Slow Travel to Bergen, Norway

https://youtu.be/YcNqH-r8XOo

I made another lil vlog just for fun! Patricia will have one that's more informative for DIS but count this as a more informal & behind the scenes look at our slow travel trip ;)

You take shorter showers.

You drink out of your reusable water bottle.

You recycle, separating your cans from your plastics from your compost from your cardboard, collecting your PANT like a true Dane.

You stopped using disposable straws at cafes and restaurants.

Small habits that compound, saving a few kilograms of CO₂ here and there.

But what if I told you that one round-trip flight can outweigh years of those habits combined?

Study abroad makes travel feel different. Countries are close and flights are cheap. A $40 flight to Milan? Of course you go. I did too. 

And you don’t really think about your carbon footprint, because what does it really mean to emit hundreds of kilograms of CO₂? You can’t see it, so it’s easy to ignore. The numbers add up faster than you think. A commonly cited target for climate alignment is about 2,000 kg of CO₂ per person per year.

4 short weekend flights (under 90 minutes) → ~1,600 kg CO₂

8 short weekend flights (under 90 minutes) → ~3,200 kg CO₂

So what feels like a quick weekend trip can quietly become an entire year’s carbon footprint. 

To be honest, I never really thought about this until slow traveling this past weekend. Instead of flying, Patricia, Ndiana, and I took the long way to Bergen, Norway. If we had flown, it would have only taken us 80 minutes to get to Bergen. But we also would have emitted about 386 kg of CO₂ per person (based on this emissions calculator). The route we took instead came out to roughly 148 kg of CO₂ per person, cutting emissions by over 60%! Most of that came from the overnight ferry/mini-cruise. The trains themselves were only about 10 kg CO₂ total.

Patricia, Ndiana, and I at Fløyen! As a part of the DIS Media Team, we received a grant that covered our transportation fees for our slow travel trip.

Travel Logistics

Route to Bergen: Copenhagen → Oslo → Bergen

Return Route: Bergen → Oslo → Gothenburg → Copenhagen

Transport: Overnight mini-cruise, train, bus

Friday, May 1

• GoNordic Mini-Cruise: Copenhagen → Oslo16:30 – 10:00 (+1) (~17 hours overnight)

Saturday, May 2

• Arrive in Oslo: 10:00

• Train: Oslo → Bergen, 12:03 – 19:08 (~7 hours)

Sunday, May 3

• (Original) Train: Bergen → Oslo, 15:38 – 22:27 (~6h 50m)

• (Updated due to train disruption) 12:00 – 21:15 (~9h 15m)

• Overnight: Oslo → Gothenburg → Copenhagen (bus, then train), 23:55 – 08:28 (+1)

Monday, May 4

• Arrive in Copenhagen: 08:28

The first leg of our trip was the overnight ferry/mini-cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo, and I’d recommend it even aside from the sustainability aspect! I was expecting something more cramped and stressful, but it ended up being relaxing, surprisingly clean, and comfier than some hostels I’ve stayed in. There were restaurants, live music, trivia, bingo, even a murder mystery game onboard. You’d catch the sunset in the evening, and if you woke up early enough, the sunrise too! I liked how on the ferry you could feel the transition from Copenhagen to Oslo. It was beautiful waking up to see us getting closer and closer to Oslo.

Leaving Copenhagen! All photo creds go to our amazing & gorgeous photographer, Ndiana :))

We spent a couple hours in Oslo before heading to Bergen. I loved walking up the roof of the Oslo Opera House and looking out over the water and city skyline! If you’re looking for more Oslo recommendations (especially for the winter), I wrote a whole separate post about what I did there in a weekend.

Oslo Opera House

On the roof of the Opera House!

Then came the Bergen Railway, which is known for being one of the most beautiful train rides in the word. National Geographic even named it one of the world’s greatest train journeys (only 1 of 6!), calling it a “triumph of engineering in the face of extraordinary obstacles: fjords, freezing conditions and rogue wildlife.” And without a doubt it was a beautiful train journey; we were surprised to see so much snow in some areas! 

A 7 hour train later...

7 hours later, we finally arrived in Bergen! Bergen is Norway’s second-largest city and is deeply rooted in fishing history. So of course we had to eat some fresh seafood before getting some rest for our…

Fish Market in Bergen

Morning hike to Fløyen!!! You can take the funicular to the top, but hiking up felt much more rewarding (the endorphins really start to kick in after that 45-minute incline walk). The view overlooking Bergen is beautiful and we were blessed that it was a clear day! We saw lots of trolls and goats. This is also when we learned that Disney’s Frozen is partially based off of Bergen! So we got very very excited and started singing lots of Frozen songs.

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When we planned our trip, we thought intentionally about sustainability beyond transportation. Whether or not you’re on a budget, I’d really recommend looking into activities that also contribute positively to the environment. We had originally planned to kayak with GreenKayak, an environmental NGO that lets you paddle for free in exchange for collecting trash from the water. (You can do this in Copenhagen too around the canals!!)

Unfortunately, we had to cancel this because ummm…a day before we left we learned that our train cart our seats were on had burned down and we could only re-book to an earlier and longer train.

The earlier departure added over two hours to the journey, bringing the total ride from Bergen back to Oslo to around 9 hours and 15 minutes. I was dreading this initially but this train ride back was probably my favorite! Our train made a 40-minute stop in Voss, Norway; getting to walk around this tiny town surrounded by mountains ended up being one of my favorite moments of the trip. The kind of moment that was unplanned, unexpected, and not something I would have gotten to experience if I was flying or had taken the shorter train.

Patricia & I on a 9 hour train from Bergen to Oslo, Norway

Slow travel sounds romantic until you’re unexpectedly rearranging your entire itinerary because of a burned train car. But I think that unpredictability is part of the beauty of slow travel. Slow travel is less optimized. Less efficient. But in exchange, you notice more. You remember more. The journey itself stops feeling like wasted time. 

Bryggen, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Almost every form of travel has some environmental cost, so I’m not telling you to stop seeing the world. If anything, slow travel made me appreciate it more. Sometimes time matters. But I do think we’ve become so accustomed to optimizing for speed that we rarely stop to question it. 

Keep taking shorter showers.

Keep drinking out of your reusable water bottle.

Keep skipping the straw.

And every once in a while, question the flight. Maybe take the long way; the goal isn’t to stop exploring the world, but to learn how to move through it a little more thoughtfully.