Day 21: Bergen, Norway
Friday June 5th, 2026,
"Awweaahhhh Aaaahhhhh,
We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde and sing and cry
Valhalla, I am coming."
Holly points out that Led Zeppelin is signing about where we are!!?? Scandinavian Countries are the lands of the ice and snow, and we are in the Nature of Norway, the land of the Midnight Sun. As we travel on the train at Midnight the sun is still out late enough where we can see some of thee most Magestic scenery in the entire World from this specific train ride. The longest day of the year is in about 2 weeks so we sunlight for almost 24 hours straight. We stay up almost all night on the train ride to Gawk at arguably thee most magnificent train ride in thee entire Woeld, the train between Oslo to Bergen, Norway. The sun sets around 11 PM here at this longitude, and rises around 4 AM, and with lifht still in the sky over an after and before sunset, the only dark times in the day are between Midnight and 3 AM, and this is the only time we're asleep today. We're lucky we can double an overnight train with both a hotel stay and transport and sight-seeing all at once, just because of the time of year we happen to be here in.
The hammer of the gods and Viking Ships are Nordic tales and this is where my People are from on my Dad's side, the Vikings of Norway. I feel an attachment to the land as it rolls by. I've Always Loved Nature, and this is Nature Overload. This train ride is and covernifht train from 11 PM to 6 AM and because of the time of year, we still get to see the absolute Beauty in the light.
This specific train ride is regarded as the most Beautiful train ride in the World, and the train that covers as the most altitude in the world, as it climbs up and back down a mountain to get to Bergen. It adds to tge simply diverse and striking views, as one moment you're on flat land with vast amounts of trees, to lakes, to rivers, to mountainous landscapes to, mounds of snow and dozen lakes, back down to no snow and all the seasons if Nature in one train ride. You literally can see every orientation of Nature you could ever even imagine. It's thee most Beautiful ride I have ever seen in my life.
We roll into between at 6 AM and the sun feels like it's 3 PM in the afternoon. We grab a coffee at the train station convince store and sit at one of the tables as this is the only place that is open. We must live and die by my self imposed game plan of just rolling with it and figuring out accommodations and Activities on the fly. Traveling from soooo far to soooo many places and so many ways of transport, it makes it hard to know what days and times you'll arrive in what country. It also keeps things flexible with staying at places shorter or longer depending on how we feel, or visiting new places at the spur if the moment without canceling expensive accommodations and transport. Everything Always happens to workout for us, and this gamelan has worked out quite nicely, as we've been able to do incredible things that may have not been possible if all our days were already planned out months in Advance. All this to say that this way of Nomadic traveling that makes me feel relaxed and at his with Deeply stresses out Holly but she's been incredibly accepting of my Philosophy of this trip. She's the Exact Opposite person in traveling and it unsettes her greatly by landing in a new and foreign land without a place to stay or Itenerary whatsoever to do. We now plan our next Days in Norway and the infinite possibilities in what cities to stay at and for hours long and where to go and what to see.
As we sit there we contemplate staying in the Bergen area for 2 or 3 nights, figure our if we want to stay in Bergen for our Hotel the entire time or go to a Viking town for some if the nights. We plan this out based on the availability of an overnight Viking Ship to sail the Bakric Sea between Stockholm Sweden to Helsinki Findland in a little under a week's time. We find it sold out, but luckily I find,a second company and we book it, it sounds like fun! We then decide to stay in Bergen for 3 nights, with the third train being an overnight train to Stockholm, Sweden to double as a hotel stay and transport, along with more of thee Most Beautiful Scenery you could possibly see on a train during almost 24 hours of sunlight. We decide to use Bergin as the landing spot to venture into day trips. We find hotels and accommodations and trains and Viking boats and Fjord cruises and cwe book everything right then and there on out phone's using Holly's International Internet.
We decide we explore Bergen for the day Today, then take a 3.5 hour Fjord Cruise, and by then the Hotel will be ready to check in at after 3 PM. We then go put our backpacks in the 24 hour storage lockers, that's thee Greatest thing Europe can give travelers. It makes it soooo easy to see thexworld without your life in your back, and keep it stowed away in a safe place we can trust. I've anyways wanted to keep my backpack on at all times, but Holly has Officially converted me to keeping my stuff in these little containers when we don't currently have a hotel to put them in. These have been at every major train station we've been to in Europe so far. This locker that was randomly selected for us is 402 which also starts with the number 40 which also contains a 2 as has been repeated and seen throughout the trip!
We start exploring Bergen and everything starts to open forc the day. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here!!!!! The city is on the North Sea and surrounded by 7 foest-covered Mountains with cool multi-coloured houses sprinkled in. Each one of these mountains have hiking trails that you can freely access in the city, and hike all the way to the top. I think this would be a Dream City to hike for my friend Vince!!!!
We explore as many of the streets as we can before our Fjord Cruise, it is an Absolutely Vibrant and Beautiful Cityc with a lot to so. It looks like a small town, and has a small town feel, but it actually is quite large with a 200,000+population with a fully major cities amenities. The streets remind me of of I've of my Favourite cities in Europe, Salzburg, where the buildings and cobble stone streets look like the Beauty of Vienna, but on a smaller, less major touristy place which I like. This city Bergen might be my new Favourite City!!! Cobble stone streets everywhere and beautiful colored houses, AND with Forest mountain backdrops, this place is one if the Beautifulist I've ever seen.
We walk around the Cherbourg (did I mean to say City here?) and find suuuuper Old Wooden Buildinds that are one of the main attractions of the area. I am almost 100% positive Disney took inspiration for their Toon Town with these specific buildings, as it's quite impressive that they can actually function at all. Everything inside and out is hand cut and nothing fits into where it leads. Everything is not cut straight, and everything looks Wobbly and not Symmetric and it's unclear if this is done by design, or if someone like me did it and it happens to work well enough for the buildings to not fall apart, haha! But the buildings and spiriling staircases inside and connecting alleys are absolutely Stunninf and some of my Favourite Buildings I've ever seen. We get to go into a couple of then and they are VAST. Soooo big inside, and even new floor you go up, staircase, ramp, walkway, is all made out of wood that all looks different and individually hand picked from the forest and you ask yourself if anything is actually structurally sound, and I am loving every second of it.
Most of these buildings are little food shops, cafés, pubs, and Gift Shops. But Oh My Gosh, out of all the places I've been in thr world, I have never Seen more Legit Souviners. This is thee first time they don't feel like a tourist trap, amd there's actually some Legit things and I'm pleasantly Suprised. There are sooooo many Awesome things to buy for memories that I want to buy them all. My Absolute Favourite are the hand knitted Traditional Nordic Wool Sweaters with the designs around the neck and shoulders, but things are EXPENSIVE in Norway, these sweaters are around half a Grand. Its also about $8 for a small coffee, $40 for a meal, and we are thinking about the prices of everything, but you can charge anything you want in a place this Magical and Beautiful.
We then start heading to our Fjord Cruise and its, out of nowhere, thee most Tarrential downpour of rain I've ever seen, the most since Oslo, and the most since maybe 5 years ago before that. We are absolutely soaked before getting into the boat, but luckily it stops raining for most of the 3.5 hour cruise. It is absolutely Stunning, but its its interesting to see that I'm spoiled living in Vancouver, because we see Fjords all the time and it looks almost exactly like we're sailing around thr Sunshine Coast and off the Vancouver Island. It eerily feels like the coast of British Columbia actually, but that doesn't take way anything of the Magic because it's different and still Absolutely Amazing!!!! We Cruise under the World's largest Floating car Bridge, and we I take a lot of Pictures. The guide gave a lot of good information and was nice to listen too as we stood on the outside of the boat.
The real difference between the Fjords of BC and here was at the very halfway point before heading back, where the Fjord we deadended into was at the small town of MO. Yes, just M O. There were HUGE Waterfalls and a small town, and giant Mountains surrounding us and it was Absolutely Magical, even with living around these types of view in BC. It started raining hard again so we go sit inside for the rest of the your back. Holly gets us Whaffels that they say are really good in Norway, and they were. At the end of the water there were cute little multicouloured houses surrounded by Mountains and Warerfalls on either side and it looks like the Dream Houses and Location for the people who already have Dream Houses to Dream about getting.
On the was back on the boat we dried off and were hungry. So we went to Bergen's outdoor Fish Market that recently opened for the season to eat. We walwd by earleier and it looks like some of the freshed fish possible as we are right on the North Sea. I wanted to try something local that I wouldn't be able to get back home, so naturally I decided to buy something that is probably illegal in Canada. This takes me back to Japan where I grossed out Holly eating food whole with eyes, but this took it into another level. Looking back, I feel really bad about it, but I'm all about where the Adventure takes me, especially when trying new things. When looking out at the water during the Fjord Tour, Holly really wanted to see a Whale, as that is her Favourite Amimal, so I made sure she would be able to see one... I ordered Raw Whale!!!???
I'm pretty sure that's illegal in North America because Whales are Awesome, but I had to try it. You buy slabs of the meat raw, and then they cook it for you. After bringing it out, they also have me potatoes, arugula, and the first cheap-o sliced bread I've seen in Europe. Holly sat across from me in absolute Horror as she saw me take a fork and knife into her Favourite Animal in the world. It was like Holly watching a a car crash and couldn't look away as I struggled to use one of those wooden disposable knifes to cut through the largest Mamal currently living in the world. It kind of tasted like steak but more chewy. After joking about giving Holly a kiss with my Whale Breathe that she didn't laugh about, we went back to the cool old wooden houses from earlier.
Their I bought my only second Art drawing I've ever bought, the kind where they sign their name in pencil at the bottom. I didn't take a picture of it before they wrapped it up nicely, but it's a drawing of old Viking Ships sailing the Harbours of Bergen looking out at the Mountains and tiny cool houses that I've grown accustomed to in Bergen, I Loved it.
We finally check into our Hotel and it's thee nicest place I've stayed at so far on this Trip. We walk up to the third floor of an old classic European style building with what looked like marble steps for the staircase and we immediately pass out for like 3 hours after only sleeping 2 hours on the train over. We wake up with just enough time for Holly to make it to the Laudry Mat nearby to wash her clothes. We walk around more while waiting for the clothes to dry, find another old church with a foresty mountain backdrop that reminded me exactly of my Favourite area back in Salzburg, and a Grocery store to buy our first Vegtables since what seems like 3 years ago.
I vow to catch up on as many Blog Days as I can and I get to it. It turns passed Midnight and there's still a little light outside in The Land of the Midnight Sun.
-Chris
This featured blog entry was written by ChrisJohnstone from the blog Johnstone's Totally Excellent Adventure!.
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