One Night in Bergen (or How to get kicked out of an Ice Bar)

If you want to find out about all the top places to visit in the quaint town of Bergen, nestled among fjords and mountains on Norway’s southern coast – don’t read this post. Just stop! Because while I could tell you about some of the must-see spots, I think it is much more important to tell you about this one night in Bergen. This one night when I got us kicked out of the Ice Bar.

If you want to discover Norway’s fjords, you will most likely find yourself in the charming city of Bergen. It is a town with a rich character - medieval churches, twisting streets and a history that goes back to the 11th century. Located along Norway’s southern coast, Bergen is also the jumping off point for outdoor activities including fjord tours, cruises, sport fishing, hiking, skiing, etc.

The ancient wharf, Bryggen. Can you tell which 2 houses are doing their own thing?

View of Bergen from the top of Mount Floyen

I didn’t realize how much Norwegians loved trolls until visiting the country.

In our two days in the City we managed to see a good portion of the tourist attractions: Bryggen (the ancient wharf); the Fish Market, with its sampling of everything from caviar to monk fish; the Floibanen and its windswept views of the city from Mount Floyen; the Bergenhus fortress; St. John’s Church overlooking Torgallmenningen Square and more.

Upon arrival at the train station we walked a few cobblestoned blocks past rows of tightly packed wooden houses to our Air B&B. Instantly I was in love with this ancient town that has withstood the passing of time for 1000 years. Numerous fires, maritime attacks and the Black Death have done their best but Bergen has persisted.

Behind the beautiful wharf buildings in Bryggen there is a maze of wooden paths and restored buildings.

Bergenhus Fortress dating back to the 1100’s.

We had a pretty quiet night our first evening and then spent the following day exploring the town. It’s a small enough city that you can just walk and stumble on most of the main attractions. It was nice not to have an itinerary and just wander around.

So, getting to that Ice Bar….

On our walk we saw advertisements for an Ice Bar. I had seen pictures of a spectacular Ice Hotel in the Arctic that we weren’t going to be able to visit. Naturally an Ice Bar seemed like a good runner up. My traveling companions, probably sensing trouble, tried to dissuade me but I insisted we make the trip.

It really was just a series of unfortunate decisions.

Norway is expensive, I mean really expensive! So, it seemed like a good idea to stock up on booze for the trip at the duty free section at the airport. Mind you, I was not part of this shopping trip as I was falling into a rabbit hole of trying to locate my camera with Norwegian Airlines (which, I’ll save for another post). The result was about 5-6 bottles of hard alcohol and wine. As a beer drinker, I was just out of my element! Leading to unfortunate decision number one…

In order to save a few dollars, we had a couple drinks at home before we went out – queue two very strong vodka cranberries.

We went out that evening for a wonderful Norwegian dinner at Pingvinen, a popular bar and restaurant for both foreigners and locals, serving traditional food. What seemed like a perfectly good decision at the time actually meant a delicious but pretty sparse dinner that didn’t do much to combat the strong beer served. Unfortunate decision number two!

Then we got to the Ice Bar.

Bergen’s Ice Bar is a fun experience – You are presented with very warm hooded ponchos and a shot of alcohol upon arrival. What better way to warm up! There are several rooms to explore with carvings and colored lights, ice murals and other interesting ice sculptures. Needless to say, I thought it was a good idea to treat everyone to another shot. Gotta stay warm, right?

That was pretty much the end of me.

Naturally conversation turned to whether anyone has tried to store a dead body in the Ice Bar and whether it is really a Norwegian Mob cover. Apparently the staff doesn’t like this line of conversation and our time at the Ice Bar quickly came to an end. Or maybe it was just closing time…

Either way, we were hustled out. Maybe we had gotten too close to the truth…

A restorative walk back to our Air B&B along frozen Lille Lungegardsvannet was a beautiful farewell to this fjord town with its crooked, wooden houses.

And you can bet that I paid dearly for our one night out in Bergen on our early morning flight out the next day!