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Hiking in Bergen

October 10, 2022

The week of September 19th was fairly uneventful – classes are still in full swing and the workload is theoretically picking up a little, but life is good. The weekend, on the other hand, was one of the coolest I’ve had in my life!

Myself and a few friends decided rather spontaneously to go on a trip to Bergen, along the western coast of Norway.

We left in the late afternoon and I landed in Bergen around 7pm, which gave me just enough time to walk to our hostel before it got completely dark in the city. I was able to take the easy-to-understand lightrail to a stop approximately near the hostel, and then got to do a neat 30 minute walk up the base of the mountain upon which the hostel was perched.

After getting settled, I mustered up the courage to go to the common room and try to meet some folks and make friends. And I’m so glad I did! I ended up spending the first several hours before my friends arrived by chatting with folks from Montana and Israel, as well as absolutely crushing a game of foosball against three brits. One of them even gave me a free beer! It was a very clear night and one of my new British friends suggested we try and look for the northern lights from a lookout point right outside our hostel, which of course I enthusiastically supported. While the attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, it was still an incredible experience. I could not have asked for a better first night in my first-ever hostel. My friends ended up arriving around midnight, after which time we promptly passed out in our 4-person room.

The next day, Saturday, was probably the best day that I’ve had whilst studying abroad. We spent the entire day (literally, from 10am until 8pm) hiking some of the mountains within Bergen right near our hostel, and it was absolutely incredible. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The more I think about our hike, the more grateful I am for how lucky we got. It’s not supposed to be sunny in Bergen. All rain, all the time. But somehow, miraculously, we had a perfectly clear day. It was amazing.

We rounded out our evening with very sub-par hostel food (which still hit the spot because we had hiked 14 miles), and had an early night. Our flight left fairly early Sunday afternoon so we spent out morning walking around some parts of downtown Bergen which we didn’t end up seeing Friday or Saturday, and it was cute! It definitely felt like a coastal Norwegian town, and in just the right way.

Overall, this was an incredible weekend. I didn’t realize how much I needed to just spend an extended time in nature, and I’m so glad that I had such an amazing first hostel experience. On to the next adventure!