Bergen is a small quaint town on the southwestern coast of Norway, surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes and sea. Back in the 1200s, it used to be Norway’s capital, until 1299 when Oslo took over. Here’s a snippet off Lonely Planet, on Bergen:
“Bergen is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, laid out across harbours and hillsides. It’s also rich in history and architecture, especially in the quayside Bryggen district. But this
is a city that is anything but stuck in the past with a dynamic cultural life, great restaurants and nightlife.”
My desire to visit Bergen stems from my love for Kings of Convenience – a 2-piece band from Bergen and produces such great music. I’ve read how the beautiful landscapes in their city (and country) have inspired their music, and was curious to find out. In fact, this can be said of some of the music coming out from Scandinavia – think Sigur Ros, Sonje Lerche, Kings of Convenience, sounds that could instantly transport you to somewhere idyllic.
(Mouse over pictures below for captions. Full photo set can be found on my Flickr page)
Weather
Visiting in summer (June specifically) also meant that we get to experience the long summer days – during our stay, the day breaks at about 3am-ish, and only gets dark at about 1am. That’s a good 22 hours of sunshine, utter bliss, and even when the sun sets, it was rarely really dark, at least not for long. Some pics below taken from our apartment’s window at 11pm-ish/midnight.
Given that Bergen is THE rainiest city in the world (it’s nicknamed the City of Rain, where it rains 2/3 of the year), we got really lucky with the weather. I remember checking the weather forecast everyday a week prior to the trip, and all I saw was rain, rain and rain. Thankfully the forecast changed for the better but we were not spared from the typical Bergen weather. On our 1st day there, the weather changed from rainy to sunny, to rainy to sunny for 5 times no less. Not a bad thing to have happened as we had then experience how unpredictable the weather can be. In Bergen, certainly make the brolly your best friend. For one day..it could be extremely cloudy/rainy and beautiful clear blue skies next.
Accommodation
Not wanting to book a boring boxy hotel room, I googled around for guesthouses and didn’t take long to chance upon one called Skuteviken Guesthouse. I was sold on the image of the apartment on the home page, it simply looks too lovely (see image below – from their website), and after reading the reviews on Tripadvisor (all 5-star reviews), I was quite sure this was where we should stay. A few calls, a few emails and we were set.
Skuteviken Guesthouse is owned by Solveig and Elvind, who are artists by profession and set this up a few years ago. Located just 5-10min walk away from city centre and just across the pier, it has unparallel views of the neighbouring houses on a hill, as well as a gorgeous (unblocked) view of the horizon from our apartment window, when the sun sets. It’s a small charming guesthouse on a narrow cobble-stoned street, with just 5 small apartments, each individually designed by Solveig and Elvind, and decorated with some of their own artwork. All the apartments were extremely clean and even have kitchenettes with utensils and some complimentary dry goods such as tea, coffee, pasta, which came in really handy.
Great apartment, great location. Great owners too. One evening, I spent an hour sitting on their couch where the ‘reception’ is, for an hour chatting with Solveig and Elvind (who by the way made one of the nicest cappucinno I’ve had). It was an interesting and very memorable exchange, where we talked about the Norwegian culture, the Bergen-Oslo ‘rivalry’, music, life in Bergen, and also on Singapore, amongst other things. I enjoy hearing locals talk about their love and pride for their cities – something I encountered more than once during this trip, from Norwegians, French and the English.
Staying here exceeded ALL expectations and in fact, was one of the more enriching experiences I’ve had during this vacation. Here’s a link to the guesthouse if you decide to check it out should you visit Bergen in future.
Activities
Walking is the best way to explore the city of Bergen. The city centre is extremely walkable, you just need a good pair of shoes to deal with the cobble-stoned streets, and possibly arm yourself with a brolly in case it rains.
We spent the first day pretty much seeing the city on foot. Eating as we go. Stopping at cafes and bars for drinks. Soaking in the scenery from the hilltops and peeking at the secret gardens which seemed very common here. Most of the wooden houses are gorgeous, and often decorated with flowers, a lot of flowers.
The next day was spent out at sea – where I had my first go at deep sea fishing. Being out there on a small in the ocean on a brilliant sunny day, in Norway (I keep having to remind myself that I was fishing in Norway!) was such a treat. Reeling in a fish continuously for 5-min since it was so deep (120-metres) could get tiring but it was extremely rewarding and a lot of fun.
Dead-beat after the day out at sea, we decided to forgo another day trip to go sea-kayaking, which was probably one of the better decisions we made this trip. Chanced upon a cafe called “Barista Bar” near our guesthouse where we stopped for a morning coffee/smoothie before doing an easy trek up Mount Floyen where we were treated with a nice view of Bergen. This, too, was where I saw Eirik from Kings of Convenience – he was strolling in the park with his wife and their baby. We crossed path 3-4 times and despite not going forward to say hi, it was more than enough to actually bump into him right here. The rest of the afternoon was spent back at Barista Bar which turned out to be the chilled out afternoon we both need, over board games, a few glasses of Hansa beer and good music.
Music
Though we didn’t plan a whole lot of things to do here, a few ‘must-do’ include the fresh seafood (eating, catching) and seeing good live local music. Armed with a few recommendations from a random bartender, we headed to this bar where a live band performs regularly. It was packed and noisy on a Saturday night, and the music was too loud – not that it wasn’t good, but I was looking for something more low-key.
I thought that’s all the ‘local music’ I am bringing back with me for this trip and was a little disappointed.
While chatting with Solveig and Elvind the following day, their eyes lit up immediately when they heard that I’m a Kings of Convenience fan (they are too). Upon hearing about our failed attempt to suss out good local music the previous night, they immediately gave me the details to this low-key bar called Logen, where local musicians get together every Monday night. I got incredibly excited by this and was thinking how lucky I was in terms of timing since it only happens once a week and was pretty much one of the last sessions since most people go away during the summer and this would have stopped.
To add on to that, Elvind and Solveig decided to join us at the bar as well. Good music, good company, good conversations with the locals including this girl who is working for a non-profit to promote Norwegian music and helping bands score performances/gigs.
Certainly one of the highlights of the trip.
Food and Drinks
Norway is an expensive city, and as it turned out, we didn’t end up eating out as much as we thought we would. Not a bad thing too as we had the chance to shop at the local supermarkets and cook in the apartment. Grocery shopping in a foreign city is always an interesting experience – especially when the products are not labelled in English. Saw caviar packaged in tubes just like toothpaste which is a good idea.
Fresh sandwiches (shrimps, smoked salmon), mussels, fishcakes were some of my favourites. However, what’s even better, are the beverages. Hansa, a Norwegian beer, is extremely refreshing. Easily my favourite beer to date. And strange as it might sound, the other beverage that tasted incredible, was the tap water. Drink it straight off the tap, or chill it in the refridgerator.
Prior to visiting Bergen, I had the impression of Norwegians being very heavy drinkers, all days of the week. I was told that this was not the case – instead, they binge-drink. On weekdays, it’s uncommon to go drinking, but come weekends, they get sloshed. I also learned that they prohibit the sale of alcohol after 6pm from Mon-Sat, and all day Sunday…
So long, Bergen!