My Weekend in Bergen!

This past weekend (April 12th - 14th) I was in Bergen. Bergen is on the west coast of Norway. It is either an 8 hour drive by car through mountains, a 6 hour train ride, or a 1 hour flight from Sandefjord. I chose the 1 hour flight.

My First Norwegian Flight!

On Friday morning I had to wake up at at 04:30! I haven't had to wake up that early since the day I left LA for New York, 8 months ago. It has been 8 months since I have been on a plane. I was really excited to fly. Considering I have almost never gone this long without travelling since my mom took me on my first plane when I was 6 weeks old. Security in Norway is definitely not as strict as TSA in the USA, which was fine by me. I didn't have to take my shoes or sweater off, I didn't need to take my liquids (enclosed in a plastic bag) out of my purse, and I didn't even need to show my I.D. Then, once I got on the plane, I tried to stay awake so I could see us landing in Bergen, but that didn't work out too well. When, it is 06:50 and I had already been awake for over 2 hours, it was almost impossible to keep my eyes open. Once the flight landed in Bergen I went out and caught the bus into the city center. Once I was in the city I met Johnny, the American exchange student that I stayed with. He decided he didn't need to go to school on Friday because I was coming an had to show me around... From there we took the train 10 minutes to where he lived in Arna. Once at the house we basically just relaxed for an hour because we had to wait for his brother to get home with the extra bus/train card.

Then we left to do some sight seeing in Bergen. We first went to the Bryggen, which is the famous row of colored wooden houses that are right along the water front. They used to be important for storage in WWII and now, they are used as cafes and souvenir shops.

Me in front of the Bryggen

Next was the a fort that was right next to the Bryggen. And also a famous boat that was in the harbor (but I forgot the name of it and also why it is important).

Then, we went to a fort next to Bryggen.

Me hiding in the fort.

Then, we walked into the city center. Where they had more statues of people and also where you can go shopping. I didn't have any extra space in my suitcase, and I don't have endless money, so I didn't go shopping at all. But we did meet some friendly monkeys who gave us free soap samples.

Then we saw what is called blå stein, which directly translates to "blue rock", and that is all it it is, a big blue rock. After we saw the Edvard Greig statue and then we took the train back to the house.

Me and Johnny sitting on the blue stone.

Me and Edvard Greig

Once we got back to the house we had dinner and I met the rest of his family. Then we watched two movies and a little later we went to sleep.
The next morning we had breakfast at about 11:00 and were on the bus into Bergen by 13:00. Today Johnny and I met up with one of his friends, Hanne. We went to Ulreiken, there we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain. From the top of the mountain you could see nearly the entire city of Bergen. It was beautiful. Also at the top, they had a cafe. It was very cozy to drink a cup of hot cocoa and eat some chocolate while looking out on an amazing view.

The cable car we took to the top and the view.

Hot Cocoa and chocolate at the top in the cafe

The amazing view from the top of the mountain

We took the cable car back down and then took the bus to Subway, where we had lunch. Across the from the Subway was a farmers market. It was really cute. They everything from cheese, to wool sweaters, to fish, to Norwegian pancakes. We bought a Norwegian pancake, they are called lapper. With raspberry jam on top, it was fantastic!

We are eating the lapper.

Then we walked to the Bergen Aquarium. It was about a 15 minute walk, not very long for me considering I walk 20 minutes to get to school every morning, but for Johnny and Hanne it was a long way because they usually take the bus everywhere. The aquarium was really nice. It was more like a zoo than an aquarium. It had snakes, alligators, lemurs, spiders, frogs, sharks, and different kinds of fish. And also penguins and seals!

Riding a turtle at the aquarium.

They had a seal show when we got there.

After the aquarium we walked back to the center of town and walked around in one of the malls. Then at about 17:00 we took the bus back to Arna.
After we got back to the house we had dinner with the family. Then, Johnny took a nap because of how exhausting walking was. And me and his little sister jumped on the trampoline. Afterwards, we tried to wake up Johnny with gun noises and pouring water on his face, but he just got angry and kicked us out of his room. Then, his little sister and I made waffles. Then, when we came back upstairs we sat down and watched a movie while we ate the waffles. I love Norwegian Waffles!!

On Sunday, we woke up, ate breakfast together, and then went to church. After the 30 minute service, the kids from the church left with two adults and went to go curling. I was excited. Curling was on my "To DO List in Norway", so I was happy I got to try it. It is a lot harder than it looks. I think my team won. We managed to get one of the stones to stay in the circle. But I was really confused on how to keep score, so I am not really sure who ended up winning.

When we got back from curling we had reindeer for dinner with the family. Then I left for the airport. I ended up getting back to Sandefjord at 18:30. That gave me a few hours at home to practice for my art final the next day :)

What was really strange was how different the dialect was in Bergen. I am used to hearing the dialect that is similar to the Oslo dialect because of where I live. But, when I spoke Norwegian with some of the people that were from Bergen, sometimes they had to repeat something 3 times for me to finally understand what they were saying, and sometimes they just gave up speaking Norwegian and spoke English because it was easier.
Overall I had a great time in Bergen. It is a very cute city with a lot of history. It was also nice to spend time and compare stories with another American.