Day 6 - Balestrand to Bergen

Consistent with the previous couple days, it was raining when we got on the ferry to Bergen. It was almost nice though, it gave us an excuse to just sit for a while and not feel the need to stand on the deck and gawk at everything. We spent the time napping, reading, and chatting about what we wanted to do in Bergen for the next couple days. By the time we got to Bergen, the rain had abated. The approach to Bergen felt very Mediterranean, green hills with red-roofed houses trailing down to the water. One cool thing about taking a ferry is that you generally get dropped off right in the middle of town, unlike an airport that's usually way on the outskirts. The view of Bergen from the ferry was one of the best we got.

It took an hour or so to walk up to our room and get settled. It certainly wasn't the most exciting room, and it was a bit loud, but we had a shared kitchen with a fridge, so that was a plus. The tourist office in Bergen was an amazing mess. There were tons of people, and most of the information was strewn about. They were able to set us up with a Bergen card and some info on further fjord options.

For the evening we walked through the Bryggen, a row of old wooden houses along the harbor. Most of the buildings now are full of shops and restaurants. A German munitions-ship explosion during WWII took out a bunch of the houses as well. It's still beautiful though, and gave us a chance to spend at least a few minutes looking at touristy goods.




We were keeping our eyes open for a place to have dinner, but just as in the rest of Norway, restaurant food is exorbitantly priced. We ended up at a small fish and chips place, which was actually quite tasty. And it was fast, which gave us more of the evening to explore the city.




At one point, Todd stopped to check out a bus schedule. As we were standing there, he noticed a snail on the sign. As we were looking at it, we realized that there were snails all over the wall. I've never seen anything like it. I tried to take some pictures, but most of them were blurry in the dim light. Each one was very differently colored and sized. Some of them had coiling stripes, some were solid. They were all beautiful. Those are some of my favorite moments, the ones that turn out to be amazing and you would have missed them completely if not for some totally random decision. So thanks to Todd for choosing that particular bus stop to look at the schedule.