Bergen: Notes, First Day

First day in Bergen.

Why are there so many 7-Elevens here? Strange.

Wow, there's an Ole Bull Plaza! And there's Ole Bull himself in statue form, fiddle and all. Some sort of real musician set up next to statue. Fitting. Perhaps organ grinder? Has drawn a huddle of shifty-looking men. Unshaved, unkempt. Discussing loudly in foreign language that is recognizably not Norwegian. I want to have a closer look but am scared off by packs of men congregating on the street. What if they say something?

I can't read Norwegian. Is there such a thing as a Rhododendarium? I think that's what I'm looking at right now. It looks like a large pond. Frozen over, though. Am next to the Grieghallen and Grieg Academy. There are so many birds on the ice. Aren't they freezing? Maybe they are seasonally confused. Perhaps they are special Bergen ice-fishing birds. But it look like they're just squatting on the ice. Chilling. These birds are confused.

Bryggen is lovely. Medieval architecture. Simple, wood panel contruction. Houses are painted yellow, green, red, and brown. Triangular roof structure on account of the precipitation. So much rain and snow. Someone told me Bergen is the rainiest city in Europe.

The Torget is smaller than I expected. (Had envisioned rows and rows of wall-to-wall fish!) Fish markets smell something fierce. I've never tasted monkfish, but I saw some, and it doesn't look like a fish. The fish man I spoke with told me it is delicious if you just fry it up with some butter.

Everyone speaks English.

I found Rosenkrantz Tower, but can't get in. Wandered around some. Fortress feels anticlimactic. Walked up to one door after another to try to get in.

There's a woman belting out "All That Jazz!" With a full band backing her up!! Live music I think. So weird. "Chicago" in a Norwegian castle?

Saw some military men and am freaked out about what feels like sneaking around.

Got into Rosenkrantz! Saw two ladies walk into a door at the bottom of the tower and went in behind them. Tour group, apparently. About 15 people. Tour guide speaking in Norwegian, I think. Honestly he could just as easily be speaking Swedish or Danish, for all I know. Definitely not Finnish, though. Dunno why I know this, just do.

Much neater on the inside. I don't understand a word coming out of the guide's mouth, but when he looks my way I smile and nod my head.

Good thing there are English signs in every room of the building.

Floors are connected by narrow and steep stairwells. All stone. Stone is cool and grainy when I touch it.

Palimpsest. Casle was built-on and built-on over hundreds of years. This is what I can gauge from the guide's gestures in front of a wooden model. (He keeps adding and layering pieces to it, then pausing to explain.)

The National and Urban code were signed here. Very important. (?) Apparently influenced by Roman law. My favorite bit:

"Now the fact of the matter is that none of us may steal from one another." Except that if your life depended on it (like, you had no work, no food), THEN your actions "deserved no chastisement." Surprisingly tempered view.

I think Tvybulken might mean stealing.

Also, King Haksen gave Henry III a polar bear! September of 1252. Sign doesn't say what Henry did with the polar bear after parading it around the streets of London.

Can see some fjords from the top of the tower. Cannot wait to go hiking.

Shit. Guide just said something re: Rosenkrantz and Shakespeare. Hamlet? Guildenstern? What was it??

Explore cloudberries.