Welcome 2 Troll central!
Mini post time! I am doing a mini post on Bergen, because (a) We are only here for 2 days (b) I am going to do a bigger one about the Norwegian fjords.
Something that you have to know when going to Norway is that they LOVE trolls. Like, REALLY love trolls, so much that literally all souvenir shops sell things troll related.
We arrived on a Saturday and checked in to our hotel, Opus XVI. I don’t know roman numerals, but my mom called it Opus 16. I was all confused, like, are we at the right hotel? Then, after we got settled in at the hotel, as you probably know we like to do, we went looking around for souvenirs. On our little walk, we also went to the fish market, where we had cod soup, which tasted kinda like clam chowder, plus something you’ll find out about if you read to the very end of the post! Then we had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended by our hotel, Bjerk. After, we had dessert at AJ chocolate.
The next day, we took this really fast tram up the mountain to the troll hike. This place had two playgrounds, a troll playground and a nature playground. When we got up there, my sister and I went straight to the troll playground. Then we walked until we saw the nature playground. That one was a lot better. Like, A LOT better. Then we hiked until we reached a picnic table and sat down and ate smoked salmon that my dad got at the fish market the day before, along with bread we got in the morning. We kept hiking, and then we had to hike all the way back down to town, because we only bought one-way tickets on the tram. Later, we ate dinner at Bryggeloftet, pronounced brigg- ah- loft- tet, which is the oldest restaurant in Bergen!
The nature playground treehouse. There was also a zipline, but we didn’t take a picture of that.
Us on a picnic on the troll hike, and you’ll see what i’m pointing at in the bonus!
That’s it! Mini, right? But I never said there weren’t more pics… 😈
Troll Pics!
These are all the trolls we found on the troll hike. Norwegians love trolls, and we decided to tack down all the trolls on the hike. If you are wondering why I’m not in any pictures, it’s because I am the one taking the pictures with my new camera! (shoutout to Nana and E!) My sister decided to name all of them too, so I am going to tell you the names of each, and if you see plaques with names on them, don’t pay attention, because we made new ones.
Huggie
Little Louie
Trollmoore
Winky
Two-two
Mrs. Witch
Udglenose
Cycloplops
Mimowe
Joy
Brenda
Bonus!
My sister loves moose, so when my dad bought moose sausage, she was like *gasp* how could you do such a thing. Even I was grossed out, but the guy who sold it to us said that it might be weird to us, but it was normal to them. Also, I was pointing to the moose sausage in the picture of the picnic in the hike.
Mia with a moose stuffie she got in a souvenir shop in Bergen. She calls it “moose cup”.
Mia with the moose sausage.
Bergen staaaaaats!
Best food: Fish Market cod soup!
Best shopping: The souvenir shop where Mia got “Moosecup”
Fun fact: The sun doesn’t set until 11 pm in June, and rises at 4 am!!!
Best things to see/do: Mount Fløyen (the Troll Hike)
Where we stayed: Opus XVI
How 2 pronounce: Brr-gen (it is cold there)
co-pen-ha-gen! co-pen-ha-gen!
That’s what I was saying in my head when we touched down. In Europe, there are these stores called ‘Flying Tiger’ that I discovered in summer ‘22, when we were in Florence (Italy). One time, on a package of gel pens that I got, I read that these magical items were from Copenhagen. I’ve wanted to go to Copenhagen ever since!
Back on topic, we landed at about 2 pm, and tried to keep ourselves awake by going shopping. Our hotel is right near the center of town, and Copenhagen is small enough that we can just walk the 15 min there. We walked down the Street of Shopping (the name isn’t actually a real place ), went to Nyhavn (if you don’t recognize the name, is this picture familiar?).
Us in Nyhavn! (My dad was on a call.)
Then, we ate dinner at Pizzeria C’Ho Fame (literally “I’m Hungry” in Italian) which had, well, pizza.
On the second day, we took a bike tour around the city, and we actually covered a lot more ground than I thought, because, as I said before, Copenhagen is pretty small. We ate dinner at a fish restaurant, and the place had bread with ( wait for it… ) seaweed butter! It tasted like just normal butter, though.
Me on the way to the bike tour, discovering that Danish strawberries are DEE-LICIOUS!
My dad and sister biking around the king and queen’s current residence. My sister had to ride in the wheelbarrow thing because kids under 10 have to ride in one. (I just turned 10 in May, phew!)
The next day, we went to Tivoli Gardens. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and it is almost 200! We went on all the rides except the really scary ones like the drop tower and the ones for toddlers. If you ever go to Tivoli Gardens, I want you to do two things: (1) If you go to the park, there are three tall towers. There is a blue one, a yellow one, and another blue one. The third tower that I listed is called the Star Tower, and it looks super scary. It’s actually not that scary. Ride it! (2) When we looked on the map, we saw the there was a new ride coming in 2026. Post in the comments what it is! Anyways, after, we ate at the Tivoli food court. I ate a bao and some spring rolls.
We also found a hidden playground in Tivoli, and found these mini trampolines! (Doesn’t it look so cool how I’m in midair and Mia is just about to bounce up?)
On the last day, we had a pastry daaaaay! We started with breakfast at a place called the Rug Bakery and then went to Flying Tiger for an hour! ( What? We really love it!). Then we went to Rosenberg Castle, where the kings and queens used to live. After, we went to another pastry shop called Hart Bakery, and ate dinner at Barr, not to be confused with a bar, or a barre.
My sister and I at the Rug, with the pastries. See the one on the right? It looks like an eyeball, but it is actually purple, and has black currant jam in it. ( Also, see the glass that has something that looks like red wine in it? I was drinking it, and it is actually black currant juice.
And now i’m flying to bergen! Whoops. That’s supposed to be a secret.
Byeeeeeeeeeee ; )
Copenhagen staaaats!
Best food: Andersen & Maillard Bakery (Runners up : Rug Bakery and Hart Bakery)
Best shopping: Flying Tiger!
Fun fact: Denmark is the 2nd happiest country in the world!
Best things to see/do: Tivoli Gardens
Where we stayed: Kong Arthur Hotel
How 2 pronounce: Co- pen - hey - gen
P.S. The funniest thing that happened in Copenhagen was this: In our hotel, there is an umbrella stand. Well, It’s not really a stand, it’s more of an umbrella rental stand. From the literal moment we arrived at our hotel, we talked about things like what if you lose it? and wow! look! It only costs 20 DKK, but if you lose it, it is 200 DKK! Then, on pastry day, we decided to rent an umbrella, because it looked particularly rainy out. So, we rented the 20 DKK (about 2 USD ) umbrella, and went out to the uber. My sister and I loved this umbrella dearly, so we both wanted to hold it, but my dad was like, nuh-uh, I DO NOT want to lose this umbrella. So, the day went on, with my dad holding the sacred umbrella. When we got back to the hotel, my dad was like wait, where’s the umbrella? So he rushed back to the uber, and he couldn’t find it! Then Mia was like, well, if you gave it to someone who really wanted to hold it, like me or penny, we wouldn’t have lost it! But yeah. That’s the funniest thing that happened.
The infamous umbrella stand. *dun-dun-duuuuun…*
Wine not?
Who ever thought that wine country could be fun for kids, too? This post is not REALLY related to our summer, but I decided to do it anyways, as a little practice run! For spring break, our family decided to drive to Napa, and to go to Carneros.
My sister and I were expecting it to be winewinewine everyday, but it turns out, no! ON our first day Wednesday(the 9th) we drove over here, and the first thing we did was go to this restaurant called the Boon Fly Cafe, which was pretty nice. Me and Mia played Uno ( I won! ) and made crosswords ( I forgot that you have to make the letters connect, but Mia’s worked) until the food came. I would rate the food maybe 4 stars? I dunno. Aaaanyways, the food we ordered was some salads ( my sister didn’t eat that haha ), fried chicken, and just stuff like that. And then, we went to our hotel (resort) room! The place we stayed in was not really a ROOM, more like a… villa. There are also, different streets, like we were on Juniper, and there was also Rosemary and Verbana.
Mia at the “nice” pool
The next day, we went to breakfast at the hilltop, and had breakfast lake at most other hotels we have been to, buffet style.(how many breakfast buffets do you think we will go to in the summer? I wonder…) There’s also apparently pickleball courts here, so we played ( and I attempted ) to pickleball. Wait, is that what it is called or is it like pickle balling or something I dunno. But! Then we went to check out the family pool. :( oh ok so this is so sad! the beautiful pool with the view of the vineyard? ADULTS ONLY! Saaaaaad. Also, there’s something called a gnome hunt? Basically, you walk around all the “streets” and there is a gnome hidden in each one. ( Hint : Tower Of Three is hidden in Juniper! don’t tell!!! : ) )The end prize is really good! So, you go this building that’s called ‘the market’, which is more of a gift shop, and then you get to pick a pastry in the display for FREE! So cool, right!
The second night, we went to the FARM, which is more fancy than the Boon Fly Cafe. ( Mia and I had to get in dresses. ) They also had bocce ball, Connect 4, and corn hole, so in between every dish, my sister and I played a game. I was especially good at bocce ball!
The next day, went to Gundlach Bundshcu* ?I think that’s what it’s called, at least. They had wine, obviously, and donkeys who apparently loved grass and peanuts. Then we drove home. We stopped at the Sonoma downtown, and, like something called Dutch Bros. Do you think they are Dutch, or their last name is Dutch? I really dunno. Then we drove home.
Feeding wine donkeys
That is it! Hope you like my starting post enough that you follow us during the Summer! bbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeee :(
* It’s a winery
