Bergen

Drink

There is a great variety of bars, night clubs, concert venues etc. in Bergen. Night clubs are usually open from 23:00, but life never starts before 01:00. Bars opens at different hours, some can be open all day. No places are allowed to serve alcohol after 03:00, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages must cease at 03:30 at the latest. Many places are required to close earlier. The establishments are only allowed to let people bring their drinks outside if they have been granted a special permit. A requirement to get this permit is that they have a confined space outdoors for their guests. All drinks must be indoors by 01:00. People go out all week, but Fridays and Saturdays are the best nights, Saturdays being the clear winner (most places will be a bit too crowded on Saturdays). Some clubs have a 2 for 1 policy on Wednesdays, and Sunday is usually the night for people in the industry.

Most places require that you are 20 years of age (look in the list for details) and that you can provide a valid ID, even if you are much older. Valid IDs are Norwegian bank cards, European standard driver's licenses and ID cards and passports. Drinking in public is illegal. Emptying a can in front of a police officer on a Saturday night will earn you a kr. 2500 fine. If you stroll through a park a bit outside the city centre on a sunny day you will still see a lot of people having a beer or a glass of wine with the picnic. The police usually won't mind as long as everything passes in an …

Sleep

Outside the summer season, getting a hotel room is usually not a problem, although it can be quite expensive unless you have a reservation. In the summer season (from May to Sept) a reservation well in advance is required. Breakfast is normally included in the price except at hostels and camping sites.

Stay safe

Bergen has, as the rest of Norway, a generally low crime rate. The most likely crimes for tourists to experience is car break-ins and bicycle theft. Pickpockets is also becoming an increasing problem in the summer season, but it's still nothing like in larger cities in Europe. It is always a good idea to look after your belongings, this includes never leaving valuable objects visible in your car and locking your bike safely.

There are no particularly unsafe areas in Bergen. The upper part of Nygårdsparken used to be the hang-out place for drug addicts. The lower part of Nygårdsparken is a beautiful place popular among the locals. To make the whole park family friendly the upper part was closed down and renovated for two years forcing the drug addicts to disperse. As a consequence they are now spread across the city. The drug addicts are usually completely harmless, but nevertheless not fun to be around.

Buying sex is illegal in Norway.

People party hard on Friday and Saturday night, and hoards of drunk people will appear in the central areas from around midnight, singing, carousing, and just hanging around. Some foreigners may perceive this as threatening, but they are mostly harmless, even all-male groups chanting football songs. If approached, just smile and stay friendly, but uneasy visitors should avoid groups of drunk young after midnight. Summer evenings has daylight until 23:00 or 24:00, adding to the safety for visitors.

There is an emergency and accident ward at …

Stay healthy

In acute illness or if accident occurs contact: There are many pharmacies (apotek) in Bergen, that are selling medications and can give you advice on the treatment of injury and disease.

Respect

As in the rest of Norway, it is customary to take your shoes off when entering a home. This in particular done as a practical matter, due to the wet weather (slush and salt in winter).

People from Bergen have a reputation for being more loud and direct than many other parts of Norway. Locals are perhaps the most patriotic in Norway.

Connect

Area codes are no longer in use in Norwegian phone numbers. Phone numbers are normally eight digits, some special numbers may be three, four or five digits. In any case you should always dial all of the digits to make a call. The country code of Norway is +47. If you are calling abroad from a land line, dial 00 before your country code and phone number.

Cellular phone coverage is very good throughout the city. Three different networks are available, Telenor, NetCom and Network Norway. Check with your local operator to find out which one is the cheaper for you. The difference is usually not big. Norway, like most of Europe, uses GSM 900 and 1800, which means that some cell phones from USA, Canada and countries in Asia will not work. For those in need of mobile data lines, both HSDPA/3G/UMTS, EDGE and GPRS coverage is good on all networks.

There are no telephone centres in the city, and only a very few phone booths. Most hotels have phones in every room, but international calls from these phones are usually very expensive. There are some calling cards available, this is probably the cheapest way to phone home.

Many cafes and restaurants have free Wi-Fi for their patrons. Free Wi-Fi is also available at Bergen Public Library, Strømgaten 6 (by the bus station). Most large hotels do also have wireless Internet access, however access at a hotel may be pricy.

If you are a registered user at an eduroam participating institution, you can connect to a high-speed secure Wi-Fi networ…