Oslo & Bergen, Norway

We arrived from Amsterdam into Oslo, Norway with just one short day there before heading to Bergen. Our air bnb host happened to be a local guide so he was conveintly able to tell us the high points of the city!

After we dropped our bags, we walked through some markets and around the parks. It was a perfect day, sunny but not too hot. We saw traditional wooden buildings, the oldest in Oslo and then made our way to the harbor. At the harbor we found a patch of grass to take a nap and then a cup of tea at the most picturesque Starbucks on the water. We went to bed relatively early that night because we had a long train ride the next day, supposedly the best in Europe, that we had to stay awake for.

We booked our train tickets a few weeks in advance and were lucky enough to upgrade to first class (just ten more dollars, so why not). There wasn’t a huge difference between first class and the regular coaches other than more leg rooms, which is pretty essential for Scott, and tables to work on. Scott did some research and found that the train ride from Oslo to Bergen is supposed to be the most beautiful train ride in all of Europe. For 6 hours, we decided to take the slow mode of travel and it was well worth it. The train snaked through the high mountains; we saw snow, lakes, rivers, the cutest mountain towns, basically an outdoors-men paradise. We wished we had known more about the towns we passed through before the trip because we definitely would’ve stopped to hike in a few of them. Another highlight of the train ride, the hot dogs, they were probably the best hot dogs we’ve ever had, I kid you not. Cheesy sausages, with fried onions, and sauce, absolutely delicious.

The one thing we noticed was that Norway is extremely expensive, more so then anywhere else we had been. As we moved through Europe the prices of each place seemed to go up and up. Iceland, being our last place, we knew would be the most expensive, but Norway is a close second. Anyways, after our absoultely beautiful train ride, we had one day of true sunshine in Bergen and we decided to make the most of that day.

Our air bnb happened to be a long bus ride out of town and the public transport was pretty expensive. So after we dropped our bags we headed into town and took the monorail to the top of the mountain in Bergen to Floyen. At the top there were several hikes, mountain lakes, kayaking, restaurants and beautiful views of Bergen. We walked around the harbor, and saw the open air fish market. Apparently it rains more in Bergen then anywhere else in Europe, so our one day of sunshine was well spent.

The rest of the time in Norway we(Scott) spent fine tuning our itinerary for Iceland. I worked on the blog and revamped it! As you can tell, we are now with WordPress and trying to steam line and build our brand. Hoping to continue this growth as we continue on to Asia!