Red Eye Flights & Wooden Houses // Day 1


It took 1 Uber, 2 planes, and a bus to get this view above. Maybe that isn't really that much, but man it felt like it.

We arrived in Norway this morning / afternoon by way of Amsterdam and ultimately Boston. I'm not sure of the person that can handle a red-eye international flight, but it really isn't me. I will continue to do it because it's just fundamentally efficient and normally less expensive. After traveling much of the day, we stayed firmly planted on an easy day of walking around Bergen. 


The city of Bergen is fairly small and easy to navigate. In about 5 hours, we had seen nearly everything we hoped for... except a beautiful church that was closed for rehab. Bummer. As an over simplification of the day: we ate hot dogs, took some long walks and tried to get the best view of Bryygen.

  • Hot Dogs. K found this place via the Yelp app and it was so good. She had a reindeer hot dog with onions, bacon, some local berry sauce. I had a bacon and cheese dog with an herb sauce. They were amazing... especially when we realized we hadn't eaten in hours.
  • Bergen is really walkable because it's honestly all you can do here - unless you want to go to the leprosy museum. Not a joke, that's a thing. We visited the Fortress, the gardens, and generally cruised the waterfront.
  • We stayed at the Det Hanseatiske because of its incredible wood walls and clawfoot tubs. Could not have been cuter... except we have no idea why Norwegians make their beds so weird. 






After a relatively active day, it was kind of necessary for some quiet time. We retreated to the hotel for a latte in the library room while we planned dinner. It was just the perfect amount of downtime (especially considered the utter lack of sleep) before dinner. There was a couple that was literally planning their trip based on a GIANT MAP OF ISLANDS. It was like a dream and nightmare all at once. Dream = islands. Nightmare = can't track it on GPS. 

Dinner at Pingvenin. Why did we pick this place? Well Rick Steves recommended it and all other necessary review sites supported it. We aimed for a relatively authentic and local dinner. Here's what we ate:

  • local cheese plate (blue cheese, brie cheese, one I can't remember, and a caramelized goat cheese). The caramelized goat cheese was surprising good. Someone should make that in the States soon.
  • Plukkfish. Which I keep call "Fuck Fish"... but is actually delicious and comes with little bits of delicious bacon. I'd love to make this sometime and I would double the bacon.
  • Kerrianne had a local IPA from Aegir Brewery in Flam (which we are going to tomorrow).

By this point, we've really been up for about 4 years but managed to pull ourselves together for the last thing on the Bergen list. The Funicular. The Funicular is essentially a train ride up the mountain for a view over Bergen. Not included in the reviews are the annoying tourist groups - absolutely the worst. That being said, this is absolutely worth the like $7 we paid and it could have been less it we walked one way. The view from the top is really amazing and shows the topography of the Norway landscape. In a really crude way... it's like an English Muffin. Lots of nooks and crannies.


By some miracle, we have stayed awake until 10 pm after this day. On deck for tomorrow? The Nutshell tour. Sleeping in Flam. Aegir brewery. 

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