På tur i natur

Norwegians love the nature and have something called søndagstur. Every Sunday they pack their first aid kits, water bottles and Kvikk lunsj (the Norwegian KitKat) and head to the mountains. And no wonder since there are amazing mountains in Norway. There are seven mountains around Bergen, something for everyone.

Ulriken

The highest mountain Ulriken is 643m high above the sea level. For the highest peak you need to climb a bit but if you aren't quite in shape for some serious hiking there is Ulriksbanen, a cable car that will take you almost all the way up. There is a restaurant at the top station which is open in summer time.

Ulriken is majestic even without sun

The view from Ulriken

The closest mountain to the city centre, Fløyen, is the easiest to hike. There are many roads leading up to a platform where you can gaze over the city centre. There is also Fløibanen, a funicular that has a couple of stops on the way to the platform. The hike up isn't too long nor difficult though, so I suggest to walk all the way up.

Sometimes the view is blocked with a snowstorm in Fløyen

Fløyen in sunny weather

About 30 minutes away from the city centre with Bybanen (and a bit of walking from the station) there is the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen. Bergen is pretty warm but the bay in front of the museum had frozen and could be walked on in January.

Nordåsvannet, Fjøsangerfjorden

Hei, hei! Eg e i Bergen.

After a week of being here, Bergen is still as magical as can be.

Fløyen at night.

 Life here is nice.
The Norwegian culture is almost the same as the Finnish culture.
Norwegians are almost as strict with personal space as Finns are.
Norwegians don't talk much unless drunk.
Norwegians don't dance unless drunk.
Norwegians seem to like getting drunk.

From what I've experienced so far, Norwegians are much more similar to Finns compared to the Swedes. What's very surprising is that Finnish pronounciation is close to Norwegian. When I walk in the city and overhear some conversations, it sounds like Finnish to me until I try to understand and it's Norwegian after all. And people tell me I sound Norwegian when I talk Finnish or Swedish. My moomin Swedish sounds Norwegian. Huh.

One of the great things I wish we had in Finland is brunost. It translates to brown cheese. It tastes creamy, melts on your tongue and, well, looks like clay. But it's good with jam!

Waffles are a thing here apparently.

The second thing is mountains. Finns are missing so much having no mountains to hike. We had a good hiking weekend with some of my new friends here. On Saturday we went to Ulriken, the mountain closest to our accommodation. It was lots of fun but we had to turn back eventually because we didn't want to try our luck on the frozen river that was blocking our way further up. Maybe later in spring we can reach the top of the mountain!

Frozen waterfall, how cool is that!

A pretty nice view halfway up the mountain.

Careful now.

On Sunday we headed to an easier mountain to hike, Fløyen. There is a road all the way up to a viewing platform, from which you can see the whole city of Bergen with it's harbour.

Bergen. The weather could've been better but at least it wasn't raining.

Never too windy to eat some bolle.

What made the windy journey so nice was that a local friend brought her dogs with her. They enjoyed it a lot too!

Pepsi and Fanta. Your guess which one's which.

According to locals, this is quite a lot of snow.

 The weather's been nice so far. Though Bergen is the most rainy city in all Norway, probably in all Europe with a rate of 280/365 days of rain a year, it has been cold enough for it to come down as snow this week. Which I think the locals appreciate as much as I do. I'll get to use my rain coat and wellies at some point for sure.

Really looking forward to the Norwegian classes starting next week. I already agreed with some local acquaintances that I'll switch to Norwegian within a week of having had classes. I'll try.

Ha det!