Back from my trip to Bergen

Hello friends and family! This past week has been an exciting and challenging one. On Wednesday we peace scholars got to talk to the former Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Bondevik. It was a pretty surreal and cool experience-it’s so extraordinary to be able to ask political leaders face to face whatever you want, to be able to sit next to them at the table. He talked to us about the organization he established, the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, which works at a pretty high level (rather than grass roots level). For example, through his organization he directly advised the leaders of Kenya on how to run their newly established coalition government. He was very friendly and it was a great experience. 

On my way to meet the Prime Minister 

Amusing bathroom sign in Bergen

 I have just returned from traveling to Bergen. I left early on Thursday morning and navigated the trains to the airport, with only minor setbacks. The airport is rather amusing-imagine IKEA as an airport, and then fill it with all the blond children in the world, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the Oslo airport is like. After only a 55 minute flight I arrived in Bergen and made my way to the city center on the bus. I was a little nervous about finding my hostel because it was my first time staying at a hostel and I’ve watched too many scary movies about girls traveling in Europe, but it turned out to be really great! 

My hostel in Bergen

My hostel was located right in the city center, close to everything. I stayed in a room with 13 other women. I am now a huge fan of hostels! They are especially great for traveling alone, because there is a common room where people hang out and where you can meet other travelers. Plenty of people in hostels are traveling by themselves and they are happy to have some company. They always have interesting stories-for example I talked for a while with one guy from Australia who worked in the same job for 8 years, and then just decided to quit and travel for a year. He’s working his way through Europe, North America, and South America before going home. I was surprised that there were older adults and families staying in the hostel as well as young people. The only downside was that I was woken periodically throughout the night by people coming in and out of the room. Other than that, it was great! I felt a bit lonely on Thursday exploring Bergen on my own, but on Friday when I woke up, I discovered that there were two other ISS students staying in the same dorm as me. They kindly invited me to join them and some other ISS students on a fjord tour. So, I went on the fjord tour, and I’m glad I did! I am absolutely in love with the fjords.

Sailing through the fjords

On Saturday I decided to hike up Mt. Floyen, one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen. For some crazy reason I cannot remember now, I decided not to take my rain jacket with me on my trip to Bergen (where it rains something like ~300 days a year). The weather forecast predicted rain all day Saturday, but I wasn’t going to let my lack of a rain jacket stop me! 5 hours of hiking later, I was soaked through. Norway: 1, Maria: 0. The forest on Mt. Floyen was absolutely magical. Really, a lot of the landscapes in Norway seem unreal-like they should only exist in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, not real life. Even though I was soaked, I thoroughly enjoyed traipsing around the trails. Later that night, my friends from the hostel and I had delicious pizza in a Beatles-themed booth (shout out to you Dad J), and then had ice cream at the harbor. I’ve discovered the easiest way to eat reasonably priced food is to find sketchy looking restaurants from far flung countries. Bergen has a surprisingly diverse restaurant scene-I had a falafel type thing from a Lebanese restaurant and a kabab at a restaurant from Kurdistan. Not only is that type of food way cheaper than Norwegian or American food, it is much more tasty!

The view at the top of Mt. Floyen

In the forest

I took the train back to Oslo on Sunday so that I could see all the scenery from west to east. My plan was to get my studying done on the train, but it was really hard to concentrate when the most gorgeous landscapes were going past my window.  The landscape here is so dramatic and varied. We rushed past deep fjords, cliffs, tiny towns nestled between gigantic mountains, Jotunheim (the land of the giants) which I don’t even have words to describe, valleys, rolling hills, rivers, waterfalls…this is the most beautiful train ride I’ve ever had. And I’m excited because I’ve heard the trip from Oslo to Stockholm is even more beautiful (I don’t know how that is even possible), and I get to take that trip in only 3 weeks! 

Pretty house in Bergen

Bergen's harbour

Somewhere between Bergen and Oslo

The pictures and videos don't do justice to the scenery in Norway-you'll just have to come see it for yourself!

Love,

Maria