through the images and displays. We were surprised to hear an English broadcast in the first room we walked in and were even more surprised when we saw Franklin Delano Roosevelt's face
on the TV. Apparently, he had given a speech in Norway and the video was only subtitled in Norwegian. It was kind of comforting. Well then we toured the three floors, saw how devastated Bergen became by WWII and Hitler's actions in Germany, and saw some amazing artifacts including a very old motorcycle. It was a very nice museum and the best part was the admission was free and it was just us so we had a lot of time to wander around at our own pace. After all of the walking, we did a bit more shopping, even saw one of the American ladies from the train the day before, and then headed back to our doom at Jacob's. After a rest, we headed off to get some dinner and ended up spending about 200kroner each (about 33USD) just to eat at a sit-down restaurant. After that, it was some journal writing and then off to bed.
Day four was actually our last official day in Bergen. We weren't in the city that long and actually spent more time getting there and back than actually in the city. However, it was still a nice vacation and a good
break from Bodø. On day four, we had to check out of our hostel so we packed our bags and took them with us on our jaunt. We ended up at the Fløibanen funicular, the cable car that runs up Mount Fløyen, 320meters above the city and has been running in some form or the other since about 1918. It wasn't a bad price (70kroner, about 11USD) for a roundtrip Adult ticket. Sadly, it was extremely foggy at the top, but it cleared a little for us to see some of the city. Even though it was raining, we took off on some trails into what Norwegians know Troll Territory. There is a rich history of trolls in Norway so the woods we went through totally inspired lots of troll jokes. We even came across the wooden carvings Katie and Ross (the Minnesota cousins) had told us about. They were a little creepy, but kind of fun to take pictures with. We also played on a very slippery, very steep wooden bridge and just enjoyed our morning on the mountain.
Once we got off the mountain, we returned to the Fish Market area and got some food. It was
really starting to rain by that time so we went and did a little more shopping. Then as were walking back towards the train station, we heard some music and followed the sound over to the tourist info building. There was a concert going on in the square and the entire band had spread all around, were standing in the rain, and were being conducted by a man on the stairs. It was pretty neat to see and the music was very pretty (but reminded me of mel 😞, making me a little homesick). It was kind of funny to see the trombone players between breaks flushing out the water from their instruments. Overall, the music was very pretty and something I think a lot of people would've enjoyed, but we were pretty soaked by then though and a little tired with our packs on so we headed to the train station. We were there for about 3 hours so I wandered and got some Norwegian hot chocolate. It was pretty amazing but very strong! Then I took some shots of a curious bird that kept creeping closer to me, wrote in my journal, and even snapped a shot of
my new necklace (an Enchantment charm, a Celtic birth charm). Around 4pm, we grabbed some food for the bus ride and then headed over to the bus station and caught the bus to Bergen.
Sadly, buses are not the wisest means of transportation. Not only are they really expensive (ours was 550kroner, almost 100USD which was the TOTAL cost of our train ticket), but it was pretty uncomfortable. However, we did end up on a ferry at one point, saw a small Norwegian carnival around 9pm, and ended up safely in Trondheim at around 6:30a.m. We were pretty thankful to get back on the more comfortable train around 7:30a.m. and headed back to Bodø. Most of the train ride for me was a blur as I passed out. But when I was awake, I snapped a few beautiful pictures before we reached Bodø at 5:30p.m. While I was a little thankful to be "home," the weather had taken quite a turn and it made me a little more excited for my next vacation. But, I better start doing my schoolwork before getting too excited about taking off again. Luckily, given the scheduling, I didn't miss any classes to go
to Bergen. It was actually a lot of fun and my very first real European vacation!
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Susan
non-member comment
Great!
Kari, I can't tell you how much I enjoy your travel blogs! Keep up the travel and the commentary!