Week Long Jaunt to Norway!

We landed midday - early evening on April 27, and had time to explore a little bit of the city and eat dinner after settling into our Airbnb. We stayed around Bergen Sentrum that night, had Indian food, and went to a few cocktail bars before heading to bed to stave off the jet lag.

This was our first full day and we spent it walking around Bergen - which was bigger than we thought! We shopped, ate, and drank on the patios of the many cafes and bars at the UNESCO site Bergen Bryggen (the harbor). They have the oldest fish market in the world there. It's really fun to walk through, and there is a food truck with THE best soft serve ice cream you've ever had at Vaflereit (if you are lactose intolerant - dont worry! both my friends are extremely LI, and their tummies were JUST fine due to that non-processed European milk and cream).

We got lucky with great weather and we were surrounded by locals enjoying the first week of sunshine all year. We ate lunch at a famous hot dog stand where you can get REINDEER dogs, among about 10-15 other types of hot dogs both local to Norway and beyond. We went back to this stand multiple times throughout the trip.

There is a ton of art galleries and shops to see, swanky bars with games and live music, and of course great food. We went to a beautiful park right at the north edge of Bergen on the water and sat and relaxed for a while. This day was purposefully plan free - and we had a blast.

Of note:

Vaflereit is the ice cream and waffle food truck at the edge of the harbor.

No Stress is a cozy bar that has Nintendo 64, board games, and a polaroid camera to take your picture and stick it on the ceiling! We loved it. Amazing drinks, too.

This day we did a FULL day guided trip through Visit Bergen. Our tour guide was FANTASTIC and the day consisted of driving through Voss, Norway to get to Gundvagen and the Naerfjord for a 2 hour boat cruise through the fjord to the town of Flam (where supposedly, the most beautiful train ride in the world is). While the drive to the fjord is a couple hours, the views are breathtaking, and you stop at a waterfall along the way and get about 30 minutes to explore it and take pictures. We were there just as spring was arriving, so the mountains were still snow capped, some lakes still frozen, but some hillsides and mountains beginning to burst in green. I HIGHLY recommend traveling in a shoulder season - there were rarely any tourists ANYWHERE.

The fjord cruise was our favorite part of the entire trip. It was absolutely stunning - I could not believe what we were seeing. In Flam, we had about 45 minutes to eat (delicious seafood) and explore (its very small) before hopping back on our van to head up to Stegastein viewpoint - a massive concrete structure that lets you walk out over a mountainside overlooking the fjord. STUNNING! Then, we drove back to Bergen.

The whole trip is about 10 hours, and around $200 a person, but we felt it was so worth it. Our tour guide was amazing and the views were beyond.

Day 4 - we set out on a JOURNEY and took the 14km (about 10 mile) Vidden trail that spans between Ulriken and Floyen Mountains behind Bergen. We opted to start at Ulriken, climb the 1300 stairs to the top of the gondola and start our cross mountain hike from there. We got some food and drinks at the Skyskraperen restaurant on top of Ulriken (it was actually very good) to fuel up. The Vidden trail is pretty moderate, but you are literally scaling up and down mountainsides at some points. The paths are not carved out paths, but the general direction is dotted with huge stone towers showing you the way. You will see countless local trail runners literally prancing along this trail like mountain goats wondering how the heck they are doing it.

I suggest someone have the All Trails app to follow along with the route and make sure you are going the right way as it's easy to get off course. Stunning hike and trails, but it will take you at least 6-7 hours to complete. Pack food, a hard shell jacket, plenty of water, and a portable charger if you have one. You will see many people but it's always safe to be safe.

When we arrived in Floyen, we sat atop the little funicular lookout for a while before buying our one way ticket down the funicular into the city. Stunning views here as well. The top of the funicular is like a little town - shops, restaurants, parks for the kids, etc, but we got there around 7pm and everything was closed except the funicular itself. The funicular is very nice and new, and is a fun experience. You can also start the hike by taking the funicular up, hiking to Ulriken, and taking the Gondola down.

There are COUNTLESS trails atop these mountains to wander, explore, and get lost on if you want to choose a different trail or a shorter hike - just make sure you know how to get back!

This day we spent most of the day in Rosendal, a town across the Hardangerfjord from Bergen. We took a fjord ferry cruise through Rodne that was 2 hours each way and had a top deck to be outside during the entire cruise, and a bottom deck with windows. This day happened to be Norway's Labour Day - so almost EVERYTHING in this little town was closed save for one restartaunt, Elins Matgleder. We got EXTREMELY lucky, as we were able to go explore the grounds of the Barionet (The Barony), one of the last standing in Norway. When I tell you it literally looked like a fairytale land straight out of a Disney story, Im not kidding. It is nestled at the base of a mountain and waterfall with lush green fields al around in. In the Summer months, they do tours, have a cafe, and a sprawling rose garden. In the Winter, the whole grounds was closed and we thought we wouldn't be able to see it but they had just opened it up that week to walk the grounds!

$10 well spent - we spent a couple hours here and it was another highlight of our entire trip. We ate lunch afterwards at the restaurant mentioned above then headed back on our cruise. That evening, we ate and grabbed cocktails at some of the local bars (and of course, our fav ice cream).

This was another day where we had no plans. More city exploring, grabbing the souvenirs we decided after the week that we wanted, reading in the park, eating and drinking, and kind of just living like a local. The highlight of this day, actually, was that we chose to go to one of the clubs in Bergen Sentrum for a silent disco. Called Vaskereit, the club is known as the "home of the silent disco", where you get a headset, and get to choose between 2 channels. You get to vote up or down songs on each channel all night - so the crowd controls the music! The drinks were super cheap comparatively to pricing we had seen and we had an ABSOLUTE blast. If we weren't so old we would have stayed out all night and come every weekend night. The crowd is mostly 21 year old Bergen University students, but we were all in our own worlds!

Our last day, we rented a car and drove to parts of the countryside that we didn't get on our full day tour. We made the 2-hour trek to Eidfjord, Voringfossen, and all the waterfalls and sites of the Hardangerfjord in between. It was STUNNING. We stopped at a restaurant on the way to Norways most popular waterfall, Voringfossen, for Reindeer Stew. The place is gorgeous in its architecture, and looks like Avery touristy spot (it is) but we were the only ones in there and the food was actually amazing.

Voringfossen was absolutely crazy to see. They built a structure that covers the entirety of the waterfall so you can walk and hike along it to see it all at different viewpoints. There are hikes down into the waterfall, but in the winter months and into Spring, sometimes they remain closed or you need a guide. Some are moderate and are able to be done without!

That day we stopped at 2 waterfalls, in Eidfjord for some coffee and to stretch our legs and look at the amazing hardangerfjord, and then started our journey back to Bergen. We left at 9 and got back around 6. The only think I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND is renting an electric vehicle - it ended up being a nightmare for us. Cough up the extra money it takes to get a gas car and save yourself so much stress, effort, and time.