Hey everyone – Hope you´re all doing very well!
Today´s post is a really exciting one and I am super happy to finally share this one with you.
As many of you might know, I moved to the beautiful Copenhagen in Denmark at the beginning of this year for my exchange semester. I have always been intrigued to visit Copenhagen, as I had never been to any part of Scandinavia before. While spending the time of my life in Copenhagen, a friend and I decided that it would be only right to get to know some other parts of Scandinavia too – So we sat down, poured ourselves a nice glass of wine and the planning commenced…
Planning Phase
Our initial planning started with a thorough brainstorming session, during which both of us wrote down our top destinations that we would love to visit in Scandinavia. After comparing both our lists, we determined 3 cities to visit on our road trip – Gothenburg, Oslo and Bergen. The way we decided on this was by basically just opening Google Maps and logically thinking about what would be doable – So we ended up deciding to gradually head up north.
Of course, as we are both students and on a… let´s say… tight budget, we looked into the cheapest options for both travel and stay. These are the top websites that we used during our Planning phase…
- Transportation via Bus – Flixbus and Nettbuss
- Transportation via Plane – SAS (I highly recommend Sas to any students, as they have an amazing discount for students!) and Norwegian
- Stay – Booking.com
Meet my Travel Buddy – Alessa!
Alessa and I met during our stay in Copenhagen. We were both exchange students at the same university and met during a fun exchange get-together. As we´re both German, we instantly had something in common and became the best of friends. One of our first bonding experiences was actually a very nerve-wracking drive home from Ikea. Let´s just say that I love her lots, but she´s not the best driver…
Anyways, as two exchange girls on the hunt for new horizons, it was quickly set that we´d travel places together. So here we go..
It´s Departure time!
First stop – Gothenburg, Sweden
Transportation
The first part of our journey we commuted with Flixbus. I had never used Flixbus to travel somewhere and had heard all sorts of different stories about it – both positive and negative. Our Flixbus journey took 4:20 hours to get to Gothenburg and was super relaxed – No struggles, No Delay.
Details: Flixbus, 4:20 hours from Copenhagen Central Station, 17€ incl. luggage
Stay
In Gothenburg we stayed at the Linnéplatsen Hotell & Vandrarhem for two nights, which is a nice hostel located right next to the palace garden and really close to the famous ´Haga´ neighborhood. The whole design of this hostel is really cozy, they even have a shared area that serves as a cozy living room. In fact, in our first night in Gothenburg, we were so exhausted that we got take out and sat in the living room of our hostel – We´re such grannies sometimes…
The double room that we had booked online was really simple and clean as well – Price-performance ratio was perfect!
Details: Linnéplatsen Hotell & Vandrarhem through Booking.com, 46€ per night for a double room excl. breakfast
Eat
It´s all about the food isn´t it? So I thought it would be only fair of me to share some of the amazing food places that I have been able to try throughout this road trip! First stop – Gothenburg, so here are my two favorite food places…
Le GBG
During our stay in Gothenburg, we purposely did not book any breakfast in the hotel, as we wanted to experience more of the local café and food. So on our first morning in Gothenburg, we went to ´Le GBG´ a small and really cozy café in the Haga neighborhood. We found this café through Instagram and as the pictures looked more than amazing, we had to give it a try.
Both of us ordered one of their sandwiches, as well as their Acai Bowl – Can you tell that we came there on a really empty stomach? I really enjoyed my Avocado sandwich with pomegranate seeds, as I am a real sucker for any Avocado bread type-of-dish. While the sandwiches were outstanding, the Acai Bowl was a bit disappointing… If you´re looking for a really delicious Acai bowl, head on over to my Breakfast Bowls recipe, where I share my favorite Acai bowl recipe with you – Shameless self-promo, ay!
The Barn
On one of our evenings in Gothenburg, we decided to treat ourselves to a delicious burger and fries at The Barn. The whole layout of the restaurant was pretty cool, as we got to sit at sort of a shared table with other people. Even though the service was not outstanding, the food was very delicious and I would definitely go there again. Not much to say other than it being a damn good burger!
Activities
In case any of you lovely readers ever find yourself traveling to one of these Scandinavian hotspots – which I highly recommend you to do – Here are some of my favorite things to do…
Skansen Kronan
The Skansen Kronan is sort of a fortress in the popular Haga neighborhood. You have to go on a lovely walk uphill walk to reach it, as the Skansen Kronan is located on a hill. Up there, you have amazing views over Gothenburg, really beautiful for taking pictures – So the walk is totally worth it!
Lipstick Tower
During our stay in Gothenburg, we were obviously searching for the best views over this gorgeous city from above. So we stumbled across the so-called “Lipstick” tower, that actually does look like a lipstick from afar. You can purchase a ticket at the reception of this initial conference and office complex, which takes you right up to the 86 meter high platform level.
The views from up there are breathtaking and I highly highly recommend you to pay a visit if you´re in Gothenburg!
Ferry Trip
As Gothenburg is located right at the waterfront, we really felt the need to go on a boat tour. However, the typical touristy boat tours can be quite expensive and as we´re both students on a budget, we really did not want to pay a huge amount of money on it. So we decided to just take a spin on the local ferry!
It was just as perfect as a usual boat tour and only cost about 3,50€. We had amazing views during our ferry ride and enjoyed looking at beautiful Gothenburg from a different angle. Highly recommend!
Pick N´ Mix
I mean, what more do I have to say than ´When in Sweden´ right? Pick and Mix is such a classic thing that you need to try when you´re in Sweden. They have really big (and I mean actually huge) candy stores, where you just collect as many individual sweets as you want in your bag and pay per 100g at check-out. It´s heaven on earth, honestly!
Palm House
The Palm House actually was one of the top things on my bucket list for Gothenburg. I had previously seen it on a picture online and it looked pretty cool. So one afternoon, we headed over there to have a little look around the botanical garden and ended up taking some really stunning pictures inside…
Next stop – Oslo, Norway
Transportation
As we were gradually making our way up North, we travelled to Oslo with Flixbus again. Being a rather anxious traveller when it comes to commuting by bus, as I get travel and motion sickness very easily, I was a little worried for another long bus ride again. However, the journey from Gothenburg to Oslo only took about 3:40 hours and was, in my opinion, worth every small indication of motion sickness. The views and landscapes during our bus ride were breathtaking and unlike anything I had ever seen before – From rough coastal sites and small seaside villages to incredible nature in the woods. I would definitely recommend you to take the bus if you´re planning a similar road trip in this area – You won´t be disappointed!
Details: Flixbus, 3:40 hours from Gothenburg (Nils Ericson Terminal), 13€ incl. luggage (and as I said – worth every penny…)
Stay
Let´s have a little chat about our hotel in Oslo, as this was sort of a funny one…
While planning our road trip, we found a hotel called the ´Norwegian Hotel´ on Booking.com and decided that it would be the perfect place to stay for us in Oslo. So, when we arrived in Oslo we typed the address of our hotel into Maps, as we could not find the hotel anywhere… Turns out, we were standing right in front of the hotel, however, it had about four different names to it. So if you´re ever considering to book the ´Norwegian Hotel´ in Oslo – Don´t be surprised! You just booked somehow booked a combination of the Norwegian Hotel, Best Western and Oslo City Apartments.
The hotel itself however was pretty nice! We booked a double room for two nights, which cost about 88€ per night, but was definitely worth the money. The price itself included a large room with double bed, kitchen, TV and a private bathroom – which was, let me tell you, a luxury for us on this trip! In fact, we actually wondered if they accidentally accommodated us in the wrong room, as we definitely got more than we paid for… Lucky us!
Overall, we had a great experience staying at the Norwegian Hotel – The price-performance ratio was good!
Details: Norwegian Hotel through Booking.com, 88€ per night for a double room excl. breakfast
Eat
Kumi
For our first breakfast in Oslo, we decided to eat at Kumi. Kumi is a vegetarian café, which is just about perfect to me. It is a very Scandinavian simplistic café with amazing food.
Alessa and I both went for the Avocado toast – A classic choice on this trip – which we very much enjoyed! If you´re ever in Oslo, go check out Krumi!
Olivia
Alright, here comes Olivia people, the most amazing Italian restaurant that we completely obsessed over on this trip. Both me and Alessa are not really fans of chains, however, Olivia is just way too good not to try it. The food is amazing and we really did try everything ranging from pizza and pasta to antipasti and dessert. In fact, the food is so good that we ate at Olivia´s three times during our road trip in Norway…
My ugly baby
My ugly baby might be the strangest name I have ever heard for what it actually is – Which is a very very pretty donut shop that we stumbled upon in Oslo. They have wonderful flavors of donuts that taste incredible! So if you´re on the hunt for a sweet afternoon treat – Go check out my ugly baby! (Feels weird to say that…)
Gunnar´s Generasjonsbaren
It´s the next day and we´re two hungry girls on the hunt for yet another Avocado breakfast. So we stop at Gunnar´s Generasjonsbaren, a chic restaurant that also offers amazing breakfast dishes. The service was outstanding as they were so friendly and nice. Good service just makes the whole eating out experience so much more fun, doesn’t it?
Activities
Opera
Of course, when in Oslo, one has to go and see the famous opera! I personally really did not know what to expect, but I was pretty impressed by this massive piece of architecture. It is bigger than I imagined and from the upper platform, you have a nice view over the water.
While we had a look around inside (actually just searching for a toilet), there was a practice performance inside that you could join and watch. So we sat down and watched for a while and the artists performing there were truly impressive. Fingers crossed I get the chance to see this again one day!
Gamle Oslo
Gamle Oslo is another architectural area that I found really impressive. It is sort of the DC of Oslo with lots of skyscraper buildings that look pretty cool. As it is rather hard to describe with words, I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves here…
Holmenkollen
Visiting the famous Holmenkollen was more of a last minute decision of ours. Before departing to Bergen, we had a couple of spare hours and thought we would pay a visit to the old ski jump. Let´s just say it was pretty amazing to stand in front of this old ski jump. I mean, you see these sort of things on TV every now and then, but in real life, everything looks even crazier. I would not dare to jump that steep.
To get an even better view of Oslo, we purchased tickets for the Ski museum that include a ride up to the old platform level. The view from up there was incredible, however, you need to be quite brave as you can actually feel the platform moving with the wind.
Aker Brygge
Aker Brygge is a nice location to have a walk along the water. It is quite a touristy area though, so it can be quite crowded from time to time. There are a lot of nice restaurants located at Aker Brygge as well.
Royal Castle
One afternoon, we walked up to the Royal Castle in Oslo to have a look around. The castle is really cool and definitely a must-see when in Oslo. The view from the castle itself is even more stunning than looking at the castle though. You really have such a cool view from there… – Are you bored of me talking about amazing views just yet?
Frogner neighborhood
The Frogner neighborhood is an area we accidentally came across on our way to yet another dinner at Olivia. We watched the sunset at the waterfront and had a little look around the modern streets of Frogner. Plus, I took my all time favorite picture of my travel buddy Alessa at the Frogner waterfront.
Final Destination – Bergen, Norway
Transportation
To reach our final destination of this road trip, we decided to book a flight with Norwegian Air to Bergen. It was a relaxing flight that only took 55 minutes in total, which was perfect. The only downside of this last bit of traveling was, that it took us about the same amount of time to commute from the airport to our Guesthouse taking the tram.
Details: Norwegian Air, 60€ incl. big luggage, travel time: 55 minutes
Stay
In Bergen, we stayed at the Marken Guesthouse for 3 nights. We booked a small double room, which was nice, clean and really cozy-looking. One day, we got to peek into one of the other double rooms that had green bunk beds and really did not look too inviting – So we really got lucky, once again!
Moreover, the location of our Guesthouse could not have been any better. It was located right in the city centre within walking distance from the famous Bryggen at the water and Byparken. The only downside after the Hotel experience we had in Oslo, was that we did not have our own private bathroom – As the bathrooms were cleaned every day though, it really wasn’t that bad! After all, it´s hostel life and you´re on a student on a tight budget.
Details: Marken Guesthouse through Booking.com, 58€ per night for double room excl. breakfast
Eat
Olivia´s
Not much to say, hey! It´s the same Olivia restaurant that we visited in Oslo. I told you – We fell in love!
Smakverker
Smakverker is a cozy café right in the Byparken in Bergen. There´s no better way to start your day than enjoying your delicious Eggs Benedict and some coffee while gazing at the wonderful view of Byparken. Plus, very good company of course – Props to my travel buddy Alessa!
Activities
Brygge
Brygge is by far the most popular sight of entire Bergen. You can find tons of people trying to take cool pictures in front of the pretty houses. So being the classy tourist that I am – Here´s my picture!
Floyen
One afternoon, we decided to purchase tickets to go up to mount Floyen. The people that know me a little better might be confused now, as I am not the biggest fan of hiking up mountains. – Don´t you worry! There is a tram going up Mount Floyen that we obviously used.
From the top, you have stunning views over Bergen and the harbor. Words cannot even describe the feeling of staring at this amazing view and the pictures won´t even do it justice. This view is by far one of the prettiest I have ever seen! – All the emotions, I know…
Fjord Cruise
Best comes last they say, right? This really was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! We took a Fjord cruise up to Mostraumen. At first, both of us were a bit hesitant as a single ticket cost 65€. However, we decided that for our last experience of this road trip we could treat ourselves, so we purchased 2 tickets. It was worth every single penny! The sight you have while taking a boat along the small Fjords, passing between really steep mountains… It is unlike anything I have ever experienced. We even got to drink some of the water from the Fjord, as it is so clean and fresh – Better than any bottled water.
If you ever have the chance to go on a Fjord Cruise – Do it! I promise, you will not regret it!
Details: Mostraumen Fjord Cruise, 65€
And that´s it. Our trip came to an end way too quickly and I wish to re-live this whole experience all over again. All the places I have seen are going to be kept in dear memory until I get to go back one day. At this point, I also want to give a big shoutout to my friend Alessa for being my trusty travel companion on this road trip and making this experience even better.
Hope you enjoyed reading as always!
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