I always get distracted when I walk around. Even if it’s somewhere I’ve been before, like Bergen in this case. It didn’t help that the two crew members I was also with were equally as distracted by everything. We had a mission to get to Ulriken, one of the mountains surrounding Bergen, and it took us hours due to continuously seeing side streets and saying, “Oh this looks cute, let’s go this way,” and getting lost.
What should have only been a 20-45 minute walk, depending on which stop we got off the train, turned into about three hours. But when you’re with good company it really isn’t a bad thing. I always thought the whole point of travel was to get lost and find the “hidden gems.” I know my best stories of traveling usually start out with “This one time I got lost in [insert name of place here]” to the point that I could probably start a series.
After taking pictures around at every side street, finding a very friendly black cat, retracing our steps, and realizing we should have gotten off the Air Train about four stops earlier than we actually had, we started seeing signs for Ulriken. Hallelujah!
A round trip ticket for the cable car is 170 NOK (roughly $22). For us, it unfortunately felt like it was not worth the price, but at the same time it was our fault. The ride up in the car was spectacular. You could see the entire city in every direction and nervewrackingly feel how high up we were (it’s 643 meters in total) due to the strong winds. But as soon as we got to the very top of the mountain, a thick fog set in, making it impossible to see more than ten feet in any direction. That’s what we get for our distracted selves I suppose.
We met a couple from Philadelphia who had been on the mountain longer than us and said the fog had only just set in and they got amazing pictures before. I’m talking views of the entirety of Bergen, sheep climbing the mountain, bright green grass and trees turning to water to lit up houses. I was insanely jealous. But we talked about how it was lucky for us to know that we would be coming back again and have another shot at seeing the mountain in its glory (turns out that’s no longer true but that’s another story entirely).
After a pretty ride back down, with the fog clearing as we approached sea level, we warmed up with some soup samplers (reindeer and fish stews for all three of us, because this is Norway after all) before trekking back to the hotel. I think we can all agree that next time we will take advantage of the daytime sun a little bit better.
My Life as Laur 