My room resided in darkness in the early hours of yesterday morning. All was quiet as the ship rocked side to side, mingling with the waves beneath. And then, in a minute that came all too soon (at least I thought so at first), my alarm clock sounded, the rather unpleasant sound meeting with my groggy mind, having a not so nice conversation. But then, my mind made sense of the circumstance and realized...we are coming into Norway! The idea of five-twenty am quickly disappeared and was replaced by something much more agreeable...the thought of seeing my first european country. I quickly raced to get ready...running up to the decks...surprised at seeing I was one of many who were also up. Maybe two hundred of the students were awake, along with many of the teachers and life learners, and we stood together as we stared at the Norwegian coast, admiring the quaint sea towns. I don't remember a time I was this giddy. The excitement steadily increased as we became closer to Bergen, and when I saw the city...oh, I couldn't believe it...how beautiful, it was everything I thought it would be...the seven hills of Bergen cradled the colorful houses...the city seemed its own world, a real utopia...
Bergen is the second largest city of Norway, with is a country of about four and a half million citizens. Historically, Norway was a very poor county, but upon finding oil, Norge has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world. This is a nation that takes care of its citizens to the fullest. Taxes are very high, but goodness, the Norwegians have basically everything! If you ever go to Norway, be prepared. Everything is incredibly expensive. For example, at every bar, do not be surprised to find the CHEAPEST beer to be about ten dollars. Just for ONE beer. All of the semester at sea students (including myself) have found this out the hard way. Another example: the new coldplay album came out when I was on the ship crossing the Atlantic and I made it a point to buy the album the first day in Norway. I found a really cute music store and decided to see if they had it. Ironically, the cd was playing overhead as I walked in. But, it was almost $34!! For those interested, Norwegians use the kroner as their currency. One kroner is about $5. So the cd was like, 169 kroner. In the states, I could get this for $10. See the difference? Pretty remarkable, eh? But we all knew Norway would be super expensive...in our preport meetings, we were warned. However, I remember hearing, perhaps on NPR, that oil in Norway/Sweden costs about $14....I think they were comparing it to our $5 crisis...Interestingly enough, I haven't seen one gas station.
Once we got off the ship, we walked about five minutes to the main part of Bergen, where amongst other things, the UNESECO world heritage site of Bryggen is. Along the harbor, they are a row of Hanseatic timberered houses, which have been rebuilt after a fire in the early 18th century. There are workshops and various stores now, even some restuarants. But they are absolutely beautiful.
Bergen is the second largest city of Norway, with is a country of about four and a half million citizens. Historically, Norway was a very poor county, but upon finding oil, Norge has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world. This is a nation that takes care of its citizens to the fullest. Taxes are very high, but goodness, the Norwegians have basically everything! If you ever go to Norway, be prepared. Everything is incredibly expensive. For example, at every bar, do not be surprised to find the CHEAPEST beer to be about ten dollars. Just for ONE beer. All of the semester at sea students (including myself) have found this out the hard way. Another example: the new coldplay album came out when I was on the ship crossing the Atlantic and I made it a point to buy the album the first day in Norway. I found a really cute music store and decided to see if they had it. Ironically, the cd was playing overhead as I walked in. But, it was almost $34!! For those interested, Norwegians use the kroner as their currency. One kroner is about $5. So the cd was like, 169 kroner. In the states, I could get this for $10. See the difference? Pretty remarkable, eh? But we all knew Norway would be super expensive...in our preport meetings, we were warned. However, I remember hearing, perhaps on NPR, that oil in Norway/Sweden costs about $14....I think they were comparing it to our $5 crisis...Interestingly enough, I haven't seen one gas station.
Once we got off the ship, we walked about five minutes to the main part of Bergen, where amongst other things, the UNESECO world heritage site of Bryggen is. Along the harbor, they are a row of Hanseatic timberered houses, which have been rebuilt after a fire in the early 18th century. There are workshops and various stores now, even some restuarants. But they are absolutely beautiful.
After we passed Bryggen, my friends and I went to Floibanen, the station where the funicular heads up Mount Floien, which is one of the seven hills of Bergen and provides tourists with a breathtaking view of the city below. It was perhaps the best way to start off the trip. If there was one downside, it would have been the weather....it rained off and on yesterday but luckily, we were able to take some photos before it started to pour. After walking around a little more, my companions had to return to the ship for some tours so I decided to continue exploring on my own. I have ALWAYS taken the greatest pleasure at discovering places by myself....and for a little more than an hour, that is just what I did. Being taken as a Norwegian many times, I mentally patted myself on the back for passing as a non-American (which, even in America, happens a lot...especially in the past year, many foreigners had thought I was also from Europe). Honestly, I could not tell you which streets I went on...I just walked and wandered, pretending as if Bergen were indeed my home. I will say that every street is so lovely...they are the streets I always dream of and search for in the states but never find....they are streets of history...........
I did explore the Fisketorget, also known as the Fish market, which is in the center of the town. If you are a seafood lover, I can't imagine any place that's better than here. There's everything...it's really intense. All the people offer fish...I myself had salmon a couple times from different vendors, but that's all. Many people had tried whale and said it was really good....but no whale...so anti that....today when we went back, I tried caviar. I think it's safe to say that was a one time tasting experience. I had also stumbled into the Bergen bus station, on the other side of the Lile Lungegardvann, which is a pretty large fountain (they call it a lake..clearly not a lake...but oh well). The bus station had a lot of stores which I perused through...I also bought some food...I was starving. Then, I met my roommate at Bryggen and we went to a little cafe, which we discovered had wi fi!!!! I have been there three times already....it has been sooo convenient. We proceeded onto seeing Mariakirke, or St. Mary's Church, which is the oldest building in Bergen, dating from about the early 12th century. It was nice inside, but ultimately, not that impressing. Either was the Bryggen museum, which we went to after. They had three exhibitions, we particularly enjoyed the one on witches. But I wouldn't necessarly recommend it....
Bergen is very small and easy to get around. It truly is a charming town, with friendly (almost all blonde haired, blue eyes) people. Just about everyone speaks English, which was no surprise to me, but nice. We are in the white nights region, which meant that the sun did not set until after 11pm....it was great! I was wearing sunglasses at 9pm! I had talked to a lot of Norwegians about which bars and places to go to...(yes, we want to go out on a tuesday night ,we told them) but since I am not even 19 yet (aug 7!!), it was difficult finding places that wouldnt let anyone older than 20 in, which was kind of shocking. After searching for about an hour, we found a cute bar that didn't card so we stayed for awhile, drinking our ridiculously expsensive beer (four of us shared one because we did not want to spend that money). The other negative part was the bar was pretty much taken over by SAS kids...every bar was. There were some Norwegians, but not many. We eventually stumbled back onto the ship after 12, there was really no point at staying out later. I fell asleep immediately but this morning came rushing just like the day before. After eating breakfast, my friends and I went through the fish market again, and found a bus station to take us to Troldhaugen and the Fantoft Stavkirke. Even though Bergen is not a large city by any means, it felt so refreshing to get into the countryside!! I loved it!! At Troldhaugen, we went to Edvard Grieg's summer home, which is on Lake Nordas. It was a charming Victorian home and a very romantic setting. I would recommend seeing this home...it's a nice excursion which won't take that long once you arrive (it is about a 10-15 minute walk from the bus station, but a pleasant one at that). After, we got on another bus and went to see the Fantoft Stavkirk, which is a stave church, something I had never really heard of before doing research on Norway. A funny story though before I write about our the church itself. When we got on the bus, we realized that the bus driver charged us more than what it was to originally go form Bergen to Troldhaugen...and yet we were at Troldhaugen, wanting to go about two stops to the stave church..and then when he dropped us off, we thought he stopped at another church, one we didn't want to go to. Luckily, we realized that he had indeed taken us to the right place, but I think he made a nice little profit off of us Americans (or perhaps not). So, back to the church. Apparently, in the middle ages, there were about 750 stave churches in Norway, but only 30 are still standing. What we sw was originally constructed in 1150 but was moved to Fantoft in 1883. Unfortunately, the church burned down in the early 90s when some guy set fire to it (he's in jail, 20 year sentence)...so this is an exact duplication of the original. I did not go inside the church, but took many pictures and admired from the outside. If you're ever in Bergen, DEFINITELY go there...architecturally, its one of the most interesting buildings I've ever seen. After coming back, we did some window shopping and talking with locals. My good from Momoko and I had the most interesting conversation with a woman named Jorid (pronounced you-wi-din, means beautiful horse). She was working at this very small household decoration store, probably in her mid to late twenties. At first, we talked to her about gender relations in Norwegian, and then I talked to her about the current state of the economy in the US as well as Bush and the campaign. I was prepared to proove to her that Americans too, think Bush is, excuse my language, a dumb ass. I hate to end of that note, but I'm thorougly exhuasted. Tommorrow I'm going on a SAS trip, called Norway in a Nutshell. I will go to the villages of Flam and Voss and maybe a few others. I'm looking forward to seeing waterfalls!!!! It should be wonderful. If you would like to see pictures, here are some public links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002815&l=f0ab1&id=1084770089 <http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002815&l=f0ab1&id=1084770089>
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002823&l=65b4c&id=1084770089 You may or may not be able to see these videos: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1010048926550 http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1010048686544 Enjoy them! I'll definitely write soon again!
I did explore the Fisketorget, also known as the Fish market, which is in the center of the town. If you are a seafood lover, I can't imagine any place that's better than here. There's everything...it's really intense. All the people offer fish...I myself had salmon a couple times from different vendors, but that's all. Many people had tried whale and said it was really good....but no whale...so anti that....today when we went back, I tried caviar. I think it's safe to say that was a one time tasting experience. I had also stumbled into the Bergen bus station, on the other side of the Lile Lungegardvann, which is a pretty large fountain (they call it a lake..clearly not a lake...but oh well). The bus station had a lot of stores which I perused through...I also bought some food...I was starving. Then, I met my roommate at Bryggen and we went to a little cafe, which we discovered had wi fi!!!! I have been there three times already....it has been sooo convenient. We proceeded onto seeing Mariakirke, or St. Mary's Church, which is the oldest building in Bergen, dating from about the early 12th century. It was nice inside, but ultimately, not that impressing. Either was the Bryggen museum, which we went to after. They had three exhibitions, we particularly enjoyed the one on witches. But I wouldn't necessarly recommend it....
Bergen is very small and easy to get around. It truly is a charming town, with friendly (almost all blonde haired, blue eyes) people. Just about everyone speaks English, which was no surprise to me, but nice. We are in the white nights region, which meant that the sun did not set until after 11pm....it was great! I was wearing sunglasses at 9pm! I had talked to a lot of Norwegians about which bars and places to go to...(yes, we want to go out on a tuesday night ,we told them) but since I am not even 19 yet (aug 7!!), it was difficult finding places that wouldnt let anyone older than 20 in, which was kind of shocking. After searching for about an hour, we found a cute bar that didn't card so we stayed for awhile, drinking our ridiculously expsensive beer (four of us shared one because we did not want to spend that money). The other negative part was the bar was pretty much taken over by SAS kids...every bar was. There were some Norwegians, but not many. We eventually stumbled back onto the ship after 12, there was really no point at staying out later. I fell asleep immediately but this morning came rushing just like the day before. After eating breakfast, my friends and I went through the fish market again, and found a bus station to take us to Troldhaugen and the Fantoft Stavkirke. Even though Bergen is not a large city by any means, it felt so refreshing to get into the countryside!! I loved it!! At Troldhaugen, we went to Edvard Grieg's summer home, which is on Lake Nordas. It was a charming Victorian home and a very romantic setting. I would recommend seeing this home...it's a nice excursion which won't take that long once you arrive (it is about a 10-15 minute walk from the bus station, but a pleasant one at that). After, we got on another bus and went to see the Fantoft Stavkirk, which is a stave church, something I had never really heard of before doing research on Norway. A funny story though before I write about our the church itself. When we got on the bus, we realized that the bus driver charged us more than what it was to originally go form Bergen to Troldhaugen...and yet we were at Troldhaugen, wanting to go about two stops to the stave church..and then when he dropped us off, we thought he stopped at another church, one we didn't want to go to. Luckily, we realized that he had indeed taken us to the right place, but I think he made a nice little profit off of us Americans (or perhaps not). So, back to the church. Apparently, in the middle ages, there were about 750 stave churches in Norway, but only 30 are still standing. What we sw was originally constructed in 1150 but was moved to Fantoft in 1883. Unfortunately, the church burned down in the early 90s when some guy set fire to it (he's in jail, 20 year sentence)...so this is an exact duplication of the original. I did not go inside the church, but took many pictures and admired from the outside. If you're ever in Bergen, DEFINITELY go there...architecturally, its one of the most interesting buildings I've ever seen. After coming back, we did some window shopping and talking with locals. My good from Momoko and I had the most interesting conversation with a woman named Jorid (pronounced you-wi-din, means beautiful horse). She was working at this very small household decoration store, probably in her mid to late twenties. At first, we talked to her about gender relations in Norwegian, and then I talked to her about the current state of the economy in the US as well as Bush and the campaign. I was prepared to proove to her that Americans too, think Bush is, excuse my language, a dumb ass. I hate to end of that note, but I'm thorougly exhuasted. Tommorrow I'm going on a SAS trip, called Norway in a Nutshell. I will go to the villages of Flam and Voss and maybe a few others. I'm looking forward to seeing waterfalls!!!! It should be wonderful. If you would like to see pictures, here are some public links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002815&l=f0ab1&id=1084770089 <http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002815&l=f0ab1&id=1084770089>
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002823&l=65b4c&id=1084770089 You may or may not be able to see these videos: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1010048926550 http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1010048686544 Enjoy them! I'll definitely write soon again!
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