Today I left Norway for Copenhagen. Matt and I woke up a little after 5am, packed and headed for the airport. I saw him off and his flight just left for London a few minutes ago. Now I’m here for another 20 minutes before my flight to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, this morning my phone decided to factory reset itself so now it is useless to me. I’m assuming it tried to sign-in in my pocket which resulted in it being locked and then reset. This has happened to me before and it is the one thing I hate about my phone the most. The wifi at the airport in Bergen is awful so I can’t use or restore my phone at all. On the bright side all of my pictures should be on the cloud now so they should be okay. I can’t check because the connection is so spotty, but I have to hope they are there. On the other hand, now I’ve lost all ways of easily communicating with the world. Luckily I have my surface with me or else I would have been screwed. Hopefully the airport in Copenhagen has good wifi so I can at least find my way to hostel and begin restoring everything on my phone.
I realized this morning on the bus that I’ve only been in Europe for a week and yet so much has happened. I’ve made new friends, visited the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, ate fermented shark and smoked whale, stargazed outside a mountain cabin in Norway, hitchhiked, and traveled 23km through the fjords. I still have two weeks left here in Europe and honestly I’m exhausted. Travel is exhausting. I’m only in Copenhagen for a day and then I leave for Germany tomorrow. Hopefully I can get some rest there, and it will nice stay with Annette and not at a hostel.
Tips for Traveling to Iceland and Norway:
Iceland
1)
Iceland is an expensive place. Understand that
everything is expensive. Especially food and drink. 12 dollars for a beer in
unacceptable…
a.
If you do want to drink a lot, use the app Appy Hour
which is an app specifically for bars in Reykjavik that tells you the hours of
the happy hour and price of beer. Some of them may be wrong/old, but they are
all mostly right.
2)
If you are traveling to Reykjavik and looking to stay
in a hostel stay in the Loft Hostel not the City Hostel. The Loft Hostel is
right downtown and easy to get to everything. The City Hostel is far from downtown and there
is nothing around it.
3)
If you want to go to the Blue Lagoon plan ahead if you
want to spend time there. Admission is for all day, but if you are like me and
couldn’t get in until 8pm that limits your time there.
4)
Renting a car is expensive. The best (cheapest) way to
leave the city and go out is to get a group of people together and rent a car.
You could bus it, but it may be difficult. Most people rent a car and drive
around the island staying at various guesthouses or hostels. However, if you
are staying in the city, parking could be expensive. There are two bus
companies that bus people everywhere. It is easy to get to the city from the
airport, and if you planned tours or excursions for an extra price they will
pick you up from your accommodation and bring you back.
5)
If you are headed to Bergen, like I did, after Iceland
exchange your money in Iceland! The line was long so I decided to do it in
Norway. The Bergen airport is small and they only had currency exchange
machines so I was stuck with that Viking money the whole time in Norway. They
all use Krone/a or “crowns” so I thought maybe I’d be able to exchange it. I
only exchanged my Icelandic Krona today in Denmark for their Krona/Viking
money.
6)
Most people speak English and everyone is nice and
helpful.
1)
Norway is also extremely expensive…like $14 at Subway
expensive.
2)
Bergen is a nice place but it rains a lot. Check the
weather if you want to do things outdoors or else you’ll end up taking gray
pictures. Also if you plan on going outside of Bergen, check the weather on
where you are going as it is probably different than Bergen.
3)
All the tours are expensive, so if you want to see
fjords or something figure out where the tours go and get there on your own.
4)
The Bergen and Flam Railway lines are beautiful and are
a great way to see the country.
5)
Many popular/picturesque sights are located far from
Bergen, and may be quite a long hike. For example, Trolltunga is 6 hours away
from Bergen and the walk up is about 6-8 hours.
6)
I really think you only need to spend maybe a day in
Bergen. If the weather is nice you could go for a hike/walk in the morning, and
then see the city in the afternoon. It is the reason why Matt and I decided to
leave for the mountains.
7)
I’d recommend the Montana Hostel and not the downtown
hostel. You need to take a bus from the city center to get there, but it is
secluded and close to the Mt. Ulriken. There is a store a few seconds away to
buy things. The hostel also provides food 24/7 you can buy if you want. Also
breakfast is included in the price, and they try to plan things for people to
do. I never thought I’d meet as many people as I did there. It was a good
hostel though some of the shower heads were a bit dodgy.
8)
Most people in the city speak English, however if you
go into some of the smaller towns you will encounter people who speak very
little English. However, it didn’t seem like too much of a problem for us, and
everyone we met was very kind and helpful.
9)
I’d recommend taking use of the DNT cabins like Matt
and I did. They are brilliant and well maintained. They don’t get much tourist
use as we could tell, but they are a hidden treasure. You can get a DNT
membership for a cheaper accommodation price. I didn’t since we only stayed 1
night but Matt payed half the cost I did.
10) Like
the US, look at weekend bus times since it is significantly reduced.
11) Hitchhiking is easy and safe. Even random people we encounter on our walk said if there are cars around most people would give you a ride. However there weren't too many people around.
11) Hitchhiking is easy and safe. Even random people we encounter on our walk said if there are cars around most people would give you a ride. However there weren't too many people around.
I hope that is helpful to anyone thinking of traveling to Norway or Iceland. I didn’t spend too much time there, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot. Because I stayed in Norway for 5 days I really only have a few hours to explore Copenhagen. I did the one thing I had to do (get Adam that shot glass) so at least that is done.
Instead of walking around the city like I planned I took a nap instead. I then went out to explore the city for a bit. I asked the bartender here where he would go if he only had 1 day in Copenhagen and he told me to go to Papirøen, a place with tons of street food that is cheap. So I decided to walk down there to get some food.
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| Nyvhan |
It was basically a large warehouse filled with shops for food. They had every type of food imaginable. Korean, Sushi, Falafel, BBQ, Italian, etc... I grabbed an egg roll or like a crepe wrap for dinner and then a vanilla creme brulee doughnut for dessert!
I sat by the water and enjoyed my dinner while watching the sunset. It was beautiful.
I then walked back to hostel and now I think I'm going to bed. I feel a bit guilty since I'm spending very little time here. I feel like I should go out and do something, but I'm still tired from my travels so I think resting up might be best.
Daily Step Count: 17,188
Total Step Count: 195,652
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