Day 13-18: Bergen, Norway
We arrived in Bergen late on Thursday night and wasted no time, dumping our bags at questie Kristian's glorious bachelor pad and heading out to meet up with some of Bergen's finest.
After a beer with Coppo's work friend Cecilie and friends, we met up with Umz and joined the better end of an international pub crawl at the club Metro for a generally hilarious night.
Through the night we saw questies Stine, Marte, Caroline and Ingrid, dancing like we were back at Cheeky Monkeys.
The next day was a bit of a mess as we woke up late, tried to get our bearings and had to transfer luggage across town to a hostel for another night of debauchery.
Highlight of the day was noticing the beautiful sunny weather, and realising the forecast was for it to stay all week. A good year in Bergen sees just 60 days with some sunshine, and we got 5 days straight!
We met questie '11 Chris for dinner, before re-uniting with Umz and Aureo at the hostel. A surprise appearance by Horny Torny herself gave us a brief scare before accelerating our enthusiasm to consume beverages again.
The drinking card game fuck the dealer was a marquee event at every pre-drinks with these menaces in Australia, so we kept true to tradition. With the addition of the buffalo rule (must finish your drink if you have it in the wrong hand) and a fresh bottle of Chartreuse, things turned for the worse (better?) quite quickly.
After being told off by some of the less nefarious hostel dwellers, we shuffled out and on to Kaos and met with Sara and her younger sister.
The place was only busy from 1, but final drinks were called at 2.30 - a very Norwegian night out apparently, as nobody wants to pay 12AUD per beer for long.
The early finish was a blessing as we rose early and crossed town to meet up with our next host, questie Tanya. Tanya and her room mate Ida showed us around their half of Bergen as the sun shined down again.
We finished our walk at the famous fish market and tried some smoked whale, which is surprisingly tasty.
The town is surrounded by mountains, 7 in total, and the most popular of these is Fløyen thanks to it being an easy 1 hour walk or tram ride up. We met with questie Axel and his friend Erik and took the scenic route, enjoying the sights on the way up.
After a hot chocolate and a few pictures of the stunning view, we took the tram back down and made it back to Tanya's in time for dinner (tacos again) and more beers. The night started at a Vorspiel (norwegian word for pre-drinks, translation 'foreplay') which ran through til just before midnight.
We spent our time out at Lille drinking expensive beers on a comfortable couch in the corner. The downside of the nightlife here is the importance of finding a spot to put your coats. Once you're settled, you tend not to move around too much. We still had fun!
The next day we were picked up from town by questies Christina and Helene. We drove east on the way to the famous Flåm railway, passing some amazing fjords and mountain scenery on the way.
The train features some of the steepest inclines in the world for a standard gauge track, and offers stunning views on the ride up and back.
We made it back to town satisfied and turned in for a quiet night as our livers let out a sigh of relief.
Our last goal in Bergen was to take on the more challenging hike up Ulriken, the highest peak in the area. The walk was icy, steep and quite challenging in parts.
The view, as usual, was worth it.
We took the cable car back down and headed back to Floyen with tripods to capture some night shots of the town.
We turned in to Axel's place for our last night, eating tacos and playing xbox before our first literal couch surf of the trip.
Normally a 7 hour train ride could be considered a waste of a day, but the line from Bergen to Oslo is amongst the top 10 in the world, so we spent most of the ride with our cameras pressed up against the window, trying to capture the sights before they flew by.
After a whirlwind week of glorious people, unbelievable sights and endless drinks, we can both agree that this has been our favourite stop so far. Take a bow Bergen!
We arrived in Bergen late on Thursday night and wasted no time, dumping our bags at questie Kristian's glorious bachelor pad and heading out to meet up with some of Bergen's finest.
 |
| View from Kristian's |
 |
| Everyone in Bergen wears fedoras and walks around suspiciously |
Through the night we saw questies Stine, Marte, Caroline and Ingrid, dancing like we were back at Cheeky Monkeys.
The next day was a bit of a mess as we woke up late, tried to get our bearings and had to transfer luggage across town to a hostel for another night of debauchery.
Highlight of the day was noticing the beautiful sunny weather, and realising the forecast was for it to stay all week. A good year in Bergen sees just 60 days with some sunshine, and we got 5 days straight!
We met questie '11 Chris for dinner, before re-uniting with Umz and Aureo at the hostel. A surprise appearance by Horny Torny herself gave us a brief scare before accelerating our enthusiasm to consume beverages again.
The drinking card game fuck the dealer was a marquee event at every pre-drinks with these menaces in Australia, so we kept true to tradition. With the addition of the buffalo rule (must finish your drink if you have it in the wrong hand) and a fresh bottle of Chartreuse, things turned for the worse (better?) quite quickly.
After being told off by some of the less nefarious hostel dwellers, we shuffled out and on to Kaos and met with Sara and her younger sister.
The place was only busy from 1, but final drinks were called at 2.30 - a very Norwegian night out apparently, as nobody wants to pay 12AUD per beer for long.
The early finish was a blessing as we rose early and crossed town to meet up with our next host, questie Tanya. Tanya and her room mate Ida showed us around their half of Bergen as the sun shined down again.
We finished our walk at the famous fish market and tried some smoked whale, which is surprisingly tasty.
The town is surrounded by mountains, 7 in total, and the most popular of these is Fløyen thanks to it being an easy 1 hour walk or tram ride up. We met with questie Axel and his friend Erik and took the scenic route, enjoying the sights on the way up.
We spent our time out at Lille drinking expensive beers on a comfortable couch in the corner. The downside of the nightlife here is the importance of finding a spot to put your coats. Once you're settled, you tend not to move around too much. We still had fun!
The next day we were picked up from town by questies Christina and Helene. We drove east on the way to the famous Flåm railway, passing some amazing fjords and mountain scenery on the way.
The train features some of the steepest inclines in the world for a standard gauge track, and offers stunning views on the ride up and back.
We made it back to town satisfied and turned in for a quiet night as our livers let out a sigh of relief.
Our last goal in Bergen was to take on the more challenging hike up Ulriken, the highest peak in the area. The walk was icy, steep and quite challenging in parts.
We took the cable car back down and headed back to Floyen with tripods to capture some night shots of the town.
We turned in to Axel's place for our last night, eating tacos and playing xbox before our first literal couch surf of the trip.
Normally a 7 hour train ride could be considered a waste of a day, but the line from Bergen to Oslo is amongst the top 10 in the world, so we spent most of the ride with our cameras pressed up against the window, trying to capture the sights before they flew by.
After a whirlwind week of glorious people, unbelievable sights and endless drinks, we can both agree that this has been our favourite stop so far. Take a bow Bergen!
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