Saving Money and Seeing the World: Day 4-Travel Day-Stockholm to Bergen to Balestrand

We woke up early because we had a plane to catch! I'd asked the front desk to call a cab for us and the cab (for 6 people) arrived promptly at 7 am. We took a cab ride to Central Station where we would get on the train to the airport. The ride for all 6 of us was 220 Krona, this just reinforced how much we got taken by the cab driver on the first day! The lines at the airport went quickly and we had plenty of time at the gate. Near our gate there was a play area for children. Ali thought it was cute and spent some time peeking in the little houses.

Play area at the airport

Our plane left on time and the flight to Bergen was just over an hour. When we arrived in Bergen it was kind of gray and misty outside, Bergen gets more than 80 inches of rain a year so I guess you can call the weather typical. Our bags came quickly and we took the airport bus into town. We got off at the bus stop near the fish market and headed to the boat terminal where our boat would leave from later in the afternoon. The boat terminal had luggage lockers that we used, they were kind of pricey but it was definitely worth not hauling our luggage around with us for the next 3 hours! From the boat terminal we could look across the harbor and see Bryggen.

Bryggen

We left the boat terminal to find a place for lunch, I had a plan and we walked to the restaurant I chose only to find it closed until August 4th. We walked by a TGIFriday and Dan thought it sounded good, that was until I told him that a hamburger was $30. He decided to wait until he got home to eat there. We ended up eating at a pizza place and it was good. Everyone was happy after their meal!

After lunch we split up from my parents, they went to look in some shops and we walked to see if we could find the apartment we'd be staying in when we return to Bergen. We walked up the hill behind Bryggen and I think we were very close to the apartment but I'm not sure we actually saw it (I didn't have the directions with me). We also spent some time looking in shops and we stopped to get the kids some ice cream.

She had to try it on

Fish market

We met my parents back at the boat terminal and retrieved our bags from the luggage lockers. Our boat left at 4:30, it was a much nicer boat than I'd expected. We sat upstairs at a large table for 6 people. The boat was not even 1/2 full. There was an outside deck where you could go out to take pictures, it was pretty cold and drizzly so we spent most of our time inside.

Dan and Ali on the boat

The boat ride was almost 4 hours. We stopped at several towns along the way and people got off the boat and new people got on. The ride was beautiful despite the cloudy weather. The kids were good on the ride, they kept busy and spent a little time enjoying the scenery. We got them sandwiches from the snack bar part way through the ride.

Scenes from the ride

We arrived in Balestrand around 8:30, it was still light out as the sun doesn't set until around 10:00. We walked up the hill and found our hostel. On our way we passed the grocery store and some small shops and restaurants. The man working at check in at the hostel was very nice, he showed us to our rooms and showed us the guest kitchen and some other amenities on the way. When we got to our room it reminded me a bit of summer camp. The kids were thrilled because there were two bunk beds, I was a little freaked out by the fact that the shower was basically a drain in the corner of the bathroom. This was our first time staying in a hostel, it got good reviews online and was the only accomodation I could find with beds for 4 people in the same room. If we would have stayed in a hotel we would have needed 2 rooms and we'd be paying more than double what we are paying at the hostel. We got settled and decided to go to bed, we figured things would probably seem better in the morning!