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I'm so excited! My flight departs on Friday, and I arrive in Oslo Saturday morning. I'll be spending Saturday and Sunday evening in Oslo. I'll take the train to Bergen on Monday, spend Monday-Wednesday nights in Bergen, and I'll return to Oslo Thursday. I'll spend Thursday and Friday nights back in Oslo and fly back to the US on Saturday.
I've been mulling over a possible day trip on Friday to Gothenburg just to get a little taste of Sweden, but it seems a little too far for just a day trip. I could technically take the early train there and the late train back but that's over 7 hours of travel for about 6 hours of exploring. My hotel is already booked in Oslo Friday night so I have to stay there, plus I fly out of Gardermoen on Saturday. Thoughts?
I'm planning to visit in Oslo the Akershus, the Botanical Gardens, some of the sculpture parks, and maybe the Viking Ship museum. I'll be staying right by the Karl Johan gate so that too. In Bergen I will do a fjord tour and the weather looks good so far. I also plan to do some hiking in the nearby mountains.
Food looks expensive but not extraordinarily so. It seemed pricier in Zurich, but maybe that has to do with the exchange rates.
Any other last minute tips are appreciated. Thanks!
You should try to mingle with people in Bergen. They like to talk, and to talk loud about everything. The meme about nordic people being enclosed does not apply to Bergen's people. That's a known fact in Norway.
I just arrived back in the US, and I wanted to come back and update this thread with a couple thoughts. Norway really blew me away.
Oslo Airport Gardermoen is the most beautiful airport I've ever seen. Beautiful hardwood floors everywhere, huge glass windows everywhere. The aesthetic is something I've never experienced before. It really created an ambiance that is nothing like a typical airport. At times I thought I was in an upscale art gallery or something. Very well-executed, down to the bathrooms.
Oslo I've never seen so many Teslas in my life. Seriously, people drive them like they're a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Focus. Oslo is a really beautiful city, reminded me a bit of Zurich. I was impressed with the cleanliness of the city, and I only saw perhaps three people who looked like they were homeless/drugged out. That is a stark difference from American cities. I visited the Akershus, the Viking Ships Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Opera House, and the Vigeland Sculpture Park. I enjoyed all of them. But the posters who said you can see everything in 2-3 days were right. It's not really a place you need a week or so to really experience. Karl Johan's Gate was also a nice experience. Oslo was overall a much more vibrant place than I was expecting it to be. It’s also booming. Never seen so many cranes in my life.
Public transportation was, as expected, quite good and fairly easy to navigate.
I'm not sure if it's a summer thing, but Oslo seems like a city full of night owls. I would go out mid morning at like 8-9 on the weekend and the streets would be pretty empty. Seemed a lot of people wouldn’t get dinner until 9:30-10:30 and people seemed to stay out quite late. I noticed the same thing in many parts of Spain too so I guess it’s more a European thing. Of course, the sun not setting until 11pm and rising at 3am probably has something to do with that.
Bergen
Bergen was an exceptional place to visit. The reason I say it is exceptional is that you can experience the outdoors/hiking literally right in the city in a way I’ve never seen before. There are several mountains that rise around the city, I believe Bergen’s nickname is “the city of seven mountains” as they wrap around the city. I hiked up Mounts Ulriken and Floyen while there. Ulriken is a bit further out and you need to take a bus, but you can literally walk to the “trailhead” of Floyen in 5 minutes from the fish market/harbor. It was a challenging hike filled with switchbacks but offers spectacular views of the city and fjords from the top. You don’t have to hike if you don’t want to as both mountains have funiculars that take you to the top, but I’m a big hiker so I chose to hike up them. And what’s so amazing is that when you come back down you are right back in the city. Most of my vacations are either outdoor oriented or city oriented because it’s difficult to meaningfully experience both, but I was able to do that in Bergen.
I also did a fjord tour which was nice but it didn’t go as far out of Bergen as I expected. Next time I will do a tour in a more remote location.
I visited the Fisheries Museum in Bergen which was small but interesting. It offers a glimpse into the importance of the fishing industry for Norway and Bergen in particular.
Train Oslo->Bergen
This was the highlight of my trip. What an amazing ride! I was fortunate enough that the car I was in was fairly empty, so I was able to switch from one side to another to take shots. It’s truly stunning scenery and a must-see for anyone visiting Oslo. I was not disappointed. You go from the green hills around Oslo up into snowy mountains, then back down to warmer altitudes where you will see beautiful streams and waterfalls flowing with crystal clear water, and then as you get into Bergen you start to see the fjords everywhere. It was a remarkable trip. On the way back it was more crowded so I didn’t have the luxury of getting good shots. I would recommend paying extra to get a window seat, it will be a good investment.
The People Norwegians are the nicest people I've ever met. Everywhere I went people were helpful and polite, and treated me with so much respect. I was extremely surprised not just about how everyone spoke English, but with the level of mastery of the language. I met several people who spoke perfect English, better than many Americans. They were very happy to speak English to me which I highly appreciated. I actually mistook some Norwegians for Americans or Brits because they spoke English so well. Norwegians, both male and female, tended to be quite good-looking to my eyes and most people seemed to be in very good shape.
Most Norwegians I spoke with tended to have a favorable view of American visitors, at least that's what they told me. They of course don’t tend to like Trump, as they shouldn’t, but I did meet several people who were very nationalist. Many wanted to talk about Sweden and how they did not approve of the way they were handling the immigration situation. I didn’t encounter many other Americans however, maybe 10 total. Lots of Chinese, Japanese, and Brits in particular. I’m guessing the latter has to do with the proximity. Met a lot of Icelanders and Swedish who were living in Norway as well, also some Polish people.
I’m a gay guy so I wanted to check out the gay nightlife in Norway. I had to keep reminding myself that Norway is
only a country of 5.2 million people, but even so the gay nightlife seemed pretty small. In Oslo there is London Pub which is actually a pretty decent spot with a club on the upper floor and more of a pub in the lower floor. There were also two other bars I didn’t visit because they had weird hours that didn’t work with my schedule. Bergen was very underwhelming. They only have one gay bar in the city that is only open Wed-Sun and is quite small and very subdued. Nevertheless, it was a nice place but Bergen is definitely not a gay nightlife destination.
A note about immigration: I guess I really have to take a mea culpa. In America we have a view of the immigrants in Europe as largely confined to their own neighborhoods and really having a problem integrating. But when I was in Olso I saw Muslims out to dinner with Norwegians, shopping with Norwegians, and even met several Muslims at the gay bar. I did walk through a Somali neighborhood but didn’t feel unsafe, there were plenty of Norwegians walking around as well. So at least in Oslo, many of them do seem to integrate rather well into the fabric of Norwegian society. I felt like I was a bit naive before.
Expense Norway is an extremely expensive country for foreigners to visit. I knew this before I visited and budgeted accordingly, but I have to say, I still felt some sticker shock. A standard domestic beer at a bar will cost at least $7, but upwards of $10-11 depending on where you go. A meal at a nice restaurant could be upwards of $40-50 person, at a more average place perhaps $20-30. Interestingly, hotels were not that expensive. I stayed at Scandic at a really good, central location in Oslo and paid an average of $150-170/night. That's cheaper than comparable hotels in many American cities. Some deals can also be found. 7-Eleven has a deal for a coffee and a pastry for 25 NOK/~$3. And the coffee, even at 7-Eleven, is actually quite good. It is ground fresh in a machine each time you order a cup. You would not see such a thing in the U.S. I didn't even bother looking at clothing because I was already aware of the cost differential.
This, of course, is based on the current exchange rate of approximately $0.12/1 NOK. Last year at this time, the exchange rate was $0.17/1 NOK, so everything was about 40% more expensive.
Food/Drink
I’m a vegetarian so I really didn’t try the best of what Norway is known for. Ate at a great vegan place in Oslo, and a really good Indian place. Norwegian waffles are phenomenal. Coffee is great. Their national beers, Hansa and Ringnes, are both fairly good pilsners, better than American counterparts.
Overall, this had to be one of my top 3 favorite places to visit. It’s really clear to me now why Norway constantly tops the lists of countries/cities with the highest quality of life. The land, the people, the cities, the culture, everything was just phenomenal. As an American, I’ve never felt as welcome anywhere as I did in Norway.
So I'm heading back to Norway this October for a long (really long) weekend. Wednesday through Monday, lol. I am staying with a someone I met there last year who I am sort of dating. He lives in Oslo. We are planning to spend two nights in Gothenburg Sweden and two nights in Oslo. Any recommendations for Gothenburg?
So I'm heading back to Norway this October for a long (really long) weekend. Wednesday through Monday, lol. I am staying with a someone I met there last year who I am sort of dating. He lives in Oslo. We are planning to spend two nights in Gothenburg Sweden and two nights in Oslo. Any recommendations for Gothenburg?
Bergen the average annual precipitation is about 2,200 millimetres (87 inches).
Annual precipitation averages for the entire UK are 133 days of rain or snow, totalling 885 millimetres (33.7 inches).
However rainfall in the UK tends to be far more concentrated in the West and in the mountainous regions such as the Scottish Highlands, Pennines/ Lake District (North West England), Snowdoniain in Wales, Cornwall and the South West including Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin moor and parts of Northern Ireland.
Last edited by Brave New World; 08-31-2017 at 10:14 AM..
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My Trip
