Daydreaming thoughts from Bergen

On the way from Hungary to Singapore this year I flew through Stockholm so I thought I could do a side trip to see my cousin Marcsi and her fiancé, Sindre in the town of Bergen, Norway. Marcsi, her sister and I grew up together so I was very keen to find out a bit about her new world now.

I spent a night in Stockholm, transiting, and to my greatest surprise Nisarg, my Indian friend living there and her Christine came to the airport to have a cup of tea and great chat with me. We spent a few hours just catching up, talking about big and small things in life and without noticing the time passing by it was already midnight! I have to admit, it was a great new year surprise!

The next morning I flew to Oslo and then right away to Bergen and wondering what would be next.

In Bergen, Sindre was waiting for me at the airport and taxied me to Marcsi’s workplace, a very cute kindergarden/crèche where she had been working since July already. I admired how my cousin has grown into being a caring teacher and loving adult and how she was dealing with the little ones! I used a bit of the internet at their place and then played with the children, observed their daily routine and all. Some really looked like tiny trolls while being wrapped in cloths from head to toe. I fell in love with Teo, one of the boy twins, as he was stealing the hearts of everyone around!

Marcsi started work early so she was done by 2.30pm. We went to her flat, I unpacked and then together with Sindre we were heading to town! First we went to Flojbanen, the cable car so we went up the one of the hills to enjoy the breath-taking view to the town shaped with stunning cute fjords all around. It was a bit hazy, the lakes and little rivers were surrounded with paper-look-alike colourful houses and I just loved to scenery! We hugged the biggest wooden troll of town and then went to the Akvariat, the underwater world place of Bergen. The seals, penguins and zillions of fish were accompanied with crocodiles and reptiles. It was a cute place, yet again!

At around 6 o’clock, to my surprise, most places closed down so we headed to a cozy little restaurant in the neighbourhood for dinner. Well, it was rather a feast :-)!

In the evening, at home, we had a look at the Bergen map to find the “to-see” places and then we went to sleep.

The day started slowly. Even though my brain told me it was already 9 or half past 9, I still did not come to agreement with it as it was pitch black. After the little signs of my watch proved the beginning of the day, I took a short bus ride and headed to town!

The castle of Bergenhus was closed but I managed to walk around in its park, even though it was subzero. On the cobblestone streets, it was a pleasure to take every step and “accidentally” finding the Maria church and then the most famous place of Bergen, the Bryggen. Gosh! The place stunned me! We could say it was just a raw of colourful houses by the water but to me it was just amazing! I walked up and down by those houses, looked at them from close, from far and then from close again and it reminded me to a fairy tale scene! Loved it! Then I decided to walk further, though kept on looking back at the enchanting water-side street!

The buildings in the consequent streets looked different, yet very colourful and the fast-speed-walk was nice (I was freezing ;-)). The fish market, due to the cold of the winter was small but smellily cute, too.

I just had to follow the cobblestones and found the Johannes Church, at the end of long stairs ahead of me. The dark-red bricks under the clear blue sky were fantastic view to be part of.

Besides that, there was the university quarter when I spent some time inside the Nature Museum to defrost. At least at the beginning that was the objective, later I actually found really cool places inside the Culture Museum, sections on Vikings, Antarctic explorations and big whales.

After regaining my natural body temperature, I took on another fight with the cold and despite all I really felt the charm of the town was really worth it! While I walked down on one of the streets I saw a “London 2008” calendar in one of the bookstores. It has black-and-white pictures reminding me to Europe. I thought it would be a great reminder for me thorough the year to my plans to move to the “old continent” in 2009 :-).

I took a bus to Arsane and then met Marcsi there so we could go together to Bergen. We had the chance to sneak into Gamle Bergen, the town’s skanzen, despite it being closed due to winter. We then went to a place called something like Grons… where Marcsi and Sindre sometimes spend sunny days in the summer. I really liked that this town had a lot of trees and small forests inside, little slopes to climb, nice garden-houses to pass by and in general, just the feel of it! No wonder, Norwegians are such nature-lovers!

At home we had a lemon fish dinner and then went to the movie theatre to watch the chick flick called “Enchanted in New Year”. Then at home we watched “Ever After” so ever since I have been waiting for my prince to come… hihihi :-)! I believe such a fairy life exists indeed!

The next morning started late, too! If the sun does not wake up why would I do, right :-)? I took a bus to downtown and then no wonder, I “accidentally” ended up in a café called Lido-Conditory right opposite of the Bryggen. I was sitting there for hours, sipping on hot fruit tea and writing messages to family and friends. What shall I say… this IS life :-)!

More photos here!