Following a really early start in Glasgow we arrived in Bergen at about 11:15 am local time and the first thing we did was to look for the bus we needed to catch into the city centre. As you can see I used my nice big suitcase :D.
At first we were very unsure of what we were doing but the man there on duty was so helpful and explained what we needed to do and where to go. He told us to get off at the first stop which was the Bergen bus station instead of the bus stop at the Radisson Blu hotel as that was closer to the area where we were staying.
After getting off the bus we went to find the living accommodation that had been organised for us during our stay in Bergen. We are staying at a lovely guest house, my bedroom has a lovely wallpaper with birds and flowers and trees and quite quirky ornaments hanging on the wall it’s got a fabulous view of all the colourful houses climbing the hills and yet feels secluded. I started to unpack and pretty soon it started to feel very homely, a nice little place to relax.
After getting our bearings we decided to go and have a little explore. We agreed that we both wanted to sample some of the more traditional local areas and headed off to find the fish markets. However after such a long morning of travelling and having not eaten we had to give the fish market a rain check and kept our eyes peeled for a nice café to eat lunch.
We happened upon a few lovely coffee bars but continued exploring until we reached a beautiful park in the centre of Bergen, which had at its centre a beautiful lake Lille Lungegardsvann. It was here that we found a fabulous cafe in which we had lunch, we chose a ham and cheese toastie and a chicken and bacon pasta. Both were very yummy however we were still quite hungry so we treated ourselves to a Daim cake (like we get in Ikea at in Glasgow).
After that we went to the Kode Art Museum complex and visited Kode 4 which was full of Norwegian artist such as Nikolai Astrup, whose paintings had beautiful depth and intricacy which had similarities to themes from Haugtussa poems. The student price for two day ticket was 50 kroner which is about £5.00 or $7.50, this meant that we could go today for as long we wanted and return tomorrow time permitting. It was a brilliant experience and I do hope that we can get back tomorrow and perhaps will go to building three or two.
We then went to find where the Grieg Academy was located so that we were prepared for tomorrow morning ready to start at 9 am sharp. It was a little tricky to find at first but when we succeeded we found the most beautiful yellow building.
To finish our day we decided to try again to find the fish market which was called Bryggen. At The fishmarket we found a variety of stalls. It was here that we met I lovely salesman who offered to let us taste some of his fish. We tried Norwegian salmon from a locally sourced farm and also wild salmon which was very delicious. We also tried whale which had a strange meaty texture and the sales assistant recommended that we ate it raw on salad instead of cooking it.
For dinner we then went to a lovely restaurant called Bryggeloftet & Stuene for a lovely one course meal. I had beef and George had salmon. It was very delicious and George tried an India pale ale brewed locally. To end the day we found a supermarket to get some supplies for the evening back at the hostel along with some breakfast things for the morning.
I’m going to have a quiet night in to recuperate from the 3 o’clock start this morning.
So excited for tomorrow!