Bergen

Short stopover in Bergen

At the train station in Oslo we found our reserved seats and settled down for an 8 hour trip to Bergen. I was very curious about this portion of our train travel as I had heard people refer to it several times as “the most beautiful train trip in the world”.  Who knows about the world but it was certainly the most beautiful train trip I’ve ever had.  Basically the scenery went from pretty farmland to wildly gorgeous high mountain tundra, to pretty woods and waterfalls. Plus there was free coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, or tea at a little do-it-yourself espresso machine between the cars! (Scandinavia doesn’t go in for complimentary very often) Perhaps not the best latte ever made but still – it was free and you got it on the train ride to Bergen, Norway.

We only scheduled a two night stopover in the Bergen area even though it was where we would be living come September 1st.  We had three things to do: Say hi to the people in Paul’s department, pick up a rental car, and get a camping place close to the Bergen airport where we would be dropping Kaitlin off early the next morning to catch a plane to Lyon, France.

For the first night we had reserved yet another youth hostel. At the time of the reservation this had seemed merely frugal and not such a big deal but coming right after the Oslo youth hostel I was wondering what we possibly could have been thinking. However the weather was nice when we got to the city and the walk to the hostel wasn’t very long.  As it turned out Bergen’s youth hostel really wasn’t that bad and had being clean and locking doors going for it. We checked in, dropped off our packs and headed out for an evening of exploring the city.

As far as we could tell Bergen would be a great place to end up for the next four months. First impressions were of a light-hearted city full of stereotypically tall blond natives and many immigrants from everywhere, not so tall or blond or apt to speak English fluently, but much happier than in Oslo. Fashion was rather strict – if you are a girl you wear black tights and a mini-skirt or skinny jeans with knee high boots and a raincoat. If you are a boy you wear a rain coat and almost-falling off baggy blue jeans.  Rain is not required for people to be wearing raincoats. The city is so small that it is quite easy to walk across it into wild countryside on either side yet so densely built up that it feels very urban. We walked by our apartment building and saw that it is right downtown, a few minutes’ walk from practically everything: the harbor, the shopping and restaurant district, the mall, the city museums, grocery stores, pharmacies, kebab shops, coffee houses, theaters, and the university.  We were very interested in the prices of things having been so stunned in Oslo and were heartened that Bergen’s prices are much more in line with prices in Austin.   Bergen is still pricey when the exchange rate is accounted for but not insane.  Well okay some prices could be called insane such as $12 a beer if you buy it at a bar or $30 a grocery store chicken but that’s okay, we don’t need to have beers out or eat chicken.  We can have tea and Nutella. The Bryggen area is really quite small and the fish market is a tourist trap but one part of the city is made up of houses running up a hill all higgety-piggety with sometimes only room for a staircase between them. Its eye candy but I’m glad our apartment is on a flat street particularly when the winter ice sets in.

The next morning Paul was greeted warmly by members of the Infomedia department where he is a guest researcher. Each new person we were introduced to wanted to know exactly where we were planning to go with our rental car.  They seemed confused that we hadn’t brought a map of Norway with us for this purpose. They were all wonderfully nice and gave us many travel tips most of which were lost on us not having a map, but I was nervous because we did have a deadline on when we could pick up the car and time was ticking by… Finally we got a chance to count our shipped boxes and leave; the department’s bonhomie following us out the door.

Then the confusion of logistics: what was the best way to get our stuff and us to the car rental and get out of the city to a campground close by the airport for Kaitlin’s early send off the next morning? Finally we settled on Kaitlin and I staying at an outdoor bench with all our luggage while Paul took a tram to the car rental then drove back to pick us up. This worked reasonably well.  While we waited for Paul Kaitlin and I were enchanted by about a dozen tiny fluffy brown birds that made a semi-circle around Kaitlin’s feet sweetly looking up at her as if she was Snow White. I got us some coffee and we killed time by writing in our journals.

Paul pulled up in an Alfa Romeo instead of the requested Nissan.  I’m fuzzy on the details as to why but for some reason they had messed up the reservation and our choices were to get a larger Nissan for more money or the Romeo as a free upgrade.  On the outside it was bright and shiny and red. Inside it was quite fancy with many levers and buttons only about half of which the car rental people could explain. We piled our grungy backpacks and hiking boots into it and began the task of navigating our way out of the city.

By the time we reached the campground it was raining steadily so we rented our first hytte (one-room cabin rental at a campground) of the trip. Kaitlin stayed in the cabin settling down to some rounds of solitaire in the warm cozy wood-lined room while Paul and I left to get groceries. First we asked the campground owner directions on how to get to a grocery store and mini-bank. He said, “Easy, you take a left on the road from the campground, and then take the second right at the second roundabout.”  We believed him and headed off.  After we took the second right at the second roundabout there was another roundabout. Then a tunnel. Then a dead end that when backed out of led to a few more roundabouts. We merged onto a freeway for awhile. Eventually, due to sheer number of miles covered, we did find a grocery store. I called Kaitlin to let her know that we would be taking much longer than one would think and we bought our food.

Dinner was canned Lapskaus stew, broccoli, and bread with Snofrisk. Lapskaus stew is a traditional dish made with reindeer and potatoes. We cooked dinner on the cabin’s hot plate. The canned version of Lapskaus had pork rather than reindeer but no matter it was still very fine. I ate more than my share.