Arrived At Bergen, Norway

We arrived at Bergen around 1 p.m. from a one hour flight from Oslo and once again we shocked at the high cost of transportation from the airport to the city center. It was a whopping 850 krona ($85) to travel 21 miles via Uber! We did not bother to check prices with taxis given our experience with them so far.

Bergen is a nice city. The weather here in mid August was about 71F/21C cool and overcast with periodic showers. The wind blows steadily and that can add a chill to the ambient temperature and a light jacket is definitely needed to stay warm.

Our first stop after checking into our hotel was to walk over to the harbor and we were surprised to see a very busy open air market selling a variety of fresh seafood and other food items such as sausages, honey and ‘exotic’ meats such as moose & reindeer burgers and hot dogs.

We opted to try fresh seafood and noodles at one of the stalls. The plate & coke below cost $30 so lunch for two was about $60. The dish contained calamari, two types of shrimp, veggies, and noddles.

After lunch we took a Fløibanen funicular up to the top of a mountain with a spectacular view of the city center below.

After our long stay walking around the top of the mountain, we descended back down and stopped at the world famous hot dog stand called 3-Kroneren This stand sells a variety of hot dogs from different types of meat including the formerly mentioned reindeer, moose, and wild game varieties. We were skeptical but the hot dog we shared was amazing.

After our hot dog stand visit we headed to the Bryggen Wharf and bought some gloves for our fjord cruise we’ll be boarding tomorrow. The wharf is a historic district with distinct shops that have been in existence for hundreds of years and not much changed over that period of time.

Norway Pros & Cons

After having spent a couple of days here now we can conclude a few pros and cons about the country.

Pros

Debit/Credit Cards Accessibility

We haven’t had a single problem with using our credit or atm cards anywhere in Norway. Debit/credit card use is actually preferred by many vendors and some look at us funny when we try to use cash to pay for items because it is very inconvenient. Almost everyone here pays with card by tapping the terminal and quickly moving on and it works flawlessly.

Food Variety

We are large city dwellers and we have become accustomed to having every variety of food available to use including our favorites such as Indian dishes (Korma, Butter Chicken, Biryani), Japanese (sushi, ramen), Vietnamese (Banh Mi) and so on and we were concerned we’d be stuck eating seafood in Norway for most meals but that has not been the case. Oslo alone has a large multi-cultural community that features food from all over the world and were happy to fill our bellies with great food.

Weather

The weather is spectacular. One of the reasons we chose to visit Norway this year was because we got roasted in Greece & Italy last summer and the few years before that in Spain and other European locations near the Mediterranean. We wanted cool and fair weather and Norway has delivered.

Cons

High Cost

We did our research and we knew Norway was on the more expensive side of the ledger but we did not expect it to be far higher, on average, that what we would normally pay in the United States for similar items.

Transportation

The most glaring cost outlier is transportation. Taxis and Ubers are very expensive compared to other places in Europe and United States. A taxi driver in Oslo wanted 2000 krona ($200) to take us from Oslo city center to the airport. We laughed and told him we’d Uber but the Uber cost for that trip was 1000 krona ($100) so while we saved half the cost, we still felt the pain. The only two other places that come to mind for similar costs are London and Switzerland.

Food

We are staying at hotels and they don’t have kitchens so we’re having to eat out for all of our meals and that normally isn’t an issue unless you’re in Norway and paying 20 to 30 percent higher food costs than you would in the United States or other parts of Europe.

Traffic & Over Crowding

The traffic, in general, has been bad. Norway does have a decent public transportation system but it seems buses and trains are full. The airplanes we have flown in have also been full. Traffic in city centers is congested and slow.

We saw cruise ships in both Oslo and Bergen and it doesn’t help when these large ships drop off 3000+ people onto the city and we all have to compete for the same limited sights and resources.

We stopped by a local fjord cruise to inquire about a short excursion and we were told they were all sold out.