Since we knew the breakfast at our hotel was busy early on, we made sure to arrive just a few minutes before 6 am. There were plenty of people eager to start eating. The way the buffet was laid out was that there were plenty of approaches to the food – it was an open style, and some people just started going up to get started. One staff member was yelling to stop because it wasn’t ready yet, but other people saw the first people grabbing food and thought it was time. Seems like they need to organize a little better.
Our breakfast was just as good as the previous day. Next to us a young Japanese couple took an inventive approach – they each filled their plate with different things and then set up a tiny buffet at their own table – sharing what they had and making sandwiches. It was a cute idea but we tend to fill our own plates. I think we’ll keep our strategy.
Around us the tables filled up quickly and there weren’t enough to go around, so we wrapped up our meal quickly and went upstairs to free up space. It was raining pretty consistently outside, so we spent time after breakfast lounging in the room, packing and organizing, and then we checked out. Some previous research found that the light rail station that we wanted was just on the other side of the regular train station, and there we used a kiosk to buy tickets. The tickets were sent by SMS to Kuniko’s phone, but they were not appearing. Strangely when we changed the phone number to mine, they arrived. But in the end nobody checked anyway, so no worries.
The light rail ride was about 45 minutes to the airport. The windows fogged up due to the rainy weather, so we couldn’t see a whole lot of scenery. At the announcement of each stop they played a little jingle of music that was different for each stop. Inside the tunnel a long LED strip was placed in cascading shapes so that it worked like an animation as the train moved by. These little touches made the ride go by more quickly for us.
At Bergen airport we had a seamless experience. We checked in via kiosk, put our suitcase onto the automated luggage drop off system and said goodbye to it. We went through security into a large common area, and commented on the lack of duty free shops – they are usually ubiquitous when we travel. Then we went off towards our gate, and then we saw that our gate was through a one way door, once we went through there then we were in the international area of departures and yes, of course they had duty free shops. We made a stop at a sports bar for two glasses of sparkling wine and an order of French fries (great combo).
We waited at the gate for boarding, and I got into the leftover rose candy from Bulgaria. The white sugar powder from the outside had leaked a bit in my bag, and suddenly I looked like some kind of rose candy cocaine freak – white powder everywhere.
We boarded the plane, and this flight had us sitting separately for the one hour flight. This was thanks to our travel site, Kiwi.com, which tries to charge extra for seats next to each other. But it could have been due to Norwegian Air Shuttle – this was our second time flying them and again I was not impressed with their service.
The plane had a lot of Spanish people who tended to speak with very loud voices, but it was good practice for my Spanish listening skills. Across the aisle from me I saw a single Japanese woman reading her Japanese guidebook for Stockholm, maybe her husband was sitting elsewhere in the plane.
Once we arrived I was surprised to see how aggressively everyone pushed forward to got out as soon as possible. When it was our turn I nodded to the Japanese woman and said, “Please, go ahead” in Japanese. Her eyes got big but she seemed appreciative. Kuniko I met outside the gate and then got our suitcase fairly quickly. The next step was train tickets on the high speed Arlanda Express to the city center. We had just started the process to buy two single tickets when a lady ran up and said, “Stop!” in English. She showed us that there is a discount ticket for groups of 2 or more, and so we saved some money. That’s great but why not change the system so that it is more intuitive? Why pay a staff to stand there all day and point out the savings?
It was a 20 minute ride on the very comfortable high speed train, very similar to the ride into Oslo a few days ago. I’d have to give the Oslo train better marks as it seemed newer and I preferred the more modern design.
Kuniko had booked a hotel right next to the central train station. The lobby was nice, a bar in the corner – good sign. They also had two long shuffleboard tables (which are always fun), and hidden somewhere in the back was an “ice bar” – a bar constructed completely of ice that requires polar wear to enter and drink. We never did get in to try it but my first impression was that it was too gimmicky to be really enjoyable.
We had a very comfortable hotel room, but we wasted little time in dropping off our bags and heading out to explore the city. We crossed the bridge to the south and found the Riddarholmen Church, then turned around and saw the rest of Galla Stan island – and couldn’t believe that there were so many beautiful buildings. We walked from building to building, snapping pictures and just in awe of the whole thing. The old town area is compact, mainly on cobblestones, and makes for an easy walking adventure.
Of course there were tourists as we had gotten a late start arriving in the city, but the narrow old town streets kind of separated the crowds and it didn’t seem so bad. We stopped for drinks at a random cafe, and the waiter who took our order looked like a teenager. I had a local beer to start, and on a lark ordered a pear cider since we had such a nice apple cider back in Bergen. But this was a sweetened drink that reminded me a lot of Zima. Ugh.
For dinner that night we stayed in the old town and ate at Slingerbultin. We had made reservations online, and a cool-looking manager inside rocking an 80s heavy metal mullet took our order. He was having a great time laughing with everyone and seemed like the freest spirit I’d seen this trip. Behind us a big group of Japanese tourists took a table, and Kuniko and I were joking about the “motto motto, Takemoto” jingle from Japanese TV, and how that group would have their minds blown if I said it loud enough for them to hear.
Our appetizer was a beet and goat cheese tartin, and our entrees were a plate of Swedish meatballs, and cod with a mussel sauce. The dishes were excellent (especially the beet/goat cheese tartin) and we had some red wine by the glass with our meal. The staff who was pouring chatted with us a little bit and we were struck by how everyone seemed so genuinely friendly here. After leaving there was a long line waiting to get inside, so I was glad we had made the reservation.
We headed back to the central area near the train station and continued to walk around. We explored an underground shopping area that reminded us of Whity back in Osaka, and we did some shopping at the local market for yogurt, Keks chocolate for tasting, and then finally crashed out in our room for the night.
