Annas Studiereise i Norge
 Bergen: home of precipitation and Norway's best tourist shop Bergen! What a great place. At about the size of Madison, Wisconsin, Bergen is Norway`s second largest city. It was once Norway`s capital and has been a center for shipping and fishing for hundreds of years. Our journey to Bergen began on Friday. We took an overnight train which left Bø at 9.30pm. We stumbled off the train, sleep- deprived and sore in the bum at about 7:00am on Saturday. Since nothing opens early in Norway, we wandered around the city for a few hours and caught the sunrise down at the harbor. After checking into the hostel, we went down to the fishmarket by the harbor. The winter fish market is severly reduced to a few stands inside tents, but still pretty cool. I tried samples of wild salmon, cavier and whale. Yes, whaling is legal in Norway. The meat from whale is really dark, almost black. My sample was so small I could hardly tell what it tasted like, but it was almost like soft beef jerky. After the fish market we hit up Bryggen ("the wharf" in Norwegian), the once Hanseatic commerce center, now tourist shop district. The Bryggen area dates back to the 1300`s, but several city fires have destroyed the oldest structures since. We went into every store in Bryggen, partly because the weather was heinous, and partly because the shops are so cute. After Bryggen, we went to the Bryggens Museum. This museum housed many artifacts found in the Bryggen area from the middle ages, including the original foundation of some of Bryggen`s first buildings. Jason and I left the museum and quickly realized how bad we are with directions. We wandered around lost for a while, trying to get to random sight-seeing spots in the city. We eventually made it back to our hostel where we met this crazy guy from Michigan who had been travelling the world solo for a few months. Afterwards, we hit up the Pygmalion Cafe for a nice dinner. By the time we were done with dinner, we were so tired from the sleepless train ride and hours of walking, that we went back to bed. On Sunday, we started out the day with the Fløibanen. The Fløibanen is a tram that travels up Mt Fløyen. The top of the mountain usually has a fabulous view of the city, but of course, it was not only pouring/foggy, but also under construction so that we could not get close to the edge for a view. Typisk. However, we snapped a few pics and ducked into the tourist shop. It was like we were 6 years old again inside Toys R Us. This tourist shop was nothing short of amazing; there was so much incredibly neat, yet worthless crap to behold. Somehow, this shop was different than the others. We spent over an hour inside before leaving. Ripping ourselves away from Norway`s Best Tourist Shop, we travelled back down the mountain and walked to the Hanseatic Museum. This museum illustrated the life of the Hanseatic merchants in Bergen and had stuff from daily life from the 18th century. The merchants recieved fish and cod liver oil from Northern Norway to export out and recieved grains and beer, mainly from Germany. It was really a cool museum. Wondering how anyone could live in Bergen, we walked quite a distance in windy, cold rain to the Bergen Aquarium. This was great. Although I enjoyed the whole aquarium, my favorite exhibit was the penguins. Jason and I stood and watched the penguins for at least 20 minutes. Sunday night we decided to be "ekte norsk" (real Norwegian) and eat at Dolly Dimples. Imagine Pizza Hut, only really expensive... and that`s Dolly Dimples. We enjoyed our $26 pizza and $4 Cokes thoroughly. After all that Norwegian-ness at Dolly Dimples, we decided to enjoy an American film, "The Departed." Although the film was in English and based in America, the tickets were still very Norwegian at $14 each. On Monday, we took the train back to Bø. It was a lovely ride through the mountains and valleys. The train ride really made me realize how beautiful Norway is and how I will miss the landscape when back in Minnesota. Despite the constant rain and wind, Bergen is fabulous city. The city is rich with history and character. There is so much to do and see; although we were always busy and saw a lot, there was so much more we could have done. And, it was fun to be on the coast in a "big" city. Bergen is a must- see for those traveling to Norway.
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Diary Photos
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Fish heads |
 Me |
 My fisherman friend |
 Bryggen |
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