Changes

As you can tell, I've made some changes to the blog appearance. Hopefully no one had to witness the blog chaos that took place over the last few hours as I was sorting through html code, gadgets, widgets and other things I don't understand. One of the items on my to-do list was to make the blog "less pink" and hopefully I've finally accomplished that. Thanks to some gentle encouragement from my dear friend PJ, I've also included a handy little subscription center on the right, so you can enter your email address to receive an email anytime a new post is up!

Hike to Fløyen

First, Dan and I are very stubborn (not surprising). We had planned to go hiking Thursday after I got off of work and by golly we we're going hiking whether rain or shine. Well, it mostly rained this time. Pretty much the entire time.

We mapped out our hike to the top on Google:

We started about 9 PM (we were waiting for the rain to stop, but then decided to go ahead and go, hoping the rain would stop along the way) and didn't get back until about midnight.

 Picture us in our raincoats and umbrellas hiking to the top. 

 On the way up we saw this adorable little troll home! Norway has a weird obsession with trolls (and not the florescent haired-jeweled belly button kind, the ugly-scary kind).

 When we made it to the top, the rain cleared for about 5 min for some awesome pictures of the sunset!

Pictures really can't do it justice, because all the surrounding mountains were purple-pink and lights of the city were starting to turn on. Quite fantastic!

Tired and drenched at this point.

Once the sun went down we started our descent.

 It was a lovely midnight hike and we can't wait to do it again when it's not raining.

Sunsets and Baby Ducks

When it's not raining, Bergen has some amazing sunsets. The show last night from our apartment:

Yesterday was pretty awesome, because it wasn't raining and we were able to walk around this park near our apartment and we saw these adorable baby ducklings! I wish I would have taken some video, because they were hilarious and the momma kept swimming after the other ducks and biting them!

The food situation

We nearly starved the first week. Dan lived off of Norwegian Cheetos and Nutella while I had cereal most days. This nutrition deficit is partly due to our limited cooking skills and partly due to only purchasing foods with pictures on the packaging, since we don't understand the language (even with visuals, turkey and chicken look remarkably similar). We have a nice little grocery store near by that we  can buy most things we need; however, anything that requires instructions requires us to translate it when we get home. Most foods here are packaged and there isn't a good selection of fresh foods (besides fish).

The grocery baskets have wheels on them.

Dan has since found some amazing smoked salmon here and we're planning to make our own deconstructed sushi in the near future. I am still trying to ease myself into the food here, since my fish preferences are limited. Our first true Norwegian meal was at my host's house. He and his family invited us over for Sunday lunch and they made fish for us. After some explanation I finally figured out that we were eating the scary fish in Finding Nemo:

I had no idea one could eat this fish or even want to. After confirming with his children that we were in fact eating the fish with the dangling light in Finding Nemo, I have to say it ruined my appetite. After dinner we played a game of Memory with their darling daughter (in which we lost horribly). We also played a Swiss board game (they are originally from Switzerland).

We haven't explored the restaurants here yet, because it is so expensive (like over 250 kroner per person without drinks!), but we're hoping that we can try a few places in the coming weeks.

Today, the department had a lunch at a very nice, organically Norwegian restaurant and the meal was fabulous! Very expensive (thankfully it was on the department), but hopefully I can take Dan there at least once to experience it. I didn't take any pictures, because that's rude right? Everyone had this amazing fish soup, that wasn't very fishy tasting (which is probably why I liked it) and Rhubarb crumple pie for dessert. Best meal so far on the trip hands down! Hopefully, we can experience more food like this.

Apartment Tour

It isn't much, but we love it!

This is the backside of our building. 

The two windows on the second floor look out from our living room windows. 

 Here is the living room/kitchen/dining room.

This is the dining side of the room. The ceilings in this room are HUGE! 

We picked the flowers on the table from the backyard. 

This door leads to the hallway which leads to the front door, bathroom, and bedroom.

 The living side of this room.

The kitchen side of this room.

Here is our little bedroom (this was before I found the cardboard for the window!)

The previous tenants even left us some artwork behind!

Bathroom with washer and shower.

The other side.

It's really only 3 rooms, but it's enough for us and the location and view are perfect!

The sleep situation

I know I said I would take pictures of the apartment, but that means I have to finish unpacking and put everything away and that has not happened yet. Instead, I'm starting what I like to call the Situation Series. First up: the sleep situation.

It has been dire. Last night Dan and I were awake the. entire. night. I finally fell asleep around 8 in the morning and slept until 1 PM. I think it is part jet lag and part continual sunlight outside. Norway has only about 4 hours of darkness (midnight - 4 AM). This "darkness" is still pretty light out, dusk-like.

Here is a picture taken around 10:30 PM of a rainbow over Bergen. 

You can tell the sun is just starting to set.

Our bodies are very confused as to what time it should be. We have blinds on all the windows, but it doesn't really block out the light. Finally, at 4 AM I found a random scrap of fabric in one of the closets and made some resemblance of a curtain, but it didn't block much sunlight.

THEN. Today I found two pieces of cardboard stuffed into one of the attic-like closets and they fit perfectly! Some previous tenant probably had the same sleeping troubles. I can't wait to go to bed tonight. It's going to be awesome!

Mini tour of Bergen

It is supposed to rain the next few days, so I thought I would walk around Bergen a bit and take some pictures while it was still bright and sunny out.

 These are homes down the street from our apartment.

This is the only Catholic church in the area and it is across the street from my office. 

This is one of the parks close to the city center. 

 Lots of homes in the hills.

 Fish market near Bryggen.

This is the famous Bryggen-old wooden buildings along the harbor. 

These buildings are now tourist shops. 

Lots of places to eat along the bay. 

 In between the old buildings.

 Flowers everywhere! The main shopping mall is through this tunnel.

View from our living room!