Things I've learned while apartment shopping.

• The bed sizes in Norway are ridiculously small. Now Dan and I have a luxurious king size bed that was the very first thing we bought as a couple. Sleeping is my favorite activity and I take my sleep-space very seriously. Most of the places we've looked at have beds that are 120cm. This is about 7 inches narrower than a typical "full" size bed. I have no idea how 2 people are supposed to share that! So now we are only considering places with a queen (similar to an American queen), which is surprising hard to find in these small apartments.

• Bergen has an amazing transit system. The problem is that it very hard to figure out since most maps and schedules are in PDF, which cannot be translated by google. Dan and I spent over 2 hours trying to figure out the bus schedule near an apartment we were considering.

• Google street view has been immensely helpful. I've virtually "walked" to work from various apartments.

• Bergen is supposed to be the rainiest city in Norway, yet in almost every apartment it appears to be bright and sunny outside. Now this is probably a selection issue, since pictures are probably taken on the best days, but it still seems odd to me. 

• Ikea is very popular and I've recognized many of their pieces while scrolling through apartments. Every kitchen seems to be straight out of their catalog.

• Everyone has generally been super helpful. We have skyped a few people to get tours of apartments and they have been very accommodating (though everything seems much smaller via skype than in pictures).

• Lastly, I learned the hard way not to get over zealous about an apartment. I thought we were all set to go with my favorite place (the one right on the water with gorgeous views). I was mentally already moving in and sharing pictures with different people, but due to a calculation error *ahem* I miscalculated the rent over 3 months and it turns out we can definitely not afford it. So now we are enlisting the help of my host, since we are back to square one.