Bergen....a warp back in time to appreciate the contrasts

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Note: sorry I had to pick the photos randomly without seeing them first...and also couldn't rotate them.  so they aren't the best of the bunch.  But it's better than nothing for now, so enjoy what's there anyway!  

Bergen was amazing!  I really loved it.  The town itself was cute and quaint, with an old town and a fish market.  I loved just wandering about.  I stopped by the fish market every day.  So I sauntered by the fish stands, looking curious,  and the fish hawkers would call me over...come here, try something new....  oh yes! they were speaking my language.  hehehe    so I tried various kinds of cured salmon, whale, caviar etc.  They even have reindeer and moose sausage, though I didn't try them.  and they don't mind if you don't buy anything; they are just happy to have you try their stuff.  it's all part of pleasing the tourists.  yes,  feed me well, I am pleased... ;)   Everything else was soooo expensive in Scandinavia and Europe, but I was able to feast on marinated salmon for a good price, much cheaper than the U.S. since they catch it in Norway.  I noted that at 10:30pm, the sky was still blue and the clouds were still white and puffy.  amazing! ;)

In Bergen there is an OLD section of town called Brygge.  It is soooo amazing, because it really feels like you are walking back into a time warp.  The structures are all wooden and haphazard, kind of like they built one little piece, and then built another, and didn't line up all the edges.   I love the haphazard look!   I definitely took lots of pictures here.  And people live in these structures, and run businesses and such.  I peeked into a few and it was very interesting...some had old decorative pieces with modern furniture...again, one of those contrasts I've been enjoying on this trip.  I climbed all the way to the fourth floor, even though most tourists seemed content to wander the ground floor only.  "Come higher, see what you're missing!" I wanted to yell to them.  Hmmmm....good metaphor for life. ;)

The hostel experience was interesting.  The hostel was really nice and centrally located (convenient for pee stops).  The one quirk was this guy I met, Gunther or something like that.  He was 55 years old, from the Faroe Islands, and spoke 3 languages, but English was not really one of them.  That didn't stop him from trying!  He introduced himself and told me about where he was from and stuff.  I had big difficulties understanding, but he would draw maps and stuff and even showed me his passport so I would know his name and age.  Then the first night he asked me, "do you have a gentleman?" which totally shocked me.   "errr...why yes I do"  "back in America" "yes, back in America."  So I thought this white lie would discourage him, if the age difference and the language barrier hadn't.   But the next morning he was so happy to see me, and started playing with my hair.  I turned around and said "if you don't stop touching my hair, I will tell my boyfriend on you."  (when in reality I would have kicked his butt myself;).   He was actually nice, so I didn't want to be too mean...yet.   So after that he still kept trying to talk to me (though I could never understand him), as it seemed like he was always in the kitchen, but he didn't get too bold after the hair thing.   Why would a man his age think he had a chance with someone who said she has a boyfriend, is decades younger than him, and can't even speak the same language?  Why do these men think I am the cure for lonely guys?   sigh.  

First day in Bergen, after doing some sightseeing, I took the furnicular up to the top of the local mountain, Mt. Floyen.  The furnicular was way cool.  A lot of commuters take it to and from work (in fact it was mostly commuters and me).  This makes sense if you think about the layout of the town surrounding the city center, which is houses on a steep hill, with streets that wind back and forth and have a sharp u-turn at the end.  So your neighbors are above and below, as well as left and right.   Once I got up to the top of the mountain, I spent my money on a few cool postcards and found I didn't have enough kroner to take it back down.  I would have to hike all the way down.  Oh what a shame!  hehehe   It was gorgeous from the top of the mountain, with a view of Bergen and surrounding cities, all the way out to the fjords in the area.  There were mountains covered in green and others covered in snow...mountains, mountains everywhere!   So I really enjoyed the hike down, and even stopped to meditate and journal in nature with my own personal awesome view.   It was amazing just to be there, surrounded by spring flowers bursting from their winter rest, and a magical feel to the whole place.   It had me thinking about the more important questions in life, and enjoying being alive.  Not that I am not now! :)   But I think we remember best when we are surrounded by nature.

I had enjoyed the furnicular so much the first day that I had to do it again the next day!   Furnicular ride up, hike back down.  Ah, so much fun.  And so beautiful everywhere!  The Norweigan forests have a special, mystical feel about them, especially in the springtime.  I had felt it back in the Flam area and now again in Bergen.   I guess I didn't make it to the forests while I was in Oslo. ;)  

My last full day in Bergen was the most awesome day -- May 17.  It was Norway's National Day, the day they celebrate their independence from Sweden!  Did you guys know that Norway regained its independence only in 1905??  that is such a short time ago!  To put it in perspective, my grandmother was 15 before she knew of Norway as a separate country!  (ok, my family has many years between generations, but still!)  People had been telling me that National Day in Bergen is really special.  I got out early and found out why!  All the Norweigan folks dress up in their traditional dress for the whole day and go to parades and wander about, enjoying the carnival and having fun.  Their traditional dress is really fancy too - not to worry, I took many pictures!   This day was such an awesome photo opportunity -- picture this:  people in olden dress, wandering around the olden town, making it all look so authentic.  Not only that, but it was an opportunity to appreciate some really sharp contrasts -- contrasts being something I've been noticing and enjoying a lot of this trip.  So we have many people in fancy traditional dress talking on their mobile phones and wandering a carnival with kitchy plastic souvenirs.   It was too funny.  The whole day would be something akin to people in the U.S. dressing up in nice colonial costumes on the Fourth of July.  

So I enjoyed the parade with the other folks in traditional dress and a few tourists too (we stuck out like a sore thumb;).  Everyone marches in the parades, all the various school classes and clubs and such from Bergen -- you name it, they marched.  And they were very creative, with the hockey team playing rollerblade hockey while they marched, the dancers and gymnasts performing for us, the canoe club carrying a canoe...you name it, they did it!  It was sooo much fun!  And everyone cheered at everyone!  They were all very joyful, and there really is a huge civic pride in Bergen which I don't see much of in the U.S.

There was this strange phenomenon I noticed in Norway.  Groups of teenagers were walking around in red overalls with various ads on them, and signatures and stuff.  I saw little kids running up to them and the red pants folks would pull out a card from their pants and give it to them.  I was really curious what that was all about. So I followed these kids up to one of them and they were nice enough to give me a card in addition to the kids.  I looked at it and it was an ad for a strip bar that said motha**ers!  I was a bit shocked that they were giving these cards out to young kids.  A little later I tried again and found they were all different ads that the kids were receiving.  The teenager didn't speak very good English but explained that giving out these cards to children was a Norweigan tradition.  Then I met a Norweigan guy in the hostel who explained it all to me.  They are the seniors who are graduating from high school (or whatever they call it here...i forget).  They have to wear these same red pants for a looong time (I think it was over a month).   This is their time to live it up and pull pranks and such -- enjoy the last days of adolescence.  Then on May 17 they all march in the parade and are finally able to shed these red pants, as they celebrate and move into the next stage of their life.  So it's the Norweigan version of the ritual to move to adulthood.    

So that evening I got to my hostel and who did I run into but Roy, the older gentleman from North Dakota who I had roomed with in Oslo with his daughter Jody.   So cool!  They had arrived late after a very long trainride from northern Norway.  It was good to see Roy again, and we wandered over to the girls dorm to surprise Jody and Annette in their room (and annoyed their grumpy roommate...hehehe).   This is when I met Annette, Roy's other daughter who hadn't yet arrived when I met Roy and Jody in Oslo.   So we all went and had tea in the kitchen and chatted up for a while before going to bed.  It was really good to see them again!  They are good people.  I hope to somday get out their way in the States to visit.  So having seen my friends again, I flew out of Bergen the next day, so happy to have not missed the big celebration of May 17.  If you ever get a chance, go to Bergen that day!! :)  

So that is my very own Norway in a Nutshell!   As you can tell, I really loved it and had a lot of adventures while I was there.