Bergen, Norway

Hi Bergen! 

We arrive at the Bergen airport and are greeted by this massive yellow mountain-side sign.

Hopefully we are in the right city..

(the tourist shops didn't even know!)

Regardless, Lena and I had the best time in Bergen(?)! We got to know the city well, went to a punk concert, made three new amazing friends, and went on my first huge hike!

We stayed at a nice, large hostel where the main downside was the 18 person mixed gender bedroom. Luckily, we got free breakfast in the morning and got our fix of brunost toast and musli in yogurt! The Hostel was bordering a hiking trail so it was a bit out of town and on a hill, it was fun to get to know the bus system of Bergen!

We spent our first full day exploring town, and finding all of the cute parks to sit down in to journal and draw. 

I discovered my new favorite convenience store!

We also found lots of cute murals scattered about the city just like Reykjavik.

We decided to explore the three big art museums of Bergen and spent the rest of the day looking at art. I loved to see all of the old Norwegian landscape art- the majority were of the forest or of waves with a moon above. 

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We ended our day with an impromptu punk concert in an old cave concert venue called Hulen.

We had an absolute blast discovering two new bands. One named Bold Common and one called Skanky! Check them out they are both AWESOME!
In-between sets Lena and I went outside and saw a Hedgehog!! (very important part of the story)
We ended up getting matching merch, getting invited backstage, and making wonderful new friends. 

 
We got invited to join them after their shows to sit down at this cool bar called Kraken near the city center and learned so much about life as an artist in Norway! We talked art and politics till closing and ended our day tucked into bed at 4am.
The next day Lena and I decided to hike up Fløyen for a mountain view of the city. 

We hiked up the paved switch-backing trail from the city center through spurts of heavy rain followed by glimpses of sunlight. And we discovered a lovely stone troll garden at the top!

The sunset view was so beautiful.

Lena spotted this person smoking in a tree!! 

I have made it a mission to give many hugs to the public sculptures and large trees I find during my trip :)

That night we met some new friends and made plans to meet up with Griet's Australian friends Sam and Nikolai the next day! 

Their trio meshed instantly with Lena and I and we became fast friends through exploring the shopping streets of Bergen. We found that Trolls and wool sweaters are both extremely popular in Norway.

 

We decided to take the funicular up to the troll garden to see the views up the mountain

Then we tried to go on a hike from Fløyen to Ulriken, but had to take a literal raincheck and took refuge at a public hut instead. We got warm and dry, exchange travel stories, and shared Kvikk Lunsj, which is traditionally broken out as a victory snack on the top of a mountain.

 

We said hi to the logbook and hiked back down to the city center to get some hearty soup for dinner. 

The next day we attempted yet again to hike the long trek from Fløyen to Ulriken. 

It was almost always raining on our hike so we pulled our raincoats over our backpacks to keep our things dry on the trek up. 

We had an amazing time during our 16 Km full day hike. 
My highlights were seeing the nature change as we elevated, discovered bodies of water scattered through the mountains, mountain sheep with rainbows, and the absolutely jaw dropping views. 
My lowlights were getting soaked to the bone, freezing, and sludging through cold mud halfway up my calves.

Here is a picture of me looking at the expanse of mountains I had ahead of me- definitely contemplating my life choices at this point.

But at least we had Field Day Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels tm to get us through the day 
(please sponsor)

We made it to the end and I was so proud! This was my first real hike and I crushed it! 

I'm so happy I went, this was definitely the best way to experience Bergen. 

Thank you to my new friends for giving me such a amazing opportunity! 

We ended the day with delicious fried rice and well needed showers. 

The next day we missed our train and decided to make a day out of waiting for the next one. We all enjoyed pastries and coffee and then took a long fjord-side walk, found some cute art and antique stores, and wrote each other farewell letters. 

Goodbye Bergen and Hello Oslo! 

Love, 

Luca