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Published: July 16th 2008
Still no pirates. Bummer.
Anyways, I'm in Norway now. It's amazing. There are these tall woody things growing out of the ground with branches and green leafy things that they call 'trees'. I thought such things were only a legend!
Bergen is a really cool city. There's ocean on one side, and then a bunch of steep mountains on the other. The city itself, a metropolis at 200,000-odd people, fills several nearby valleys. The weather has a wonderful tendancy to go from bright and sunny one moment to a drizzle then pouring rain, and back to sun 10 minutes later. Bergen is also a fairly old city, with buildings dating back to the 1200s, although many have been reconstructed.
I spent most of yesterday on a wild goose chase to find replacement tent pole pieces for my bent and broken poles. I finally found some that should work, I just have to file a connecting end down to the right size. Stayed at a hostel located part way up one of the surrounding mountains, which made for a great view over the city.
Today I've been exploring the town all day. There are too many museums in this place! There's also a really neat part of the city known as 'Bryggen', which means wharf. It's all these wooden shops and houses stacked really close together with narrow passageways between them and the harbor right in front. Then there's the open air fish market, where if it lives in the sea, you can buy it here; the old castle and fortress, which are actually reconstructions after a German munitions ship blew up in the harbour in 1944 and destroyed the originals; and the funicular to the top of a nearby mountain for more views. And I could still spend another day checking out more museums, the aquarium, the rest of the old town, and the numerous shops and bakeries (none of which seem to sell cookies, but have all manner of other tasty things).
Anyways, I don't have a hostel reserved for tonight and the entire town seems to be booked up, so I'm going to have to find a campground. I'll probably head out and start exploring the surrounding fjord country tomorrow, so I have no idea when I'll update next.
Oh, and I'm going to have to stop promising pictures. It'll definitely happen sometime, but for some reason I'm having trouble downloading from my camera, and it takes forever. Expect a WHOLE bunch of them when it happens!
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Alessandro
non-member comment
Riveting!
It's exciting to know that one of my best friends is experiencing all these interesting things. Then I think about what I have been doing while you are having these adventures. Life sure is grand! For you anyway. :) I've just been behind a computer and occasionally in a swimming pool. A word of advice to the both of us. Don't drink the water that people sit in. Hats off to you, sir.