This past weekend, I met my grandma and two aunties in Bergen, Norway for a few days of their two-week Scandinavia trip!
On my year abroad, I was lucky enough to meet up with my grandma and grandpa in their favorite place: Prague. This is my grandma’s first international trip since my grandpa died last May and I was excited to see my family for the first time in a year.
Thursday, 16 August: We met at the Bergen airport at baggage claim as our flights landed around the same time. It was a very emotional scene and I cried as soon as I made first contact with Auntie Joan. Once grandma and Aunt Karen got their bags, we took a cab to the hotel in the city center.
After we set our bags down, we promptly went out to eat to what was my favorite meal of the trip: Italian food at Amici Miei steps from our hotel.
As my family had been traveling from Los Angeles for nearly 24 hours and being the tired little girl I am, we all laid down around 7PM, but were waken up by a ruckus in the street. Curious, I pottered about to see what the action was. As it turns out, the university was having a big pub crawl weekend for the new students coming in. This wouldn’t be our only encounter with the excited students. It looked fun, but I did not care to join to impose on the students getting to know each other.
Friday, 17 August: First thing in the morning, we headed to the funicular. After waiting a few ours sorting ticket purchasing, we were at the top with amazing views of the city and beyond. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip!
After that, our luck ran out with the weather and we decided to take shelter on an on-off tour bus (my first one!). I enjoyed it a lot and it’s a great way to see the city and size up what you might want to return to.
After that, we strolled around the fish market (where it absolutely pissed down rain at one point) and later that evening I took a stroll around the beautiful city park Lille Lungegårdsvannet.
Saturday, 18 August: We set off to Troldhaugen, the former home of famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg to get a guided tour of his house and listen to his music played played by a wonderful pianist. The view in the concert hall was amazing: looking on to the very fjord Grieg probably took a lot of his inspiration from. My grandma was especially keen, I know she loves that music stuff! The rest of our day was relaxed as we had a big meal and did a little bit of walking around after the tour.
Sunday, 19 August: For our final adventure, we took a 3-hour fjord cruise based out of Bergen and it was breathtaking. Some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, even tear-jerking for some. It was certainly the highlight of the whole trip and a memory with my family I will cherish forever.
I returned to London that night and am now in full-on dissertation mode as it’s due in ten days, for better or worse!