Hello there! This is the second part of my two part blog about our Norway adventure! Check out the first part here.
As I told you in the last post, our first day in Norway was very sunny. Unfortunately, the next day, the weather was gray and rainy. We decided to go to the fish market for breakfast. The fish market was a bit different than I hoped it would be: a glass building, with a couple of luxurious fish shops in it, and tables and chairs for the guests. It was fine because it started pouring, and we wanted somewhere dry to sit, but it wasn’t much of a market to me. Just outside were stalls full of beautiful fish; now that’s a market!
Strange creatures at the fish market in Bergen
Breakfast was fine anyway: scrambled eggs, salmon, and toast with brown Norwegian cheese, and jam (the waitress gave us the advice to spread the jam on the cheese: delicious, much better than just the cheese on it’s own).
I went to the Hanseatic museum near the harbor, and Schøtstuene, 5 minutes away, next to St. Mary’s church. It tells the story of how the Hanseatic traders lived and worked, as far back as 1350. The building of the museum is from 1704. It’ s dark and gloomy inside, just as it was then. I can’t imagine how people used to live there in the cold Norwegian winters, with no heating or lighting – because of the wooden structure, open fire was forbidden in the living quarters. In Schøtstuene, the other part of the museum, the people of Bryggen warmed up and had their meals.
A beautiful old journal in the Hanseatic Museum
Michael had dropped off our rental car in the meantime, and we met up for some coffee and shelter from the rain. We walked around for a bit – I’d discovered a cool little restaurant on tripadvisor that everybody was raving about (Bjellands kjokken, a place where an older lady cooks homemade food, and you are essentially sitting in her kitchen) After a walk in the rain, we discovered that the place was closed. Bummer! Have you by any chance been there? Please let me know how it was in the comments, because I’m curious!
On our way back, we took a look at some great shops around the harbor area. Man, all the shops in Norway that I have seen, are beautiful! I was especially interested in shops with toys and/or children’s clothing. Since it was a holiday, many were closed. I liked the window display at Rumpetroll, and I have since looked up and gushed over their website. I’ve bought two little gifts (crayons and the cutest little cup) for our little lady at home, at a fabulous shop full of children’s stuff, called Småting Bergen.
Hungry –or you might say hangry– we walked around in search of an affordable place to eat. That proved quite a challenge. We spotted a TGI Fridays, and ran inside. No, they didn’t serve anything remotely Norwegian there, but we’d never tried it, and inside it was warm, dry and cozy. The food was very tasty, and quite pricey after all, but the service was very good – money well spent! We took a taxi to the Airbnb, which was very nice to give our tired legs a rest.
The next day was the day of The Train Ride! We were very excited, and our Airbnb hostess was so kind as to drive us to the nearest tram station very early. In about an hour, we were at the railway station in Bergen, just in time to buy some food and drinks for our journey. We had booked the train in advance, on the site www.nsb.no , and chosen the morning train (leaving just before 8AM), so we would have maximum daylight on our trip, and wouldn’t arrive in Oslo too late. The train was pretty modern, with big windows, and a decent, clean-ish toilet (for a train toilet, I mean; they can be so gross!). There was a cafeteria wagon to buy some coffee or snacks on the way.
The seats on the train are numbered – make sure you select the spots you want while booking online, because otherwise the site selects them for you. And you don’t want to ride backwards for 7+ hours…. I’ve seen a lot of questions on forums about which side of the train has the best views. We were sitting on the left, and had very nice views – but I think it doesn’t really matter; I saw some pretty spectacular sights on the right too! The views are what it’s all about on this train. The landscape changes all the time. Mountains, water, fields, snow, little rustic houses strewn about, even in the most remote places… you can’t stop looking! Although there were a few Norwegian pensioners on the train next to us, who had clearly been there and done that a million times before, and looked utterly unimpressed, since they chose knitting, reading or napping over staring out of the windows.
I can’t tell you how beautiful it was, you really have to see for yourself! Book a trip to Norway, or watch our footage on youtube!
In Oslo, we took the metro to our next Airbnb in a suburb of Oslo: a room in the apartment of a very nice young couple. We chose to relax for a bit in the room, because it had been a long day. Fortunately there was a decent Asian take away restaurant just around the corner, so we didn’t have to look far.
The next day, we headed into the city. Oslo is very clean, spacious and seemingly not too touristy. We walked around, and saw the Royal Palace, the National Theatre, the harbor, and the Akershus fortress. Lunchtime was spent at a great place: Freddy Fuego’s Burrito Bar! http://freddyfuego.no Again, pretty far from traditional Norwegian, but so so so good: customizable burritos with a rich filling, and relatively cheap as well! I instantly decided to try to make something like that at home.
Michael went to the barbers because he needed an urgent haircut, and coincidentally ended up with a cool Dutch barber working in Norway, at Edge Barbershop (http://www.edgebarbershop.no)!
Meanwhile, I strolled around and made some observations. A few things that caught my attention: there are a lot of hair salons in Oslo, maybe that’s why Norwegian people all look so well groomed? They really do! (This part of the story is very heavy on the generalizations, of course!) They tend to dress kind of sensibly, with outdoor style jackets, and sturdy shoes. Overall the majority looked very lean and athletic to me, no wonder, because I read that national favorite pastimes include skiing and hiking; those Norwegians just love intense physical activities!
Our last destination in the city was a neighborhood called Grünerløkka. It’s a very cozy part of the city, with lots of second hand/vintage shops, and little restaurants and bars. I also found a Lindex (https://www.lindex.com/eu/find-your-store/) there, and just had to pop in: they have shops in many European countries, but the Netherlands isn’t one of them. I really like their clothing, also for our daughter, and it was nice not to have to go to the webshop, but see and feel everything for myself!
The story of our trip kind of ends here, because we had walked so much, all we wanted was go to our temporary Airbnb-home, and put our feet up! The next morning we took the airport train (beware, it’s not a normal train and you pay a pretty high fee!), and hopped on the plane home.
It had been a pretty amazing weekend, full of fresh air, beautiful sights, and left us wanting to see more of Scandinavia!
Have you been to Scandinavia before? And do you have any suggestions on where to go or what to do on our next Scandinavian adventure? Feel free to leave a comment!
See you soon!
-Anna
1 Pingback