sunny bergen

Bergen is Norway's second biggest city. Which actually means, it's Norway's biggest country town! It's located on the Western side of the country, deep in fjord territory. The city is surrounded by seven mountains. This is good for tourists as it's very easy to get a good view of the town.

This photo was taken from Fløyen, the easiest of the seven mountains to access. It has a funicular, a kind of tram on a cable, that takes you up the mountain at a 45° angle. Of course... it is Swiss built.

Three hundred meters above a city, on a beautiful mountain, you'd expect it to be nice and peaceful. Not so actually. Bergen has a big reputation for it's music scene, and sure enough I could hear plenty of noise from the city. There were two marching bands battling for attention; one somewhere beyond the left hand side of the photo, one somewhere near the right hand side. Smack bang in the middle of the photo, in the harbour, a jazz band were playing on a boat. Combined with the noise of boats coming and going in the harbour it was quite a cacophony.

The Norwegians have a few sly jokes at the Swedes expensive, as discovered when buying lunch that day. As I rummaged through my wallet for Norwegian krona, I muttered something about having Swedish krona mixed in there too. "That's too bad" said the barmen, "they're worthless these days". The Swedish krona used to be stronger than both the Danish and Norwegian krona, but it's not the case any more. It's annoying though, as Norway is expensive! This local brew cost around $12 Aussie! Damn!

Again, you can see I was pretty lucky with the weather I had on this trip. Bergen is even further north than Oslo. The sun set around 11pm, and it was dusk until well after midnight.

Since it was a Saturday night, and Bergen had a reputation for music, I decided to have a look at whatever bands were playing at Garage. Equivalent in Bergen to the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. That's what I had decided. What actually happened though, was I walked out of my hostel and headed down a cobble stoned street. Just around the corner there's bar that looks like it's someone's living room. Turns out it is.

Cafe Sanaa is a small bar, in a living room of a house. Hungry at the time, the owner told me I could simply look at the menu from next door - a Vietnamese restaurant - and order it to the bar! Nice. We then started to chat, how long had the bar been open? Only 9 months. What band is playing tonight? My husband and his jazz band. It was time to change my plans.

I stayed for a few pints, and then a few more.