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Oslo - Bergen Day 3 - 14-June

Leaving Oslo
What a pity to leave Oslo after 2 nights. I could some spent some more time here, climbing the Holmenkollen, going to the Vikingship museum. But the alternative is also tempting. An 8 hour train ride from East to West Norway. The temperature should be 12 degrees in Bergen and rainy. But all I see is sun and nice weather.

Trainride to Bergen

Travel details: Oslo S - Bergen Type: Train - Regiontog Departure: 8:11 - Arrival: 14:52 Distance: 500km

I am very curious for the trainride, I find myself seated next to an elder lady from the USA who is visiting the country with here family and who is looking at all the differences between Europe and the USA. It makes goods conversations and the book I got with me on the train was useless because you are either talking or looking out the window to the beautiful unspoiled scenery. This train is also the place where I see a wild animal, a young Moose! I was hoping to see reindeer and moose, this will be the only one I see.

Taking pictures from a moving train can be difficult if there are a lot of trees alongside the track. But behind those trees you see... trees!


Numerous blue lakes pass by.

The trainride is nice from the first hour, there are large hills and blue lakes. And after a few hours some mountains with a bit of snow on the top appear. But we are not climbing much and it takes 2 more hours before we will be driving through a snow-landscape. I find it hard to imagine that somewhere along this route it is still so cold that there is snow. After a blue lakes (the lakes really are deep blue colored), green hills and a lot of wooden holiday houses, suddenly a big chain of mountains appears on the horizon and the train starts climbing up to 1200meters above sea level.

Mountains are getting higher and higher.

The landscape changes, soon the only trees left, are pine trees, flowers disappear and the trees are getting smaller and smaller. Rocks, grass and an increasing amount of snow now dominate the landscape. The blue lakes are getting white, rivers are turning into streaming wild-water currents and waterfall appear everywhere. In Finnse, the highest point of the trainride, it is snowing, the lakes are frozen en everywhere you see bare rock, snow and some little wooden houses. There are also a lot of tunnels but the when you get out of them the landscape is beautiful. Just at this point the batteries of my camera get empty. Pity because the ride continues to be astonishing.

The train is climbing, trees and flowers make place for rocks and grass. Also the snow is getting quite close.


Finse, the highest point on the train route. The lake in front of the houses is still frozen. And it is snowing here.

The train makes its way down following wild currents, huge waterfalls, steep mountains and fjords. Sometimes the speaker in the train gives some information in both Norwegian and English, it looks like I am sitting in a tourist attraction giving me information about the scenery. At Myrdal the train makes a stop, allowing passengers to take the Flåm railway down the fjord. The steepest trainride in the world. But with this rain it doesn't look very tempting to take the ride. After myrdal it goes down fast, all the ride the hills were gentle glowing, but here the hills are very steep and dense pine forests are everywhere. It is amazing to see there is such a beautiful nature like this. On the other side of the mountain chain, clouds have gathered and it rains all the time. Now I understand why they say Bergen is so rainy. The seawind brings in many clouds and those clouds are prevented from going inland by the mountains. Result, clouds and rain in Bergen.

Getting to the hostel and getting lost.
The hostel I booked in Bergen is Montana Vandrerhjem, 4km out of the city centre so I need to take bus 31 to Lægdene. Busses are expensive but that didn't surprise. I find also out that grips in the bus are connected to a rope. It is not meant to grab a grip for keeping balance while standing, because it alerts the bus driver to stop at the next bus stop. At montana I get out, I am far from the city centre now and wonder how I need to go back. The hostel is nice, it is very cheap (that compensates for the busride) and breakfast is included. The dormitory has place for about 20 persons and the beds are of good quality. Though there are many schools visiting this place, it is not bad at all because schools don't use the dormitory. So you are surrounded with mainly backpackers or other kinds of individual travelers.


View of the TV tower from the hostel. Dark rainy clouds are trying to pass the mountains

The girl at the reception is helpful to show me a way to walk to the city centre (apparently everybody tries this to avoid taking the bus). There are 2 routes and they take around 30 to 45 minutes. Quickly I forget what road to take and decide to take some stairs leading downhill. The stairs get me downhill, but I am walking away from the city so I need to get back-up again and look for a big road leading towards the centrum. After 1½ hour I am finally in the city centre, it still rains and my feet hurt. I didn't really like Bergen that way though the city is actually quite nice (as I will find out tomorrow). And to make things funnier, I was so stupid to walk all the way back as well. With pain in my feet and legs I get back much faster. And back at the reception with a quick look on the map I found out that I could have done it even quicker (if I had taken a map with me). So tomorrow I am just going to try it again.