Bergen

Norway is a great place to go on a diet. Even if you’re hungry, the price of food is so expensive that you immediately lose any appetite you might have had. The Big Mac Index is ~$7 for a Big Mac (the most expensive in the world), compared to ~$3.50 in the U.S. Any non-fast food sandwich would cost $15-$20. A dinner main course at an average restaurant (nothing swanky) was $30-$40 - and just the main course with no salad, side dish, beverage, etc. Buying food in a grocery store helped a bit, but it was still outrageously expensive. Needless to say, I took full advantage of the breakfast buffet included with my hotel room.

And speaking of that hotel room, it wasn’t just food that was pricey. The hotel, a decent hotel, but with nothing special, cost $250 per night (fortunately paid by my work). Worst of all, beer was also expensive $10-$15 for an average sized beer. 

Another “cost” of being in Norway is dealing with the weather. Even though where I was in Norway is at 60 degrees N latitude, the remnants of the Gulf Stream keep the weather temperate. Winters are surprisingly warm and it rarely snows along the coast. But in summer it tends to be rather cool and rainy, as confirmed by my experience. It rained often throughout my stay in Norway, generally when I was walking around outside. Occasionally it stopped, usually when I was in a museum or a restaurant.

With this preface, you may think I had a horrible time in Norway. But that was not the case. The country is redeemed by beautiful scenery, interesting history, and nice people. 

My first stop was in Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. Bergen is an old city, founded nearly 1000 years ago in 1070 AD. For much of its history it was a major trade city and for a time it was the capital and largest city in Norway.

After a week of work, my host for the week, Martin, took me on a driving tour of a fjord. Fortunately this day, while occasionally rainy, was not a complete washout – the sun even came out for a bit. But the weather actually made the views atmospheric. The low clouds hung on the mountain peaks like veils. Because of all the rain, more waterfalls than I could count gushed down the sides of the fjord. 

Driving around the fjords is an interesting experience, one that made me glad I was in the passenger seat instead of driving myself. The fjords are made mostly of steep, nearly vertical walls rising straight out of the water. This makes it hard to put in much of road along the coastline. The Norwegians have managed to do it, but in many places they could only fit in a lane and a half or less. It can get interesting when you go around a blind corner at a narrow point and see a large truck approaching half in your lane with nowhere to go. Though we didn’t have to do it, it’s not uncommon to have actually stop (hopefully before a collision) and back up to a wider point to let the oncoming traffic pass.

The good thing is that the quality of roads is excellent. This includes numerous tunnels, some very impressive. These aren’t your average straight little tunnels like you see in America. Norwegian tunnels can go for several miles (the longest is about 15 miles) and twist and turn their way through the mountains. Where do the Norwegians get the money to build such nice roads? Well, Norway controls one of the largest gas reserves in the world and is a very wealthy country. So, gas is cheap of course, right? Nope, it is about $10 per gallon, due to extremely high taxes. This helps discourage driving and provides a lot of money for infrastructure and saving for the future. So while the U.S. is deep into debt, Norway is putting money away for a rainy day (a smart move in the rain-soaked country). 

Taxes in general are high in Norway, much like the rest of Europe, but it seems extreme even compared to other countries. In fact, Norway has more than a hint of communism, including not only the high taxes, but the drab concrete block architecture for most anything built since the 1940s.

Bergen is a jumping off point for fjord cruises and thus is full of tourists (part of the reason for the high hotel rates). But it’s also a pleasant place to visit in its own right. A major attraction is to take a funicular from the middle of the city to the top of a mountain and then go hiking on numerous trails. A funicular is like a cog-rail train or a San Francisco streetcar. It is cabled and goes strait up a very steep hill. I of course rode the funicular primarily because “funicular” is such a fun word to say. 

At the top of the funicular ride are numerous hiking (and in winter cross-country skiing) trails. As I started to hike I noticed light poles with power lines strung between them. At first this was disappointing – more like a suburban street than a back-to-nature experience. But then I realized that at Bergen’s latitude (~60 degrees North), the days in winter are very short and the lights allow folks to hike (or ski) into the long winter nights. I was there at the peak of summer sunlight though, June 21, and days were very long. Technically there was about 5 hours between sunrise and sunset, but there was true darkness for only an hour at most, between 2 and 3 am.

I hiked a bit in the mountains. But just a bit because not long after I started, I noticed dark clouds moving in. By the time I returned and rode the funicular back to town, it was starting to pour. To avoid the rain, I managed to duck into a McDonalds to get out of the rain. Feeling guilty about using the McDonalds only for a rain shelter, I decided I should order something. This was where I was stunned by the price of a Big Mac meal. So I just ordered a Coke. A small Coke. A small 8-ounce Coke. A $4 small 8 ounce Coke. 

After my week in Bergen, it was on to Oslo. I took the train – an 8-hour ride over the mountains. It’s considered one of the more spectacular train rides in the world and I wouldn’t disagree. It winds its way high up above the treeline and then down to Oslo. The only annoying thing is that there are numerous tunnels along the route. Annoying because there would be spectacular scenery and just as you’re processing it, or trying to grab your camera to take a photo, you would enter a tunnel and the photo of glaciers and mountains you meant to take ended up as a black image of the inside of the tunnel.

It was still mostly cloudy on the train ride, but there were clear spots and on the whole the weather appeared to be getting better as I approached Oslo.