We kicked off the day early with a 6:50 am hotel checkout. The sky was still pitch black when we woke up. After quickly packing up and checking out, we got on a tram and made our way to Oslo Sentralstasjon. Normally our activities and class times started at 10 am, so having to wake up this early was definitely not something we were looking forward to. But we did it! We lugged all our suitcases and all the souvenirs we bought to the train station on time. We even got to the station early with no one missing and boarded our train, the Bergensbanen. It’s a train line that connects Norway’s two biggest cities: Oslo and Bergen.
There was plenty of legroom in the train seats, and the 6 hour train ride went by like a breeze. Not to mention the views were gorgeous.
The Bergen Line is Northern Europe’s highest railway line, spanning 231 miles long. It offers spectacular views of nature. The landscapes we passed included mountains, fjords, forests, valleys, and the Hardangervidda mountain plateau, one of the largest mountain plateaus in Europe. This train ride is one of Europe’s most scenic train experiences, and photos cannot capture how spectacular the views were.
We arrived in Bergen around 3pm and were graciously met by a Coach Bus that brought us to our hostel we would be staying at. Which I am personally glad for, as dragging all my luggage on public transit would have been a nightmare.
Once we were settled into our new rooms, we then went down to Bergen city central. It is a public square and popular gathering place overlooking Bergen’s lake. We had a brief tour of the places around there, and even got to get a glimpse of the Bryggen, which is the famous row of houses. It was dark by this time, so we didn’t get a great view, but we still have more days ahead of us here in Bergen.
We ended the day with a group dinner at a restaurant called Olivia which we had gone to before in Oslo as well. Many of us were starving from the long day we had and were excited to get a 3 course meal to finish off the day.
