While our time in London and Oslo was mostly spent on rest and recovery, I’m happy to say that we were all back to normal by the time we headed to Bergen, Norway. It was another surprise destination for me and I was very excited to land somewhere that I didn’t know much about!
Bergen is a beautiful city on Norway’s southwestern coast, surrounded by mountains and fjords. We stayed in a cozy little Airbnb apartment not too far from our favorite part of the city–Bryggen, which features rows of colorful wooden houses on the old wharf. On our first day, we took a fabulous city tour to get ourselves oriented, and we learned so much about the history, culture and lifestyle of Bergen! There is so much to love about the lifestyle there, such as…
- Most people eat dinner very early so that they can have plenty of time in the evenings for social activities and hobbies.
- At work, it is considered illegal if you get a work space without a window view.
- School is from 8am to 1pm for ALL kids.
We’re currently still figuring out how we can all move to Bergen, but until then, I guess we will continue to have to suffer through the workaholic, driven culture of Silicon Valley.
Our time in Bergen was quite chill. We loved walking through the small shops in Bryggen, and we often took breaks at lovely cafes to indulge in their famous cinnamon rolls. Our best discovery on this trip was a small cafe call Fjak Chocolate & Cafe, recommended by our guide from the city tour. Their hot chocolate was SO good we literally went there every single day. We also indulged in some amazing seafood at the local seafood market stalls and tried reindeer sausage hotdogs, which was absolutely phenomenal.
On the day that we decided to take the funicular up to Mount Floyen, it was rainy and cold, but we still got a really nice cloudy view of the city from high up. I spent an hour helping the girls film a dancing reel and nearly froze to death, but we had so much laughs on all the outtakes! When we took the funicular back down, we warmed ourselves up right away with more hot cocoa and cinnamon buns!
On our last day in Bergen, we took a cruise to see the Mostraumen fjord and the views were genuinely majestic! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great….it was cold and extremely windy, making it very hard to remain on the viewing deck for long. My favorite part was when the fjord was getting more and more narrow and then you’re suddenly surrounded by towering mountains all around you. We even sailed past a few small villages and astounding waterfalls!
We definitely enjoyed Bergen a lot more than Oslo, and perhaps it may be because we were still feeling unwell while in Oslo, but we found Bergen to be much more charming and beautiful! We’d want to go back simply for the reindeer hotdogs and fjak hot chocolate, lol.
