Europe India Trip: Day 11-12: Hardanger to Bergen & rest day in Bergen [Apr 23-24, 2023]

The day I rode in mist & it felt like Chronicles of Narnia

This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip . Please read the post for more context.

map link

As mentioned in my previous post, I was trying to rush to Bergen as it would be bad weather for next 2 days, but got stuck at Hardanger waterfall as my headlights stopped working & I decided to do (free) camping at the parking of the waterfall. Thankfully, the place did not have ‘no camping’ sign (found these later at many other parking spots).

I was woken up by the rain water falling noise on my tent. Thankfully it was morning & I had an okayish sleep (had cold feet but guess now I have become used to it).

I had kept one side pannier box next to me (it had the laptop bag) & the rest of my luggage was on the bike itself. Being in Norway, I wasnt too worried about theft.

Since it was raining, to pack up stuff, I decide to use the shade. Put my sleeping mat, brought all the stuff like sleeping bag etc from tent to the place & packed them.

To load stuff on the bike, brought it in the shade as well to prevent my bags getting wet in rain. Also took the picture for my own record that I camped next to a toilet :D

Was ready to leave by like 9 AM. The view was pretty good with fog on the mountains etc.

I started the bike to leave & after some time idling, the headlight automatically came on & I was like - what !!! I thought to myself - maybe it was like I really longed to camp next to a toilet for free & it was a way for God to fulfill my wish :D .

I looked up for coffee places (basically petrol pumps) & there was one very closeby. Luckily it opened at 9 AM & it was just about time. There was a Shell petrol pump nearby as well which are open 24x7.

I remember getting a coffee at the place. The lady at the counter was pretty nice. I also remember oiling the chain as I am gonna ride in rain. To put the bike on center stand, I took out all the pannier boxes (the bike is too heavy with them for me to put it on center stand), oiled the chain with the spray I keep & while taking the bike out from center stand, one of the side panniers opened due to the jerk. That got me thinking that this can potentially happen on the way as well. Luckily I keep 2 extra bungee chords & I decided to tie both the side panniers for extra safety which each. Should have clicked pic but I dint.

I rode the bike with hazard light on (both indicators) as there was poor visibility due to the fog. The views on the way made me stop & click pictures.

While closer to Bergen, I remember looking at a road sign which had a cross on the motorbike. It made me think, if motorbikes are forbidden on the road. There was something written in Norwegian below it. So I stopped on the side (took a proper detour & did not stop on the curb) & then opened the google translate to figure that it said something like motorbikes are exempted from toll. So I decided to continue :).

I remember I had to take a very steep (downwards) & narrow road. I was a bit skeptical if vehicles are allowed on the road but then I decided to trust Google. I did see a car coming upwards on the road so I figured I was good. Soon I reached Bergen Montana Hostel .

View from the Bergen Montana hostel parking

The hostel was on a hilltop. Lucas, whom I had met in Trolltunga, had told me about fantastic location of the hostel. I had booked the hostel from their website & it costed me a few Euros cheaper compared to booking.com (around 32 Euros total). On reaching the hostel, I figured I had to pay 70 NOKs extra for bedding but thankfully, one of my side panniers is sheet, sleeping bag, liner & pillow. So I decided to save money on that. As a quick word, all cheap places in Norway cost extra for sheets. So carrying them with you can help you save cost.

Pretty good hostel with very nice view. My memory about the only other hostel with great view was the Youth Hostel in Luxembourg City. I liked the hostel & the city so much that I travelled again to Luxembourg City just to stay in the hostel again :)

I messaged Lucas that I am in Bergen. Lucas had the day off so he graciously agreed to take me out to the city in his car. I also mentioned to him about my failing headlight the previous night. So he decided to bring over some tools. I had found a youtube video around tweaking the headlight connection & knew that I had to take the left fairing off. Luckily I had only one Allen key & that was the right size :) .. there was one more screw driver needed & Lucas had it. So we opened the fairing, inspected the connector, cleaned it & connected it back. The lights were working & they continued to work, so cant say what we did helped. But well, being human, we just satisfied our urge to do ‘something’ about the issue :D .

Soon we were out in the city. Lucas showed me some nice wall art.

Lucas took me to a pub (I forgot the name) . He said the bar guy knows him & gives him discount. I remember we paid like 80 NOKs for a beer (around 7 Euros). Only later in Forde, I figured it was cheap as it is usual to have beer to be priced at 100+ NOKs.

Thats the local beer brand from Bergen (or Norway maybe)

Lucas suggested we go out for eating something & we went to a pizza & kebab place. The person took half peperoni & half vegeterian pizzao order. It was a pretty big pizza for 300 NOKs (25 Euros). Thanks to Lucas who paid it all & dint let me pay my part.

We came back to pub & a few other folks joined. When I clicked the pic, it was just David (others have left). David is a musician & lived in the same house where Lucas currently lived.

We took the bus back home & I came to the hostel. I remember that I had left my charger (with a UK to Europe converter) in the common area & it wasnt there where I left it plugged. I thought someone would have handed it over to reception but next day, reception guys had no clue. This was my first incidence of stuff getting (for lack of better words) stolen in a hostel. I was a bit surprised it happened in a Scandinavian country but in their defence, the place was frequented by people from other nations - both travellers & folks working there. So well, my bad luck I guess :).

Next day, I told Lucas about it & he suggested we go to shopping area in Bergen as Lucas had to buy stuff as well. I asked Lucas if he is ok coming over & have breakfast at the hostel. The hostel has free buffet breakfast & I mentioned we can probably ask if they are ok letting him eat for a price. When Lucas came in, we just decided to walk in & nobody interrupted. Later we realized that the breakfast spread is so huge that people probably dont care.

We then went to Fretex which is a nice concept in Bergen (or maybe Norway). Fretex guys keep these large boxes around the city where you can dispose of items that are good but you dont need them. They refurbish them & sell for cheap. The Fretex showroom looked amazingly nice considered they were all refurbished items.

Thats Lucas checking out a tiffin box in the Fretex store.

I figured my hands & toes were freezing in previous rides so I decided to buy a warm gloves & socks. I picked some heavy duty woollen socks from Fretex on Lucas recommendation. They costed like 80 NOKs. For gloves, we went to another clothes store. I forgot the name but Lucas mentioned, it is a place where clothes are cheap. I ended up picking a skiing gloves for 200 NOKs (around 15 Euros).

I noticed that Norwegian prefer wearing colourful clothes unlike rest of the western world. Also, all Norwegian clothing shops are like Decathalon - spots wear that is rain & wear proof & can take sub zero temperature :). No wonder why I never found Decathalon in Norway.

I think this is the shopping center where we had gone to

I dont have much memory of what I did after coming back. I guess I slept off as I was tired. I woke up & decided to spend time writing pending blog posts. Soon it was late & I decided to walk to Reema grocery store nearby to buy myself something to eat as there were not too many eating options around the hostel. The road to Reema took me down the cliff & I had pretty nice view of the city at one place.

I decided to pick some stuff, come at this place, seat & eat on my way back

& so I did :). It was drizzling but that did not matter much

I came to the hostel & slept off. Next day, I rode to Forde & met the most friendly host I have stayed with during my roadtrip. That is for next blog.