Carnival Pride Cruise Day 3: Bergen, Norway

On Sunday morning, July 3, we arrived in Bergen, Norway. We were excited to begin exploring and see the town! When we walked off the ship, it felt like we entered a ghost town. No one was around, except for the people from our ship. It was very bizarre and almost felt like a movie set.  

Usually when we travel, Brennan does a ton of research about how we are traveling (flights, trains, etc.) and I do the research on what we will do when we arrive (museums, places to eat, etc). Because this trip has taken so much planning and there are so many details just with where we are going and packing up our lives before we left Florida, we did not spend hardly any time looking ahead and planning things to do in each port for the cruise. The night before we arrived in Bergen, we found out there was a funicular and decided we would do that. We walked around, trying to find Brennan a jacket (it was cold!) and get a feel for the town before finding the entrance to the funicular. We were able to duck out of the rain, buy tickets, and take the 5ish minute ride to the top of the mountain! By the time we got to the top, it was raining even harder. I was a little bummed, because I really did not want to get wet, along with how cold it already was. We made it to the cafe and both got coffee to try to warm up. The rain broke and we made it out to the ledge, where you could see down into town. It was amazing! 

As we walked along the path near the ledge, we saw goats! They had GPS trackers, because they have free range on the mountain to graze. They were completely unfazed by us taking pictures near them.

 We continued walking and came to a path through the trees on a wooden boardwalk. It was really peaceful and beautiful. I am NOT a hiker, but this seemed more like exploring and I was too far in to stop before I realized we were actually hiking down the mountain. We walked past couples walking their dogs, friends walking together, and parents with kids. It seemed like the thing to do for people to hike around on this mountain on a Sunday morning. 

While we were hiking down, it started to rain. There was no where to go; we continued walking down the path and got completely drenched. Eventually we came across someone's shelter-we think it was a garage, and stood there dripping wet until the rain slowed down. Thankfully, there was some wind and the sun even came out a little, so we dried off pretty quickly. 

When we got off the path at the bottom of the mountain, we realized we had a ways to go before getting back to our starting point in town. There were sidewalks and we walked through a neighborhood with lots of beautiful houses. Norwegian architecture in this area was very streamlined, with lots of straight lines and symmetry. I felt weird taking pictures of people's houses, so I don't have any photos. There were also tons of beautiful flowers-the ones pictured here were right beside the sidewalk and very vibrant!

When we made it back to town, it started raining again! We were back in the middle of things though, so we stopped in a pub to get a drink. It felt very much like what I would have pictured for a Norwegian pub-lots of wood, American pop music, and a blonde bartender wearing black nail polish. It wasn't on our plan to stop there, but I'm glad we did. ​

Before we went back to the ship, Brennan wanted to see the fort at the end of the peninsula. We walked over, explored the grounds a bit, and were able to see the venue that Johnny Depp was performing at that night (Seriously! Brennan joked about missing the ship to stay for the concert. I vetoed that.) The one thing that sticks out in my memory from the fort was the sign that said "There's always been a problem with flooding here." It seemed like a funny thing to include on a historical marker.

We headed back to the ship after exploring the fort. There was some sunshine, so we sat on the top deck and soaked it up while listening to an audiobook (Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe). One thing I've learned this week is that sunshine is not guaranteed in Norway like it is in Florida!