Monday 20 October 2014

Turning 21 & A Trip to Bergen


This post is almost a month overdue but... it's official! As of September 22nd, I joined the ranks of the 'real adults' - I am now 21 years old. No more shirking my responsibilities (although I'll still try!).


I celebrated with my friends here and had possibly the best birthday night I have ever had. We played drinking games, ate brownies, laughed a ton, and then went out to a club (LaWo. I think). They even got me a couple of lovely presents which I was absolutely not expecting! I am seriously in love with everyone here and so grateful that I have met them - they are all wonderful and make every day better.

The Royal Palace, Oslo - & Mum!
Then, my parents arrived! They stayed in Oslo for four days (with really lovely weather), and then we headed to Bergen for a few days (with really rainy weather). It was lovely to show them around Oslo to my favourite places, and also to discover some new favourites with them (Louise restaurant & bar, I'm looking at you). I think it's fair to say that on a one day organised coach trip around Oslo (whilst I was in lectures), Mum & Dad probably saw more of Oslo than I have - they were able to give me some suggestions!

Oslo Rådhus
A random lake near Voss 

Anyway, on to Bergen! We opted for the seven hour train journey to get there, and I do think it was worth it (though I was glad to fly back to Oslo). I almost finished an exceedingly lengthy book (about Finland), and of course, there were some lovely sights (including snow-covered mountains!) - plus, apparently, we went through the longest train tunnel in Europe. Exciting?! Unfortunately when we got to Voss, we were told the railway was closed from there to Bergen and we had to get a bus instead. A definite bummer, as I'm pretty sure there would have been some very pretty views between Voss and Bergen - and I also get super carsick if I try to read on buses. Lame.



We stayed in an apartment found via Airbnb which was right in the centre of Bergen, next to the theatre and just up from the Lille fountain - a perfect place to be as it was only a couple of minutes stroll from the main attractions. The first thing we did in Bergen was head up Mount Fløyen on the Fløibanen. I would've liked to hike up, but my mum is on crutches after breaking both her ankles earlier this year, so that wasn't an option. It was a quick 5-minute journey up there and it offered some great views over Bergen - definitely worth it! I had no idea that Bergen was as big as it looked from up there ('second biggest city' doesn't mean much when you're in a country of around 5 million people... and the capital only has 600,000 of them). Although when you're in the centre of it, it really doesn't feel big at all (more like a large town).


Yeehaw cowboy
We also headed to Bryggen - the old wharf of Bergen which has a bunch of beautiful wooden buildings. It's also incredibly touristy and full of souvenir shops all selling the same thing, but that doesn't detract from the charm; it reminded me of towns that you see in Old Western movies, with a feeling that the buildings were all leaning together. Lovely! The fish market is also in that area, although I couldn't quite understand why it was such a huge attraction (unless you actually want to buy some fish). The big black lumps of whale meat were pretty grim to see!

The other main thing we did was take a 3.5 hour cruise to Mostraumen with Rødne Fjord Cruises. Again, the weather was a bit rubbish with a lot of rain and clouds, so the views perhaps weren't as idyllic as they could've/would've been on a sunny day - but it was time well spent nonetheless! The tour operators were very friendly too, and the captain even gave us the special treatment and took us up to the 'control room' (I'm pretty sure that is not the right term for that bit of the catamaran) - I think she appreciated that my Dad, as a former lifeboat helmsman, actually understood all the technical stuff! (I clearly did not.)




I had a really lovely time with my parents, and of course I was sad to see them go as they flew out of Bergen and back to the UK some hours before I did. But I also got to spent that day with a good friend from University who is on exchange there, so that was nice. Even better was the brownie cake we baked - I still dream of it. Although purely based on the amount of rain that falls in each city, I'm glad I chose Oslo for my exchange!


All in all, another great week! I seem to be racking up quite a few memorable ones over here - and that won't be stopping any time soon!