for your listening pleasure
Credit: Youtube
So this is BarBarista.
A super trendy, inconspicuous coffee shop that my friend "and I" found purely because my friend is a responsible traveler who looks / plans ahead. I follow her to these great places, complaining about my feet (usually), and then reap the benefits of experiencing/seeing/doing all of the cool things my friend planned or researched.
I sometimes become what some may call the moocher, in traveling situations. Not with money; in fact, there is nothing that makes me more anxious than owing someone money - besides abandoned buildings. No....I am more of a moocher of great ideas!
It is important to know that I am by no means lazy when it comes to my job or my involvement in its various extracurriculars; however, I do find myself to be a more "take it as it comes" type of person whilst traveling abroad.
Lazy, perhaps?
Maybe.
For reference, as mentioned in previous posts, I went on an entire week and a half vacation where not one accommodation was booked ahead of time. People may call that crazy. Some may even call that dumb. But what you may not have called, was that it was one of the most lightweight, freeing vacations of all time because time restrictions did not exist. No one was waiting for us to check in at 3 pm or to be in the next village by 5. Essentially, we were vagabonds just moving through the countryside! No hassle, no work. Just fun.
This is how I imagine my traveling soul; as Lana del Rey with an American flag.
Anyways
Back to BarBarista -
Because my friend had Yëlp'd this chíc cafe ahead of time, she knew exactly where to go and therefore, I followed.
Walking into this little cafe is an experience. Your eyes don't know where to go at first. Your ears are filled with familiar, yet quirky 70s and 80s classics. The smell of coffee wafts into each nostril. And if you walk in on a cold day, you are filled with an actual warmth on your skin and (more poetically), in your soul.
All is right with the world.
You search for the best place to sit and realize that anywhere is acceptable and will give you a whole lot to take in and process. Since we went at an odd time, much of the cafe's seating was available for the taking. Not wanting to infringe on anyone's personal space sitting by the windows (everyone looked serious with their laptops and important work to do . and it is to be noted that Norwegians like their space), we decided to take a small central table, adorned with extremely well-done sketches; each table different from the next.
Looking around, you can see the Norwegian pride ...
Extreme eclectic decör
Their love for dead, stuffed animals (not the cute bedtime ones)
And their obvious dismissal of superstition
as pictured below:
In the words of the great Michael Scott, maybe they're only a little 'stitious
So, yeah. BarBarsita was amazing. I fell in love immediately and wanted to go back the next day. And this honest mini cafe crush was formed even before I devoured their world-renowned waffles and sipped their carefully crafted dranks. I felt so hipster. I got some kind of cold coffee-esque drink with cayenne pepper. It was the most zesty drink I've ever tasted and I still think of it fondly.
[The waffle had Nutella in it, so it was obvs. amazing.]
I don't know, have I gushed enough?
I loved this awesome little bar/cafe and if I ever find myself in Bergen, Norway again, that would be the first place I'd return to. Hands down.
And to think, if I hadn't been traveling with my purposefully planning, non-lazy friend.... I would have missed out on one of the coolest, most unique places to sip on coffee.
And that, my friends, would be a travesty.
Skål, y'all.